Honeywell and NXP have joined forces to accelerate the development and adoption of enhanced software, large-area cockpit displays, and an autonomous aviation platform. Building on their ongoing collaboration, the partners aim to advance aerospace technology by combining Honeywell’s deep aviation expertise with NXP’s high-performance computing architecture and Akoma-like AI capabilities. The announcement signals a clear commitment to pushing toward autonomous flight, smoother transitions to newer chipsets, and the deployment of advanced cockpit ecosystems that improve efficiency, safety, and value for pilots and operators alike. The collaboration also aligns with Vertical Aerospace’s eVTOL ambitions, as the companies expand their work beyond traditional aviation into new, high-growth mobility segments.
Expanded partnership: strategic intent and market impact
The expanded partnership is designed to accelerate the entire lifecycle of aviation technology—from software ecosystems and cockpit displays to autonomous flight capabilities. By leveraging Honeywell Anthem as the avionics backbone and pairing it with NXP’s scalable computing platforms, the collaboration seeks to unlock AI-driven insights that support more efficient flight planning, smarter in-flight decision-making, and streamlined operational workflows on the ground. The alliance emphasizes a practical, mission-driven approach: enabling faster adoption of cutting-edge chipsets and technologies, while maintaining rigorous standards for reliability, security, and safety in complex aviation environments.
A central objective of the collaboration is to deliver large-area cockpit displays that combine thinner form factors with high-resolution visuals. This focus on display technology is intended to enhance pilot situational awareness, reduce cognitive load, and improve overall cockpit efficiency. In parallel, the effort aims to simplify and accelerate migrations to new avionics technologies, ensuring that key airframe platforms can leverage evolving compute and sensor capabilities without disrupting safety-critical operations or extending the technology refresh cycle. The result is expected to be a more resilient value proposition for aircraft manufacturers, operators, and maintenance organizations, with extended lifecycles for core aviation technologies and a smoother path to autonomy.
This strategic collaboration also builds on the existing momentum between the two companies in other sectors, including building automation. The joint work in aviation is presented as a natural extension of their shared systems-integration capabilities, cybersecurity foundations, and scalable architectures. By applying a systems-level, architecture-driven approach, Honeywell and NXP anticipate reducing risk, lowering total ownership costs, and delivering measurable improvements in performance and security across a broad spectrum of aviation platforms. The partnership is framed as a long-term program that can adapt to evolving airspace needs, regulatory developments, and the emergence of new mobility concepts in the aviation ecosystem.
In conversations about the broader market trajectory, executives described autonomy as a multi-layered objective that requires robust compute, secure connectivity, and safety-critical software. The collaboration is positioned as a catalyst for turning ambitious autonomy goals into practical, deployable solutions that can be integrated with existing flight operations and air traffic management workflows. The approach emphasizes incremental steps toward autonomy, with a clear emphasis on preserving human oversight where appropriate while gradually expanding machine-driven decision support, planning, and control capabilities in a controlled, certifiable manner.
The engagement also highlights the importance of lifecycle management and platform resilience. By focusing on the accelerators for software and hardware integration, the partnership seeks to shorten development cycles, shorten time-to-market for new avionics features, and provide operators with access to a continuously improving ecosystem. This includes streamlined transitions to newer processor families, enhanced cyber-protection, and the ability to deploy AI-driven analytics and operational insights across a wide range of aircraft platforms. The overarching narrative is one of sustained collaboration that aligns technology upgrades with real-world aviation needs, regulatory requirements, and the practical realities of flight operations.
Technical architecture: Anthem cockpit, i.MX 8, and security foundations
A cornerstone of the collaboration is the advanced architecture that underpins the Anthem cockpit system and its integration with NXP’s processors. Anthem is designed as a cloud-connected, open, scalable cockpit platform that supports a wide distribution of data, software updates, and connected services. The partnership envisions embedding NXP’s high-performance computing primitives, including i.MX 8 applications processors and related system-on-chip technologies, into Honeywell’s avionics stack to unlock substantial gains in data processing throughput and AI-enabled situational awareness.
The i.MX 8 family is celebrated for its balance of power efficiency, compute capability, and deterministic performance. In aviation applications, these processors can handle complex software workloads, real-time data fusion from multiple sensors, and on-board AI inference tasks. The collaboration contemplates leveraging i.MX 8-based configurations to support advanced cockpit displays, augmented reality-style visualization, and robust pilot-aid systems that can operate with high fidelity even under challenging flight conditions. The processors would be integrated into Honeywell Anthem in a way that preserves safety-critical behavior, with explicit attention to real-time performance, watchful monitoring, and fault containment.
