Turboprop Twin Sports Advanced Terrain Awareness System

ACSS, an L-3 Communications & Thales Company, announced this week Hawker Beechcraft Corporation has selected ACSS’s advanced terrain awareness warning system (TAWS) solution with the installation of TAWS+ on the King Air C90GTi aircraft.

"Hawker Beechcraft has set the standard for general and business aviation with unsurpassed performance, quality, value and technological innovation," said ACSS President Kris Ganase. "With our TAWS products on board, Hawker Beechcraft customers will experience the enhanced safety of the most advanced TAWS product available. We’re pleased to be HBC’s TAWS supplier on their newest King Air."

Representatives with ACSS tell Aero-News TAWS+ and TAWS+performance are stand-alone, Class A TAWS for passenger props, jets and military aircraft with over 2,000 units sold or on order as a stand-alone product or as part of ACSS’s T2CAS product, an integrated TCAS and TAWS in a single line-replaceable unit (LRU).

ACSS's TAWS+performance is the industry's only aircraft performance-based TAWS available in the marketplace. The advanced safety capabilities can be applied to any business, regional, air transport or military aircraft to avoid Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), which gives operators more time to clear terrain and traffic with an increased margin to maneuver and reduce nuisance alerts. The Ground Collision Avoidance Module (GCAM) enables Modes 1-5 and provides unique predictive warnings and cockpit displays.

Among the patented features is a Terrain Advisory Line (TAL) that indicates where the terrain is should the aircraft continue on its flight path. The length and duration of the alert line mirrors the cautionary terrain segment within 30 degrees either side of the aircraft flight path, out to four minutes in front of the aircraft.

When the GCAM detects that the aircraft does not have sufficient climb capability to clear the terrain by a standard vertical recovery maneuver, it generates a unique identifiable "Avoid Terrain" aural-visual alert.

As Aero-News reported, Hawker Beechcraft announced the Pro Line 21 cockpit-equipped C90GTi at this week's EBACE conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

FMI: www.L-3com.com/acss, www.hawkerbeechcraft.com