Thierry Dubois is a freelance writer specializing in helicopters, business aviation and aerospace technology. He earned a degree in fluid dynamics from an engineering school in Toulouse, France in the mid-1990s. At an unexpected crossroads, he found his first job in journalism. In 1997, he started working for French aerospace weekly Air &amp; Cosmos in Paris. This lasted until 2000, when he moved south to Lyons. He then became a freelancer, working for various aerospace publications and has been part of the AIN team since late 2000. In addition to writing about business aviation, Thierry shares responsibility for the rotorcraft section. He also is a regular on-site writer for AIN’s daily editions at international airshows such as the Paris, Farnborough, Dubai and Singapore shows, as well as at EBACE in Geneva.
In 2007, he won the Honeywell award for “Best systems or technology submission” at the Aerospace journalist of the year awards. In 2013, he won an Aerospace Media Award for the "Best Safety, Training &amp; Simulation Submission."
In other activities, Thierry moderates international conferences on aviation technology topics. Thierry is married and has three children, who seem to begin enjoying the mountains–as their parents do.

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Thierry Dubois

Honeywell (Stand A712) is here at Asian Aerospace 2006 exhibiting its RDR-4000 weather radar, currently being certified on the A380. The first commercial application, though, will be the Boeing 777-300ER with a first delivery in November.

Karl Klewer, the company’s avionics technical manager in Singapore, told Aviation International News that a feature of the RDR-4000 is a much shorter waveguide. Honeywell designers managed to relocate the receiver-transmitter units next to the moving 30-inch-diameter antenna. This yields less signal loss and therefore better turbulence detection. “Otherwise, on the A380, we would not have been able to detect a windshear because the waveguide would have been so long that we would have lost too much signal,” Klewer said.

The processor is said to be 60 percent smaller and 50 percent lighter than current models. In addition, new motors make the moving antenna quieter. “Some first-class passengers in a Boeing 747’s upper deck had complained about the noise of the sweeping antenna,” Klewer explained.

Honeywell has borrowed the pulse compression technology from the military. This contributes to the radar’s improved range of 320 nm. The antenna sweeps altitudes from the ground to 60,000 feet. The information is then displayed as “slices” of weather. These slices can provide the pilots with either a top-down view or a side view along their flight plan.

The RDR-4000 is already flying on the C-17 military transport. On a commercial airliner, a single RDR-4000 installation sells for under $100,000. In the future, it can be adapted to smaller aircraft such as business jets, Klewer said.

Honeywell radar debuts on Boeing 777-300ER

Honeywell (Stand A712) is here at Asian Aerospace 2006 exhibiting its RDR-4000 weather radar, currently being certified on the A380.

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