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Part Six – Uniform to Zulu
We are nearing the end of our alphabetical journey through some of the products and technologies that Honeywell Aerospace has innovated to further mankind’s passion for flight. Some of the innovations we’ve covered so far have been ground-breaking, whereas others, while appearing simple, have nonetheless been effectively engineered to address a customer need. In this final edition, we’ll look at how Honeywell’s agility helped airlines address cabin cleanliness during the COVID crisis, how we’re continuing to shape the future of aerospace in the UAM/UAV space and how we’re responding to the impact of the climate crisis on aviation.
U – UV Cabin System
Literally within weeks of the Covid crisis reaching global proportions and grounding passenger aircraft worldwide, Honeywell was already looking at ways to help our customers weather the storm. As an organization we pivoted our focus, turning engine factories into face mask and PPE production lines, helping airlines convert passenger planes to cargo carriers and to inventing, and deploying the Honeywell UV Treatment System.
About the size of an aircraft beverage cart, the UV Treatment System is a portable ultraviolet-c light (UVC) system that, when properly applied, reduces certain viruses and bacteria on targeted surfaces within passenger transportation systems such as aircraft, passenger railways, buses, ferries and more. The system can treat a cabin with thirty rows of seating in less than ten minutes, maximizing fleet efficiency and minimizing downtime. A smaller UV Wand was also developed for smaller aircraft including business jets and other airport-based vehicles.
The Honeywell UV Treatment System is part of our ‘Cleaner Air Travel’ suite of products designed to help operators better protect passengers and crew while enhancing passenger and crew confidence.
V – Vertical Aerospace
With world-class partners like Rolls-Royce and Honeywell, Vertical Aerospace is set to become one of the leaders in the new aerospace market - Urban Air Mobility (UAM). Urban air mobility is an aviation industry term for on-demand and automated passenger or cargo-carrying air transportation services. Urban Air Mobility services will bring new and innovative ways for people to travel around cities and rural areas, while reducing congestion.
The flagship, Vertical Aerospace VA-X4, will feature Honeywell’s fly-by-wire controls and next gen avionics. This aircraft will fly at speeds over 200mph, and yet remain not only near silent when in flight, but will also be emissions free. With a low cost per passenger mile, the VA-X4 is going to open up Urban Air Mobility to a whole range of passengers and transform how we travel.
Honeywell has been working with Vertical Aerospace, since signing an MOU back in 2019, to collaborate on addressing the technical, regulatory and business challenges of the emerging urban air mobility segment. This collaboration includes the integration of Honeywell avionics, navigation, fly-by-wire and other advanced technologies into future Vertical Aerospace vehicles. These include Honeywell’s new compact fly-by-wire system, which offers the critical redundancy needed to meet the safety and certification requirements for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, all in a package the size of a paperback book. Urban air mobility vehicles promise to reduce urban congestion and provide new ways for people to travel around cities and rural areas.
W – Website
A culture of continuous improvement and innovation is hardcoded in Honeywell's DNA. The fact that we are the market leaders in various product categories has not made us complacent. In fact, we’d like to think this has made us more responsible and more responsive. For example, our website, in many cases our first point of customer contact and resolution has evolved, and continues to evolve, into a customer centric portal – based on customer personalization, increased automation and better usability. We’re empowering customers with access to tools, technical documents, order systems, spares, AOG support and details of your local channel partners – all to make working with Honeywell easier. Many of these changes have been implemented as a result of direct feedback, either through the Global Customer Committee, or through one-to-one engagements with our customers.
The innovation, digitization and evolution of our technologies and processes, are built firmly on the foundation of our commitment to customer centricity. We firmly believe that only through attention, collaboration, and participation with our customers can we continue to succeed.
X, Y & Z - Pages still to be written, history still to be made…..
For over 100 years, Honeywell Aerospace has been at the forefront of innovation and advancement in the aerospace industry. From breaking the sound barrier, to the exploration of space, to landing on the moon – not to mention the Hudson River, our world-class engineers, have all been #FutureShapers. Who’s to say what innovation they will conjure up next to further enhance the safety, efficiency, productivity and performance of manned and unmanned flight.
As we look to the future, aviation faces some significant challenges, not least of all how aviation can become more sustainable. I am confident that our engineers will remain at the forefront of aerospace innovation, just as they have since Lawrence Sperry stood on the wing of his Curtiss C-2 biplane way back on June 18th, 1914 and demonstrated the first autopilot. Who knows with luck they might even think of naming some of the new technologies with an X, Y or Z, so I can finish this blog!
