Honeywell Aerospace along with Airbus and German airline Lufthansa Group has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly develop a runway safety solution for Lufthansa Group’s fleet of aircraft.

The collaboration will use Airbus’ runway overrun prevention system (ROPS) and Honeywell’s Smartlanding technologies while developing the solution.

Under the deal, Lufthansa will provide its skill to design the solution and allow its flight crews to participate in the development process of the system.

Once developed, the solution will be made available for a maximum number of aircraft types.

Developed by Airbus, ROPS is a performance-based alerting system that helps flight crews in preventing runway overruns.

Part of Airbus’ new fully-owned flight operations and air traffic management subsidiary called NAVBLUE, ROPS is certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Currently, the system is used on around 430 aircraft, including A320, A330, A350 and A380 and has been selected by operators of 1,500 aircraft to be delivered.

The SmartLanding software from Honeywell helps reduce the threat of runway excursion by alerting pilots if the aircraft is approaching the runway too high, too fast or is not configured properly for landing.

"Currently, the system is used on around 430 aircraft, including A320, A330, A350 and A380 and has been selected by operators of 1,500 aircraft to be delivered."

An upgrade to Honeywell's Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), SmartLanding is currently being deployed on more than 30,000 airline and business aviation aircraft.

To date, plane maker Airbus has sold over 16,500 aircraft to nearly 400 customers worldwide.

During the recently concluded Farnborough Air Show 2016, Airbus secured $35bn worth of order for a total of 279 aircraft, including single-aisle and wide body aircraft families.

Image: Above the clouds. Photo: courtesy of Airbus S.A.S.