Writer

Amy Wilder

Honeywell recently brought its Boeing 757 testbed to Kansas City to demonstrate its&nbsp;ground safety cockpit tech. Included in this demo were its newest&nbsp;runway safety addition—Surface Alerts (Surf-A)—along with its already-certified SmartRunway/SmartLanding (Smart X), which helps pilots avoid&nbsp;wrong-surface events and runway excursions. Both create direct cockpit alerts hosted on Honeywell Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) units.
While Smart X has been available for roughly a decade, Honeywell expects Surf-A certification on transport-category aircraft next year, pending approvals and ongoing successful flight t<a href="https://aerospace.honeywell.com/us/en/about-us/blogs/honeywell-successfully-tests-surf-a-on-757-aircraft">ests and demos on the 757</a>. Surf-A is an EGPWS-hosted software upgrade, designed to be retrofitted across a broad installed base.
During a preflight media briefing, Thea Feyereisen, senior technical fellow at Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, outlined three risk areas these technologies are built to address: wrong-surface operations, runway excursions, and runway incursions.&nbsp;
Smart X provides aural and visual cues such as “on taxiway,” “flaps, flaps,” “too high,” “unstable,” and “long landing.” These cues alert pilots in real time to high-energy approaches, configuration errors, and wrong-surface alignments when their attention is outside the cockpit during high-workload phases of flight.&nbsp;
Surf-A extends that protection to runway incursions by using ADS-B data and trajectory analysis to warn pilots when another aircraft or vehicle in the runway engagement zone creates a collision risk within roughly 30 seconds. Pilots can hear four distinct callouts: “traffic on runway,” “traffic on final,” “traffic intersecting runway,” and “traffic behind,” with supporting text on the display.&nbsp;
“The NTSB has recommended direct alerts for the pilots,” Feyereisen said, emphasizing the potential time savings of bypassing controller-to-pilot radio latency in time-critical situations. Cockpit alerts can also step in to save the day when busy airspace radio traffic might mean radio calls get lost or stepped on.&nbsp;
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/873tnVE0YJ0?si=g4cQz9Px19dsPI1h" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
During the demo flight, Honeywell recreated two high-profile close calls widely discussed in industry safety forums to show how cockpit alerting technology could give pilots more time to respond in critical moments. In <a href="https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20240606.aspx">February 2023</a> at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, a landing FedEx Boeing 767 and a departing Southwest B737 came within seconds of collision. The testbed aircraft approached a runway surface with a Gulfstream already on the active surface; as it neared the runway, a visual and aural alert showed “traffic on runway,” and the pilots initiated a go-around. The February 2023 incident was noteworthy in that the field was obscured by fog and controllers could not see that the Boeing 737 had taxied onto the active runway.
A second scenario mirrored a <a href="https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20240604a.aspx">January 2023 New York JFK</a> event in which an American Airlines B777 taxied onto an active runway as a Delta B737 was taking off. During this demonstration, Honeywell’s Boeing 757 testbed began its takeoff roll on the runway, and the cooperating Gulfstream taxied across the runway in front of it. An alert in the cockpit advised pilots of the traffic intersecting the runway; the pilots had ample time to react while it was still difficult to see the crossing airplane in the distance.&nbsp;
Flight engineers on board Honeywell’s B757 coordinated each demonstration with the pilots of both aircraft. The pilots coordinated with air traffic control to ensure safety during the demonstration.&nbsp;
Honeywell also showcased Smart X’s excursion-mitigation function in which pilots approached the runway with a deliberately unstable approach: missing flaps configuration (“flaps, flaps”), approaching above the glidepath (“too high”), failing to stabilize (“unstable”), then floating beyond the aim point (“long landing”), with distance-remaining callouts. Honeywell’s pilots then demonstrated a simulated taxiway-takeoff lineup, prompting an “on taxiway” alert around 40 knots groundspeed, underscoring the value of an aural prompt before brake energy or runway length becomes limiting.
On June 16, Honeywell announced that Southwest Airlines is “in the process of activating its entire Boeing 737 aircraft fleet” with SmartRunway/SmartLanding via the EGPWS already on the aircraft, with “more than 700 aircraft…activated to date.”
Feyereisen framed Surf-A as a “third set of eyes” complementing existing tower-based systems: ground-side tools can alert controllers, she said, but they do not always warn pilots directly, and simultaneous radio transmissions can mask urgent calls. “Pilots are the last line of defense,” she said, noting Honeywell’s effort to tune Surf-A thresholds to minimize nuisance alerts while preserving early warning.
Uptake of the technologies remains shaped by regulatory, cost, and operator process considerations. Honeywell executives said that roughly 20% to 25% of commercial aircraft globally use Smart X-type capabilities—a figure consistent with Honeywell’s assertion that “about 5,000 commercial aircraft,” or roughly 20% of the fleet, have SmartRunway/SmartLanding installed. While Alaska Airlines adopted early, and Southwest is now moving fleetwide, broader deployment will depend on airline training timelines and regulatory direction.&nbsp;
Honeywell <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2024-06-11/honeywell-aims-improve-runway-safety-surf">first previewed</a> 30-second incursion alerts and the four-callout scheme last year on flights between Seattle and Yakima, Washington, with a then-projected 12- to 18-month path to approval. Honeywell now expects transport-category certification in 2026, while continuing to explore forward-fit display enhancements under the Surf-A program with OEM partners.
With global traffic growing and runway infrastructure largely fixed, layers of protection matter. Smart X aims to break the chain that leads to excursions and wrong-surface events, while Surf-A is intended to buy pilots time to avoid incursions.&nbsp;“Every second counts,” Feyereisen concluded.

