Honeywell’s BendixKing division is supplying key elements for the flight deck of Eviation’s Alice electric aircraft, including touchscreen displays, a synthetic vision system, and compact fly-by-wire flight controls. The equipment selection was confirmed on July 28 as Eviation prepares the Alice prototype for a first flight by the end of this year.
The BendixKing AeroVue Touch package will act as both the primary and multifunction flight display, incorporating Honeywell’s SmartView synthetic vision system as well as a moving map, aeronautical charts, traffic, and weather, and a vertical situation display. This is all contained within a 10.1-inch touchscreen that the avionics group says has near-4K resolution, providing 16.7 million colors with 1,000 nits of luminescence and an 800:1 contrast ratio.
The AeroVue Touch display and menu structure have been streamlined so that pilots can access all critical functions in no more than two touches. The system, which was introduced in 2018, comes with built-in Wi-Fi to allow users to upload databases in less than four minutes. According to Honeywell, the flight deck suite it is providing for Eviation will reduce pilot workload and make single-pilot operations safer.
Over the past couple of years, the U.S.-based group has significantly increased its involvement in the advanced air mobility sector, also offering radar, communications systems, actuation, cooling, electric motors, and hybrid-electric propulsion systems for a variety of new eVTOL and eSTOL aircraft. It has developed its compact fly-by-wire technology for smaller autonomous aircraft intended for both cargo and passenger operations.
“Pilots are looking for cockpit technologies that are both sophisticated and easy to use,” said Tom Neumann, president of BendixKing’s customer business team. “The addition of our AeroVue flight display and fly-by-wire technologies to the Alice provides just that.”
The Alice, which will carry a pilot and up to nine passengers on flights of over 460 miles, is now expected to be certified under FAA Part 23 rules and ready to enter service in 2024. Eviation is working on the program from its new headquarters in Washington state.
