On the Record with
Dean Flatt, President & Ceo, Honeywell Aerospace Electronics Systems

Honeywell's announcement here of a breakthrough "safety systems" black box for the Airbus A380 that combines terminal collision avoidance (TCAS), enhanced ground proximity warning (EGPWS) and weather radar "is just the tip of the iceberg," says Dean Flatt, president & CEO of Honeywell Aerospace Electronics Systems.
"We more or less invented avionics safety as a category, and we want to continue to lead in that category," he told Show News.

Combining the functions in one box does several things-it saves weight, space and cost, and increases reliability. It is also the first time all three functions have been integrated to work together.

"For example, the terrain database can tell the weather radar to point at some hills and see if there is any clear air turbulence around them," says Flatt. That the system is called the Aircraft Environment Surveillance System (AESS) gives some clues as to its future potential. "The A380 is just the beginning," says Flatt.

Nearly three quarters of a billion dollars is pumped into research and development every year by Honeywell Aerospace Electronics Systems as it develops new technologies and ways to leverage them across its businesses.

"The key capability we have is integration across the board. It's a way of doing business," Dean Flatt, president & CEO of Honeywell Aerospace Electronics Systems, told Show News. "We take our technology and apply it to what we do-which is integration-to whatever extent needed by the customer."

What this means is that Honeywell can reach into its treasure chest of technologies to supply airframe manufacturers with anything from a completely integrated platform to a single avionics black box, airlines with safety and security (from avionics and radars to high-speed connectivity with the ground) as well as low cost upgrades, and the defense industry with tactical guidance systems.

"And all want affordability across the board," said Flatt. Honeywell pursues this through applying similar technologies in as many areas as possible. For example, it hardened and radiation-proofed its Boeing 777 avionics for upgrading the systems on the Space Shuttle rather than starting with a clean sheet of paper.

Honeywell will spend $425 million of its own money on R&D this year (the same as in 2001), with customers contributing a further $350 million. "Customers get a ton for that," said Flatt. "And we get access to markets, we drive further down the technology chain, and we get less costly designs as a result."

Despite the downturn in the aerospace industry, Flatt noted there are significant opportunities ahead for Honeywell Aerospace Electronics Systems. Among them:

Precision guidance. "We're a world leader in that," he said. "It's the heart and soul of what we do. We make 40,000 ring laser gyros a year, as well as integrated navigation systems."

• Aviation security. "This market could be anything from four billion to 40 billion dollars. We're ready to provide a better enhanced avionics safety and security capability from crew alert systems to airport perimeter surveillance. We're already positioned through other Honeywell divisions in 200 airports across the world, providing different degrees of security."
• Tactical guidance. This $500 million-a year business is growing at an annual 11% as Honeywell provides laser gyros and accelerometers for smart weapons.
• Space based surveillance. "We're still trying to take our commercial capability and bring it over to space," said Flatt. "We do that already with some of the initial guidance and electronic intelligence. It's about $140 million a year business for us, and growing at 10%." Honeywell believes that hardening commercial-based PCs instead of designing new ones will cut in half the customer's software development costs, while increasing CPU processing speed tenfold. It is also exploring the application of vehicle health monitoring systems to satellites.
• Avionics. The open architecture Primus Epic has so far achieved a 100% win rate and is now in development for 14 different programs, Flatt said. "Even better than the Boeing 777 flight control system, this is scaleable," he added. Customer requirements range from an avionics suite to an integrated avionics system incorporating central information, utility control and fly-by-wire.

Honeywell is now exploring where Primus Epic can go next. An obvious target is the Boeing Sonic Cruiser, as well as UAVs and satellites, while technological enhancements will include high-speed data applications.