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L-3 Communications’ SPAR Aerospace officially awarded airworthiness certificate

EDMONTON, Nov. 17/06 – SPAR Aerospace Limited (L-3 SPAR), a subsidiary of L-3 Communications, announced today that it received a Military Supplemental Type Certificate (MTSC) for the Avionics Upgrade Program modification work performed on the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) C-130 B and H model aircraft.

Brigadier General McCabe of the Department of National (DND) Defence Technical Airworthiness Authority, formally issued the certificate during a presentation to the President of L-3 SPAR, Patrice Pelletier, and HAF officers, including Major General Leonidas Mazarakis, at DND headquarters in Ottawa.

The MTSC certifies that the avionics upgrade design meets the appropriate airworthiness specifications.
"We thank DTA for providing independent airworthiness oversight and certification for this avionics upgrade program for the HAF. The modernization of HAF's aircraft are part of SPAR's Herc 2020(TM) solution, a total aircraft life extension solution for the C-130 Hercules, which can extend its service life by 15 to 20 years at an affordable and competitive price" said Patrice Pelletier, President of L-3 SPAR. "The DTA certification of this design allows us to bring innovative Canadian solutions to the global marketplace. We look forward to more opportunities to work with DTA to provide airworthiness certificates to our other international customers."

L-3 SPAR was awarded a $90 million contract from HAF in 2002 to perform cockpit upgrades on its fleet of 15 C-130 aircraft. The modernization package included the standardization of the cockpit configuration, the installation of Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) and Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning Systems (EGWPS) as well as Global Air Traffic Management (GTAM) to allow the aircraft to operate unrestricted by international communications and navigations air traffic regulations. SPAR carried out the design, prototyping and testing of two aircraft and the assembly of 15 modification kits at its facilities in Edmonton, Canada. A second C-130H aircraft was modernized at Hellenic Aerospace Industries (HAI) facilities in Greece. The remaining 12 aircraft (eight H and four B models) will undergo avionics upgrade program modifications at HAI in Greece.

L-3 SPAR's next-generation cockpit upgrades are installed on 42 of 60 contracted cockpits flying today and it continues to evolve its design in order to provide customers with best-value, low-risk solutions that minimize non-recurring costs.