Story ID: 012AvionicsUpdateAINMar13EditedByAY_NM
Rockwell Collins Sabre Joins Evergreen Brethren
By: Matt Thurber
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Word Count: 201
Rockwell Collins has sent its workhorse Sabreliner 50 business jet to what might be the world’s best retirement home, the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Ore. The Sabreliner, a 1964 model, was the flying testbed for many key Rockwell Collins avionics products and logged about 8,000 hours and more than 5,000 landings since the Collins division of Rockwell International bought the jet in 1976. The job of flight-testing new Rockwell Collins systems falls on the shoulders of the company’s Challenger 601. The Sabreliner is in good company, sharing space at the Evergreen facility with iconic aircraft such as the Howard Hughes H-4 Hercules “Spruce Goose” and a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Among the technologies that the Sabreliner helped usher in are Rockwell Collins’s Tcas II, enhanced vision and MultiScan threat detection radar with wind-shear and turbulence detection. “For any pilot, the process of grounding an aircraft is emotional, especially knowing, in this case, what Rockwell Collins’s Sabre contributed to the aviation industry,” said Ivan McBride, director of flight operations for RockwellCollins. “At the same time, we’re delighted that it will continue to live in a wonderful environment like Evergreen that is dedicated to educating, promoting and preserving aviation history.”