Charlotte Douglas International Airport will embed 2,000 sensors into its fourth parallel runway next month. This makes it the only runway in the country with this kind of technology built right in. The $6.5 million project, done with UNC Charlotte, will feed the Federal Aviation Administration information on pavement performance and what maintenance is needed — data that neither the agency nor the airport can get right now.
Installation starts in May at the north end of the new runway, which broke ground in June 2023. Each sensor costs around $13,000. They’re about the size of a cellphone. The sensors will last around a decade and build a continuous virtual copy of the runway’s condition.
“[The sensors] collect critical information to help us make better decisions about the maintenance, operations, and safety in real time,” said Jack Christine, CLT chief infrastructure officer, according to Axios…