Boom in UAV Manufacture Propels Navigational Instrument to Large Scale Production

Honeywell has delivered serial number 1 million in its line of tactical-grade inertial measurement units (IMU). 

The unit left its manufacturing facility in Minneapolis earlier this week, marking off a milestone to one of the brand's more popular offerings in recent years.

Honeywell's "milspec" IMUS have continued to provide customers and manufacturers with an affordable, high-performance, compact way to aid navigation and orientation for hard-use environments. Each IMU replaces a much larger gyroscope or accelerometer, packing large, legacy instruments into a tiny fraction of their size. Items like the HG1125/26 have a footprint the size of a bottle cap, while being capable of tanking up to 40,000 G's without complaint. That performance, and proven pedigree, have made them a popular go-to for those OEMs making everything from heavy-duty commercial equipment to warfighting gear. Honeywell says its IMUs regularly go a decade or more without requiring maintenance, soldiering on for one sortie after another without fuss. 

The boom in UAV manufacturing has gotten Honeywell to push their production to the limits, ramping up their output to impressive levels to provide a hungry industry with the vital navigational part. Reaching number one million was a big day for the company, capping off nearly almost 3 decades of design and manufacture. 

“The delivery of our one millionth inertial measurement unit is a historic milestone for us,” said Matt Picchetti, vice president and general manager overseeing Navigation & Sensors at Honeywell Aerospace. “We first released these inertial measurement units into the market in 1994, and since then we’ve seen consistently high demand from various industries such as aerospace, marine and military. This is a strong testament to the reliability and quality of the units we have been providing to the market.”

FMI: www.honeywell.com