A key aspect of the technical vision is cybersecurity and functional safety. NXP’s domain-based architectures are built with integrated security features designed to protect against cyber threats and to uphold stringent safety requirements. This security posture is essential in aviation, where software updates, remote maintenance, and cloud connectivity introduce new risk surfaces. The alliance emphasizes cybersecurity as a foundational element, ensuring that data integrity, access controls, encryption, and secure boot processes are robustly implemented across the cockpit and related systems. Functional safety considerations are central to the design, ensuring that failures in software or hardware do not compromise flight safety or lead to uncontrolled behavior. The collaboration contemplates leveraging automotive-grade safety concepts and adapting them to the aviation environment in a way that adheres to civil aviation standards and certification processes.
The architectural approach also envisions a layered defense model, where security is integrated into every stage of the software lifecycle—from development and testing to deployment and maintenance. This includes secure over-the-air updates, verifiable software images, and continuous monitoring for anomalies. The convergence of Honeywell’s aerospace domain knowledge with NXP’s computing and security expertise is expected to yield a robust platform capable of supporting the high-reliability requirements of modern avionics while enabling ongoing enhancements through modular, certifiable updates.
Beyond compute and security, the architecture contemplates seamless integration with a spectrum of avionics subsystems, sensors, and connectivity layers. By enabling tighter coupling between flight management, navigation systems, autopilot logic, and mission planning software, the partnership aims to unlock richer, AI-informed guidance for pilots and operators. The approach also includes improving data pathways for real-time analytics, predictive maintenance insights, and flight performance optimization—while maintaining strict data governance and safety constraints essential to aviation operations.
The collaboration also envisions a path to easier and more cost-effective migrations to newer avionics technologies. This includes strategies for incremental hardware refreshes, software modularization, and standardized interfaces that facilitate integration with future chipsets and sensor suites. The goal is to minimize disruption to existing fleets while enabling aircraft manufacturers and operators to reap the benefits of advances in compute, AI, and connectivity as they become available.
Large-area cockpit displays: clarity, efficiency, and human-machine interaction
A major thrust of the partnership is the development of large-area cockpit displays designed to maximize visual clarity, reduce pilot workload, and improve overall situational awareness. The concept centers on thinner, high-resolution screens that deliver crisp, legible information across varied lighting and operational conditions. The aim is to provide pilots with a more intuitive, information-rich interface that facilitates faster recognition of critical cues, supports more precise decision-making, and reduces cognitive strain during complex flight phases.
The display strategy emphasizes not just resolution and form factor, but also the human-machine interaction model. The teams expect to advance interface conventions that streamline how pilots access flight management data, navigation details, weather information, and system health indicators. Improved readability and layout optimization are expected to translate into safer, more efficient in-flight operations, particularly in high-workload scenarios such as takeoff, landing, and contingency management. In addition, the collaboration contemplates multimodal visualization techniques, enabling pilots to perceive data through structured, context-aware presentation that aligns with flight phase and operational context.
From a systems engineering perspective, the large-area displays are envisioned to integrate tightly with the autonomy platform. Real-time data fusion from sensors, environmental inputs, and predictive analytics would feed into cockpit visualizations, offering pilots augmented guidance and diagnostic insight. This synergy supports a stepwise move toward greater automation, while preserving human oversight and supervisory control where required by regulatory frameworks. The approach is designed to be adaptable across multiple aircraft families and aircraft configurations, ensuring that the benefits of larger, clearer displays can be realized across a broad spectrum of platforms.
The display technology strategy also considers environmental and regulatory implications. Displays must perform consistently in diverse operating environments, including high-dynamic range lighting, vibration, temperature fluctuations, and EMI considerations common to aerospace applications. The collaboration envisions rigorous testing regimes, calibration protocols, and certification pathways that align with aviation safety standards. In addition, the teams expect to implement robust lifecycle management for these displays, including update paths, durability, and compatibility with evolving avionics software ecosystems. The ultimate objective is to create cockpit displays that deliver high information density without overwhelming pilots, enabling safer operations and more effective crew coordination.
In parallel, the work aims to simplify and standardize the migration process to newer avionic technologies. This includes defining modular display architectures, common software interfaces, and scalable hardware configurations that can accommodate future sensor suites and AI-enabled features. By reducing the complexity and cost of upgrades, the partnership seeks to accelerate the adoption of next-generation cockpit capabilities across existing fleets and new aircraft programs alike. The long-term expectation is a more resilient, upgrade-friendly cockpit platform that sustains value for operators and manufacturers over extended lifecycles.
