On the Record with TIM SWORDS, SITE LEADER, HONEYWELL
CABIN MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND SERVICES
A typical client in Tim Swords' world may want to watch CNN, check
email and catch a movie, all while in the comfort of a business
jet cruising high above the Atlantic on the way from Washington
to, say, Dubai.
Swords, site leader for Honeywell's Cabin Management Systems and
Services (CMSS), knows that such customers, in addition to always
being "right," are also apt to go ballistic if the cabin
management system goes in the fritz. For that reason and others,
the company has taken great pains to engineer faster, more reliable
systems with additional features and accessories.
So marks the genesis of Honeywell's Ovation E-series cabin management
system, a modular Ethernet-based digital system that will include
a network of technicians trained to take the mysteries out of
problems like getting a computer to talk to a server. The E-series,
slated to be available in mid-2004, will be the top-of-the-line
offering in the Ovation family, which will also include about
600 heritage MH (previously Baker) systems flying on a wide range
of business jets.
Ovation will also include a modernization of the MH line, called
the C-series, which will include upgraded video, parts interchangeability,
touch-screen controls and on-screen diagnostic reporting for quicker
servicing if problems arise.
Honeywell acquired the MH cabin management system, along with
its maker Baker Electronics, in January 2003. While Honeywell
plans to continue supporting MH systems in the field, Swords says
they will eventually be upgraded to the C-series. The conversions
should be available from first quarter 2004.
For NBAA however, the big news is the new E-series. "Passengers
want to do in the airplane what they do in the office," says
Swords, so the E-series is stacked with options like global office
capabilities: printing, scanning, presentations, telephone, fax,
file transfer and web browsing. In the entertainment area, the
system offers satellite TV, moving-map displays, flight information,
live text news services and camera surveillance.
Swords says Honeywell controls all of the software for the E-series
and makes all of the components except for the cameras. For cabin
controls, the E-series has both in-seat and flight attendant touch-screen
displays which control cabin temperature, lighting, seat position
and shades, and even galley controls such as the on/off switch
for the coffee maker.
From a support standpoint, Honeywell is working to incorporate
worldwide aircraft-on-ground (AOG) capabilities for the cabin
as well as for avionics. In parallel with the E-series launch
next summer, Swords says Honeywell will have "cabin specialists"
with IT-backgrounds in place throughout the existing avionics
support network in North and South America as well as Europe.
To make that happen, the company is hiring technicians with IT
backgrounds and is also cross-training some of its avionics specialists.
As it is now, the AOG personnel are experts the avionics area,
but not necessarily in the technologies of a global office.
"We have to change our support personnel to make sure they
know how to get your computer hooked up to the Internet on the
plane," Swords says.
