Your Cockpit, Your Way with Honeywell Anthem

Say hello to Honeywell Anthem, the new modular flight deck that lets pilots customize their displays based on mission and phase of flight. Each flight crew and mission are different, and pilots like to set up their cockpits in ways that are optimized for them and their needs. Present-day avionics systems expect pilots to conform to their limited-design layouts, forcing them to think the way engineers think they should. The future must be better.

“With Honeywell Anthem, pilots can quickly and easily position the primary flight display, navigation maps, charts, radio controls and other information and tools anywhere they want on any display,” said Jason Bialek, Product Line Director for Honeywell Anthem.

“The most relevant information is always right at their fingertips when they need it, which aligns with our promise to make Honeywell Anthem easy to use, easy to learn, and fun to fly,” he added.

The world’s most modular and customizable flight deck appeals to aircraft manufacturers, too. “We have had a lot of great feedback from the OEMs,” Bialek said. “With Honeywell Anthem, they can design a cockpit that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, regardless of the aircraft type or size. Honeywell Anthem can be configured for small general aviation aircraft, helicopters, urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, high-end business jets, large passenger aircraft or anything in between.”

No Two Aircraft Are the Same

Honeywell Anthem provides a better future, which is an improvement over the one-size-fits-all approach that has long-dominated flight decks. OEMs can now customize their aircraft’s cockpit installation industrial design to create modern, OEM brand supporting, and stunning flight-deck visuals making the most of available real estate while also making the cockpit easier to use and more fun to fly. The system is flexible and scalable, so it works for both small and large cockpit environments, giving OEMs lots of options when it comes to number of displays, their orientation and placement, and the controls pilots use to access and input information.

Pilots take things to the next level by setting up the cockpit just the way they want it. For example, pilots can position frequently used touch controls and menus or displays where they are most accessible, which is often on the inside of the forward display or near the throttle console. The primary flight display will be front and center during takeoff and landing in full-screen view, while the interactive moving-map display will be as large as possible when the aircraft is at cruising altitude. Pilots can place Honeywell Anthem features like the Secure Cockpit Browser Electronic Flight Bag window, Mission Manager, navigation charts, synoptics, checklists, autopilot and radio controls, and the Smart Scratchpad all within easy reach during all phases of flight.

“The Honeywell Anthem cockpit is so simple, smart and intuitive that it generally takes just a few hours in ground school and a couple of flights for pilots to feel comfortable and know how they prefer to arrange their cockpit,” Bialek said. “By allowing pilots to individually tailor the flight deck, we’re reducing pilot stress, pilot workload, initial training time, and the potential for errors during flight. Anthem accommodates multiple pilots flying the same aircraft and allows each pilot to save their presets in the cloud so those presets can be available immediately upon powering up the cockpit regardless of when or where the presets were saved by the pilot.”

A Modern Touch with Honeywell Anthem

Honeywell Anthem uses intuitive technology that is familiar to pilots who use Electronic Flight Bag apps and smartphones every day. “We’ve emphasized touch interaction so pilots can more quickly and efficiently access information, use maps and charts, and control the aircraft autopilot modes,” Bialek said. “It’s a whole new way of interfacing with the aircraft, but pilots are very familiar with it because it’s the way they have interacted with smart devices for years. We have also kept the most commonly used tactile controls, and for some aircraft, Cursor Control Devices for interactions during moderate or rougher turbulence.”

“The overall look and feel of the pilot interface and menus is so intuitive that generally both experienced and inexperienced pilots will be able to quickly figure out what they need to do from the minute they climb into the cockpit,” he added.

Unlike traditional interfaces based on text-entry or basic graphical menus, Honeywell Anthem uses visualization and modern graphical and gesture-based methods, making the flight deck much easier to use. For example, pilots can modify their flight plan simply by clicking on a new waypoint on the map display, or they can establish a hold on certain inbound courses with specific leg distances via touch instead of the less intuitive, more traditional, text-based menu methods. If pilots want to enter everything via menu pull downs and text entry, they can do that, too. Generally, once pilots see how fast and easy the newer methods are they stop doing it the traditional way.”

As the first flight deck to feature always-on cloud connectivity, Honeywell Anthem enables innovations like the Connected Mission Manager, which anticipates what major tasks are next like the next logical radio frequency to tune, or the appropriate chart to display, along with which normal checklist to display and complete. Honeywell Anthem minimizes the number of touches or clicks required to get key tasks done by anticipating the pilot’s needs and providing a simplified time-based view, which is much easier to use and interpret than complicated waypoint lists seen in traditional cockpits. If a less experienced pilot is behind the airplane and fails to complete the After Takeoff or Climb checklists those icons remain on the timeline and present an obvious next “to do” item for the pilot, helping the pilot prevent errors from becoming more serious incidents. 

“Always-on connectivity, Connected Mission Manager, Smart Scratch Pad and other unique features reduce complexity and improve the flying experience for pilots of all experience levels,” Bialek said.

For more information: Honeywell Anthem