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On the Record with
Joe Hoffman, President, Aviation Communication
& Surveillance Systems
A 20-month old company with 40 years of experience-that's how
ACSS is billing itself here at its first Asian Aerospace show.
No, the name isn't very catchy (ACSS stands for Aviation Communication
& Surveillance Systems, and its official moniker includes the
string "an L-3 Communications & Thales Company)."
Its products aren't exactly household words, coming from a world
of acronyms such as TCAS and TAWS, and T2CAS, which to some is more
pronounceable as "T-squared-CAS."
And ACSS doesn't even have its own booth here (you can find it
on the L-3 exhibit at D128).
All of which sums up the challenges faced by ACSS president Joe
Hoffman in maintaining the company's position as a leader in safety
avionics systems for commercial and military aviation since the
product line was spun off by Honeywell as a condition of its merger
with AlliedSignal.
If you say "Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System"
people immediately understand where ACSS is coming from. If you
say TCAS 2000 the recognition is instant-last July ACSS shipped
its 5,000th TCAS 2000.
"Name recognition is an issue," Hoffman told Show News.
"Customers even ask 'Who is L-3 Communications?'
"What we've tried to get through is that ACSS has 40 years'
experience and heritage from its Honeywell history, not only in
TCAS but in FMS, displays, weather radar-in fact, a very broad background.
When TCAS 2000 was sold off by Honeywell we started on day one as
a product line and 60 employees, but no company infrastructure."
Hoffman readily admits that his priorities in the last 18 months
have kept him in his office instead of meeting customers. Corporate
events moved fast: soon after L-3 bought the TCAS 2000 line it formed
ACSS as a joint venture with Thales. Hoffman turned in "a good,
solid financial performance" even as he directed the building
of a new company with a new ERP system and IT infrastructure, housed
in a new headquarters in North Phoenix, Arizona. Staffing increased
to 230 as R&D was stepped up, and with Thales experience ACSS
is about to launch a third-generation safety system that combines
terrain and collision avoidance in the same integrated box.
"We had all the significant milestones in starting a new
business, but we already had a product that's regarded as the industry
leader," said Hoffman. "In absolute dollars, our sales
last year were highest ever in the TCAS business since its Day One
in 1990," he added.
By John Morris
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Asian airlines are among the prospective launch customers
for ACSS's new third-generation Traffic and Terrain Collision
Avoidance System (T-squared-CAS) according to Joe Hoffman,
president of the L-3 Communications and Thales joint venture.
The new avionics box incorporates a Thales-developed predictive
ground collision system with latest TCAS technology. Future
enhancements could include Automatic Dependence Surveillance-Broadcast
(ADS-B) and Mode S transponder, meeting the airlines' quest
for lighter, simpler integrated avionics that also offer greater
reliability as well as the ability to be upgraded by software
instead of hardware changes.
Hoffman believes the Terrain Avoidance Warning System (TAWS)-based
on that developed by Thales for the Rafale fighter-will be
the most sophisticated on the market. It is linked to the
aircraft's FMS and navigation systems to constantly calculate
aircraft weight and performance capability and flight path-vs-terrain
threat.
"This gives us true ground avoidance as opposed to
ground proximity," said Hoffman. The result will be a
warning system much more finely tuned to the aircraft that
will give far fewer nuisance warnings.
ACSS currently has 8,000 TCAS I and TCAS 2000 systems in
service, and the T-squared-CAS has been designed to drop into
the avionics bay as a straight replacement. An airline will
be able to choose how much capability it wants in the box,
as the computer hardware is essentially the same for a range
of options.
Interestingly enough the genesis of the combined system
predates both Thales and ACSS. The idea was originally discussed
by Honeywell and Dassault Electronique before Thales bought
the Dassault business and Honeywell spun off the TCAS line.
"So it was only natural that we would all get together
again when L-3 and Thales formed ACSS," said Hoffman.
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