Asia-Pacific AAM Report 1H 2023

INTERVIEW WITH HONEYWELL
Beyond the technological challenges, the successful take-off of air
taxis needs a high level of integration in the development stage.
Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) rules across multiple AAM
segments is constantly updated and shared among the industry.
The critical role of Honeywell being a system integrator is to preintegrate
every aspect of the system to optimize the performance,
weight, and power consumption before an eVTOL gets ready for the
unprecedented task of mass production and commercialization. “When
you look at aerospace, that's something that we haven't really been doing
historically,” Xu commented, emphasizing that building the complex
electric aircraft system must go beyond individual companies.
“Successful is to have suppliers and integrators like Honeywell that
will take some of that burden off of the system development and
integration and bringing established expertise and experience in
building an integrated certified systems into the space.”
Engaging the Industry
As the advancement of technologies outstrip the pace of the
development of regulatory guidance, the challenge that comes along
next is certification. The process takes several years to complete due
to the complex and extensive testing and validation required.
To navigate this complex issue, Honeywell recently launched
the industry’s first certification reference guide. The document
summarizing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European
“So there's been a lot of progress and what we've noticed is that to
elevate the level of discussion in the industry about certification
and the pathway to get there, as well as the gaps that still in the
regulatory system. We've decided to write all of this down and
produce this handy one pager guide to where certification is for
different segments of that advanced aerial mobility,” said Xu.
Reaffirming the progress that has been made among AAM
companies and regulatory bodies in the U.S. and Europe, Xu hopes
to engage the industry in a dialogue through the reference guide.
By working closely with other companies, Honeywell is positive
about introducing a whole new aircraft category, which will not only
transform the way people travel but also other segments of aviation.
“It’s going to change profoundly how we design other kind of
aircraft.” Xu added. “I think that's incredibly exciting in terms of
reducing fuel burn and increasing the sustainability of the aircraft,
because suddenly as a designer, you have all of these new options
to put power and control anywhere on the aircraft that you think
is important to have. So, it's going to open up totally new kinds of
aircraft configurations and that's incredibly exciting.”
www.honeywell.com
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