France's Thales is creating a partnership with Israeli company Xsight Systems to market jointly runway debris detection equipment.
The partnership will concentrate on marketing the FODetect system. It uses a series of sensors, which can be integrated with runway-edge lights, to scan a dedicated section of runway or taxiway.
FODetect's scanning capability is based on 77GHz radar, optical sensing and image processing. If a suspect object is detected, it triggers an alarm on an operator console and the object can then be viewed in order to determine whether a vehicle should be despatched for removal.
Xsight claims the system can scan an entire airport runway and taxiway surface in under 30 seconds and detect debris as small as an aircraft rivet. It is undergoing tests at Boston Logan International Airport.
Thales will market the system as a stand-alone product as well as an integrated option on its Eurocat-S airport surface-guidance platform.
The French manufacturer's airport solutions business vice-president, Paul Kahn, says it will "complement" the firm's product line, and adds: "The potential financial savings associated with the elimination of foreign object damage are enormous."
UK economics analysis company Insight SRI produced a study in March last year which estimated that the largest 300 airports recorded up to 70,000 foreign-object incidents per year, and that the annual direct cost to airlines amounted to $20 million per airport.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
