United and Boeing Interested in Honeywell's Runway Safety Technology

The Wall Street Journal reports that both United Airlines and Boeing are interested in the runway safety possibilities of Honeywell's RAAS (runway awareness and advisory system), meant to prevent runway incursions, overruns and misidentification.

According to the Journal (December 20), United is negotiating with Boeing to install the system throughout its 460-plane fleet, beginning with its B-777s, early in 2008.  Boeing, meanwhile, is considering making RAAS standard equipment on all of its new airplanes.

RAAS is a software upgrade to existing Honeywell Mk V and Mk VII EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning system) computers that compares an aircraft's GPS position to airport locations stored in the EGPWS runway database.  It aurally advises pilots on a number of safety-critical situations, such as when they are approaching a runway, the identification of the runway they are using, when the runway is too short, if they are attempting to take off from a taxiway, the distance remaining on rollouts, and other information to improve their situational awareness.

RAAS is currently installed on about 200 commercial jets and 1,400 business aircraft.  Some point to the cost of the technology - approximately $20,000 per plane - as the reason for its limited acceptance up till now.  But others claim the system is cheaper than several other alternative methods to prevent incidents and accidents related to inadequate awareness by the pilot.  12-26-2007.

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