CEO @gCaptain | US Merchant Marine | Ship Captain | Pentagon Press | Author: Fire on the Horizon | Shipbuilder | Blacklisted by Wikipedia | K5HIP ๐บ๐ธ
I have learned more about aviation from following KC than I have from my own son whoโs attending the best aeronautical university in the world. And the tuition to follow him is not bankrupting me. Go follow ๐๐
Notice the little โchannelsโ in the runway โ the lines across it.
These are โGroovesโ & they help move water off the runway. Not all runways have them, but premium runways are both โgroovedโ & โcrownedโโฆ.crowned means the center of the runway (width-wise) is slightly higher than the edges. In even heavy rain, the water flows off of it.
My airline doesnโt give us a separate braking distance allowance for grooved & crowned, but we did take it into account on the KC-10. A grooved & crowned runway in the rain can have nearly the same braking action as a dry runway.
The material used for the runway makes a difference, too, but at the airline they donโt bother differentiating. There arenโt many crushed coral runways left, but they were very good about draining water. In Vegas, you wonโt find asphalt โ with the heat & weight of the jet, it gets soft & we sink into it. The first 3,000โ of runways is generally concrete, and itโs much deeper than the rest of the runway, because it has to absorb the impact of landing. The rest of the runway can be less rugged.
Youโll also see grooves on some highways. Same purpose, but I donโt think the highways are crowned.