The Boeing 757 owned by the U.S. company Honeywell celebrated its 40th anniversary. Since 2005, the aircraft has been used for various tests of new technologies and solutions for the aviation industry.
It was the fifth aircraft of its type to roll off the production line. It completed its first flight in February 1983 and began operating for Eastern Airlines that same month. Then, it operated commercially for Airtours International and My Travel Airways.
In 2005, the aircraft with manufacturer’s serial number (MSN) 22194 was acquired by Honeywell and registered as N757HW. Today, although 757s have been retired from most fleets to be replaced by more modern and efficient aircraft, it continues to be used as a test aircraft.
Jet engines, electrical and mechanical systems, avionics software and connectivity equipment were some of the tools tested on the aircraft.
«We are among a select few pilots in the industry who have the responsibility to push an aircraft close to its limits», said Joe Duval, Director of Flight Test Operations for Honeywell Aerospace. «We have intentionally flown into nasty storms to test our radars, and we have flown toward more mountains than I can count to test our ground proximity warning systems», he added.
Currently, the aircraft has accumulated more than 800 tests and 3.000 flight hours around the world. Many innovative technologies were tested with it, which were later implemented in different industry segments. These include Honeywell’s IntuVue RDR-4000 and DR-7000 weather radars for commercial and military aircraft, next-generation flight management systems, HTF7000 engines, and JetWave and JetWave MCX onboard connectivity systems.
