Honeywell's Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) now has 13 major enhancements and more are scheduled.
Brian Pulk, Honeywell's Director of EGPWS products, says these developments were designed to further reduce the risk of Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) and the product is already proving its worth.
"We have 11 documented cases where the EGPWS has saved lives and who knows how many undocumented ones there are," says Pulk.
"Over 10,000 units have been ordered and 6,000 units delivered and we now have more than 24 million flight hours' experience on 180 certified aircraft so we really know it is a product that works."
The "Enhanced" in EGPWS refers to the internal terrain database. This means the system has a more intelligent view of whether a CFIT is imminent. But Honeywell's recent enhancements take this much further. The latest product computes what is known as geometric altitude. This uses a number of factors to provide far more accurate altitude data to the EGPWS system.
Another improvement is weather radar "autotilt" which can adjust the radar's scan angle to see the actual weather above the terrain and not the rising ground itself. Smart Traffic Alert Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alerting will also result in intelligent commands such as "Climb, Climb" when "Descend, Descend" could result in a CFIT.
"In all, our surveys show that the EGPWS only gives a nuisance warning every 150,000 hours, so it is very robust and reliable," concludes Brian Pulk.
Source: Flight Daily News
