Probably not the wisest idea to have a highly reflective material as the landing surface for planes humans are flying.

Yeah, but it might be useful for the roughly 4 million miles of road in the US.

Actually saw it mentioned that albedo isn't directly connected to colour (and in particular since it's thermal radiation it'll be towards the IR side of the spectrum) there might be alternatives to "nuke flash white" paint colour.

It's only directly related in the visible spectrum, which is a slice that contains around 50% of the spectrum that the sun throws out, by energy. I would imagine the actual color would be something near orange.

> I would imagine the actual color would be something near orange.

Which happens to be close to the color of adobe. I'm yet again starting to think that native peoples were onto something.

You can make runways out of concrete.

But then you have to close the runway for extended periods for repair. The beauty of tarmac is that it cures quickly.

Most runways, at least at busier airports, are already concrete.

I'm not sure that's true? Maybe it depends on the location but LHR is asphalt, CDG is asphalt, AMS is asphalt, YYZ is asphalt... Only when you look at hotter climates do concrete runways appear common.

I think only in moderate climates. Concrete tends to crack when it gets really cold and then warm.

We've got concrete runways here at MSP (Minneapolis/St. Paul). A lot of the highways are concrete as well.

Probably absorbing heat quickly is good for cold climates, to keep warm on cold days. It might prevent ice buildup on days near freezing.