HONEYWELL PREDICTS SINGLE-PILOT FUTURE
TECHNOLOGY
GAINS WILL ALLOW FOR SAFE FLIGHT WITH ONE PILOT
And then there
was one. Agatha Christie's theme will be playing out soon in aircraft, according
to Honeywell executives who believe that technology will pave the way for
automation to support single-pilot commercial operations in the next five to
seven years.
Honeywell executives (left to right) Lisa Butters,
Bryan Wood, Bindu Chava, and Amanda King discuss electric vertical takeoff and
landing and urban air mobility markets, high-speed airborne connectivity for
real-time data sharing, hybrid-electric propulsion, and more October 20 at the
National Business Aviation Association's annual convention in Las Vegas. Photo
by Kollin Stagnito.
Technologies supporting the emerging electric
vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and urban air mobility (UAM) segments will
provide the safeguards and the confidence to allow for the elimination of the
co-pilot in the next few years-especially for cargo operations, according to
Bindu Chava, director of project management at Honeywell Aerospace. Among her
responsibilities are flight control systems, particularly as they relate to
eVTOL and UAM.
Chava was one of four young Honeywell executives on a
panel discussing the future of the company at the National Business Aviation
Association convention in Las Vegas October 20. Amanda King, who oversees
aircraft connectivity, said the future is about speed. UAM will speed people to
their destinations. Supersonic business jets are back on the horizon. And
high-speed airborne connectivity will allow not only for speed of communications
among people, but also the ability to share data in real time off the
aircraft-potentially eliminating the need for "black boxes" in the future as the
aircraft transmits data to the cloud for analysis and tracking. King said
Honeywell's latest connectivity system can report on the fly what is happening
on the airplane and provide predictive maintenance data to ground crews while
also helping flight crews pinpoint optimal flight profiles based on real-time
ambient conditions and potential air traffic congestion at major
hubs.
Adam Kress, left, Honeywell Aerospace director of
external communications, video chats live with John Peterson, vice president and
general manager of software and services connected enterprise, from aboard
Honeywell's Falcon 7X flying overhead Las Vegas. The chat demonstrated
Honeywell's high-speed connectivity capabilities and allowed Peterson to
describe new features that give ground staff the ability to manage and oversee
data usage on the aircraft. Photo by Tom Haines.
Bryan Wood, senior
director of hybrid-electric/electric propulsion, said electric propulsion
options are maturing faster than most people realize. However, challenges remain
regarding necessary infrastructure, including vertiports. The electric grid as
it sits today is not in a position to charge the volume of aircraft envisioned.
Such infrastructure upgrades will require significant capital investments in
coming years.
Lisa Butters says she is running a start-up inside giant
Honeywell. As the general manager of GoDirect Trade, she oversees the project to
bolster the $4 billion market in used aerospace parts. Today GoDirect Trade sees
an average parts value of $10,000 for products that move through her network.
But unlike how consumers typically purchase products online these days, most of
these parts sales occur through email and phone calls-whether it's a $1 part or
a $1 million engine. Her goal over the next decade is to position Honeywell as
the leader in this growth market and to make all transactions electronic. One
component of that evolution is block chain technology, which will allow for
greater transparency into the database of parts-showing highly detailed
information about the history of a particular part and other data not currently
available.
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