Honeywell Solutions Take Airlines to New Heights

Honeywell Solutions Take Airlines to New Heights

Since the earliest days of air transportation, airlines and Honeywell have partnered together to help deliver a safer, more efficient and more comfortable flying experience for flight crews and passengers.

You’ll find Honeywell technology just about anywhere you look on today’s leading aircraft. We are found on the flight deck, in the cabin and on the plane’s exterior. Our products, services and software solutions touch every phase of flight to drive operational and bottom-line performance for operators of all sizes and aircraft types.

Here are some examples of Honeywell solutions that can make a difference in your operations.

Combined Hydrocarbon and Ozone Catalyst

Your passengers want to travel in a cabin free from the unpleasant odors of jet fuel, oil, deicing agents and engine exhaust that sometimes accompany the flying experience. That is what Honeywell’s groundbreaking fourth-generation Combined Hydrocarbon and Ozone Catalyst (CHOC4) solution is all about.

The CHOC4 reduces cabin odors by removing most of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and oil particulates that can cause odor problems when they contact hot surfaces on the aircraft. Replacing the existing ozone converter on your Airbus A320-series aircraft with the CHOC4 is fast and easy (it’s a drop-in replacement), but it delivers big benefits.

Those worrisome smells can affect passenger´s comfort, plus, operational disruptions due to “smell in cabin”.  Related incidents are believed to cost airlines more than $50 million per year industry wide, or about $1.7 million per operator.

RDR-4000 IntuVue Weather Radar

For decades flight crews have relied on onboard weather radar systems to help them steer clear of bad weather and give passengers a safer, smoother and more comfortable ride from Point A to Point B. That’s a lot easier these days, thanks to the Honeywell RDR-4000 IntuVue Weather Radar.

The RDR-4000 is fully automatic, so flight crews can focus on flying the airplane, rather than operating the radar. But it’s performance that makes the RDR-4000 truly unique. Conventional weather radars scan only a portion of the sky. The RDR-4000 scans the entire volume of air in front of the aircraft from the ground to 60,000 feet and up to 320 nautical miles along and adjacent to the flightpath.

With the RDR-4000, pilots can detect turbulence and hazardous weather conditions earlier allowing them to reroute the plane’s flight path if needed, saving time and operational expenses. Honeywell engineers developed a technique called 3-D volumetric scanning to analyze any storm clouds the radar detects and search for conditions that might produce lightning, hail, turbulence or wind shear. Then it displays those conditions with easy-to-understand symbology – like small lightning bolts – so pilots can clearly see what kinds of conditions they’re facing. 

ALA-52B Radar Altimeter

Radar altimeters provide pilots and onboard systems with critical altitude information during instrument-based approaches and landings. But not all radar altimeters are created equal.

Honeywell’s ALA-52B Radar Altimeter outperforms other currently available options in addressing the highly publicized problem of interference from 5G broadband networks. 5G interference can cause lost or inaccurate radar altimeter information when it’s needed most to enhance safety – during final approach and landing under low-visibility conditions. 

Using data gathered during extensive electromechanical interference (EMI) testing, the FAA concluded that the Honeywell ALA-528B shows almost no sign of 5G interference, which sets our radar altimeter apart from the alternatives. Aircraft flying with the ALA-52B may avoid operational restrictions when pilots make instrument landings and use required navigation performance (RNP) procedures at about 300 U.S. airports where 5G interference is an issue.

Airbus and Boeing have secure FAA certification, so the Honeywell ALA-52B can be installed immediately and with minimal downtime on the Airbus A318, A319, A320, A321, A330 and A340, and the Boeing 717, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777 and 787.

Aircraft Exterior Lighting

No one knows more about aircraft exterior lighting than Honeywell. Our experience dates back 90 years to Grimes – a Honeywell legacy company that pioneered aircraft lighting technologies.

Our newest generation of light emitting diode (LED) aircraft lights takes exterior lighting to new heights. Honeywell LED logo, tail anti-collision, landing and taxi lights are far superior to the obsolete halogen lights that equip most aircraft today. We make it easy for you to upgrade to Honeywell LEDs, which are a drop-in replacement for current halogen lamps.  

