Honeywell has opened a research and development laboratory to demonstrate new technology for the unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and urban air mobility (UAM) markets. The facility, which is located at the company’s avionics center in Phoenix, Arizona, is configured to resemble the flight deck of an eVTOL aircraft with real hardware that can be used to evaluate integrated fly-by-wire controls and other flight systems.
At the heart of the lab’s cockpit configuration is a single seat in front of a primary flight display with three additional large wrap-around displays giving a simulated view of the environment outside “the aircraft.” A key objective for the Honeywell team is to help developers of new UAS and UAM aircraft to have access to so-called simplified vehicle operations, which the company defines as a combination of “automation and human factors best practices with the goal of reducing the amount of knowledge an operator must have to safely fly an aircraft.”
