Small Business To Replace All Integrated Display Systems
All Weather, Inc. (AWI), which manufactures automated weather
information systems, meteorological sensors, and information
display systems, said Wednesday that the FAA has awarded the
company a small-business set-aside contract to replace all of the
approximately 2,300 aging Integrated Display Systems (IDS4). The
contract will also support the FAA's plan for scheduled replacement
and updating of ACE-IDS displays (approximately 900 workstations),
followed by replacement of the En Route Information Display System
workstations (ERIDS - approximately 1,800 workstations). The
contract also covers installing or replacing displays at several
hundred smaller control towers that currently have either no or
very limited information, weather, and related display tools. The
total contract value is $66.4 million over a six-year period.
The FAA will fulfill a key milestone in the NextGen transition
with this major purchase of a common Information Display System
spanning both terminal and en route air traffic controller work
environments. Subject to future funding, a total buy of potentially
6,000+ workstation processors and displays is anticipated. By the
middle of this decade the FAA will have a common, state-of-the-art
platform across all domains for instant, uniform, interactive
transmission and display of weather and related safety-critical
information. These capabilities are an integral feature of the
FAA's Enterprise Architecture, and are compatible with the FAA's
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) strategy and
architecture. A number of DoD facilities will be supported as
well.
"Being selected for such an important FAA program is an honor
and a great compliment to AWI," said Jason Hall, President of
AWI. "FlexIDS will bring expanded and dynamic data display
and dissemination capabilities to the FAA and Military customers
around the globe."
"AWI's FlexIDS product is an ideal platform for the FAA's
Integrated Display System Replacement Program," said Don Soenen,
Chairman of AWI. "With software development, hardware integration,
program management, installation and training all provided
internally by AWI personnel, we can effectively manage and control
the entire project for the benefit of the flying public."
The new IDS system is designed around an open architecture, uses
touch screen technology, has full redundancy, and interfaces to
both existing and planned weather and FAA information networks.
Later this year the first article will be delivered to the FAA
William J. Hughes Technical Center for acceptance testing. The
first facility installations will occur in early 2011 and will
continue through 2015.
NTSB Prelim: Piper PA-23
See All