Community Outreach

SINGAPORE, 17 Feb. 2012. BOC Aviation executives have selected Rockwell Collins avionics, including the company’s WXR-2100 MultiScan Threat Detection System and GLU-925 Multi-Mode Receiver (MMR), to serve as the baseline for up to 30 new Airbus A320 aircraft, deliveries of which begin this year. The chosen Rockwell Collins baseline avionics package also includes Automatic Direction Finder, Distance Measuring Equipment, High Speed Data Radio, a Very High Frequency Transceiver, and Omnidirectional Radio.

SINGAPORE, 14 Feb. 2012. Officials from Rockwell Collins and ICBC Leasing in China took part in a ceremony at the 2012 Singapore Airshow whereby ICBC will acquire and use as a baseline a suite of Rockwell Collins communication, navigation, and surveillance avionics for up to 42 new Airbus A320 aircraft, the deliveries of which will begin in the coming months.

CHANTILLY, Va., 10 Feb. 2012. TASC Inc. won a U.S. Air Force indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity Consultant, Advisory, and Technical Services (CATS) contract to support the Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) within the continental United States and U.S. territories. The CATS award has four one-year options and a maximum value of $985 million for all awardees; 13 companies are eligible to bid on individual task orders to deliver management and professional support, engineering and technical services, and studies, analyses, and evaluations. 

WASHINGTON, 7 Feb. 2012. The heads of several associations in the avionics community are coming forward to commend the U.S. Congress for approving the FAA Modernization and Reform Act 2012. The bill awaits President Obama’s signature. The legislation would provide funding through 2015—a stark departure from the past several years, in which the House and Senate approved only short-term extensions (23 of them, in fact) to the 2004 funding levels.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., 16 Jan. 2011. Officials of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington will establish an Air Transportation Center of Excellence (COE) for General Aviation this year to advance general aviation technology, and are asking colleges and universities to submit proposals to become members no later than 5 March. Eligible for membership in the FAA Air Transportation Center of Excellence for General Aviation are accredited institutions of higher education.

AUBURN, Calif., 12 Dec. 2011. TGH Aviation officials announced that they, grateful for another successful year in the aircraft instrument repair industry, are paying that success forward as a sponsor and contributor to the local Toys for Tots campaign. TGH strongly advocates and supports local community and economic efforts, donating time and funding to the Auburn Chamber of Commerce, the Auburn Airport Business Park Association, The Navy League, and local causes.

STRATFORD, Conn., 12 Dec. 2011. Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX), and By Kids For Kids Co., an organization that inspires kids to be inventors, awarded a California teenager the Igor Sikorsky Youth Innovator Award for envisioning a small unmanned helicopter that could carry critical relief supplies and electrical power to the scene of a natural disaster or other catastrophic event.

MANAMA, Bahrain, 16 Oct. 2011. Gulf Air in Bahrain is offering broadband connectivity at altitudes of 37,000 feet via Sky Hub in-flight technology. Sky Hub is a joint venture of Gulf Air, Panasonic, Deutsche Telekom, and Aeromobile designed to provide air travelers with access to e-mail, text messaging, phone calls, the Web, and live TV, as well as Gulf Air's regular in-flight entertainment offering. One aircraft is equipped with functioning Sky Hub service, to date; Gulf Air officials anticipate fitting a new plane with the equipment every two weeks until the entire fleet is outfitted, over roughly five months. The project reportedly cost several million dollars.

MANAMA, Bahrain, 13 Oct. 2011. Gulf Air, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national carrier, took delivery of an A330-200 aircraft retrofitted with Panasonic Avionics Corp.'s Sky Hub Global Communications Suite. The Sky Hub communications and entertainment system provides onboard passengers with broadband connectivity to access Internet, mobile phone services, and global, live television service.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., 5 Oct. 2011. Goodrich Corporation (NYSE: GR) will provide high density video reproducer units (VRU) to upgrade the entertainment system on the Airbus A330 fleet of Gulf Air, Bahrain's national carrier. Installation will begin in late 2011 and continue through 2012. The Goodrich VRUs are direct plug-and-play replacement units for the airline's current Hi-8 film-driven video reproducers. These new, high-density file servers provide up to 40 hours of video and entertainment content, including "early window" movies that are not yet available for general distribution.

EVERETT, Wash., 3 Sept. 2011. Boeing (NYSE:BA) is scheduled to deliver its 747-8 Freighter to carrier customer Cargolux on Sept. 19 at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. Cargolux personnel will then fly the airplane away and put it into service. Boeing will host a celebration of this first delivery the following day at the Everett factory; Cargolux officials, Boeing employees, and other stakeholders will be in attendance. Boeing officials anticipate delivering a second 747-8 Freighter on Sept. 21 to Cargolux, which has ordered 13 of the aircraft.

FREMONT, Calif., 16 Aug. 2011. SGI (NASDAQ:SGI) has acquired OpenCFD Ltd., a provider of open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. OpenCFD’s OpenFOAM software solves anything from complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions, turbulence, and heat transfer to solid dynamics and electromagnetics. CFD tools are commonly employed in the design, development, and testing of unmanned aerial and undersea vehicles, including the flow of air and water around the unmanned designs.

NASHUA. N.H., 15 July 2011.The Editors of Vision Systems Design (VSD) are offering a new report on robotic vision technology called “Vision For Service Robots.” The report is available at  http://www.vision-systems.com/research-reports.html#order. VSD is a sister media source of Avionics Intelligence.

TOKYO, 15 July 2011. Officials at All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) finished the 787 Dreamliner's service ready operational validation in Japan. During the validation, ANA pilots and Boeing personnel flew the Dreamliner on routes from Seattle to Tokyo and Tokyo to four airports across Japan, including Osaka (Itami and Kansai), Okayama and Hiroshima.

TOKYO, 5 July 2011. Officials at All Nippon Airlines (ANA) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) started the service readiness validation process for the 787 Dreamliner to enter into service as part of ANA's fleet. ANA pilots and Boeing personnel will fly a 787 on actual Japanese airline using airline dispatch and flight rules.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., 9 June 2011. Officials at Finnair are using Jeppsen risk management tools within their Crew Management suite to develop crew schedules. Using the Boeing Alertness Model (BAM), a crew and pilot fatigue tool created by Jeppesen and Boeing, is part of the Crew Management product and enables commercial carriers to manage fatigue in the crew's roster construction and optimization phase.

SEATTLE, 16 April 2011. A new Rockwell Collins maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility opened in Seattle. The new service center will expand the company's asset management and testing for Boeing and its 787 Dreamliner operators.

LAKE FOREST, Calif., 19 Feb. 14, 2011. Panasonic Avionics Corp. announced the first test flight of its eXTV in-flight entertainment service (IFE). During the flight the company used eXTV to deliver a live television feed to a Boeing business jet equipped with Panasonic's eXConnect service.

SHANGHAI, China, 19 Jan. 2011. Rockwell Collins expanded its offerings in China with the opening of a new China System Support Center (CSSC) in Shanghai. The CSSC is housed within Rockwell Collins' Shanghai office -- the third facility opened in Shanghai by Rockwell Collins and the company's fifth in China.