A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

U.S.-based Extant Aerospace, which provides avionics lifecycle sustainment services, has completed two product line acquisitions this year It added the Teac Aerospace mission data recorder line from UTC Aerospace Systems (Chalet 346) and a series of cockpit display and control panels from L-3 Technologies (Chalet 306) to its offerings. Terms of the transactions were not released.


More than 25,000 Teac mission data recorders have been installed in over 50 different military platforms including the F-15, F-16, F-18, C-130, AH-64 and the Eurofighter. The company also produces removable memory modules and mission data debrief software. Teac will operate as an Extant subsidiary. The acquisitions follow a similar group of military mission and data record products licensed from GE Aviation late last year. The acquired L-3 cockpit products include an array of LED displays and related controls currently installed on multiple platform variants of the F-16, C-17 and AH-64. Extant will provide continuing aftermarket depot repair and spares support for the Teac and L-3 products.


“Our ability to bring the products onboard and sustain them through their full lifecycle and any associated LTA (light tactical aircraft) requirements enable the OEMs we work with to focus resources on more current and next generation products while assuring their customers of quality, long-term support,” said Extant CEO Jim Gerwein.


To accommodate the expansion of its product portfolio, Extant plans to build a new manufacturing and repair facility that will more than double the company’s current 5,600sq-m (60,000-sq-ft) footprint, Gerwein said, with completion anticipated “early in 2018.”&nbsp;

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