On the Record with
Bob Johnson, President, Honeywell Aerospace

As intensification of security has transferred airline delays from the tarmac to the passenger terminal, Honeywell Aerospace is turning its spotlight on how best to apply technology to keep the airline system safe and yet efficient.

Soon after the attacks of September 11 Honeywell appointed Frank Daly (president of the air transport division of Honeywell Aerospace Electronic Systems) as security czar to consolidate technology from across the Honeywell group, from airplanes to industrial controls, to find ways to make flying safer.

"The things that can be done immediately to airplanes to make them more secure, we have done," Honeywell Aerospace president Bob Johnson told Show News. "We've done things with transponders so you can't turn them off and they become more informative; there are things we can do with voice recorders transmitting information, with video cameras, and we've already made cockpit doors more secure.

"It's interesting because all of a sudden the connection of aircraft to airports is more important. Honeywell actually makes and has supplied security systems to over 200 airports in the world, both in managing the airport and around the perimeter, so we're already in the airport security business, and there are 450 airports in the U.S. alone that need more security.

"We've been spending a lot of time in Washington D.C., describing the technologies that can be brought to bear to get people through airports safely and quickly. We have sensing capabilities, lots of system integration capabilities. Our work in airports is really about our ability to detect biochemicals, sensing in the air, inspecting and screening baggage, non-evasive facial screening, and even lie detecting-it's asking for all the technologies we've used in industrial, aerospace and defense areas but not in airports."

Honeywell sees many opportunities as it brings its home, industrial and security businesses a lot closer to its aerospace business. The end result will be safer flying, less hassle at the airports, more airplanes leaving with more passengers, and airline customers using their airplane assets efficiently and profitably.

Johnson said Honeywell has already tested a small, smart ID card "that makes everything happen" on entering an airport to board a flight.
"They know who you are, your bags are taken care of, your seat is assigned, at the same time they make sure you're the right guy for the card with an iris scan, so when you demonstrate you're a safe traveler you go through the green line and right on to the plane."

Then, said Johnson, airports can deal with the variation, with the five percent or so who aren't known or who have something on their record that makes them suspect.

"That way we'll move more people through airports," he said.

Honeywell's Daly is busy in Washington presenting the technical capabilities currently available. "We're selling what the technology is doing, what it can do, and what it could be doing," said Johnson. "It's not city by city, nor airline by airline. We're spending time with the legislators, which is where the money is coming from to make the system in the U.S. secure. It's not so much selling against other companies-it's selling solutions to the problems. Really it's more national than corporate oriented."

Asia-Pacific, he noted, wants the same levels of security and safety as the U.S. "They, too, want the best," Johnson noted.

Honeywell has a significant presence in the region, with 11,000 employees at a dozen sites in Asia. Among them: 10 joint ventures in China, a number of facilities in Singapore, and alliances with a number of customers throughout the region. "So we are certainly there," said Johnson. "And we'd like to be even more there."

By John Morris