Despite the fast growth of applications on road pavements, SMA does not enjoy great success on airfields. This is because of the unique requirements for airfield pavements and special problems with SMA, which include the following:
• Combining high macrotexture with low permeability
• Low-initial antiskid properties and the impossibility of using gritting (FOD risk)
• Risk of segregation (e. g., fat spots, porosity) locally changing the surface properties
Regardless of the cited weak points of SMA, airport managers sometimes decide to apply it, taking into consideration the strong points known from the road industry. A comprehensive survey of SMA applications on airports may be found in Prowell et. al. (2009).
