Listed on the US stock exchange, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and with the centre of gravity for its aerospace business in Phoenix, Arizona, Honeywell is as American as apple pie.

But for all its stars-and-stripes heritage, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies has a sizeable and growing presence in Europe, anchored by its research and development hub in Brno, Czech Republic.

It is, in fact, sufficiently European to be eligible for multiple sources of EU financial support, including from Clean Aviation and the European Defence Fund (EDF).

Two hours from the capital Prague, Brno is a jumble of pastel-hued, chocolate-box buildings, towered over by a hilltop castle; to the outside observer, at least, it seems an unlikely location for a high-tech business.

But Czechia’s second city sits within the South Moravia’s equivalent of Silicon Valley and bristles with technology firms, both home-grown and the outposts of global giants; 13 nearby universities add to the appeal for employers.

Honeywell first arrived in the Czech Republic in 1993, opening a laboratory in Prague, before shifting the bulk of its operation to Brno a decade later. Initially a design centre, the business there has grown progressively since, now one of the company’s top five facilities globally and boasting a staff of around 1,000.

Located on the outskirts of the city, the R&D hub is nestled in a flat-pack business park, a mixture of identikit low-rise warehouses and buildings like Honeywell’s – glass and steel with an ornamental pond out front (handily marked as ‘lake’ on all the evacuation plans).

Presiding over the operation is Michal Zavisek, who joined the business in Brno in 2006 as “part of the first big wave of recruitment”, and has risen through the ranks to the position of vice-president and general manager for Honeywell Technology Solutions Europe Middle East and Africa.

Zavisek is clear on the country’s attraction for the business: “The main reason for Honeywell being in Czechia and Brno was the aerospace and industrial heritage of [South Moravia],” he explains.

“Even before World War 1, this region was an industrial and innovation hub of the [Austro-Hungarian] Empire. Then in the early portion of the 20^th century, in Czechoslovakia there were multiple companies raising an aerospace industry with their own design and manufacturing capability.

“Prague is very business-focussed but if you are looking for true innovation and innovation support you come to the South Moravian region.”

Honeywell, of course, operates across multiple industries (and indeed is spinning out the divisions as separate businesses next year) but the Czech site is dominated by aerospace and defence: around 95% of its activities are focused on the sector.

Cognisant of rising defence spending in Europe on the back of the war in Ukraine – and the need for solutions that do not rely on US content – Honeywell is keen to use Brno and other sites elsewhere in the region to tap into that market.

It recently opened a showroom in the building to showcase its offerings in the segment – a room full of small drones, sensors, and other hardware, dominated by a large screen on one wall onto which images of the Lockheed Martin F-35 are projected.

Lockheed’s fifth-generation fighter is relevant on two counts: first off, Honeywell supplies, among other components, the jet’s power and thermal management system (PTMS) – critical to manage the growth in onboard processing power – and second, the Czech Republic is a customer for the Lightning II, having committed to fielding 24 examples.

Honeywell already makes parts for the PTMS in Olomouc, 40 miles (64km) to the northeast, one of its largest factories in Europe. But that will increase as part of the offset related to the Czech F-35 buy, says Mike Vallillo, Honeywell’s vice-president of sales, defence and space international.

“We have increased the scope of what we do,” he says. “As a result, we are doing more work here.”

More widely in Europe, Honeywell has been building up its military MRO capabilities: establishing with local partners facilities for the repair and overhaul of the F124 engine that powers the Leonardo M-346 and Aero Vodochody L-159, and the wheel, brakes and PTMS on the F-35.

But there has also been a push to develop local content and expertise – “Europe for Europe”, as Vallillo puts it — and a focus on delivering solutions or systems that are free of any US export restrictions (while ITAR is the most widely known, Washington has a whole spectrum of other regulations covering exports).

For instance, this has seen the localisation in Europe of production of certain navigation sensors – a process that has accelerated since the 2024 acquisition of Italian firm Civitanavi and its range of inertial navigation systems (INS), enabling the products to be entirely ITAR-free.

The acquisition has also bolstered Honeywell’s capabilities in developing navigation n systems for GNSS-denied environments, combining inputs from multiple different sensors – imagining, radar, Civitanavi’s INS – to accurately determine an aircraft’s position.

The strategy for the defence business has another facet too: increasing Honeywell’s presence on non-US platforms, says Vallillo. While these hoke-grown aircraft are initially targeted at domestic European customers, there is a long-term ambition to export them too – a process that will be significantly easier if the parts it supplies are free of any restrictions.

Czechia’s position in central Europe is another attraction for Honeywell as it is ideally located for customers from across the continent, while its membership of NATO and the EU are further bonuses.

In the latter case, that has meant access to new sources of development money: Honeywell in 2024 won its first funding from the EDF for projects related to cyber defence and next-generation avionics.

While the firm is not leading either initiative, work on which began in January, its participation in those consortia still seems significant.

Zavisek says certain changes to internal processes were required “to prove that whatever we do within these projects remains under European control” but points out that “we really bring a lot to the table” in terms of knowledge and experience.

“There is not enough talent and capability in the defence and technology industry in Europe so we can fill in the gaps,” he says.

It would be a mischaracterisation, however, to suggest that Honeywell’s site in Brno is solely working on defence technology; just like the wider company, its activities also encompass the commercial aviation space.

For instance, a significant part of its business is related to the development of avionics for business and general aviation – its traditional Primus Apex and Epic flightdecks and the next-generation Anthem cockpit.

Each iteration of those flightdecks – and their manufacturer-specific variants like the Dassault Aviation EASy family – is tested on a dedicated bench in Brno’s cockpit integration lab. A separate advanced air mobility (AAM) lab supports Honeywell’s ambitions in that segment.

But there are other areas of focus at the site too: for example, Brno holds the design authority for Honeywell’s range of flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders.

Here, the company is pushing a new generation of connected recorders and associated digital services.

Already certificated on a variety of Boeing types, including the 737 Max, these are able, via a SatCom link, to stream data directly to the ground in real time, for example in an emergency, potentially speeding an accident investigation.

And just as the defence business has been able to take advantage of European funding, the same is true on the civil side of the house where money has been received from both the SESAR and Clean Aviation bodies.

In the case of the former, Honeywell is leading two projects, DARWIN and OperA, respectively looking at AI automation for single-pilot operations and solutions for the safe accommodation in existing airspace of advanced air mobility vehicles. Honeywell has received around €5.7 million ($6.6 million) of the combined €11 million EU contribution to the two projects.

Meanwhile, under Clean Aviation, the company is coordinating a pair of projects – NEWBORN and TheMa4HERA – developing a high-power aviation-specific fuel cell powertrain and a thermal management system, respectively. In total, Honeywell has received nearly €13 million of the €58 million EU’s contribution to the two projects.

But more significantly, perhaps, Honeywell is also part of Clean Aviation’s governing board and technical committee, helping to shape its next call for proposals in 2026 (potentially clearing a path for flight testing the NEWBORN powertrain).

While at first glance it might seem a little odd for the EU to be shovelling piles of cash towards a US company, Zavisek makes the point that all the investment and the resulting IP remain in Europe.

And although there is no guarantee that the fuel cell powertrain for a US-built airliner would be produced on this side of the Atlantic, the financial and practical considerations of transferring it elsewhere would be significant, he notes.

Besides, says Vallillo, the business has put down deep roots: “Honeywell at a larger scale is a US-owned company but it’s one with significant European heritage. We have been here for decades in some cases.”