STEVE NICHOLS
Thales Avionics' future lies in its ability to transfer technologies between different market sectors, says Francois Quentin, the company's chief executive.
"We need to move Thales' (Outdoor P2) technological developments between and across the military, air transport, helicopter and business jet markets to maximise our possibilities. And we need to do that on a worldwide basis, just as we have with selling our avionics technology on Eurocopter's Tiger helicopter into the Australian market," he says.
Thales and joint venture company ACSS and its T2CAS product form a typical example of technology transference. T2CAS uses the Thales ground collision avoidance module (GCAM), developed for the Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter, to provide ‘intelligent' warnings of possible controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) outside its competitors' normal two-degree look-ahead angle.
The result is a predictive product that ACSS says can provide CFIT alerts much earlier than Honeywell's product.
Quentin also sees a strong future in satellite communications. "We wish to pursue Galileo and the opportunities it presents," he says. Galileo is the proposed European equivalent of the USA's GPS and Russian GLONASS systems. "Two major western global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) will give the aerospace industry more flexibility and will open up new markets for us.
"But there are other applications for satellite communications to and from aircraft that have yet to be fully exploited, including managing ATM-related information and aircraft data. We intend to be at the forefront of those developments," Quentin adds.
Thales has traditionally been a softly-softly player in the satcoms market, leaving more brash American rivals, like Boeing, to beat the drum. But Quentin acknowledges the work Connexion by Boeing, for example, has done to raise awareness of potential applications.
Initiative
"They have taken the initiative, but Boeing will not be the sole source in this field," he says. "The real world thrives on competition and Thales will be there too. Boeing has more leverage – more clout – than we do, but we could supply our systems to Boeing too. They could become a Thales satcoms customer."
But has Thales Avionics been caught up in the general market downturn? "For the moment we find our overall business post ‘9/11' only average – not satisfying, but stable nevertheless," Quentin concludes.
Source: Flight Daily News
