AeroMechanical Services has completed testing of an upgrade to its automated flight information reporti
GPS Location Downlink Completes Testing
AeroMechanical Services has completed testing of an upgrade to its automated flight information reporting system (AFIRS), which allows continuous streaming of GPS position and aircraft parameter data to ground crews in addition to the currently deployed “event-driven” reporting of position and selected aircraft data. The prototype design started several years ago with Hawaii’s Aloha Airlines, but development suffered an interruption due to the airline’s bankruptcy last year. Because of AFIRS’s use of the Iridium satellite constellation and its own GPS receiver, the system can report from any point on the earth to any point through its Internet delivery system.
As investigators analyze data from the Air France Flight 447 tragedy, calls have come for a “live black box,” a method of streaming flight information in real time to provide insight into incidents in the event that search crews cannot find an aircraft’s flight data and voice recorders.
Viking Picks Pilatus Subsidiary for Twin Otter
Viking Air, the Victoria, B.C. company that is resurrecting the Twin Otter originally produced from 1965 through the mid-1980s, finalized an agreement here at the Paris Air Show for Altenrhein Aviation to become the airplane’s first authorized service center. Based at St. Gallen-Alternrhein Airport, the company performs EASA Part 145 maintenance services for business aircraft. Altenrhein Aviation was chosen in part because of its proximity to Switzerland’s Zimex Aviation, the Viking Twin Otter Series 400 turboprop’s launch customer. Certification of the airplane is expected next month.
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