Wings Magazine

News
L-3 Communications gets FDM systems for FLYHT

Nov. 24, 2014, Calgary - FLYHT Aerospace Solutions has announced their Q3 fiscal results, upbeat on their prospects given they just put in the best quarterly performance this year and are receiving orders from Airline majors.


November 24, 2014  By Carey Fredericks

The company is a specialist of flight tracking, aircraft performance monitoring and efficiency tools, with its flagship product AFIRS (Automated Flight Information Reporting System) particularly gaining traction recently as the airline industry seeks to adopt more precise and reliable technology in aircraft. AFIRS can deliver alerts to ground staff rapidly when a flight is not on course, at the correct altitude or if there are any issues with onboard equipment, engines. It constantly monitors and reports fuel loads in addition to satellite tracking and a full range of cockpit communications including Global Voice, iPad hook up and Electronic Flight Bag communications. It appears to be the worldwide leader in the industry.

CEO Bill Tempany mentioned in the conference call on Thursday of a positive, cooperative relationship with global aviation giant Airbus who are keen on AFIRS’ potential in retro-fitting the tech into existing aircraft, a market 10 times the size of new aircraft orders. Bill stated, “We are very excited to announce that we did receive an order from L-3 for Airbus factory installs and retrofits for delivery in November. It’s for 35 units and they will be delivered this month. The activities at Airbus have picked up substantially. The L-3 sales team is very excited about our prospects and the number of units we will be doing there and we will be recognizing revenue for at least those 35 in this quarter. So that’s a huge step forward.”

The aviation industry is currently mulling over ideas to see how flights can become safer, more traceable and more efficient. The Malaysian Airlines MH370 disappearance in March was a catalyst, highlighting a gaping hole in safety and tracking of flights, which still rely on older non-global tracking technologies and finding the black box, which was developed in the 1950s, to determine what went wrong.

Airbus officially certified the AFIRS product for use on their A320 fleet, FLYHT’s partner L-3 Aviation Recorders announced in July. L-3 Aviation Recorders is a division of L-3 Aviation Products, a New York-based provider of avionics for commercial and military use.

Advertisement

Bill also noted, “Some of our people were at a recent industry event and ran into some Airbus people. Airbus was very pleased with the quality of our work, the performance of the contract to deliver the AFIRS 228 to them for line fit and in conversations after the sessions said that it’s been one of the best programs that Airbus had run recently, the adoption of AFIRS for SatCom on the A320.”

In a recent article by Wall Street Journal titled “Airliner Tracking to Become Norm” it appears that the regulatory bodies and agencies are seeking a worldwide solution for better accountability and safety of airline passengers. It looks like L-3 and Airbus are ahead of the herd and implementing, as a responsible airline carrier should.

Advertisement

Stories continue below