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He said that the company was serious about India
as it offered “the intellectual depths of the
Indian engineers and scientists, affordability
in terms of setting up building and equipment,
and a large market with over 1.1 billion people.”
He told India Strategic that Honeywell
is a primary partner in aviation safety and operational
efficiency of most commercial airlines in India.
It has a major interest in supporting India’s
aviation infrastructure, such as runways and terminals.
The flight management system that it has developed
with HAL is a significant step in Honeywell’s
presence in India. “Our flight management system
(FMS), designed and developed by engineers in
India, is flying on Gulfstream G650’s first flight.
It is a very complex technology which will allow
Gulfstream to take advantage of every current
and future air traffic modernisation functionality
worldwide.”
According to Yaremchuk, in 2009, the India business
contributed $500 million (Rs 2,245 crore) to the
firm’s global turnover of $30.9 billion. Nearly
half of the firm’s business comes outside of the
US, with emerging markets such as Latin America,
India and China contributing one quarter of its
revenue.
Asked about Honeywell’s flight safety priorities,
he informed that Honeywell’s Enhanced Ground Proximity
Warning Systems (EGPWS) are among the most advanced
and powerful Class A Terrain Awareness and Warning
Systems (TAWS) available for commercial air transport
to reduce the risk of Controlled Flight into Terrain
(CFIT) and Approach-and- Landing Accidents (ALAs).
Built on more than 30 years of expertise, these
top-of-the-line systems deliver high performance,
precision, and reliability for new or existing
aircraft applications, he added.
He added, “Honeywell’s solidstate lighting in
aircraft lasts more than 40 times longer than
current technology, up to 20,000 hours before
replacement versus existing halogen lights that
have an end of life of approximately 500 hours.
This improved reliability results in substantial
savings for operators in fewer lamp changes, lower
spares inventory and lower labor costs. Further,
the drop-in replacement for the existing lighting
does not require any aircraft modification, making
installation simple.”
Then, Honeywell’s new Smart Landing improves
flight safety and helps reduce the risk of a runway
excursion by alerting crew members if an aircraft
is going too fast, too high or going to incur
a long landing. Smart Landing complements Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Flight Operation
Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs to improve safety
by encouraging compliance with stabilized approach.”
Yaremchuk said Honeywell’s new IntuVue weather
radar system, RDR-4000, improves strategic maneuvering
for rerouting using state-of-the-art technologies
that allow pilots to find the most efficient route
for improved fuel efficiency and passenger safety.
The system uses volumetric 3-D scanning and pulse
compression technologies to provide a complete
view of the weather ahead of the aircraft. The
system’s vertical display capability combines
both weather and terrain data and helps eliminating
any unnecessary route deviations.
Coming back to India on Honeywell’s map, Yaremchuk
stressed that nearly every commercial aircraft
in India has some Honeywell systems on board.
“We are the leading supplier of avionics, auxiliary
power units (APU) and a service provider for APU
repair and overhaul. So, we have been working
with Air India, Kingfisher, Jet Airways and Spice
Jet.”
The company is also involved in the automotive
business, with a turbo manufacturing unit commissioned
in Pune, for the domestic market as well as for
exports to the markets in Europe and South East
Asia.
Asked if Honeywell planned to start an MRO in
India, he replied, “Our business is general business
aviation. But as the market expands I would not
rule out any possibility”.
He said he expected Honeywell to have double-digit
growth from India in three years.
“We have a strategic relationship with HAL in
business aviation and it has been going extremely
well for the past 25 years with 225 engines produced
mainly for the Indian Air Force, Navy and Coastguard.
We started with kit production and that migrated
to making the parts and assembling them here,
and ultimately into making engines to FAA specifications
and shipping them from here. The numbers of engines
from India could run into thousands but much of
it depends on how the market evolves. India is
an integral part of Honeywell’s growth strategy
and it is a partnership for decades to come,”
Yaremchuk said.
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