Put Honeywell on Your Radar

The idea is that by installing a storm-detecting radar system made by Honeywell, flights can literally avoid or bypass powerful storm clouds that can cause flight delays and costly cancellations. This new equipment can detect the menacing storm cell up to ten minutes before the plane would make contact.

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To buy this state-of-the-art equipment would cost an airline between $50,000 and $125,000 per plane. But when one considers that weather-related turbulence costs an average of $275,000 per incident, this technology could save an airline millions of dollars per year in maintenance costs alone.

The company claims this is the first aeronautical equipment that detects where hail, lightening and high winds are located in a weather system. Planes can maneuver around storm cell clouds thus avoiding the potential for damaging turbulence and the potential for flight delays and cancellations.

So far only Southwest Airlines (LUV) has purchased the new technology, equipping around 15 of its planes, according to the Bloomberg story.

The Director for Compliance and Flight Operations at Southwest was quoted as saying, "The system allows our pilots to fly more efficient, smoother, more accurate routes around weather cells which is essential to operating as safely as possible."

Sounds like all airlines need this HON technology.

To help us to see how safe it is to get on board Honeywell shares as an investment vehicle, let's look at a one-year chart that tracks the stock's price and cash from quarterly operations. HON data by YCharts

It's been a fairly robust year for both the stock price and HON's profitability. In the quarter ending Sept. 30, year-over-year quarterly earnings growth was a healthy 10.2%. The trailing 12-month gross profit came in at almost $8 billion on slightly higher quarterly revenue growth.

Based on a share price of $60, the dividend yield is currently 2.73%, which represents a payout ratio of 50% of earnings. That price-per-share reflects a forward (one-year) PE ratio of only 12.23, and a price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio of only 0.97. These ratios suggest the potential for share price growth.

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