Aircraft Taxiing Drag Calculation and Flight Verification on Standing Water Runways

When the airplane's tires taxiing on a standing water runway, the splashing water acts as a resistance to high-speed taxiing of the aircraft, significantly increasing the length of runway required for takeoff. According to statistics, standing water is one of the major factors that causes such accidents. As a result, additional drag of standing water runway has become a major research subject. Based on ESDU (Engineering Sciences Date Unit) and AMC (Acceptable Means of Compliance) methods, we established a taxiing drag calculation model for standing water runways. In addition, to verify the conservatism of the simulation results, the additional drag of the aircraft sliding over a water pool was actually measured through an aircraft splash water test. Data analysis revealed that the measured hydroplaning speed was significantly lower than ESDU's prediction. Additionally, there was a noticeable discrepancy between the total drag measured in the test and the theoretical calculation results. Furthermore, high-lift configurations also have a certain impact on the drag caused by contaminants.