Guy Norris/DENVER
A Honeywell-led team developing a strategic and tactical weather display system for the flightdeck is in talks with potential airline users and hopes to support the start of operational flight tests by the middle of the year.
The Weather Information Network (WINN) is being developed under contract to NASA as part of the agency's Aviation Safety Programme aimed at reducing accidents by a factor of five in 10 years' time. A key candidate for initial WINN tests is United Airlines, a member of the Honeywell team from the start, providing airline knowledge and simulator support. United is expected to decide on participation in trial flights in the next few months.
United has fitted WINN displays in a Boeing 777 simulator and has evaluated other flightdecks in its fleet to site similar displays. The system is expected to be hosted on dedicated displays as a standalone application for retrofit to avoid re-certificating the avionics suite.
United cautions, however, that it has no firm plans to implement WINN and questions remain over the cost-effectiveness of the move and the human factors impact. "Too much information in the real world can be worse than too little," warns flight operations support manager Lew Kosich.
Honeywell, which has flight tested WINN on its Cessna Citation III, is adamant that its widespread adoption will not only improve safety and save millions of dollars in efficiency, but will also be vital for the development of free flight. The system gathers weather data from various sources, including satellite, ground stations and other aircraft en route, and processes it before distributing it and displaying it in the flightdeck in real time.
A competing Boeing Phantom Works/NASA Langley Research Center team says its Aviation Weather Information system is expected to be fully proven in flight tests by September.
Source: Flight International