Autonomy platform and AI-driven flight insights
A central pillar of the collaboration is the development of an autonomy platform that harnesses AI and machine learning to deliver real-time insights, enhanced decision support, and smarter flight operations. The goal is to combine Honeywell’s aerospace knowledge with NXP’s computing power to enable AI-driven capabilities that improve planning, optimize routes and performance, and help pilots manage complexity more effectively. Real-time, on-board AI inference and data analytics are envisioned to provide actionable guidance during critical flight phases, supporting both safety and efficiency.
The autonomy initiative is framed as a practical, incremental pathway toward higher levels of automation. It begins with intelligent data processing and decision-support tools that augment human pilots rather than replacing them. Over time, the platform would enable progressively more automated decision-making and control functions, all within a rigorous safety framework and with appropriate oversight. The architecture anticipates robust AI model governance, continuous learning pipelines, and secure retrieval and deployment of AI models to ensure that intelligence available in the cockpit remains current, trustworthy, and certifiable for aviation use.
A feature of the AI strategy is real-time AI-driven insights that operate across air and ground operations. On the airside, the system could deliver predictive maintenance signals, performance optimization suggestions, and anomaly detection across propulsion, navigation, and avionics subsystems. On the ground, data-driven insights could support maintenance planning, fuel efficiency initiatives, and ground-handling efficiency, creating cross-domain value that extends beyond flight to entire lifecycle management. The platform design emphasizes explainability and traceability of AI-driven recommendations, ensuring pilots and operators can understand, validate, and challenge automated guidance when necessary.
In addition to real-time intelligence, the autonomy platform is expected to support data fusion and situational awareness across diverse data streams. Sensor data from multiple sources—including environmental sensors, weather models, navigation updates, and aircraft health information—would be harmonized to present a coherent picture to pilots and operators. The approach aims to reduce information fragmentation and ensure that critical data is surfaced in a timely, contextually relevant manner. This capability is anticipated to contribute to safer departures, more precise flight paths, and more reliable contingency planning in unpredictable conditions.
The collaboration also addresses the cybersecurity implications of an autonomous aviation stack. As autonomy expands, the need for robust protection of data, secure model management, and tamper-resistant decision processes grows correspondingly. The joint program envisions a layered security framework that spans data at rest and in transit, secure firmware updates, protected model execution environments, and continuous assurance mechanisms to maintain the integrity of autonomous functions throughout the aircraft’s operational lifecycle. This security-first approach is designed to sustain confidence from operators, regulators, and the broader aviation ecosystem as autonomy capabilities mature.
Chipset migration, lifecycles, and ecosystem resilience
A strategic outcome of the collaboration is a streamlined approach to migrating to newer chipsets and avionics technologies. By coordinating hardware refresh cycles with software evolution, Honeywell and NXP aim to minimize disruption to flight operations and certification processes. The emphasis on migration flexibility includes standardized interfaces, modular software components, and a scalable hardware platform that can accommodate future advances in compute, AI, and sensor technology without necessitating wholesale redesigns of airframes or propulsion systems.
Lifecycle resilience is a core consideration, with a focus on maintaining compatibility across generations of hardware and software. Operators benefit from longer-term support for avionics platforms and predictable upgrade paths that align with maintenance planning and regulatory compliance. The partnership envisions a certification-friendly approach to updates, with rigorous release management, traceability, and validation procedures that support continued airworthiness while enabling ongoing innovation. The ability to deploy AI and ML capabilities in a controlled manner across different aircraft types is positioned as a key differentiator, reducing the time and cost for operators to adopt next-generation features.
The collaborative effort also targets ecosystem expansion, inviting participation from a broader set of aviation suppliers, integrators, and systems developers. By fostering an open, interoperable framework, the alliance seeks to create a robust ecosystem capable of delivering end-to-end solutions that meet diverse airline needs and regulatory requirements. The open-system philosophy is intended to accelerate the pace of innovation while preserving the safety-critical guarantees that define modern aviation technology.
In addition to aircraft-specific benefits, the partnership contemplates cross-domain learnings and technology transfer opportunities. As NXP’s processors and Honeywell’s avionics capabilities extend into other environments—such as building automation and industrial automation—the collaboration explores opportunities to share best practices, security paradigms, and software engineering methodologies. This cross-pollination is expected to strengthen the overall resilience of the technology stack while reinforcing the leadership positions of both companies in high-assurance computing and mission-critical applications.
