A Review of Proposed Enhancements to the Broken Wheel Vertiport Marking & Symbology

doi:10.4050/F-0081-2025-0157

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A Review of Proposed Enhancements to the Broken Wheel Vertiport Marking & Symbology

Charles Johnson, Lacey Thompson, Grant Morfitt, Federal Aviation Administration

https://doi.org/10.4050/F-0081-2025-0157

Abstract:
Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft present a series of challenges to traditional aviation infrastructure that was designed for conventional rotorcraft. Questions have arisen within the vertical flight community as to the validity and applicability of applying current heliport markings and symbology to vertiports. Several of these questions were addressed in a previous paper from VFS Forum 80: "A Comparison of Proposed Concepts for Vertiport Markings and Symbology" (Ref. 6). In contrast, this paper extends that work and presents the results of additional research to enhance the visibility of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) "Broken Wheel" symbology. These notional enhancements to the "Broken Wheel" symbology were evaluated over the course of an experimental study using helicopter-rated pilots in the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center's S76-D and Loft Dynamics H125 and R22 rotorcraft flight simulators.