The News: Honeywell has acquired the heads-up display (HUD) technology assets of Swedish aerospace and defense company, Saab, strengthening Honeywell’s avionics and aviation safety product lines while giving pilots improved tools for flying their aircraft at night or in difficult weather conditions. Honeywell plans to integrate the Saab technologies into its Anthem and Primus Epic flight deck offerings. Read the full Press Release about the acquisition on the Honeywell website.

Honeywell Acquires Saab’s Aviation Heads-Up Display Technology

Analyst Take: Honeywell’s acquisition of Saab’s aircraft heads-up display technology assets is a great move to grow Honeywell’s own avionics and aviation safety offerings, giving customers greater options for ensuring that pilots have all the information they need for safer flights.

A HUD system displays essential information about a flight on a transparent screen in front of the pilot’s field of vision, allowing the pilot to keep their eyes forward through the windscreen instead of looking down at complex and crowded instrument panels inside the aircraft they are flying. This increases a pilot’s situational awareness in the aircraft cockpit, allowing them to have the most important flight information at a quick glance as they are approaching landings, takeoffs, flying through bad weather or at night, and during other critical flight phases.

The HUD capabilities from Saab will be added to Honeywell’s existing avionics offerings, including its integrated Honeywell Primus Epic flight deck product and its latest Honeywell Anthem integrated flight deck offering, which is still undergoing testing and certification requirements. The integrated flight decks include navigation and display systems, flight controls, and flight management systems that provide pilots with advanced tools to transport their passengers safely. Honeywell Primus Epic is built to work with Dassault Falcon, Embraer, and Gulfstream jets, as well as Leonardo AW139 helicopters and Pilatus PC-12 NGX airplanes.

This is a big advance for Honeywell, bringing HUD updates to its existing integrated flight decks, which will help boost its offerings and drive new users to its avionics platforms and services. The new HUD features will also be made available by Honeywell for retrofitting to other aircraft, the company said.

Honeywell Acquires HUD Technology: Other Benefits

This HUD technology assets acquisition is a smart and nimble move by Honeywell, delivering an advanced upgrade potential for Honeywell’s existing and future avionics product lines. Rather than having to develop a HUD technology on its own, Honeywell has brought in known and respected capabilities from Saab’s longtime work in the field of aviation, and those capabilities can now be seamlessly integrated into Honeywell’s own innovations. I applaud these kinds of targeted acquisitions that bring together comparable technologies in smart and realistic combinations that bring value to customers.

With this move, Honeywell’s Anthem and Primus Epic integrated flight deck platforms will gain in-demand features that will serve a wide range of aviation customers, improving safety and giving pilots more control and information to improve their flying performance and the safety of their passengers.

Honeywell did not announce the terms of this deal, including the price tag for the acquisition.

Honeywell Acquisition Overview

This deal is a great move on the part of Honeywell, giving the company a major opportunity to expand its services to aviation customers while adding important safety capabilities to its existing product lines. The acquisition also brings Honeywell and Saab together more closely in their aviation work, delivering two powerhouse companies and their technologies to aviation customers in a single product pipeline.

It will be interesting to watch Honeywell bring these Saab HUD technologies into its own offerings for customers and pilots as it charts a new direction for improved in-cockpit communications between pilots and their aircraft.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.