DERA scientists from Malvern have been at the Paris Air Show demonstrating a new device to detect debris on airport runways.

If the radar detector had been in use last July it is believed it could have helped prevent the Concorde crash that killed 113 people.

The supersonic plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Crash investigators have said that metal debris on the runway caused a tyre to burst, sending fragments into the aircraft's fuel tank.

Airports around the world have shown an interest in DERA's new device, which uses millimetre wavelength radar to scan the runways for foreign objects and debris (FOD).

Continually

Airport staff currently inspect runways manually, which can take some 45 minutes, up to four times a day.

The radar scans continually and is effective in fog and rain and at night.

"Another potential use could be for security monitoring to check for intruders, whether human or animal," said Tim Floyd of DERA.

"In the United States, airports still have to abort hundreds of flights each year due to runway incursions, and some airports around the world are subject to wildlife straying on to the runway."

Also on show at Paris was a computer modelling system that allows architects to analyse the effect of new buildings on radar.

Experts from DERA worked alongside architects on the British Airways World Cargo Centre at Heathrow, successfully reducing radar reflections from the structure.