Airbus to Offer Honeywell Advanced Traffic Surveillance System

Honeywell has signed a contract with Airbus to provide the industry's first Airborne Traffic Situational Awareness (ATSAW) system to be certified and installed on Airbus's A320 and A330/A340 families of aircraft.  The technology will be available for Airbus new production aircraft as well as for retrofit after certification.

ATSAW uses onboard ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) technology to receive information (ADS-B "In") regarding the position, direction, relative altitude, ground speed and vertical speed tendency of surrounding aircraft, as well as ground vehicles on the airport surface.

On Airbus aircraft, pilots will see the visual presentations on their navigation display or EFB (electronic flight bag).

Because of this new situational awareness, ATSAW should soon allow pilots to make more informed decisions about oceanic flight level changes to reduce fuel burn or gain other operational advantages.  Eventually, it promises to play a role in allowing a number of capacity and efficiency enhancements, such as the use of ITP (in-trail procedures), enhanced visual separation on approach, and better traffic situational awareness on the airport surface.

All of these procedures are part of Eurocontrol's CASCADE (co-operative ATS through surveillance and communication applications deployed in ECAC) Program vision of the future.  02-23-2008.

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