A patent row has emerged over the plan for a stretch and split runway – one of the proposals being considered for Heathrow expansion.
The Heathrow Hub, created by former BA pilot Jock Lowe, is one of the options being looked at by the Sir Howard Davies’ Airports Commission to add runway capacity in south east England.
But American airline captain Daniel Gellert claims the £12 billion plan, which includes stretching the north runways and dividing it with a buffer zone to allow simultaneous take-off and landing on both stretches, infringes a patent lodged in 2008, reports the Sunday Times.
Gellert argues his ‘safe runway aircraft arrival and departure system using split runway design’ was granted a European patent in October 2011.
Lowe insists his plans for the Heathrow Hub are original and that he was unaware of Gellert’s plan.
