Universal Weather & Aviation, Inc., of Houston, Texas, has included the passenger in the improvements to its UVdatalink air-to-ground communications system and now boasts worldwide weather graphics among its advances in the state-of-the-art communications and flight following services.

"We said last year that [with the UVdatalink] the pilot is in control of critical information," said Paul R. Ryan, senior manager of technical product and service development, at a media briefing Monday before the start of the NBAA 52nd Annual Meeting & Convention in Atlanta. "Now we say the passenger is in control of critical information."

Passengers have expressed a need for better e-mail and voice air-to-ground communications in the cabin and Universal, in connection with Universal Avionics System Corp., provides "WorldConnect/News" which gives passengers in-flight access to current world, financial, weather and sports news from Reuters News Service. It includes e-mail and stock-quote retrieval as well as voice and FAX communications.

Live demonstrations will be provided at Universal Weather's booth 4915 on the floor of the Georgia World Congress Center, Ryan said. Information also is available at www.universalweather.com/flightplans/ on the web.

Universal's UVdatalink supports multiple avionics packages from Universal Avionics Systems Corp., Honeywell, Smiths Industries and Rockwell Collins.

Historically, datalink was a closed system with limited options and no weather graphics to the cockpit, Ryan said. Pilots using UVdatalink may now access real-time graphical weather information in the air from the service provider they choose.

"A key is the weather graphics and last year we had it for the domestic United States," he said. "Now we can provide it overseas." Worldwide displays include infrared satellite images, winds and temperature aloft and other weather depictions.

Still lacking from the worldwide coverage is the popular real-time composite radar image, which is now available in the U.S., he said. "It can be animated [in U.S. applications] so the crew can see it moving across the screen.

"If anybody knows who can provide that service around the world, I would like to hear from him," he said. "This is what the clients want and we would like to provide it" around the globe.

Ryan said clients have also asked for "bundling" of several communications services into a single package. In addition to in-flight datalink, pre-flight, in-flight telephony, message handling and database support services, Universal can also "bundle" a package of discounts so the client pays a lower fee than if he had ordered each service on an ad hoc basis. All services can be included in a single bill.

Also new in 1999, Ryan said, is a customer support staff which provides "real human beings" 24 hours per day, seven days per week to support flight crews on the ground or in the air with flight planning, weather and operational needs.

Universal also announced it has signed an agreement with Navtech, of Waterloo, Ontario, to use its "Aurora" flight planning system to generate flight plans and enhance operational capabilities through flight plan optimization.

By Jim Street