ACSS, the manufacturer of the TCAS 2000 Traffic Alert and Collision
Avoidance System, is on the verge of landing the first business
aviation deal for its advanced T2CAS TCAS and terrain avoidance
system. Pronounced "T-squared-CAS," T2CAS will soon
be offered as optional equipment by a major business airplane
manufacturer. "We are in the final stages of discussions,
and others are in mid-stage," ACSS president Joe Hoffman
told Show News.
ACSS (it stands for Aviation Communication & Surveillance
Systems) is a joint venture between L-3 Communications and Thales
Company. It was formed as a one-product company in North Phoenix,
Arizona, purely to market and produce TCAS 2000 when Honeywell
was forced to divest the avionics line as a condition of its merger
with AlliedSignal.
T2CAS, which combines terrain and collision avoidance in the same
integrated box, is about to receive its first STC, in an Avro
RJ85 regional jet operated by Mesaba Airlines. Some 600 are on
order for customers that include Northwest Airlines.
"More certifications will be coming in November and December,"
Hoffman said, including the Citation V and Ultra.
They take time because T2CAS' ground collision system is predictive,
based on an aircraft model's ability to outclimb terrain depending
on its different weights and operating configurations. Hoffman
believes the Terrain Avoidance Warning System (TAWS)--based on
that developed by Thales for the Rafale fighter--is 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.
T2CAS received initial FAA certification in February. In May it
added GPS functionality through embedding a GPS-on-a-card receiver
developed by CMC Electronics, which could lead to full Wide Area
Augmentation System/Space Based Augmentation System (WAAS/SBAS)
and Local Area Augmentation System/Ground based Augmentation System
(LAAS/GBAS) precision approach and auto-land capability.
Future enhancements could include Automatic Dependence Surveillance-Broadcast
(ADS-B) and Mode S transponder, all in the same single box. This
means upgrades and additional functionality can be incorporated
through adding cards and installing software instead of hardware
changes.
Customers can choose how much capability they want in the box,
as the computer hardware is essentially the same for a range of
options. This "Common Computing Platform" with TCAS
will be incorporated in Dassault's Falcon 7X, having been offered
as part of the Honeywell Primus Epic EASy cockpit system before
Honeywell's divestiture of the TCAS line.
"So far that's the only application," said Hoffman.
