fighter has had touchscreens marketing, commercial systems. vast majority of the complexity since the early 1990s. In July last year, Rockwell in an FMS is involved in com- “We are in the preliminary Collins unveiled a touchscreen puting performance capabil- stages,” said Bonnet. “It’s really “embedded display” version of ity for the airplane and all the a technology demonstrator. In Pro Line Fusion aimed at the other attributes needed for it to current cockpits, there’s no such Part 23 cockpit market. However, be an autonomous system. And by thing as a single screen. As you touchscreen panel displays likely autonomous, I mean it interacts can imagine, there are a lot of won’t find their way into larger with the crew without any inter- issues still to handle regarding aircraft cockpits, Ellis explained, action from the ground.” dispatch, safety and reliability. because reaching out and touch- The simpler way would be to Therefore, we imagine hav- ing the instrument panel isn’t shift some of that processing to ing such a product by 2020 or always possible in large cockpits, systems on the ground. “Airlines around [then].” especially when the seat is moved do it in their dispatch centers,” back during cruise. Ellis said, “and we do it through Rockwell Collins “In all classes of airplanes, our [Ascend] Houston Network The view out the cockpit window on a Honeywell demo flight on approach to Santa The head-up display (HUD) larger format displays with Operations Center. We have fully Barbara, left, is hazy, while Honeywell’s SVS/EVS display, right, shows the integration and synthetic vision are key devel- touchscreen capability in the qualified dispatchers and accu- of the infrared enhanced vision with synthetic vision in mountainous terrain. opments in Rockwell Collins’s throttle quadrant and pedes- rate aircraft performance profil- cockpits, especially when the two tal area are going to become the ing software. So in the future, we vision. Ellis calls this situation more range and more efficiency, technologies are merged, allowing norm,” he said. “It’s clearly more could move to an environment technology enhancement. which helps with engine perfor- pilots to see an image of the out- feasible to implement touch- where the flight management There is another benefit to mance and fuel consumption. side world while looking through screen on sidestick-equipped air- and the navigation function on Ellis’s vision, and that is using Those technologies may mani- the HUD. Earlier last year, planes than those with yokes and the airplane are significantly these high-speed connections to fest themselves in avionics con- Rockwell Collins announced that columns because of the reach- simplified and most of the com- deliver information between air- trol or display, but they have it has developed a compact HUD, ing-around-the-yoke issue.” plex computation for what- craft. An aircraft flying near haz- far-reaching implications into COCKPIT the HGS-3500, which elimi- For Ellis, the most exciting ifs and flight planning is done ardous weather transmits data to the other subsystems and tech- nates the heavy cockpit-ceiling- development has been the intro- within the ground environment.” a ground station, which retrans- nologies across the aircraft.” mounted projector and makes it duction of high-speed communi- Even if the broadband link to mits it to another aircraft farther That said, Esposito added cost-effective to install HUDs in cations, especially the Inmarsat the ground is lost, there remains away but headed toward the area that he could not identify spe- AVIONICS smaller jets and turboprops. Global Xpress–a Ka-band satel- enough processing capabil- of hazardous weather, in plenty cific aircraft that manufacturers 2012 Synthetic vision is a core lite broadband system expected ity on the airplane to fly safely, of time to make alternate plans. and Honeywell are working on. technology in the Pro Line to make its debut in 2014. “I’m perhaps not optimized for fuel “Connectivity has a num- “But you’ll see more efficient Fusion flight deck, which enters focused on how we take advan- burn, but “not a hazard to avi- ber of benefits,” he explained, utilization of the cockpit tech- service soon on the Bombardier tage of increased global data- ation,” Ellis said. His point is “both to airplane operations in nology to provide the mainte- Global 6000 and Gulfstream link capacity,” he said, “and what that, “we are over-investing in the future and to the passen- nance of those subsystems and Honeywell’s EVS/SVS combined vision system (left display) G280. In 2013, synthetic vision effect that’s likely to have on avi- those very complex planning ger experience through direct actually control them.” will be available as a retrofit for onics configurations.” functions that we replicate again connectivity,” and also allow- The other broad technology Pro Line 21-equipped aircraft. Not only does airborne and