Contract Covers CNS/ATM And FANS-1 Upgrade Program

Esterline CMC Electronics (CMC) has been awarded a contract by Air Transat to upgrade the legacy Flight Management Systems (FMS) on the fleet of nine Air Transat A310-300 aircraft. CMC will supply its latest generation CMA-9000 FMS with Vertical Navigation and Future Air Navigation (FANS-1) functionality as part of the upgrade. The FANS-1 functionality includes Airline Operational Communication (AOC) and Controller-Pilot Datalink Communications (CPDLC) functions via the CMA-9000 FMS, in association with newly installed communication avionics.

The FANS-1 upgrade will allow the Air Transat A310-300 aircraft to continue using the preferred routing over the Atlantic Ocean after the North Atlantic mandate comes into effect in February 2015. The CMA-9000’s large navigation database capability offers flexible global operations and will allow the aircraft to make the most efficient use of the airspace as it is modernized over the next 20 years. The Air Transat fleet will comply with the forecast FAA and ICAO standards for the Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) system.

CMC will perform the system engineering design, certification package development, installation kit production and project management. All engineering development, FMS manufacture, installation design and labour efforts will be carried out in Canada.

This upgrade program will take advantage of the existing Airbus A310-300 FMS upgrade Supplemental Type Certificate (STC). The same upgrade can be offered to the 400 other Airbus A310 and A300 aircraft flying globally. CMC's fully coupled, performance optimized vertical navigation FMS is well positioned to enable the upgrade of many other platforms to comply with ICAO standards for flight in civil airspace.

(Image provided by Esterline CMC)

FMI: www.esterline.com