Engineered Materials Arrestor System

EMAS after being run over by an aircraft landing gear

An Engineered Materials Arrestor System ( EMAS ) is a kind of emergency lane at the end of a runway. The purpose of an EMAS is to stop an aircraft that has rolled over the end of a runway with no personal injury and with minimal aircraft damage. The aircraft is slowed down by the loss of energy needed to smash the EMAS material as it rolls over.

The concept of an EMAS is similar to the emergency lane for trucks or the sand track in rail traffic, but its operating principle differs from an EMAS due to the material used for gravel or sand .

application

Stepped execution on sloping terrain

As a measure prescribed by the FAA ( Federal Aviation Administration ) in the USA, for example, runway 6/24 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey was equipped with it after an aircraft overshot the runway, rolled over the 6-lane US Highway 46 and then raced into a building. In 2006 the southern end of runway 01/19 also received an EMAS. This runway leads directly to a street crossing. The length is 300 meters.

However, EMAS is not yet a mandatory safety system at airfields, neither in the USA, nor in Europe or Asia. By the end of 2010, only 51 runways at 35 airports in the United States had EMAS installed. These include New York's John F. Kennedy Airport . By May 2017, that number had grown to 106 runways at 67 airports in the US. From 1999 to 2017, the system was used to stop 12 aircraft in the United States. In Europe, Madrid-Barajas Airport ( LEMD ) and Zurich Airport (LSZH), among others, and Jiuzhai Huanglong Airport in Asia, have the system.

In Germany , Saarbrücken Airport was the first national airport to be equipped with the system in March 2019 .

literature

• Advisory Circular. Engineered Materials Arresting Systems (EMAS) for Aircraft Overruns. U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration , September 30, 2005 (accessed November 1, 2016)

Web links

Commons : Engineered Materials Arrestor System  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The unknown lifesaver made of concrete Welt.de from November 1st, 2016, Stefan Beutelsbacher.

See also

• RESA - Runway end safety area or runway end safety area

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marcia Alexander-Adams: Fact Sheet - Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS). Federal Aviation Administration , Nov. 3, 2016, archived from the original on December 11, 2016 ; accessed on December 11, 2016 .  
2. ^ Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS). SKYbrary.aero, November 27, 2016, archived from the original on December 11, 2016 ; accessed on December 11, 2016 .  
3. ↑ Shawn Boburg: Teterboro Airport gets $ 1M for runway project. NorthJersey.com/USA Today, September 17, 2013, archived from the original on December 11, 2016 ; accessed on December 11, 2016 .  
4. ↑ Fact Sheet - Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS). FAA, May 1, 2017, accessed August 11, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Johannes Klaiber: With special concrete against disasters. Aero Telegraph as of December 30, 2011, archived from the original on December 11, 2016 ; accessed on December 11, 2016 .  
6. ↑ Start of construction for the braking system at Zurich Airport. Flughafen Zürich AG, April 29, 2016, archived from the original on January 21, 2017 ; accessed on January 21, 2017 .  
7. ↑ Saarländischer Rundfunk: Saarbrücken Airport closed for two weeks . In: SR.de . August 16, 2018 ( sr.de [accessed on August 16, 2018]).