While purists may argue there is no substitute for seeing it with your own eyes, the best view of the flying displays at this month's Paris air show may well be on the big screen inside Flight International's chalet at Le Bourget.
Alternatively, visit flightglobal.com and catch the live feed. Either way, the pictures, courtesy of a FLIR infrared tracking camera mounted on Flight International's viewing deck supplemented by an airborne system, are guaranteed to be jaw-droppers.
Just ask Italy's customs police, the Guardia di Finanza, whose ATR 42MP patrol aircraft feature FLIR optical sensors in their Selex Galileo-developed Airborne Tactical Observation System. Or, consider that when FLIR equipment fed flightglobal.com pictures of the Lockheed Martin F-22 flying display at last year's Farnborough air show, the site got huge traffic spikes - from Russia.
But the Oregon-headquartered company, whose name comes from the acronym for forward-looking infrared and which bills itself as the "world leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of thermal imaging infrared cameras" has, through a series of European and US acquisitions, turned itself into a "full-spectrum operator", with capabilities ranging from gamma rays to radar.
Now, with the $268 million acquisition of ICx Technologies, which was completed in October 2010, FLIR is integrating sensors for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives detection for defence and homeland security markets.
The applications for such technology are extensive. Marketing vice-president David Strong said that while airborne detection is FLIR's largest business segment, business is split roughly 50-50 between well-known military and security detection and protection applications and commercial opportunities ranging from industrial security to maritime radar. Automotive applications such as detecting pedestrians or animals crossing a vehicle's path are also attractive. Or, using optical gas imaging, it is possible to detect gas plumes, to identify leaks. Infrared techniques can identify air passengers running a fever, which FLIR did during the H1/N1 flu crisis.
BUSINESS GROWTH
Strong stressed that integration was the key to effective use of an array of detection technologies. While adding sensors brings much new data to decision makers, unless that data can be ordered and sifted it may translate into less actionable information than was the case with, say, the simplest infrared night vision.
Thus, he added, the key to dealing effectively with the growing number of security threats is to integrate sensor and information technologies to build a bigger, more comprehensive picture of the environment: "We're headed to a more integrated world," he said, and the business growth potential is in systems to analyse and act on a vast amount of data.
Since 9/11, Strong said there is "no question" that increased spending on night vision and related capabilities have fuelled FLIR's growth, although that trend was under way before the attacks on New York and Washington DC. However, he said, FLIR had fortuitously undertaken a significant restructuring in 2000 and 2001, when management changed and costs were attacked, positioning it to take advantage of market growth.
Critically, FLIR's business model is unusual for a company with so much focus on government sales. Unlike so many larger rivals that work on a cost-plus basis, developing products with government money and having little incentive to control costs, FLIR has always operated on a commercial basis. As Strong put it, FLIR stays ahead in what it offers technically and keeps its prices down by means of a sharp eye on costs because it develops products with its own money, rather than waiting for government orders.
The result, as he noted, is that FLIR has been growing faster than the market.
Strong concedes that with defence spending under pressure, big defence companies are pushing into the security markets that FLIR serves. But, said Strong, the same thing happened when the Cold War ended. He is not overly concerned.
"It's not easy to build a business around a cost-plus model and then shift gears to operate on a more commercial basis," he said.
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Source: Flight International
