Crowdsourced Weather On The Horizon

Installed airborne weather radar has its strengths and weaknesses. On one hand, you get more direct and immediate information about what you're flying into, which is great for tactical maneuvering. On the other hand, the distance at which the radar can detect cells is limited and what's behind a big cell in front of you is a mystery. Honeywell has a plan to make it better, and not just for pilots with weather radar onboard.

Courtesy of Honeywell

They're calling it Connected Radar. With this new system, data from participating aircraft goes, real-time, to a ground station. It is then analyzed, aggregated, andshared with very little delay. The more sources it can access, the more accurate a picture it can create. That means you're no longer limited to what's in front of you.

The system combines every connected airborne radar's data and compiles it, so you see a great deal more detail, potentially including what's behind that storm wall ahead of you. For the moment, only aircraft equipped with Honeywell's RDR-4000 radar can provide weather data. Though the majority of RDR-4000 equipped aircraft are commercial jets, the radar's range allows it to collect data from the surface to 60,000 feet at up to 320nm from the front of the plane.

More good news: you don't need weather radar on board to access the results. The compiled, real-time weather map will be available through Honeywell's Weather Information Service app and the GoDirect Flight Bag app. Honeywell expects Connected Radar to be up and running in the next few months.

Learn more at Honeywell.