Recent Studies of Runway Roughness

Recent studies of NASA research related to aircraft operating problems on rough runways are presented. Some of these investigations were conducted cooperatively with the airport operators, with the Federal Aviation Agency, and with the U.S. Air Force. The studies show that criteria based on power spectral levels of runway-profile data are not sufficient to define acceptable levels of runway roughness from the piloting viewpoint. Because of the large variation in response characteristics between various types of aircraft, a runway may be acceptable for some aircraft and unacceptable for others. A criterion for roughness, therefore, should be expressed in terms of aircraft response - preferably, cockpit acceleration. A criterion suggested is that the maximum vertical acceleration in the cockpit should not exceed +/- 0.4 g for sections of the runway where precise aircraft control is required.