Honeywell to collaborate with Hanwha Systems on urban air mobility development in South Korea

Hon­ey­well and Han­wha Sys­tems have signed a mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing to col­lab­o­rate on unmanned aer­i­al sys­tems (UAS) and urban air mobil­i­ty (UAM) tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment in South Korea.

Based in South Korea, Han­wha Sys­tems pro­vides dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed smart tech­nolo­gies in defense elec­tron­ics and infor­ma­tion infra­struc­ture, while Hon­ey­well is a leader in UAS/UAM tech­nol­o­gy, offer­ing ready tech­nolo­gies help­ing cus­tomers cre­ate a more sus­tain­able future for avi­a­tion.

Hon­ey­well and Han­wha Sys­tems will inves­ti­gate var­i­ous hybrid propul­sion solu­tions for Han­wha Sys­tems’ UAM plat­form and the appli­ca­tion of Honeywell’s com­pet­i­tive offer­ings enable the UAS/UAM mar­ket.

Han­wha Sys­tems CEO Sungchul Eoh said: “We are focus­ing our efforts in devel­op­ing UAM, ver­ti­port and trans­port man­age­ment ser­vices to secure a lead in glob­al UAM.

“We are seek­ing to devel­op new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties in this mar­ket by lever­ag­ing strengths with main play­ers in the glob­al aero­space indus­try such as Hon­ey­well.”

Hon­ey­well Aero­space vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er for pow­er sys­tems David Shill­i­day added: “UAM will rev­o­lu­tionise the future of trans­porta­tion, dras­ti­cal­ly improv­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty, trans­porta­tion logis­tics and cus­tomer expe­ri­ence.

“We are excit­ed to expand our work in this area through this col­lab­o­ra­tion with Han­wha Sys­tems, a lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­er of unmanned aer­i­al sys­tems in Korea.”

Hon­ey­well Aero­space Defense and Space pres­i­dent Ricky Free­man con­tin­ued: “Col­lab­o­rat­ing on the devel­op­ment of urban air mobil­i­ty tech­nol­o­gy aligns with our cus­tomers’ defense mod­erni­sa­tion pro­grams.

“Honeywell’s urban air mobil­i­ty and elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems play a crit­i­cal role and are key enablers of the bat­tle­field of the future.”

Han­wha Sys­tems is com­mit­ted to becom­ing a glob­al UAM solu­tion provider. From urban air trans­port sys­tems and air­frame devel­op­ment to take­off and land­ing facil­i­ties, oper­a­tion and main­te­nance sys­tems to linked ser­vice appli­ca­tions, Han­wha Sys­tems is explor­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to pro­vide total solu­tions for future mobil­i­ty.

Last month, Overair announced an invest­ment of $145 mil­lion from Han­wha Sys­tems to fly its But­ter­fly all-elec­tric exper­i­men­tal pro­to­type in the sec­ond half of 2023, with Han­wha pro­vid­ing elec­tric motors and bat­tery packs for Overair’s pro­to­types.

Hon­ey­well recent­ly announced awards with Lil­i­um and Ver­ti­cal Aero­space, mark­ing Honeywell’s first ven­ture to pro­vide UAM solu­tions in South Korea. In May, Lil­i­um part­nered with Hon­ey­well Aero­space and Den­so to devel­op and man­u­fac­ture an elec­tric motor to pow­er Lil­i­um Jet’s engines. Hon­ey­well invest­ed in Lil­i­um in 2021 and is already devel­op­ing its avion­ics and flight con­trol sys­tems.