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

Honeywell Expands Runway Safety Toolset with Surf-A Certification in Sight

Surf-A FAA approval is expected in 2026

A Kansas City demo in Honeywell’s testbed 757 detailed Surf-A alerts, Smart X capabilities as Honeywell advances runway safety tech like SmartRunway/SmartLanding

Honeywell Expands Runway Safety Toolset with Surf-A

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Matt Thurber

New developments and products in avionics, specifically about aircraft electronics in the cockpit.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Augmented reality glasses let pilots see vital flight information during smoke events

FAA OKs Klatt Works Oxygen Mask/Emergency HUD in G550

Jessica Reed

News and developments about aviation fuel, including jet fuel, aviation gasoline, and biofuel.

Clark is senior quality control and technical representative at Phillips 66 Aviation

Keith Clark Chosen for Bizav Meritorious Service Award

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

 Runway lights reportedly alerted pilots before ATC canceled takeoff clearance

Bizjet Incursion Triggers Air France Rejected Takeoff

Analysis based on operator submissions during 2025

Crew Recency Tops Flight Risk List in Nimbl Report

Kerry Lynch

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

Jan. 29, 2025 midair at KDCA has led the Lilleys on safety quest

Lilleys See Safety Bill Progress, Need for Further Action

News and issues concerning the aviation charter and fractional-ownership industries and markets, including company announcements, regulations, new developments and labor issues.

NBAA-BACE 2025

In this article

Honeywell

More In Safety

FAA OKs Klatt Works Oxygen Mask/Emergency HUD in G550

Augmented reality glasses let pilots see vital flight information during smoke events

Keith Clark Chosen for Bizav Meritorious Service Award

Clark is senior quality control and technical representative at Phillips 66 Aviation

Bizjet Incursion Triggers Air France Rejected Takeoff

Runway lights reportedly alerted pilots before ATC canceled takeoff clearance

Crew Recency Tops Flight Risk List in Nimbl Report

Analysis based on operator submissions during 2025

Lilleys See Safety Bill Progress, Need for Further Action

Jan. 29, 2025 midair at KDCA has led the Lilleys on safety quest

ACSF Expanding Horizons, Diving into Data

Organization is expanding partnerships, forming working groups such as one on ground incidents

FAA Eyes Collaboration Toward Enhancing SMS

FAA wants to assess maturity rather than prescribe design of SMS programs

ACSF Safety Summit Opens with Tackling Daily Challenges

Safety culture comes into focus

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN