Honeywell has received US certification for its RDR-4000 three-dimensional weather radar, with the first commercial delivery scheduled for the end of the year on the first Airbus A380 for Singapore Airlines.
The UK's Marshall Aerospace has selected a military version, the RDR-4000M, as part of an upgrade for Royal Netherlands Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130s.
Where conventional weather radars scan in two dimensions - direction and range - the RDR-4000 performs three-dimensional "volumetric scanning", automatically sweeping a strip of sky from the ground to 60,000ft (18,300m), out to 590km (320nm) ahead of the aircraft, and storing the information in a database. To remove ground clutter, the RDR-4000 uses an internal terrain database, scaled down from Honeywell's enhanced ground-proximity warning system. The radar automatically compensates for Earth curvature.
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| The RDR-4000 in action |
Source: Flight International