Avidyne Corp. reports it has shipped its 10,000th Traffic detection system, which was delivered to Cessna Aircraft Co. for installation in a new Cessna Corvalis aircraft on the assembly line in Independence, Kan.
Avidyne’s history with traffic systems dates back to Ryan International in Columbus, Ohio, where the original Traffic Collision Alerting Devices (TCAD) was first developed, followed by the Ryan TAS9900, TAS9900B and TAS9900BX. Avidyne merged with Ryan in 2005 and launched the current Entegra TAS600 Traffic Series.
In addition to bringing to market the first active-surveillance traffic system for under $10,000, Avidyne has also delivered innovations such as the introduction of Ground mode and Approach mode, decoding and displaying of squawk code and N-number, and patented top and bottom-mounted directional antennas for improved target acquisition and tracking. Avidyne also pioneered the concept of Heads Up Audible Position Alerting, which provides ATC-like aural annunciations of threat aircraft and has become the standard alerting protocol on virtually all general aviation TAS systems, company officials said.
The TAS600 Series includes three models of dual-antenna TAS600 Traffic Advisory Systems — the TAS600, TAS610, and TAS620 — which actively interrogate other transponder-equipped aircraft, and independently compute range, bearing, and closure rate of these aircraft in order to provide pilots with an accurate display of nearby traffic and timely audible and visual alerts of conflicting traffic.
All of Avidyne’s TAS600 models are fully upgradeable to ADS-B, and all TAS600 systems provide traffic information about any transponder-equipped airplane that is nearby, independent of whether the target aircraft has ADS-B equipment installed, according to Avidyne officials. With the addition of an ADS-B “In” signal, TAS600 customers have the ability to show ADS-B-equipped traffic on their existing TAS-compatible displays, in addition to any transponder-equipped traffic that may not be participating in ADS-B.
TAS600 Systems have been certified and installed on hundreds of different aircraft models and are available for retrofit through Avidyne’s worldwide network of Authorized Service Centers. Avidyne’s TAS products are also available as factory standard or factory options at several aircraft OEMs including Cessna, Cirrus, Diamond, and Eurocopter. For more information: Avidyne.com
