A blue ice runway is a runway constructed in Antarctic areas with no net annual snow accumulation, so that the resultant ice surface is capable of supporting aircraft landings using wheels instead of skis. They are intended to make transferring materials to research stations simpler, since wheeled aircraft can carry much heavier loads than ski-equipped aircraft.
Blue ice runways are created as a way of streamlining transport to the interior. Without them, most heavy materials must be brought by ship, then ferried inland by ski-equipped smaller aircraft. Large, wheeled aircraft can fly directly into the interior, saving time and money. In particular, they allow for rare medical evacuations to take place year round.
Because of ice's low coefficient of friction, planes tend to decelerate with reverse thrust, as opposed to traditional means of braking the wheels, and so runways are often several miles long.
Other articles related to "ice, ices":
... Supraglacial moraines are created by debris accumulated on top of glacial ice ... This debris can accumulate due to ice flow toward the surface in the ablation zone, melting of surface ice or from debris that falls onto the glacier from ...
... several other volatile substances are also referred to as ices generally a volatile is classed as an ice if its melting point lies above ~100 K ... The best known example is dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide ... A "magnetic analogue" of ice is also realized in some insulating magnetic materials in which the magnetic moments mimic the position of protons in water ...
... The 2004 Men's Ice Hockey Championships were held April 24-May 9, 2004, in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic ... Games for this Ice Hockey World Championships tournament were played at Sazka Arena and ČEZ Aréna ...
... Bohutice - Bojanovice - Borotice - Boskovštejn - Božice - Břežany - Čejkovice - Čermákovice - Černín - Chvalatice - Chvalovice - Citonice - Ctidružice - Damnice - Dobelice - Dobřínsko - Dob ...
... An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water ... It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice (one form of sea ice) ... into contact with the seabed, a process referred to as seabed gouging by ice ...
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or ice:
“I have just come down from my father.
Higher and higher he lies
Above me in a blue light
Shed by a tinted window.”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)
“Goodness and evil never share the same road, just as ice and charcoal never share the same container.”
—Chinese proverb.