A Comparison of Aircraft and Ground Vehicle Stopping Performance on Dry, Wet, Flooded, Slush-, Snow-, and Ice-Covered Runways

A study was made of the stopping performance of an instrumented C- 141A four-engine jet transport and several instrumented ground vehicles on 50 runways in the United States and Europe. It is shown that measurement of the stopping distance of a diagonal-braked ground vehicle provides a meaningful measure of the slipperiness of a wet runway, and permits accurate prediction of the stopping distance of an aircraft under varied runway slipperiness conditions as well as a means for realistic calculation of crosswind limitations. It is also shown that aircraft stopping performance on a wet runway can be considerably improved either by grooving the runway or by use of a porous surface course. Report on Project Combat Traction. Prepared in cooperation with Aeronautical Systems Div., Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.