Airbus has achieved EASA certification of its innovative Runway Overrun Prevention System (ROPS) technology on A330 Family aircraft. Thi...
Airbus has achieved EASA certification of its innovative Runway Overrun Prevention System (ROPS) technology on A330 Family aircraft. This on-board cockpit technology, which Airbus has pioneered over several years, is now certified and available on all Airbus Families.
ROPS is an alerting system which reduces exposure to runway overrun risk, and if necessary, provides active protection.
Korean Air will become the first A330 operator to implement ROPS on its A330s in service in the coming months.
This EASA certification of ROPS on the A330 marks a key milestone in making ROPS available for line-fit and retrofit to all Airbus models. ROPS was first approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on the A380 in October 2009 and to date is currently in service or ordered on most of the A380 fleet. ROPS is also part of the A350 XWB’s basic configuration, and in August 2013 was also certified for the A320 Family.
Runway excursion – meaning either an aircraft veering off the side of the runway, or overrunning at the very end – remains the primary cause of civil airliner hull losses, particularly as other formerly prevalent categories of aircraft accidents have now largely been eliminated. Furthermore, various industry bodies including the EASA, NTSB, Eurocontrol and FAA recognize this and are fully behind the introduction of effective measures by commercial aviation stakeholders to eliminate the risk of runway excursions.
The Airbus-patented ROPS, certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), computes minimum realistic in-flight landing and on-ground stopping distances while comparing them to available landing distances in real time. The analyses take into account factors such as runway topography, runway condition, aircraft weight and configuration, wind and temperature.
The resulting outcome produces audio callouts and alerts for pilots, making ROPS an alerting system which assists the crew to take go around decision or apply retardation means in a timely manner, reducing the risk of overrun. Notably, the benefits of ROPS are reflected favourably by insurance companies in terms of reduced premiums.
The A330 is one of the most popular widebody aircraft and has won over 1,500 orders, with over 1,200 delivered to some 110 operators worldwide, with an average operational reliability of 99.4 percent.
