L-3 Aviation Products (Chalet 306) is exhibiting a variety of surveillance, navigation and safety products here at Le Bourget.
The company’s latest product is a new underwater locator beacon for L-3 cockpit voice and flight data recorders, extending the underwater beacon life to the new 90-day operational standard in Technical Standard Order C121b. While this is currently an FAA TSO standard, a European TSO is expected shortly. Beacons manufactured after Dec. 1, 2015, must meet TSO-C121b, and the FAA will not grant TSOs for beacons manufactured to the earlier TSO-C121 or C121a after that date. The earlier TSO specified a 30-day underwater beacon standard.
“We expect the entire industry to move towards a 90-day underwater locator beacon standard,” said Ralph DeMarco, vice president of marketing and sales for L-3 Aviation Products. Operators will be able to upgrade their TSO-C121 or C121a 30-day beacons to the new C121b standard, he said.
According to L-3, “Retrofit kits are available for the 90-day beacon that allow operators to remain in factory component maintenance manual compliance as they upgrade their recorder products in the field.” L-3 will support the 30-day beacons with battery exchange kits and it also is offering a beacon test kit that works for both the 30-day and 90-day beacons.
Meanwhile, over the next five years airlines and operators of business aircraft will need to upgrade transponders and GPS sensors to meet the 2020 ADS-B OUT mandate in the U.S. and Europe. Many other countries already have implemented ADS-B OUT at higher altitudes.
The standard for ADS-B has shifted to the more stringent RTCA DO-260B, and all of the transponders made by ACSS, the L-3 Aviation Products/Thales joint venture, meet DO-260B requirements. This includes the new Lynx MultiLink Surveillance System for general aviation aircraft made by L-3 Avionics. With the addition of the Lynx series, L-3 can now fill the needs for any size aircraft for ADS-B OUT, and it also offers ADS-B IN features as well, although those aren’t part of any mandate.
“We have the only certified avionics available today with both ADS-B OUT and in solutions for air transport,” said DeMarco. Benefits of ADS-B IN include providing pilots “with information to assist in things such as airport taxi, spacing cues for aircraft as they approach for landing, in-trail procedures over non-radar areas and overall providing greater situational awareness,” he added.
US Airways, which is now part of American Airlines, has equipped 20 Airbus A330s with ACSS’s SafeRoute ADS-B IN software and is participating in an FAA trial of ADS-B IN capabilities. These include SafeRoute’s CDTI assisted visual separation and merging and spacing functions during operations at Philadelphia Airport and also in-trail procedures over the North Atlantic, according to L-3.
Other FAA trials with ADS-B OUT and in have taken place with UPS, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue. “A benefit report for using [CDTI assisted visual separation] is expected to be completed later this month, and a merging and spacing benefit report is due in November,” DeMarco said.
ACSS transponders already have been installed in several hundred airliners in the U.S., but many more aircraft need equipage to meet the 2020 deadline. L-3 expects the rate of installations to accelerate as the deadline approaches and also in concert with scheduled maintenance visits.
L-3 Aviation is also highlighting recent developments in India, with the opening in March of the company’s new Bengalaru MRO facility. In addition, Hindustan Aeronautics selected L-3’s TACAN+ tactical airborne navigation system for its new Light Utility Helicopter, L-3 said. The TACAN+ is available for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, for both air-to-air and air-to-ground operations, and can track up to four ground stations simultaneously in range and two in bearing.