ARNAV Systems Signs on with Globalstar

In its major news for this year's NBAA show, ARNAV Systems has just signed an agreement to become a value-added reseller for the Globalstar satellite communications system.

ARNAV will provide both voice and data communications to the cockpit via the Globalstar system, a low-Earth-orbit satellite system with worldwide coverage.

Under this agreement, ARNAV will build a remote mount communication black box that interfaces to the audio panel for voice, and through serial interface for data communication to a multifunction display. The aviation kit will also include a tri-mode satellite/cellular phone, a phone docking station, and an installation kit with antenna.

Services offered will be WxLink Global Weather, e-mail, flight following, and voice communications. ARNAV expects the equipment and monthly service plans will be affordable to general aviation.

The Globalstar deal closely follows ARNAV's other major development this year-launch of the first FAA weather datalink service. Introduced this past summer at EAA AirVenture 2000 in Oshkosh, ARNAV's WxLink is a high-speed, multimode, multi-radio-frequency datalink that brings broadcast weather to the cockpit at no charge to the aviation user.

In a ceremony at Oshkosh, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey electronically cut the ribbon commissioning the WxLink network. Garvey also presented several Technical Standard Order certifications including FAA approval for the ARNAV WxLink datalink, WxLink weather products, MFD 5200 cockpit display, DR-100 aircraft datalink receiver, and an engine monitoring module. With the commissioning of the datalink and the FAA certifications, ARNAV can now provide an end-to-end, real-time cockpit weather solution to the general aviation marketplace.

For the FAA, a key element of the technology is its affordability to general aviation pilots. The DR-100 has a list price of $1,495, and can be purchased and installed by a certified avionics repair facility. ARNAV pairs the DR-100 with its MFD 5200 multifunction display for $8,995 list price.

Last year, ARNAV was awarded a five-year contract by the FAA to install and maintain a Flight Information Service datalink. The contract gave ARNAV two additional VHF frequencies for the broadcast of free and premium weather products and services.

The AAN was established in 1999, and operates under a wholly-owned ARNAV subsidiary called ARCOMM. It was one year after the datalink contract award that Garvey launched the newly certified end-to-end datalink at Oshkosh, making WxLink an official provider to the FAA.

The AAN will also be used to disseminate weather products under two contracts from the NASA's Langley Research Center and Dryden Flight Research Center.

The Langley statement of work calls for progression of the Advanced Weather Information Network (AWIN) program, with ARNAV developing AWIN weather products geared specifically for transmission to general aviation aircraft.

The next-generation products will incorporate atmospheric data acquisition sampled by 44 aircraft. The sample data, called Electronic Pilot Report, is fed by the AAN into the system to produce a better weather model of conditions at flight altitudes.

ARNAV and its team members FedEx, Cessna, Virginia Department of Aviation and the EAA will operate the sampling aircraft. The AAN will broadcast the weather products to the program aircraft using high-bandwidth transmission techniques with transmission speeds up to 31.5 Kbps

By Barry Rosenberg