Vertical Aerospace and eVTOL applications: a testbed for advanced aviation tech
Vertical Aerospace stands out as one of the early adopters of the expanded partnership, leveraging the latest capabilities in Honeywell Anthem and NXP’s processing ecosystems to advance its piloted VX4 prototype for eVTOL operations. The VX4 serves as a practical testbed for demonstrating how advanced avionics—powered by Anthem and NXP’s compute platforms—can reduce pilot workload, enhance situational awareness, and enable safer, more efficient flight operations in urban mobility contexts. The collaboration envisions applying the same architectural principles to autono mous flight concepts, with the VX4 program acting as a proving ground for autonomous capabilities in a controlled, real-world environment.
Stuart Simpson, the CEO of Vertical Aerospace, underscored the potential benefits of integrating Honeywell Anthem with NXP’s computing prowess. He highlighted that electric air mobility represents a bold vision for the future, and that Anthem has already demonstrated substantial capabilities as a platform. The partnership is expected to explore how Anthem’s features can be augmented by NXP’s advanced computing to further reduce pilot workload and increase situational awareness. The shared aim is to deliver travel improvements that are quicker, cleaner, and safer, reinforcing the broader objective of transforming how people move through the airspace and expanding mobility options in urban and regional markets.
The VX4 program, with its piloted configuration, provides a critical stepping stone toward wider adoption of autonomous flight technologies in the eVTOL sector. It offers a controlled context in which to evaluate how AI-driven cockpit systems, large-area displays, and autonomous flight capabilities can operate together in a real operating environment. By testing in a practical setting, the collaboration can identify gaps, refine interfaces, and validate performance under real-world conditions. The learnings from Vertical Aerospace’s program are expected to translate into scalable, aircraft-agnostic solutions that can be adapted to various eVTOL designs and conventional aircraft platforms.
Beyond Vertical Aerospace, the alliance envisions broader implications for the eVTOL market and urban air mobility at large. The combination of Anthem’s cockpit capabilities, NXP’s computing architectures, and the shared expertise between Honeywell and NXP positions the partnership to influence how autonomous flight is integrated into urban mobility strategies, regulatory approvals, and safety frameworks. The potential impact includes improved reliability, better mission planning tools, and enhanced remote monitoring and maintenance capabilities that support scalable, safe operation of novel air mobility services.
AI, machine learning, and building on a connected aviation ecosystem
The collaboration places a strong emphasis on incorporating AI and machine learning into aviation control systems, flight operations, and cockpit data visualization. Real-time AI-driven insights are envisioned to support pilots and operators with timely guidance on route optimization, fuel efficiency, weather adaptation, and system health monitoring. The goal is to enable intelligent decision support that complements human judgment, reduces cognitive burden, and enhances safety margins across a range of flight scenarios.
A key consideration in deploying AI within aviation is the need for robust governance, explainability, and safety validation. The alliance contemplates establishing rigorous processes for model development, testing, validation, certification, and ongoing monitoring. This includes establishing clear lines of accountability for AI-driven decisions and ensuring that AI behavior remains predictable and auditable. The integration of AI into cockpit displays and autopilot-related functions will be pursued in a way that maintains strict compliance with aviation safety standards and certification requirements.
The broader AI strategy also encompasses on-ground and off-board data analytics. By combining on-board AI inference with cloud-connected capabilities, operators could access predictive analytics for maintenance scheduling, operational optimization, and performance benchmarking. The data ecosystem is envisioned to be secure, privacy-preserving, and compliant with industry regulations, enabling operators to unlock value from large-scale data without compromising safety or data integrity. The collaboration thus aims to create an end-to-end AI-enabled aviation framework that spans flight operations, ground handling, maintenance, and fleet optimization.
In addition to technical AI capabilities, the partnership emphasizes the importance of secure data governance and cross-domain interoperability. Data streams from flight decks, ground stations, maintenance facilities, and other partners must be managed under a coherent set of policies and standards. The architecture envisions standardized data models, secure data exchange protocols, and auditable data lineage to support regulatory compliance and operational accountability. By fostering a trustworthy data environment, the collaboration seeks to accelerate innovation while ensuring that data quality and security underpin all AI-driven initiatives.
