Story ID: 511AstronauticsUpdate
Astronautics Progresses on Several Projects
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: An air-ground communication system for Airbus Helicopters is just one of the many projects the U.S. company is working on.
Word Count: 489
Astronautics Corp. of America is on hand this week at Farnborough 2018 to update some of the major projects it is working on. Last year at the Paris Air Show, the company announced it had been selected by Airbus Helicopters to develop an air-ground communications system (AGCS) and, according to president Chad Cundiff, it is on track to deliver it later this year, having moved beyond the critical design review and into the final development, verification, and certification phases.

The AGCS will serve as a solution for the airframer’s new-production rotorcraft and it has been integrated with cockpit displays for status and control. It provides cybersecurity protection of critical avionics from unauthorized access; wireless access to operational and maintenance data in flight and on the ground; enables transmission and reception of data through a variety of communication channels; and can store and retrieve hundreds of hours of operational data within the system, making it useful for trend reporting capability. The modular air-to-ground data transmission system consists of an airborne server, wireless communications module, remote media device, and ground server software.

In another project, Astronautics (Hall 2, Stand 2584) is proceeding into the final flight test stage on a localizer performance with vertical guidance (LPV) software upgrade for Austrian Air Force’s C-130 transports, which the company outfitted with EFI displays in 2011 as part of a contract with Marshall Aerospace. The modification program launched less than a year ago in partnership with Marshall.

“It just speaks to our ability to do updates, modifications, and enhancements on a relatively short time frame,” Cundiff told AIN. When completed it will enable the C-130s to land with the accuracy of a traditional ILS approach, while using satellite information instead of ground-based data, which is being phased out at many airports due to high maintenance and operating costs.

The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company has also completed a multifunction display system (MFDS) software upgrade for SENER and Babcock MCS as part of the Spanish Navy’s AB-212 helicopter life-extension program. This upgrade was launched less than eight months ago and was certified in May. Key updates include the addition of a radio-altimeter, low-altitude alerting, and video panning capability that can accommodate any video source.

The company delivered the first MFDS system to SENER in September 2014. “We like to take care of our equipment in the field, so we continue to provide enhancements,” said Cundiff.

Earlier this year, the company delivered a new portable maintenance access terminal (PMAT) for use on the A400M transport, to Airbus Defense and Space. The PMAT is an armored laptop computer that also provides data security for the four-engine turboprop as part of its network server system. It is designed to host four different Windows operating systems. “Our focus is really about delivering information in a format that can be used wherever it needs to be,” Cundiff noted.