Technology Helps Pilots Land in Fog: High-Resolution Views of Runways Could Allow More Airports to Stay Open in Bad Weather

The Wall Street Journal
By  Andy Pasztor
Aug. 19, 2014 6:52 p.m. ET


Rockwell Collins Inc. and other cockpit-equipment makers are developing technologies to combat a major source of frustration for airline passengers: flights that are canceled or diverted due to poor visibility at their scheduled destinations.

Using computer-generated color images, and sometimes infrared-enhanced views of runways and their surroundings, Rockwell, Honeywell International Corp.and other suppliers are seeking to reduce such schedule disruptions and lost revenue for carriers.

The new onboard landing systems have been gaining momentum and seem poised for further regulatory approvals on both sides of the Atlantic. With high-resolution, color depictions of runways and other features, they are designed to allow many more airports that lack the latest ground-based navigation aids to remain open in bad weather.

In the U.S., they would enable low-visibility landings that are now prohibited at scores of mid-size and smaller fields.

Proponents say the result would be increased capacity and improved safety, because pilots would get significantly more detail about terrain or other potential obstacles.

Eventually, according to these people, the goal is to effectively eliminate any requirement to see the physical runway. Crews of jetliners and business jets could continue low-visibility approaches practically all the way to the ground —even when they can't see the actual runway.

Regulators still have a long way to go to give the green light for such radical changes.

Before current rules can be revised at thousands of airports world-wide, vendors have to demonstrate that virtual images are just as safe and reliable as current requirements for pilots to catch a glimpse of the physical runway just before touchdown.

"It's definitely a big trend" and progress so far "is a huge deal," Kent Statler, chief operating officer of Rockwell's commercial products division, said at the international air show outside London earlier this summer. Relying on sensors that can peer through moisture regardless of temperature or humidity, he adds, Rockwell has "spent a lot of time" developing such equipment and significant advances are likely "in the foreseeable near future."

Preventing weather-related flight diversions "clearly saves fuel and saves time," according to Chris Benich, head of regulatory affairs at Honeywell's aerospace unit. The company's products seek to "squeeze as many benefits out of [the technology] as we can," according to Mr. Benich, while reducing overall investment costs for carriers.

Today, a relatively small percentage of airliners already can land when visibility is almost nil. The most advanced jets arriving at the best equipped airports can use fully-automated systems when big storms, low-hanging clouds or fog prevent most other flights from touching down. Depending on pilots' preferences, so-called "autoland" equipment also can use computers to apply brakes, reduce engine thrust and even taxi down the center of the runway.

In a few years, automated taxi systems are even expected to turn planes off runways and use electric motors attached to landing gears to direct them to gates—all without direct pilot commands.

The majority of U.S. airline flights, however, don't fall into those categories. When typical airline pilots fly approaches to socked-in airports without relying on the latest autoland technology, usually they have to see the runway before descending below 200 feet. With special training and equipment, cockpit crews in some business jets and airliners can descend as low as 100 feet, before deciding whether they have glimpsed enough of the strip through the windshield to land.

Otherwise, the pilots must immediately abandon the approach, climb away from the airport and then circle or divert.

The cutting-edge equipment under development is intended to chip away at those longstanding vertical thresholds, while also permitting landings when pilots are able to see less than one-quarter mile down the runway prior to touchdown.

The Federal Aviation Administration last year proposed rules that for the first time, would allow pilots to postpone a go-round decision until their plane is below 100 feet using enhanced or so-called "synthetic" vision. But the timetable for a final, broad policy decision isn't clear, and the regulations ultimately may call for case-by-case approvals of specific systems at various categories of airports.

An FAA spokeswoman didn't have any immediate comment.

Rockwell, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has staked its claim to displaying images and certain cockpit instruments data on aircraft windshields. The company says it recently completed over 140 test approaches and plans to begin certification flights in 2015.

Two years ago, Rockwell scored a marketing coup when Chinese aviation regulators committed to install the company's windshield-systems, called "heads up displays," on hundreds of new Boeing Co. 737 planes and potentially several other jetliner models. The devices allow pilots to concentrate on the forward view rather than having to glance down to scan cockpit instruments during takeoffs and landings.

Honeywell, based in Morris Township, N.J., is focused on what it describes as a less expensive system, dubbed SmartView, that uses traditional displays inside the cockpit.

Within the next few years, Honeywell expects the latest versions to be installed on nearly a dozen different airplane models, including a regional jetliner.

Honeywell officials have argued their solution—melding a digital data base with an infrared camera—is able to give pilots maximum information and unmatched image fidelity, without the extra acquisition and maintenance costs associated with installing windshield displays.

At San Diego International Airport alone, the company previously projected widespread use of its system could permit hundreds of additional flights to land there annually.

But with fast moving jets at altitudes below 100 feet, many experts believe pilots most likely wouldn't have enough time to scan instruments inside the cockpit and also look out the windshield to try to catch sight of the runway.

- Source:  http://online.wsj.com