Runway Width Effects in the Visual Approach to Landing

Abstract

The effect of changes in runway width on the perception of glide-slope has been the subject of extensive investigations. Despite considerable research, an explanation of this effect has been elusive. A mathematical model for glide-slope perception was published recently based on the premise that a desirable goal of perception is to form a perception with minimal uncertainty. One of the qualitative predictions of that model was that changes in the aspect ratio of the runway would affect the perceived glide-slope. In this article, the predictions of the model are quantified and are shown to be in close agreement with experimental results in the literature.