Industry context, safety, and the path to autonomous aviation
This collaboration emerges within a broader industry trend toward increased automation and smarter aviation systems. The pursuit of autonomy in aviation is characterized by a careful balance between exploiting advanced computing capabilities and maintaining essential safeguards that protect pilots, passengers, and airspace users. The Honeywell–NXP partnership positions itself as a pathway to responsible autonomy—prioritizing safety, reliability, and certifiability while enabling progressive improvements in cockpit awareness, flight management, and control systems.
Industry experts emphasize that achieving autonomous aviation requires converging technologies across compute, software, sensors, connectivity, cybersecurity, and regulatory alignment. The joint program aligns with this perspective by integrating high-performance processing, secure software architectures, and AI-enabled decision support into a cohesive cockpit and flight-management ecosystem. The collaboration’s emphasis on lifecycle management, upgrade pathways, and migration strategies reflects an understanding that autonomy is not a single leap but a sequence of well-structured steps that build on proven foundations.
The ecosystem implications of the partnership extend beyond the two primary companies. By advocating standardized interfaces, modular software components, and scalable hardware architectures, the collaboration invites other players—airframe manufacturers, avionics integrators, sensor suppliers, and regulatory bodies—to participate in a shared vision for autonomously capable, safe, and certifiable aviation technology. The goal is to cultivate an open, collaborative environment in which innovations in AI, cybersecurity, display technology, and autonomy can be pursued in a way that accelerates progress while preserving the high safety standards that define modern aviation.
Regulatory and certification considerations will continue to shape the pace and scope of autonomy deployment. Workstreams touching on software certification, airworthiness, cybersecurity compliance, and safety case development will be central to ensuring that advances can be certified for flight operations. The partnership acknowledges that regulatory readiness is as critical as technical readiness, and it seeks to align product development timelines with the regulatory trajectories that govern commercial and future urban air mobility operations. This careful alignment aims to reduce risk and provide a clear roadmap for operators seeking to adopt next-generation avionics and autonomous capabilities.
About the companies’ broader mission and capabilities
Honeywell’s aviation portfolio encompasses a broad spectrum of technologies designed to improve safety, efficiency, and performance across aerospace programs. The company emphasizes automation, the future of aviation, and energy transition as guiding megatrends that shape its strategy. Honeywell’s approach centers on an integrated operating system and IoT-enabled platforms that enable customers to solve complex challenges with tangible, measurable outcomes. In this collaboration, Honeywell contributes its extensive domain knowledge in aircraft avionics, flight control systems, and safety-critical software, along with its experience in aerospace-grade hardware integration and system certification processes.
NXP Semiconductors brings a wealth of expertise in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications and a broad portfolio of computing and system-level technologies. The company highlights its leadership in automotive, industrial and IoT, mobile, and communication infrastructure markets, emphasizing a systems solutions approach that integrates high-performance computing with strong cybersecurity and safety features. NXP’s processor families, cybersecurity capabilities, and safety-oriented design principles are positioned as key enablers for aviation applications seeking to achieve higher levels of autonomy and smarter cockpit experiences.
Vertical Aerospace’s involvement underscores the real-world potential of the collaboration in the emerging field of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. As a pioneer in urban mobility, Vertical Aerospace is testing and refining piloted configurations like the VX4, with a clear path toward safer, more efficient, and scalable air transportation solutions. The VX4 program provides a valuable testbed for validating the integration of advanced avionics, large-area displays, and AI-driven autonomy in a forward-looking mobility context.
Conclusion
The expanded Honeywell–NXP partnership represents a strategic convergence of aerospace expertise, high-performance computing, and advanced cockpit technologies aimed at accelerating the path to smarter, safer, and more autonomous aviation. By combining Anthem’s cockpit framework with NXP’s computing architecture, the collaboration seeks to deliver enhanced large-area displays, faster transitions to newer avionics technologies, and AI-driven insights that support flight planning and real-time decision-making. The involvement of Vertical Aerospace as an early adopter in the eVTOL space demonstrates the tangible, multi-domain potential of these efforts, from piloted configurations to progressively autonomous operations, across traditional aircraft and urban mobility platforms.
Together, Honeywell and NXP are positioning themselves to shape the next generation of aviation technology through an integrated, lifecycle-focused approach. The collaboration emphasizes secure, scalable architectures, robust safety and cybersecurity foundations, and a pragmatic roadmap for technology migration that aligns with regulatory requirements and industry needs. As the aviation ecosystem evolves toward greater autonomy and smarter cockpit experiences, this partnership highlights a practical, outcomes-focused pathway that could redefine how flight is planned, managed, and executed—ultimately delivering safer, more efficient, and more sustainable air travel for operators, pilots, and passengers alike.