Honeywell has launched project OperA, one of the two Honeywell-led projects to be awarded through the latest round of funding from the European Union’s SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking. The work will take place at Honeywell’s international development center in Brno, Czech Republic.
OperA (Operate Anywhere) will develop and validate several solutions for the safe accommodation of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vehicles in flight. The project will build solutions for complex operations of AAM-piloted air taxi and uncrewed cargo in real-life air traffic control conditions in Europe. It will specifically address air-ground integration and the critical transition from piloted flights toward automated flights. It will use several key autonomy-enabling technologies, and will help optimize flight routing for minimum noise footprint and aircraft energy utilization.
Honeywell will focus on an energy-efficient approach, utilizing a ground control station, precision navigation solutions, and airborne detect-and-avoid technology. These technologies will play a vital role in the ecosystem of crewed air taxi and uncrewed cargo cross-border operations.
Project OperA involves 15 partners from 11 European countries and is expected to be completed in 2026. The consortium will work closely with Pipistrel Vertical Solutions, Vertical Aerospace and Lilium, leading AAM OEMs, to validate technologies on uncrewed and crewed AAM vehicles. Consortium partners represent the ecosystem for urban air mobility aircraft: from regulators (Eurocontrol), air navigation service providers (Latvijas gaisa satiksme, Oro Navigacija, ENAIRE and its R&D subsidiary CRIDA), operators (Nordic Unmanned), Vertiport operators (Skyports, Aena) to ground and industry members (Frequentis, Honeywell).
Work on OperA will be performed at project-partner sites across Europe, including the Honeywell Technology Solutions research and development centre in Brno, Czech Republic, with the three IAM use cases operated in at least four European countries: Lithuania-Latvia, Spain, Denmark/ Norway and UK.
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