It's been a long haul, but Ultra Electronics comes to the show with the ink still drying on its first contract to install its cabin noise-cancelling system on the Saab 340 regional turboprop. "This is something we've been chasing for three to four years," says Rob McDonald, head of sales and marketing for the UK company's noise and vibration systems division. "It's been extraordinarily difficult, because we started the campaign when Saab still made aircraft for a living. They then stopped and it caused the campaign to fall into a black hole for a while." Endorsement Cambridge-based Ultra badly wanted to install its system on the Saab, and gain the Swedish company's endorsement in doing so. With the Scandinavian manufacturer moving its civil interests into the asset management market, Ultra's objective seemed to be in jeopardy. "Luckily," says McDonald, "retrofitting this system [into used aircraft] fits exactly with Saab's new business objective, which is retaining the residual value of this aircraft and keeping them competitive with other aircraft, such as Bombardier's Q-Series Dash 8s."This has immense significance for us. When turboprops started to struggle against regional jets, we saw our market shrink, but this order opens up a huge sector of the market again." The first deal to fit the noise-cancelling system, which uses microphones hidden behind the cabin trim to measure noise levels and loudspeakers to broadcast complementary noise frequencies that counteract the original sounds, has been signed with Swedish Saab 340 operator Golden Air. The Trollhõttan-based airline has ordered nine systems. Ultra aims to install the first shipset in April 2001 and deliver the last in the fourth quarter of the year.
Source: Flight Daily News
