Airbus Delivers First A320 Family Aircraft With The Runway Overrun Prevention System

Last week Airbus delivered the first A320 family aircraft with the runway overrun prevention system (ROPS), an A319, to American Airlines. American is to equip all of its A320 family fleet with Airbus’s ROPS. The delivery coincided with FAA certification for A320 family ROPS technology. In August, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certified ROPS on the A320ceo (current engine option) family.

“Runway excursions are the number-one cause of commercial aviation accidents in the world. The patented Airbus ROPS system computes minimum realistic in-flight landing and on-ground stopping distances and compares them to available landing distances in real time,” Airbus said in a statement.

“The system combines data on weather, runway condition and topography, and aircraft weight and configuration. Depending on the resulting analysis, ROPS may prompt immediate callouts and alerts for pilots, assisting the crew in the go-around decision-making process and/or the timely application of stopping means on touchdown.”