Aviation Legend’s Pioneering Aircraft Fitted With Company’s Electronic Flight Instrument System

The Boomerang twin-engine, asymmetric airplane conceived and built by Burt Rutan was recently equipped with an Electronic Flight Instrument System (“EFIS”) from UAV Navigation. The EFIS runs on the installed AP04OEM2 Attitude and Heading Reference System (“AHRS”) / Inertial Navigation System (“INS”).

Lightweight materials were used to build this twin-engined, turbocharged, long-range, high-altitude airplane designed for safety and performance. Its innovative, asymmetrical design provides unique safety advantages in the event of an engine failure. Rutan, who flew it from 1996 to 2002 as his personal plane.

Tres Clements, a former employee at Burt Rutan’s company, Scaled Composites LLC, acquired the extraordinary plane in 2011. He is flying it and promoting its unique features with the help of a team that includes former Scaled Composites’ employees, test pilot Mike Melvill and engineer Ryan Malherbe.

This year during Oshkosh, Boomerang’s avionics were revamped and UAV Navigation’s EFIS system was installed on the airplane’s instrument panel. “The Boomerang is one of the most innovative planes to fly in two decades," said Guillermo Parodi, UAV Navigation’s CEO and founder. "When we saw it reappear at Oshkosh 2011 at the hands of Tres Clements we could not help noticing that its avionics were based on a 1990’s Apple PowerBook. So we jumped on the opportunity and offered our new EFIS system."

FMI: http://uavnavigation.org