XM Radio, The Real Weather Picture Straight To Your
Cockpit
Having spent $2 billion lofting a pair of giant broadcast satellites
into orbit, digital audio provider XM Satellite Radio is looking
to make a few more bucks from its investment-and offer a valuable
new service to aviators. XM will soon sign up the millionth subscriber
to its satellite radio music service, but now, with the help of
Heads-up Technology and Weather Works (WxWorks), it hopes to win
a completely new breed of viewers to join its listeners. The aim
is to deliver a direct-broadcast weather information service,
via satellite, to suitably equipped aircraft-whose passengers
can also listen to XM's news and music broadcasts at the same
time.
WxWorks will supply XM customers with real-time weather radar
imagery collected from its nationwide U.S. network. This data
is then displayed, via a digital receiver, on the pilot's EFB
(electronic flight bag) or a cockpit MFD. Cessna has already selected
the XM WxWorks service for integration into the CJ3's Rockwell
Collins Pro Line 21 cockpit. Heads-Up Technology is partnering
with XM to increase the number of avionics suppliers that can
adopt the system, and to smooth its passage aboard aircraft from
single-engined GA types to airliners.
