Story ID: 
IS&S FMS slated for Eclipse
By: Evan Sweetman
Caption: Flight management systems are coming for the Eclipse 500 very light jet and other aircraft, thanks to a new program from Innovative Solutions & Support
Word Count: 368
Flight management systems are coming for the Eclipse 500 very light jet and other aircraft, thanks to a new program from Innovative Solutions & Support (IS& S). IS&S (Booth No. 4443) and Eclipse Aerospace (Booth No. 6667) have announced that the avionics manufacturer will provide Eclipse 500 operators with the new AvioNG FMS system. But operators of other airframes may also soon enjoy the benefits of an FMS, if what IS&S CEO Geoffrey Hedrick told AIN holds true. “We are in talks with other OEMs,” Hedrick said. “We can’t say anything, of course, but it’s not out of the question we could be doing this for other aircraft.” Based on IS&S’s work developing FMS systems for military and commercial systems, the AvioNG FMS is designed to allow the Eclipse do what it was always meant to: fly with the big jets but still get into the small airports. “The Eclipse was always meant to have great access to small airports, yet still have the high cruising altitudes of a jet,” Hedrick said. “The old system wasn’t cleared for that, so finally customers will be able to use their aircraft the way they always wanted.” Among the improvements the new FMS offers are Gamma 3 Waas LPV approaches, airway route navigation, both auto and manual RNP and user-identified waypoints. The system allows for storage of up to 99 different flight plans. Parallel offsets also let the pilot make adjustments to their plans for weather or traffic on the go. IS& S is constantly looking at ways to improve and evolve the system, as company reps were talking about installing an update that had just been completed between the time the panel on display at Eclipse’s booth shipped to when the show opened. The company has also been tossing around the idea of adding an autothrottle, according to Hedrick. “We could add some touchscreen capabilities in the future, that is something our company does on other products,” he said. “We just don’t have any plans to at the moment. That being said, the ability to zoom in by touching a map might be useful.”<o:p></o:p>