Milestone Avionics Suite Completes First Flight

Honeywell Aerospace, the storied aero-engine and avionics marque, announced that its Pilatus PC-12 test aircraft had successfully completed the first test flight of the company’s Anthem integrated flight deck.

Although Honeywell Anthem has been in flight test for more than a year and has accumulated upwards of 120 hours of flight time, the 12 May flight was the first wholly managed by the next-generation avionics suite.

First announced in late 2021, Honeywell Anthem draws on its maker’s extensive repertoire of aerospace expertise and experience. What’s more, the Anthem suite—which can be customized for installation in virtually every type and model of aircraft, from airliners and business jets to defense, general aviation, and advanced air-mobility (AAM) platforms—occasions Honeywell’s first cloud-connected cockpit system.

Retrofitted with and operated via Honeywell Anthem’s fully integrated flight deck, the PC-12 test aircraft executed an uneventful one-hour evaluation flight over the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. The aircraft was flown by PIC Ed Manning and SIC Bill Lee, and supported by lead flight engineer Paul Carter and flight engineer Will Quinn.

Compared to Honeywell’s popular Primus Epic integrated avionics suite, the new Anthem system’s core architecture offers aircraft operators greater installation flexibility while instantiating fifty-percent reductions in size, weight, and power-draw.

Honeywell Aerospace president of electronic solutions Jim Currier stated: “This is a historic milestone as Honeywell Anthem is poised to change the way aircraft are piloted. Throughout the flight, the pilot and crew tested various aspects of the modular and customizable system, and it performed exactly as designed. Honeywell Anthem is simple, smart, and intuitive, and it takes little-to-no time to feel comfortable with it. Moving forward, flight tests on the PC-12 aircraft will focus on exercising the system in real-life operational scenarios that will provide critical feedback for robust final red-label designs.”

Ken Hurt, vice president, engineering, Honeywell Anthem, Honeywell Aerospace, added: “Honeywell Anthem is breaking new ground in avionics design and the pilot-machine interface, with the goal of making pilots’ jobs easier and safer and essentially allowing pilots to configure their own cockpit based on mission and phase of flight. This flight is a clear demonstration of the maturity of the Honeywell Anthem system and positions us strongly on a path toward achieving Federal Aviation Administration certification.”

Anthem is the sixth avionics generation developed by Honeywell and the winner of the Good Design Award. Over the years, Honeywell has introduced numerous industry-leading innovations the likes of the company’s SmartView Synthetic Vision System (SVS). By dint of its intuitive user interface, unprecedented situational awareness, unparalleled connectivity, and modular, highly scalable design—Anthem builds on Honeywell’s legacy of forward thinking, eminently usable cockpit technologies.

The PC-12 test aircraft sporting the Honeywell Anthem integrated flight deck will be showcased at EAA’s AirVenture 2023 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

FMI: www.honeywell.com