Honeywell has for the first time flown a sortie with its new Anthem flightdeck fully managing the aircraft.
Conducted using a company-owned Pilatus PC-12 single-engined turboprop, the 1h sortie took place from the company’s Phoenix, Arizona base.
Announced in 2021, Honeywell has previously accumulated 120 flight hours using the Anthem avionics suite.
To date, the system has been selected by electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developers Lilium, Supernal and Vertical Aerospace for their respective vehicles.
However, the developer says the cloud-connected Anthem suite is suitable for a wide variety of commercial, military and business aircraft.
Honeywell says Anthem’s core architectural system offers a 50% reduction in size, weight and power-requirements compared with its current Primus Epic suite.
“Throughout the flight, the pilot and crew tested various aspects of the modular and customisable system, and it performed exactly as designed,” says Jim Currier, president, Electronic Solutions, Honeywell Aerospace.
“Moving forward, flight tests on the PC-12 will focus on exercising the system in real-life operational scenarios that will provide critical feedback for robust final red-label designs.”
