Mumbai University > Civil Engineering > Sem 5 > Transportation Engineering 1

Marks: 5M

Year: Dec 2014

Necessity of visual aids in connection with airport is as follows:

• Take offs and landings operations of the aircrafts at airports are the main activities during daytime and night time under good or bad weather conditions.
• When the aircrafts is at higher height, the area of airfield looks very small like a spot and hence to guide the pilot in proper manner, the runways, taxiways and other parts of the airport should be properly marked. Visual aids are installed at the airport for various purposes.
• Visual aids are provided or installed so as to prevent the accidents while landing of the aircrafts.
• Visual aids installation satisfies the visual requirements for take off and taxiing.
• Visual aids provided safety to the persons and properties.
• It helps the pilot to locate and identify the various features specified by the marking.
• Ground to air visual information is required to the pilot during landing and this is properly conveyed to the pilot by visual aids.
• Aircraft congestion is avoided by maintaining an orderly flow of aircraft with the help of visual aids.
• Pilot can have a proper and easy control over the aircraft due to visual aids.
• It provides a suitable pattern of brightness with sufficient contrast in the airfield natural light is more during daytime. This helps to guide the pilot.
• When there is bad weather and night, the visual aids are provided so as to convey same meaning to the pilot as the day/light markings.

Different visual aids are as follows:-

1. Airport marking
2. Landing information system
3. Airport lighting
4. Instrument landing system