Safety
Honeywell Aims To Improve Runway Safety with Surf-A
Surf-A warns of runway incursions by aircraft, as well as excursions, and wrong-surface events
Honeywell Aerospace’s Boeing 757 testbed is pictured on the tarmac at Boeing Field in Seattle
Honeywell’s Boeing 757 testbed appears on the tarmac at Boeing Field in Seattle before a flight demonstration of the Surf-A system, on June 7, 2024. © Hanneke Weitering/AIN

With runway safety incidents on the rise, Honeywell Aerospace is preparing to introduce Surf-A, a runway surface alert system that will provide a “third set of eyes” for pilots. Honeywell last week demonstrated the Surf-A system in a series of flights between Seattle and Yakima, Washington, using its Boeing 757 testbed. If all goes according to plan, Surf-A could be FAA certified and available for retrofit in the next 12 to 18 months.

Surf-A directly alerts pilots onboard the aircraft to the risk of runway incursions, excursions, or other wrong-surface events. The software uses GPS and ADS-B data in the runway engagement zone to monitor traffic and provides an aural alert to the pilot when its algorithms determine that the airplane is on a trajectory that could result in a collision in the next 30 seconds.

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