News
AFIRS technology makes its pop culture debut
Dec. 18, 2013, Calgary - FLYHT’s leading technology, the Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS) has been referenced in the spy thriller novel, “The Janson Command” by Paul Garrison in his sequel to Robert Ludlam’s book “The Janson Directive”.
December 18, 2013 By Carey Fredericks
This is the first such literary reference to FLYHT’s knowledge and an exciting entry for AFIRS into aviation popular culture.
In the novel, the hero and his team are trying to fly an Embraer 650 “under the radar” and they must turn off AFIRS to ensure they are not detected by air traffic control. The book mentions that the system enables an air to ground data link service over the open ocean, outside the regular ground-based radar range. The aircraft is also equipped with The Flight Management System that monitors aircraft systems and identifies fuel consumption trends. This is perhaps a reference to the FLYHT Fuel Management System enabled by AFIRS.
“The Flight Management System, which was monitoring fuel burn and the latest winds, had found a fuel-saving route above the jet stream that would allow them to fly direct to Isle de Foree.”
The authors are veteran novelists. Justin Scott has written 29 thriller, mystery and sea-story books under different pen names including the name Paul Garrison and in collaboration with others such as Clive Cussler. There is also a third book in the Janson series called “The Janson Option”. The late Robert Ludlam is a literary icon. All of his 27 novels are on the New York Times bestseller list. He is perhaps best known for the internationally renowned Bourne Identity series, turned into a major Hollywood movie series. There are more than 225 million of his books in print.
One of FLYHT’s aviation experts and consultants discovered AFIRS’ new found fame on a flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo.
“I read these books all the time. When I read AFIRS’ name I almost fell out of my seat. It’s one thing to read about AFIRS in industry publications, which I do often, but to see it in a pop culture book shows the author and his team really did their research on the leading technology in the field. How cool for FLYHT and AFIRS!”