again in every flight deck of ing aircraft to share informa- focus for Honeywell is appli- 2009 and partners include Thales, Diehl is presented to pilots. Thales calls this The HGS-3500 should start broadband facilitate use of the every delivered airplane.” tion, which makes each aircraft cations, he said. Honeywell Future flight decks promise more with less Aerospace, Alenia Aeronautica and Alita- “Cockpit 3.0.” Bonnet said, “Our vision becoming available after certifi- Rockwell Collins Ascend Flight The head-up display sys- a weather-gathering and trans- acquired EMS Technologies lia; subject-matter experts Imec and Opt- of what could be the cockpit of the future cation in 2014 or 2015. Information Services products tem enhances safety, allowing mitting station, enabling pilots last August, which added more by Matt Thurber invent; and the Technical University of is to design the cockpit around its crew.” Rockwell Collins is also seek- as well as upcoming safety ser- pilots to spend more time flying to avoid rough weather. “We’ve satcom capability to its offer- Denmark, University of Malta and Tech- Current cockpits offer different inter- ing approval from the FAA vices, but it also presents some the airplane and less time with been talking about it for 20 ings and increased opportunities vionics technology is ac- Thales nological Education Institute Piraeus. faces for each avionics system, he said, to allow aircraft to fly lower interesting future capabilities. their heads buried in the con- years, but never had a network.” for data integration. “Now you celerating, and while man- Thales researchers are not only help- Fundamentally, the Odicis project but Cockpit 3.0 would “reinvent the cock- approaches using synthetic “We can start envisioning sole trying to program the FMS, have access to real-time informa- ufacturers have made tre- ing to develop what could be cockpits of seeks to move cockpit avionics into a pit, where interfaces are [focused on] the vision on the HUD. “We’re an avionics configuration that “which is always a good thing,” Honeywell tion as well as aircraft infor- men dous advances dur ing the future but they are also participating bold new future, where the instrument task of the pilot. One of the tasks of the going to have a very frequent is fundamentally much simpler Ellis said. This means more As a manufacturer of avion- mation, and can present that to Athe past decade, the march of micropro- in studies, such as Europe’s Clean Sky, a panel is a single, even curved display, with pilot is to pilot, so there should be at least introduction of Fusion capa- than those we install today,” focus not only on flying, but on ics, engines and aircraft systems, the pilot in a very innovative way cessor speed, electronic storage growth public-private partnership between the the redundancy of multiple displays so a pilot interface. There should be also a bilities on a broad range of air- said Ellis. “The most complex tactical flying, getting the most Honeywell is in a unique position with a lot of focus on human and high-speed communications net- European Commission and aerospace there is no possible single point of failure. mission-management interface, a sys- planes over the coming few system on a flight deck today is out of tools like the HUD and to integrate all these products. factors,” Esposito said. works means that engineers can increas- industry to devise step changes that will “The idea is not to mimic existing dis- tem-management interface and a normal years,” said Bob Ellis, director of the FMS,” he explained. “The synthetic vision and enhanced “We look at how we can Technology apps include ingly do much more with less equipment, lead to reduced aviation environmen- plays with a single screen,” said Denis product-based interface. The idea is how bring technologies from other Honeywell’s Inav (for interactive bringing stunning new capabilities to the tal impact. Thales is also involved in Bonnet, Thales’s Odicis/cockpit expert, can we merge information so it can come areas of our portfolio and inte- navigation system), which pro- cockpits of tomorrow. research on flight management systems “but to think about how it can change the to the pilot directly in the form he needs to grate [those] into avionics to help vides “simultaneous display of Hardware–microprocessors, fast flash- (FMS), airport navigation, communica- way we interact. This is like the goal of the interact with it? The pilot cares about solve customer needs concern- traffic, terrain, airspace, airways, based storage and speedy bus archi- tion and navigation systems for Europe’s iPhone, which was not to mimic a phone, what he intends to do; he doesn’t care that ing safety, efficiency and perfor- airports and navigation aids,” tecture–is no longer a bottleneck for single European sky (Sesar) and the U.S.’s but to reinvent the way we use phones.” the calculator or the GPS is in the FMS.