Why They Clean Rubber from Airport Runways

★★★ FACT UPDATES / ANSWERS TO FAQ's ★★★ 1) Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport, is the Busiest Airport in America, but also the Busiest Airport in the world. Which handles over 2,100 flights per day. So with an average of 8 wheels per plane, that equates to about 11 pounds of rubber per plane x 2,100 planes per day = 23,100 pounds or about 10,477 kilograms of rubber left on the runways per day. So if JFK Airport are cleaning the runways 5 times per week, I can imagine Atlanta Hartsfield, must be doing cleaning the runways every day. All the information in the video is accurate based on JFK Airport with 1200 flights per day. 2) People have asked, why not just add motors in the wheels to get the spinning up to speed before landing. I have not researched this and I am sure there is a good engineering answer why not. But years ago a company invented tyre tread mounts that would fit on a truck in front of the tyres, incase of an emergency stop they would unroll under the wheels and help stop the truck quicker. it was a good invention that would save lives and stop accidents, but no truck driver uses them because it added extra weight to the truck, which lowered how much cargo they could carry, and in turn how much money they could make per run. Maybe they don't want to fit extra motors because it adds extra weight, to an already heavy aircraft. There is one other reason I thought of for not having wheels spinning pre landing, as a spinning wheel acts like gyroscopic stability. This phenomenon occurs due to the conservation of angular momentum. When a wheel is spinning, it tends to resist changes to its axis of rotation, making it difficult to tilt. Maybe this would hamper the pilots ability to fly the plane if he decides to abort landing and go around for another try. again, no idea myself, just a guess. NOTE: I have created a video covering the question of "why not just add motors in the wheels to get the spinning up to speed before landing" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5WSB8dAAUQ&t=2s

Very interesting & enlightening video. I was a flight attendant for 38 yrs & never heard of tire rubber being cleaned off the runway!

"Master Blaster" was the name of the big rig that my brother and friends used to clean the runways in the mid 80's. It had two water tanks on both ends of the trailer with two truck engines, two pumps, and the high pressure nozzle deck in the middle. They were driving all up and down the East Coast. It output so much pressure that it would start cutting into the concrete if it was running and sitting in the same spot too long. Very loud and dirty job. Had to scream and use hand signals. The guy walking next to it would inspect and tell the operator up or down and make sure it removed the rubber as intended. Eventually, as described in the video chemicals, smaller cheaper to run machines were used.

A onetime flight instructor told me that at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida (where he had gone), an assignment given to the students every year is to assess why/how to spin up the tires immediately before landing. For reasons not told to me, the conclusion is always that it's not worthwhile. I was left with the impression that the combination of weight, complexity, cost, and limited benefit always combine to produce that negative result, but I wasn't told of any one factor that was the main reason.

Folks should definitely stop leaving their rubbers on runways.

Absolutely underrated video! As a plane spotter, I’ve often wondered about this. Also, JFK has multiple runways, so the 1200 planes are distributed over them. Single runway airports like LGW or BOM may require cleanings at shorter intervals.

CORRECTION...Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport is the BUSIEST AIRPORT IN THE WORLD which handles over 2100 flights per day and over 104 million passengers last year alone.

Good video, just one thing though, runways are not made from tarmac as that material isn't strong enough to land planes on, they are made of asphalt and concrete.

Ingenious engineering and nonstop hard work from crews to make sure safety of aviation

Rubber accumulation actually increase grip, but on dry runway only. it flats the grill so water can't escape, cause a lot problem when it's wet.

One important factor is weight of the airplane. JFK has way more heavy jets than ATL. And ATL has more smaller aircraft. Heavy’s have 8 or more main tires. Large and smaller only have 4 tires. I don’t have the statistics but I’m pretty sure it matters somewhat. Also JFK usually only lands on a single runway, sometimes 2. And ATL always has 2 or 3 for simultaneous landings. So based on that, there may be more rubber buildup at JFK, just a thought.

Regarding JFK: Cleanings three to five times per week?? I am shocked. Blown away. Very informative video, on a subject I have wondered about.

I was an enlisted aircrew member in Vietnam for 3+ tours. The flying tempo 24 hours a day was so intense other than emergency runway repairs from an enemy attack, or barrier repair or light repairs, etc.I never saw them clean rubber from the runways and I went into many different bases. In fact there were times when we completed a mission and had to divert for a few hours to a nearby base while they were repairing our home base. I guess it would be to expensive and maybe technically impossible to put small electric motors on each wheel for the motors to spin the tires before landing to match acft speed.

"When a plane touches down smoothly and safely" Shows video of a KABLAMMO landing!

kinda worried about that last plane , only one engine reverser, asymmetric thrust after that hard landing…

Now this was very interesting. I had no idea! Wow! Neat, informative vid!

So the answer would be to spin up the wheels to match the landing speed but then the tyres wouldn't heat up on contact to help with control and braking.

Top notch video! The narration was clean and crisp, the topic was interesting and engaging but no too long and detailed. I think you found a winning formula for this style of short and concise video.

My brother was a surveyor and worked on a number of airport construction projects. He was regularly working evening shifts and would see this going on. One job was at our local regional airport and it was just about every other evening that they cleaned the single runway used by the commercial jets. Also a smaller runway used by light private planes but he only remembered seeing that cleaning done once. The airport was closed from 11PM to 6:30AM and it was always a beehive of activity out on the runways and surrounding fields doing repair or maintenance work on all the equipment.

The last video of a commercial plane landing shows a bird being ingested into the right engine within seconds of touchdown and during the initial reverse thrust phase. 😮