UTC offers flight-tracking solution with aircraft interface device

UTC Aerospace Systems says that it can cost effectively provide airlines with a continuous flight-tracking capability with its Aircraft Interface Device (AID), one of the products the component manufacturer featured at this year’s Paris Air Show. UTC is in final negotiations with an airline launch customer to provide the system as a retrofit, executives said.

The AID is an avionics box that accepts data from various aircraft systems, including from flight-data recorders, air data inertial reference system, flight management system, GPS and multimode receivers that operate on different Arinc data-bus protocols. The unit processes the information for display to pilots; the latest AID 2.0 version supports sending information to a Class 2 mounted electronic flight bag.

It can also communicate to the ground through satellite communications or the aircraft communications addressing and reporting system, or ACARS, providing a solution for continuous tracking as well as aircraft health reporting. UTC proprietary software supports aircraft position reporting at 15-minute or customized intervals, and more frequent reporting if it detects a distress condition.

Following the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in March 2014, the International Civil Aviation Organization recommends that aircraft report their position every 15 minutes in the near term; more comprehensive reporting is planned over the long term.

“It can be installed as a tracking solution, or you can install multiple devices and make it a full EFB solution,” said Joseph Kuruvilla, UTC Aerospace Systems sales manager for aftermarket systems in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. “It’s a good business case for an airline.”

The AID also supports another product UTC unveiled—a Taxi Strike Alert System that uses fuselage-mounted sensors to survey the area forward of an aircraft’s wingtips to prevent against collisions while aircraft are taxiing. The company is in “serious discussions” with an aircraft manufacturer and operators of widebody aircraft to supply the radar system, UTC executives said. Because it is advisory only, the system is relatively easy to certify and install, they added.