Honeywell Taps Technology to Expand Air Transport Capacity

Visitors at the Honeywell Chalet (A6) at the Dubai Air Show will be able to experience a wide range of the U.S. company’s cockpit and cabin products through virtual reality and 3D scenarios, even though the company does not have actual products on display.

Among the products visitors can “experience” is the Honeywell Integrated Multi-Mode Receiver (IMMR), an all-digital navigation radio that integrates multiple navigation functions into a single receiver, while reducing size and weight up to 50 percent compared with current units, according to the system manufacturer. It was designed to make it easier for pilots to fly more complex and precise flight paths and approaches by using GPS satellites to pinpoint the aircraft’s position.

The latest procedures and systems supported by the IMMR include satellite-based augmentation systems such as WAAS and EGNOS, required navigation performance-authorization required (RNP-AR) and GPS landing system (GLS) category I. The IMMR’s software can be upgraded to support, in future, GLS Category III approaches. GLS category III enables pilots to fly and land the aircraft in lower visibility, comparable to the minimums available with an ILS Category III approach. The system is provisioned to support multiple satellite-based navigation solutions–beyond GPS.

The Aspire product line is Honeywell’s family of next-generation satellite communications systems that enable concurrent voice and data communications to and from the cockpit over the Inmarsat and Iridium satellite networks. Honeywell claims to have reduced the size of the system, which provides significant weight savings over current-generation satellite communications hardware. It is designed to potentially replace HF radio communications in future.

The Intuvue 3D weather radar now has the Hazard 2.0 feature set, which adds a predictive hail and lightning algorithm. The system gives pilots better information, faster, so the crew can make quicker decisions to reroute around bad weather. Hazard 2.0 builds on this with longer-range turbulence detection (60 nm). Saudi Arabian Airlines was one of the first carriers to select Intuvue.

The new Honeywell Flight Management System (FMS) datalink service provides pilots with access to continuously updated wind and temperature information. This should allow them to further optimize the vertical profile of a flight and improve fuel predictions. The service uses Honeywell’s global data center.

Earlier this year, Honeywell introduced its new  Weather Information Service, which runs on a tablet app and allows pilots to anticipate and avoid flight paths with heavy turbulence. The system, which works in tandem with the Intuvue weather radar, gives pilots graphical weather updates along the planned route, without the need to rely on radio dispatch.

According to James Bryson, Honeywell Aerospace’s president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India, one of the group’s key priorities is to help the industry boost air traffic management capacity and minimize delays for its customers. Key tools in this respect are its SmartPath ground-based augmentation system (GBAS), as well as the SmartRunway and SmartLanding technologies, which are already in use with local carriers like Emirates Airline.

“This is the sort of leading edge technology that allows airlines to increase capacity safely,” Bryson told AIN. “At the same time we’re also helping to improve gate turnaround times at airports with a wide array of technologies including improved security systems and barcode scanning. And we’re working on ways to better connect ground services.”

Honeywell also is helping Middle Eastern operators to comply with urgent new mandates such as the new TCAS 7.0 traffic collision avoidance system. The implementation deadline for this is December 15, 2015.

Middle East airlines also have been among early adopters of advanced satellite communications technology, with Oman Air being the first customer for Honeywell’s MCS-7200 Inmarsat SwiftBroadband system in 2009. Qatar Airways recently signed up for the company’s new GX Aviation service for its Airbus A350 fleet.

In September, Honeywell expanded its portfolio of specialist aviation software with the acquisition of Aviaso, which offers systems to help airlines achieve greater fuel efficiency. The software, developed at the Swiss-based company’s technical facilities in Bulgaria, also helps operators to manage and report engine emissions.

In a bid to further improve customer support in the Middle East, Honeywell recently signed an agreement with the Al-Raha Group for Technical Services covering the distribution of spare parts for mechanical and avionics products in Saudi Arabia. The arrangement means that Saudi aircraft operators will no longer have to wait for spares to be shipped from the U.S. Other recent improvements to Honeywell’s support capabilities include component and parts distribution arrangements with Transworld Aviation (Stand 1040) and Abu Dhabi Aviation (Stand 1120).