I Rode a Honeywell 757 to See New Tech Geared toward Eliminating Accidents

The Honeywell crew gave us an outline of its new SURF-A tech, which is predicted to obtain FAA certification subsequent 12 months. The system warns pilots if a aircraft is already on or about to cross the runway they’re approaching.

The flight would additionally exhibit their present Sensible-X know-how that lets pilots know if they’re about to take off or land on a taxiway or if there will not be sufficient runway to land safely.

Each methods can be found as software program upgrades on plane outfitted with Honeywell’s fashionable enhanced floor proximity warning methods, or EGPWS.

The Honeywell jet was the fifth 757 ever to roll off Boeing’s meeting line. It entered service with Japanese Airways in 1983 and was acquired by Honeywell in 2005.

It is set as much as take a look at the whole lot from climate radars and in-flight WiFi to sustainable aviation gas. The jet has additionally been fitted with an additional engine pylon on the starboard facet of its fuselage to check turbofan and turboprop engines.

In contrast to most Boeing 757s, the plane options built-in air stairs that may be deployed at airports with out the potential of supporting a jetliner of its measurement.

Seat 1B is an old-school home first-class seat instantly in entrance of the bulkhead.

The 4 cameras let the passengers see the cockpit shows and gave us a pilot’s eye view of the flight.

The take a look at flight consisted of half a dozen simulated take a look at eventualities, with a Honeywell-owned King Air turboprop take a look at aircraft serving because the offending plane that triggered the protection alerts.

This is one of many aircraft’s two Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan engines, every producing a whopping 40,000 lbs of thrust. The 757 has a repute amongst pilots for being an absolute hotrod, even when loaded with passengers and cargo.

Though this was a demo flight with media, there was nonetheless treasured knowledge that could possibly be collected.

SURF-A warned the pilots repeatedly with aural and visible indicators about “Visitors on Runway” when it detected the King Air sitting on the finish of the runway.

The state of affairs simulates how the system may need offered further response time in conditions just like the February 2023 incident, wherein a FedEx Boeing 767 cargo aircraft practically landed on high of a Southwest Boeing 737 trying to take off from the identical runway in Austin.

This state of affairs is very like the incident from January 2023 when a Delta 737 needed to slam on its brakes after an American Airways jet crossed the runway from which it was making an attempt to take off.

SURF-A can be designed to alert a touchdown aircraft if an plane is crossing the runway.

It might assist forestall incidents just like the Southwest Airways flight that narrowly averted colliding with a personal jet crossing the runway because it descended to land at Halfway Airport in Chicago in February.

The system, already available on the market, alerted pilots once they tried to take off from and land on a taxiway.

In March, a Southwest Airways jet mistook a taxiway at Orlando Worldwide Airport for a runway and tried to take off from it. The Boeing 737 accelerated to 70 knots earlier than being ordered by air visitors management to cease.

After touchdown, the system will even name out the utmost distance the pilots have left to cease earlier than the runway ends.

We touched down safely again in Atlanta on Runway 28, concluding our two-hour-long take a look at flight.

The plane spent a number of days in Atlanta earlier than returning to its base in Phoenix.