Honeywell 's 'Project Echo'

Honeywell is planning a new line of integrated avionics systems that draws on the resources of both the former Honeywell and the former AlliedSignal. Project Echo, as the new effort is code-named, is a modern avionics system intended for smaller aircraft, ranging from small jets down to single-propeller types.

Echo, says Commercial Electronic Systems president Frank Daly, is "beyond the concept stage and well into development." The company is "working with several launch customers," and will be ready to make a firmer announcement "later in the year," he said.
Echo is being developed by a joint team including people from the former Bendix/King unit of AlliedSignal, which has long held a strong position in the general aviation market, and members of the Honeywell team that developed the highly integrated Primus Epic avionics system for corporate and regional aircraft. Like Primus Epic, it will combine communications, navigation and flight control functions with glass-cockpit flight instrumentation. It will be a modular and highly scalable system with a ship-set value ranging from under $40,000 to more than $150,000.

Honeywell's plans to put glass cockpits into smaller aircraft are closely tied to NASA's AGATE (Advanced General Aviation Technology Experiment) program, which has been under way since 1997. The company's goal, executives say, is first to put glass cockpits and integrated systems into smaller aircraft, and then upgrade those systems through software to achieve a leap forward in situational awareness and safety. Echo is being designed so that it can host a highway-in-the-sky (HITS) display, which provides the pilot with a graphic depiction of the airplane's projected flightpath.

Honeywell's Redmond, Washington unit, which develops terrain databases for the company's enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) products, is also involved in Echo: NASA envisages a system which uses terrain databases, HITS and differential GPS to provide precision all-weather landing guidance to small airports.

Project Echo is also likely to represent a break from the traditional general-aviation business model, in which avionics manufacturers sold products directly to aircraft manufacturers and did not become involved in development. Honeywell expects to be a partner in development of Echo-equipped aircraft.

The launch platforms for Echo have not been disclosed. However, if Cessna or Raytheon were to launch a smaller business jet powered by the Williams FJ33 or Pratt & Whitney PW6XX, such an aircraft would be a candidate for the higher-end Echo configuration. As for the less costly Echo packages, Honeywell is clearly not developing this product to fit the tiny numbers of Barons and Bonanzas being delivered each year, and it may find a place on an ultra-low-cost jet such as the Eclipse 500, being built with the support of Williams International. Intriguingly, Eclipse president and CEO Vern Raburn commented in May that an avionics supplier for the new $800,000 twinjet should be announced later this summer, and that "it may not be who you'd expect."

By Bill Sweetman