The wakes from aircraft taking off or landing on the closely spaced parallel runways on the south side of Paris Charles de Gaulle airport are being tracked by lidar (laser radar) in a trial directed by Eurocontrol, Aeroports de Paris and French air navigation service provider DSNA, writes David Learmount.
The objective is to determine the optimum way of operating aircraft to increase the number of movements the runway pair can handle without the wakes generated by one aircraft upsetting others, according to Eurocontrol.
This is the first of several wake-measuring lidar trials to be mounted in Europe, with others to be set up at Frankfurt Main and London Heathrow airports over the next year.
Source: Flight International
