The Smart Runway

The Smart Runway               

Once we landed at the Charles De Gaulle International airport in Paris, what surprised me most was a
billboard announced the quantity of electricity our flight just generated during the landing and the amount of electricity generated by the airplanes and the runway system.

Off course the airport was self-sufficient in generating its own electricity, thanks to a turbines mechanism system placed along the runway as well as the piezoelectric walls installed behind the runway threshold that transforms the great energy ejected by the airplanes turbines during the take-off.

The smart runway, basically transform the energy generated by the airplanes in their different forms (sound waves, turbines ejection heat, brake application energy in landings, pressure on the runway during landings and kinematic acceleration produced during take-off.) into electricity and potential energy that is being storage in a battery bank to be used for the airport facilities.

Therefore, the runway behaves as a giant electrical accumulator and the airplanes are the super chargers of it.