By ANN Correspondent Rob Milford

It’s been two years since the first XM radios started showing up in homes and trucks and cars across the country. By the time you read this, they may have passed the one million subscriber mark. To top the 100 channels of music and news and talk, XM has now teamed up with WxWorx of Huntsville, Al, to provide in-flight, real-time radar and detailed weather data to the aviation industry.

Bob Baron, President of WxWorx, says this will provide detailed and accurate real-time weather data. WxWorx is the company that developed the Storm Cell Identification and Tracking program, now seen on hundreds of TV stations around the country, which gives time and location “hacks” on storm cells.

The service is starting to fly, on the Cessna Citation CJ-3, but is not targeted at one particular segment of aviation. You can use it in your Bonanza as well as your Gulfstream, and if XM sells this the right way, it could be part of airline cockpits before too much longer.

Roderick MacKenzie of XM briefed ANN this week, showing how the screen will carry not just the real-time radar, but graphical wind speed and direction, lightning strikes, and will overlay with Garmin’s G-1000 cockpit avionics suite and other advanced multi-function displays.

You will also get sigmet warnings, and echo tops, as well as sea state conditions if you are headed for a water landing (scheduled or otherwise).

The XM system is also electronic flight bag compatible, with software to suit whatever you carry, and surprisingly enough, pretty affordable.

The basic 100 channel audio service sells for $9.99, and the radar and weather data service is $49.99 per month. The weather receiver sells for $3,750 (msrp). The best estimate that XM could come up with was “about” $6,500 to $7,000 for an entire system, including the antenna installation, the receivers (both radar and audio) and running power and antenna cables (about 20 working hours). That doesn’t include what you’ll spend on a tablet or notebook display.

FAA Certification is expected by the end of the year, and you’ll get an STC or field approval on the system. XM’s MacKenzie says “This is the blending of weather technology and XM’s delivery system from our two big Boeing satellites. It’s a significant breakthrough of affordable graphical weather information delivery to aircraft in-flight!”

FMI: www.xmradio.com, www.wxworx.com