Honeywell and Volocopter have signed an agreement to jointly test and develop new navigation and automatic landing systems for Volocopter’s vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Honeywell’s autonomous sensing and flight technologies, including inertial measurement units, attitude heading reference solutions and potentially other urban air mobility (UAM) innovations will be hosted on Volocopter platforms.
According to the companies: “Honeywell and Volocopter aim to prove and mature existing technologies by testing and evolving various sensor-based navigation systems for use in fully-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. These tests will help the two companies create new technologies for urban air mobility.”
“Congestion and traffic jams continue to be time killers for people in modern megacities. New timesaving, environmentally friendly solutions are required, and air taxis will certainly be one of them,” said Jan Hendrik Boelens, chief technology officer, Volocopter. “… A key goal of our collaboration is to fly a Honeywell inertial measurement-based attitude reference system solution in one of our Volocopters in 2019.”
According to Carl Esposito, president, Electronic Solutions, Honeywell Aerospace:
“Alongside Volocopter, we will be building on our fundamental expertise of navigation sensor solutions plus other landing expertise, moving us closer to the reality of urban air mobility. Our global outlook stems from years of working alongside organizations such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency. This collaboration has allowed us to explore the challenges, opportunities and safe integration of technologies and aircraft in civil airspace.”
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