Honeywell, the first avionics company to bring a certified synthetic vision system to business aircraft, is now flying Enhanced Vision Systems infrared technology integrated with synthetic vision on a test aircraft to develop the future version of the SmartView™ synthetic vision. It is expected the blended synthetic vision and infrared technologies will provide pilots with even greater situational awareness at night or in low-visibility conditions.

This vast improvement could eventually challenge today's taxi, takeoff and landing minimums and provide greater operating flexibilities.

"I believe that Honeywell's expertise in situational awareness and human factors work will result in improvements that will provide pilots the precise and reliable information to manage their aircraft as though they were in visual conditions even in the darkest and stormiest nights," said Chad Cundiff, Honeywell Aerospace vice president of Crew Interface products.

Honeywell's SmartView, internationally recognized as a breakthrough in flight crew interface technology, provides pilots with a clear depiction of the terrain and potential obstacles exactly as they would see them looking out the cockpit windscreen, regardless of outside weather conditions. Integrating real-time forward-looking data from an infrared camera onto the SmartView display adds an advanced level of outside terrain details to improve the sense of motion, enhance detection of the runway environment at night and in bad weather to reveal obstacles in the plane's path.

"Initial flight tests indicate pilots appreciate the addition of the infrared imagery on the flight display and it aids in detecting the runway lights and approach environment during reduced visibility flying," Cundiff said. "Enhancing the SmartView terrain database with the infrared sensor data adds real-time awareness of vehicles, other aircraft, or obstacles in the airport environment, further improving safety during low visibility approach, taxi and takeoff."

Honeywell's evaluation of the forward-looking infrared display so far includes more than 20 hours of flight tests, more than 50 approaches in day and night instrument and visual flying conditions. Additional flight testing is occurring in October and in December.

Honeywell's SmartView display is based on the patented Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) terrain database with more than 800 million flight hours of proven operation on commercial aircraft, business jets and helicopters.