Five Reasons to Trust Honeywell with Your ADS-B Upgrade Strategy

Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out (ADS-B Out) is set to revolutionize the global air traffic control infrastructure. It will allow for more precise and accurate aircraft positioning in crowded airspace, as well as helping to make routes more direct – which saves time and reduces fuel consumption. Within Chinese airspace, the CAAC deadline for compliance with the ADS-B Out mandate is December 31, 2022.

Honeywell has products available today to meet the DO-260B mandate requirements, with the growth capacity to meet future operator needs for ADS-B In, navigation and precision approaches. The newly developed TRA-100B is the latest transponder solution for air transport aircraft. The TRA-100B is a plug-and-play replacement for the renowned TRA-67A, but with a 13% weight reduction, 20% decrease in power consumption and improved reliability with a MTBF (mean time between failures) of 36,000 flight hours.

Honeywell has been an industry leader in the development of advanced avionics for decades, from the invention of the Ground Proximity Warning System, to our traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) and the award-winning SmartLanding/SmartRunway. Honeywell Traffic & Surveillance systems play a key role on in-service Chinese commercial aircraft. 

With the high installation base and avionics heritage, combined with our strong product know-how and experience from the implementation of the mandate in the United States, Europe and other markets, here are the reasons to entrust Honeywell with your ADS-B upgrade:

Fail to plan, plan to fail

We strongly recommend that airlines act well in advance of the CAAC mandate deadline. It’s also critically important for airlines to carefully plan their ADS-B upgrades with proven experts, people who have learned the lessons and seen the pitfalls of previous implementations. Through an early implementation of your ADS-B strategy, you’ll help ensure availability of the required upgrade components and avoid any increase in costs as product availability declines close to the deadline. Remember, non-compliance with the ADS-B Out mandate could result in some of your aircraft being grounded.

Enjoy the benefits today 

There’s more to ADS-B Out than just compliance. ADS-B Out functionality delivers significant operational and performance benefits. By upgrading your fleet well before the mandate deadline, you can get the jump on your competitors that decide to wait, enabling you to offer safer, more efficient flights before the others. You’ll also be well-placed to take advantage of the ADS-B In functionality; an upgrade project that Honeywell is already developing. Why postpone making those changes, when complying will only improve your operations?

Seamless installation

With Honeywell, your ADS-B Out upgrade will be easy and seamless thanks to our well-integrated parts and systems. Integration means you don’t need extensive post-installation testing by governmental regulatory agencies which increases downtime. With experience gleaned from the implementation of the FAA and EASA mandates with many airline operators, Honeywell experts can get you mandate-compliant and your aircraft back up and running in no time. By selecting Honeywell, you’ll also benefit from seamless integration with other cockpit systems such as the TCAS computer. System and fleet-wide commonality will reduce maintenance costs and spares provisioning.  

Future-proofed solutions

The modern cockpit continues to evolve as new technologies emerge that further enhance safety, efficiency and communication. By selecting Honeywell’s TRA-100B ADS-B solution, you’ll ensure compatibility with future evolutions of the Honeywell cockpit. Selecting a third-party solution now, which can’t be guaranteed to remain compatible with the Honeywell cockpit as it evolves, could mean a lot more cost and trouble in the future as new technologies and capabilities emerge. By choosing Honeywell, you ensure future compatibility.

Take our new Integrated Multi-Mode Receiver (IMMR), for example. Designed to meet the mandatory requirements of both today and tomorrow, Honeywell’s IMMR delivers comprehensive and advanced functionality in just one single receiver. It’s the first fully-digital navigation receiver that integrates Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), GPS Landing Systems (GLS), VHF omnidirectional radio range, and Ground based (GBAS) and Satellite based (SBAS) augmented navigation capabilities.

Peace of mind with high reliability

Our decades of experience and our expertise in aerospace and avionics means we fully understand the industry’s issues and challenges. Passenger satisfaction and On-Time-Performance are ever more critical metrics. Thanks to our sophisticated analytical tools driven by the connected aircraft, we’re constantly improving our system reliability and enabling preventative maintenance solutions. All of this adds up to improved asset availability and more on-time departures.

Compliance with the 2022 CAAC mandate is a necessity and should be your top priority for 2021. ADS-B Out has been implemented worldwide because it increases safety and efficiency. Compliance keeps your planes in the air and revenue flowing. By upgrading or replacing systems well before the December 2022 deadline, you can avoid being grounded, save time and money on the work, and avoid component backlogs and rushed projects. Best of all, you can start taking advantage of the mandate benefits sooner and create the best flight experience possible for passengers and crews.