Honeywell and Curtiss-Wright have jointly developed the Honeywell Connected Recorder-25 (HCR-25), a combined cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) now available for applicable Boeing and Airbus commercial and cargo aircraft.
The HCR-25 was type-certified for use on Boeing 737, 767 and 777 aircraft last year and is set to be type-certified for Airbus A320-series platforms in the first half of 2025. This innovative technology aligns with Honeywell’s commitment to automation and the future of aviation, supporting key megatrends within the industry.
“The Honeywell HCR-25 addresses the FAA’s mandate for cockpit voice and data recorders, helping to enhance flight safety,” said Steve Hadden, Vice President of Services and Connectivity, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies. “Our collaboration with Curtiss-Wright combines our strengths to provide superior audio clarity and data streaming, enabling next-generation access to aircraft performance data.”
The HCR-25 meets the requirements of the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act, which mandates that commercial passenger aircraft be equipped with a CVR capable of recording the last 25 hours of flight data. All newly manufactured aircraft must meet this 25-hour requirement, while existing aircraft must be compliant within six years.
“We are proud to work closely with Honeywell to introduce the 25-hour cockpit voice recorder capability to both new OEM installations and retrofit applications,” said Brian Perry, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions Division. “Together, we are leveraging our expertise in flight recorders to deliver advanced technologies that provide airlines with direct access to their own data.”
The 25-hour CVR significantly improves the ability to identify the root cause of incidents and accidents, enhancing passenger safety and improving training, policies and procedures. This joint development follows a letter from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which called for the installation of 25-hour CVRs in new aircraft and retrofitting existing planes. The NTSB highlighted 14 investigations since 2018 that were hampered by insufficient CVR data due to limited recording capacity.
The HCR-25, based on Curtiss-Wright’s lightweight Fortress® CVR technology, complies with the latest FAA regulations and international standards in Europe, Canada, Mexico and Singapore. It features four channels of wideband audio recording, providing superior clarity compared to current-generation recorders.
The HCR-25 FDR surpasses the requirements of each of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-defined flight recorder types. The HCR-25 FDR, when coupled with Honeywell’s Aspire SATCOM system, adds real-time data streaming to support the ICAO Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety (GADSS) initiative and timely recovery of data requirements. It can record and store more than 3,500 hours of data in crash-protected memory before needing to overwrite the oldest data collected. The HCR-25 also provides a 25-hour CPDLC datalink recorder (DLR) function.
