Innovative Solutions & Support On Brink of RVSM,
Flat-Panel Rush
When the elusive deadline for RVSM implementation inevitably becomes
a date on the calendar, Innovative Solutions & Support will
have its ducks in a row.
The latest checked boxes for the Exton, PA-based company include
the MU-300, Beechjet 400 and Hawker 700, bringing to around 15
the number of business aircraft STCs that use the company's RVSM
kit, which includes air-data display units, analog interfaces
and air-data sensors. IS&S makes altimetry systems, air data
computers and flat panel displays.
Michael Cawley, IS&S director of sales, expects RVSM kits
to be a top seller very soon, but not just yet. Cawley says many
potential customers are holding back on purchasing the company's
RVSM STC modifications until the implementation date is announced,
which he says could be as early as this week. Cawley suspects
the ultimate installation deadline will be January 2005.
Flat-panel displays are another area where IS&S expects to
become a sought-after source. The company is in the process of
certifying a low-cost full-glass flat-panel display system for
business aviation, helicopter and military markets. The product
is called the Pilot's Information Portal. Cawley says the Portal,
currently in certification testing in the company's Pilatus PC-12,
is fundamentally different from the flat-panel systems IS&S
is supplying for the U.S. Navy and for Boeing's aerial tanker
program.
Cawley told Show News that IS&S will go head to head with
the likes of Rockwell Collins and Honeywell on the program, but
in IS&S's case, the Portal's low cost will be a "major
advantage." The company this week hopes to add to the ranks
of pilots who have flown with the Portal in the PC-12 and have
raved about it afterward. "We have some very unique things
we do to make the product extremely attractive from a visual perspective,"
Cawley crows.
