New Gadgets For Fixed- And-Rotary Pilots

March has certainly come in like a lion for Chelton Flight Systems. Hot on the heels of Monday's announcement the company will play a major role in developing the next-generation Avio flight information system for the Eclipse 500 VLJ, Aero-News has learned Chelton recently unveiled two new products destined to make life a little better for pilots in a wide variety of aircraft.

Last week, Chelton unveiled a new Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver featuring Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) compatibility, for unparalleled accuracy and integrity monitoring. Chelton says its new GPS-WAAS meets the requirements for a primary (sole-source) navigation receiver for IFR enroute and precision approach guidance. Weighing less than one pound, the new 15-channel GPS-WAAS receiver is a fraction the size of competitors' products allowing for ease and flexibility in the installation. Production is expected to begin mid-summer 2007.

Powered by the NexNav GPS engine (jointly developed by Spectralux Corporation and Accord Systems), the compact and lightweight GPS-WAAS receiver is applicable to both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. It provides 5 Hz position updates and 15 centimeter accuracy at full signal strength. Designed as a stand-alone or display-integrated sensor, the receiver's certification basis is TSO-C145b Beta 3, meeting specifications for LPV approaches, and the new RTCA/DO-160E requirements for environmental conditions.

"This new GPS-WAAS receiver not only provides a superior level of performance and capability for our EFIS, but also affords us the opportunity to integrate this module directly into the Chelton EFIS product suite, thereby reducing space requirements and installation time," said Chelton Flight Systems' President Gordon Pratt. "Additionally, we are seeing significant interest in this product for other applications requiring a high degree of performance at an affordable price."

Chelton also launched a new combined digital air data and strap-down solid-state attitude/heading reference -- that is 1/10th the size, and 1/8th the weight of the two devices it replaces. Like the new GPS, the ADAHRS is also designed for both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft -- and provides extremely precise digital output and referencing of aircraft position, rate, vector and acceleration data. It also interprets information from the pitot-static system and an outside air temperature probe to generate altitude, vertical speed, airspeed, and total air temperature.

For accuracy, Chelton states the air data portion and attitude portion are physically separated inside the enclosure by a firewall, and do not depend on one another for operation. Dual redundant power inputs and internal busses provide power to both the air data computer and attitude gyro, leaving no single point of electrical failure.

"The advantages of Chelton's AHADRS combining air data and attitude/heading functionality are dramatic weight and space savings, simplified installation, and improved reliability" said Gordon Pratt, President of Chelton Flight Systems. "We are excited to bring a reliable, precision sensor to the market, for both our EFIS customers as well as any aircraft requiring a TSO'd AHRS and Air Data Computer."

Chelton states the CFS ADAHRS is the only product in its price range to feature the reliability of Level-A software in an all digital, solid-state system utilizing Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) in place of older-technology mechanical gyros. Mean time between failure is estimated to be over 13,000 hours. The ADAHRS product suite includes a remote Outside Air Temperature (OAT) Probe and a Magnetometer Sensing Unit (MSU) in the standard KMT-112 format.

The ADAHRS will form the core sensor suite for Chelton's EFIS and HeliSAS helicopter autopilot and stability augmentation system, and will begin shipping Q3 2007.

FMI: www.cheltonflightsystems.com