Graham Warwick/ATLANTA
AVIONICS MANUFACTURERS appear to be on the brink of something of a boom period, as airlines get to grips with the realities of the future communication, navigation, surveillance and air-traffic-management (CNS/ATM) system. Farn- borough is likely to witness the first major signs that European airlines are about to follow their US counterparts in embracing the satellite-based global-positioning system (GPS) - if for different reasons initially.
Rockwell-Collins (3/A20) has chosen the Farnborough air show to announce a batch of new orders, which includes the US launch contract for a GPS-based flight-management system (FMS) intended for retrofit to non-FMS-equipped aircraft. Another contract to be announced is the European launch order for Collins' multi-mode receiver (MMR), initially combining the GPS with the instrument landing-system (ILS) and eventually to include the microwave landing-system (MLS). The US company will also announce that Airbus and Boeing have chosen its MMR as baseline equipment for new-production aircraft.
Collins' announcements will underline a trend begun in 1995, when the Honeywell/Trimble alliance won an American Airlines contract for the fleet-wide installation of the FMS/GPS on non-FMS-equipped aircraft. The initial justification for installing the FMS/GPS is the US Government decision to retire the Omega/VLF long-range-navigation system from 1997, but the long-term reason is the eventual shift to a US "free-flight" airspace-management system, which requires the accuracy of the GPS and the flexibility of the FMS.
Europe is lagging in the adoption of the FMS/GPS, but is leading the charge on the MMR, because of the urgent need to replace ILS units with systems immune to interference from powerful FM (frequency-modulated) radio stations. The modular MMR gives airlines the ability to install the GPS while upgrading to FM-immune ILS, with the option to add an MLS when the ILS becomes untenable and upgrade eventually to a GPS landing-system.
While Collins and Honeywell/Trimble are leading the FMS/GPS-retrofit market, they have competition. Canadian Marconi (4/D1) and Litton (2/A11), both at Farnborough, are pursuing the market, as are Interstate Electronics and Universal Navigation - although will be at this year's show.
Europe's bid for a stake in the mainly non-US MMR market is led by France's Sextant Avionique, which faces mainly US competition in the shape of Collins and Honeywell - as well as Lockheed Martin (E5) which, in a new commercial-avionics venture, is offering an ILS/GPS MMR which can be upgraded to include its Autonomous Precision Approach and Landing System (APALS). This uses an airborne radar to map the ground beneath the approach path and guide aircraft to the runway.
Alitalia is evaluating the APALS for its McDonnell Douglas MD-82s, but is unlikely to make a decision in time for a Farnborough announcement. Its MD-82s are to be equipped with Sextant's Head-up Flight Display System to give them Category IIIb landing capability, and Alitalia is evaluating both the APALS and an enhanced-vision system, based on millimetre-wave radar, as the next step until Cat III differential-GPS is ready next century.
AlliedSignal Aerospace (4/E3), meanwhile, sees Farnborough as a major opportunity to promote its presence in Europe, which has made the installation of the Mode S datalink compulsory by January 1999 and of the traffic-alert and collision-avoidance system (TCAS 2) by January 2000. The US company is a leading supplier of both Mode S transponders and TCAS 2 units and sees Europe as the next major market for its equipment.
AlliedSignal is also the leading supplier of ground-proximity warning systems (GPWS) and is developing an enhanced GPWS (EGPWS), which uses a digital database to generate a cockpit display of terrain around the aircraft. British Airways and United Airlines are to evaluate the EGPWS, and AlliedSignal was expected to announce its launch customer before Farnborough, and to certificate the system soon after the show ends. The EGPWS will also be a part of the Honeywell integrated-avionics systems in the Bombardier Global Express, Cessna Citation X, Dassault Falcon 900EX and Gulfstream V business jets.
Honeywell (4/A11) plans to use Farnborough to promote the application of its latest commercial avionics to military aircraft. It believes that there will be a massive market in upgrading military transports with GPS-based flight-management systems. Honeywell also sees the potential to use derivatives of the avionics developed for the Boeing 777 in vehicle-management systems in future combat aircraft, such as the US/UK Joint Strike Fighter.
A small US company at Farnborough is leading the way in dual-use commercial/military avionics. Flight Visions' (2/A24) head-up displays and mission computers for European military-trainer and light-combat aircraft, mainly the Czech Aero L-59 and L-159, use commercial electronics and are the basis of civil head-up displays being fitted to business aircraft.
Source: Flight International