Aircraft

The FAA has signed a $12 million contract with Honeywell and Rockwell Collins to develop prototype avionics hardware and software for air-to-ground digital data exchange, also known as data communications or datacomm.

The other transactional agreement (OTA) is intended to demonstrate to national airspace users the benefits of datacomm over voice communications, accelerating the introduction of the technology into the fleet.

Along with developing the equipment, Honeywell and Rockwell Collins will work with the US FAA to validate standards for the avionics and support system demonstrations which will include evaluations of human-machine interfaces, interoperability testing with air-ground communications systems and security validation, according to the FAA.

Work will commence in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 and continue through 2011. The FAA says it may enter follow-on agreements with the companies to develop and supply the avionics for certification in aircraft, operational test sites and to perform initial operational acceptance testing.

Earlier FAA datacomm trials, under the auspices of the controller-pilot data link communications (CPDLC) trials, were shelved in 2004 due to budget cuts.