The hazards and potential liabilities of littered runways are an airport manager's nightmare. You need to be confident that your sweeper can do the job on heavy debris. To pass the test, the sweeper must pick up all ten cylinders in one pass at 15 mph. Brooms and runways simply don't mix. Research with input from airport and airline personnel tell us that brooms only get in the way on the unique terrain of airfields.
Main brooms used in high-speed applications wear out quickly because they run constantly.
So you've got the added expense of broom replacement about every 200 hours costing hundreds of dollars annually and thousands over the life of the machine - along with the added expense of downtime and maintenance. Air has the unique ability to follow the contours of the ground for more efficient sweeping. A main broom just cannot get down into concrete spalls and the crevices of expansion joints and tiedowns - but actually fills them with debris. The blasting action of the HSP air system easily removes FOD and digs deeper for a totally clean surface. Main brooms have the unwanted liability of getting snagged by tiedown straps and refueling ground wires - almost always damaging the broom and causing excessive downtime.