Joe Hoffman, president of ACSS (Aviation Communication and Surveillance Systems) at the L-3 Communications booth (USA Pavilion D-128) owes a debt of gratitude to the US Department of Justice.
What was to become ACSS was formed after the DoJ forced AlliedSignal and Honeywell to sell off the former Honeywell TCAS (Traffic Alert Collision Avoidance System) as part of their merger deal.
Hoffman says: "Luckily for us, they sold the legacy Honeywell product (TCAS 2000) which was the emerging market leader. I guess someone forgot to tell the lawyers.
"L-3 Communications bought the product line, which included Mode S for commercial aircraft and the Mode S/IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) product for the military in a joint development product with TRW. In June 2001, L-3 sold a 30% stake of our business to Thales Avionics and ACSS was born.
Global
"Thales gives us a broader global presence for both sales and support, which was missing from our small, 200 employee operation. We are now developing a TAWS (Terrain Awareness Warning System) product to go head to head with Honeywell's EGPWS (Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System) giving customers a choice," says Hoffman.
ACSS has moved to a new location in north Phoenix, Arizona. It has retained most of its existing loyal staff but expanded rapidly. A recent development has been the introduction of its new T2CAS product that combines both TCAS and TAWS functionality in one box.
T2CAS incorporates an important safety function, which eliminates nuisance conflict warnings and alerts. It can provide avoidance alerts based on actual aircraft performance data rather than standard climb rates and an assumption that all critical functions are performing properly. For example, if one engine fails while an aircraft is approaching a mountain, T2CAS will factor in the decreased performance while accurately alerting pilots of any necessary avoidance manoeuvres.
ACSS is still a fairly new name in the field, but recent wins include surveillance equipment to China Southern, Qatar Airlines and China Southwest. And the company now supplies the standard safety avionics for new Embraer Legacy and Fairchild-Dornier Envoy business jets. Package
The package includes Traffic Collision Warning Systems (TCAS 2000) and Mode S Transponders.
"We may be a new name in the industry, but with the Honeywell background, and the new support of both L3 and Thales, we want people to know we're here," says Hoffman.
Source: Flight Daily News