Honeywell LEDs last up to 50,000 hours, compared to just 50-75 hours for halogen lights, so you can reduce maintenance costs by as much as 70%. They also use less power, generate less heat and are much more reliable than halogen lights. LEDs also deliver a better user experience because the light is brighter and more natural, so pilots have a better view of the runway, and the aircraft is more visible to ground crews and other aircraft.

Mechanical Systems

Honeywell is a leading provider of critical mechanical systems for today’s best-performing air transport and regional aircraft. Our mechanical systems control the environment in the cockpit and cabin, improve engine performance, provide onboard electric power and perform dozens of other tasks contributing to aircraft safety, efficiency and availability. Honeywell engineers are focused on continuously improving the performance, reliability and service life of our mechanical systems.

One example is the air separation module (ASM), which generates nitrogen to lower oxygen levels in an aircraft’s fuel tank. This process improves flight safety by dramatically reducing fuel flammability. Honeywell engineers have designed a new ASM kit for Boeing 737 series aircraft that extends the life of the system. In fact, Honeywell provides a seven-year service guarantee when you install the ASM kit.

Honeywell also has improved on-wing time for its pre-cooler control valve (PCCV). Designed for the Boeing 737NG, the re-engineered valve offers predicted reliability of 20,000 hours mean time between failures (MTBF) compared to the previous valve’s expected lifecycle of 8,000 hours. More than 3,000 PCCVs have been delivered to more than 40 different airlines since 2016.

Auxiliary Power Units

Honeywell legacy company Garrett invented the auxiliary power unit (APU) in 1948 and Honeywell is still the leading producer of these flight-critical small turbine engines. APUs generate power to run air conditioning, lights and all things electrical while an aircraft is on the ground and can even restart an engine or provide power in flight if necessary.

We have produced more than 100,000 APUs so far, and more than 36,000 are in service today on airliners, regional jets and other aircraft types. Modern APUs are more efficient than ever and that includes the Honeywell 131-9A APU for the Airbus A320 aircraft family.  

A320 operators can take performance to the next level with the high efficiency mode (HEM). Fuel efficiency can achieve 1-2% of  improvement, which can amount to savings as much as $9,000 per year, per aircraft, depending on operating conditions. The HEM, which will be offered for Boeing 737 series aircraft later this year, is a free upgrade for airlines enrolled in the Honeywell Maintenance Service Plan for APUs. Other airlines can take advantage of single-year or multi-year subscription-based pricing programs to upgrade their APUs.

Satellite Communications Systems

Building on our long history in aircraft communications systems for voice, navigation and datalink, Honeywell has become a driving force in satellite communications with industry-leading products like the JetWave SATCOM system for airline applications.   

Honeywell’s JetWave hardware enables your passengers to connect seamlessly to the Inmarsat Global Xpress (GX Aviation) broadband network. The GX service delivers reliable, seamless coverage nearly anywhere you fly– even on transoceanic flights. Using the faster, more reliable Ka-band network, GX and JetWave can deliver speeds of up to 120 Mbps, much faster than the next-best option, a Ku-band network, at around 25 Mbps.

With Honeywell JetWave, passengers have the same kind of Wi-Fi connectivity they get on their home or office network. They can securely download large files, watch streaming video, play the latest interactive games, and connect with friends, family or work colleagues – all while comfortably cruising at 40,000 feet.

JetWave is certified and available today to upgrade your existing satellite communications technology on a wide range of commercial aircraft, including Boeing 737, 747, 757, 767, 777 and 787 models, and Airbus 318, 319, 320, 330 and 340 jetliners.

Honeywell Flight Efficiency

Airlines place a high priority on improving fuel efficiency, reducing fuel costs and shrinking their environmental footprint these days. Honeywell Flight Efficiency is not just a powerful fuel-efficiency tool, it’s a highly capable deep data analytics platform. The platform consolidates and analyzes data from dozens of disparate sources to provide a single source of truth for airlines to make fact-based decisions impacting fuel use, flight efficiency, flight planning and other operational processes.

Recent upgrades make Honeywell Flight Efficiency more user-friendly and intuitive than ever, including the new Pilot Connect mobile app that engages flight crews with dynamic efficiency metrics before and after each flight so they can make fact-based decisions that improve fuel efficiency – which translates to better environmental performance.

Customers have reported up to 2% fuel savings with Honeywell Flight Efficiency. That can amount to millions of dollars in fuel savings, depending on fleet size and various operating factors.