Aspen Avionics has been selected by Universal Avionics to provide its Connected Panel wireless gateway system for Universal’s InSight Connect Integrated Flight Deck.
“We know that flight planning happens in many places; and the sheer volume of information flowing in and out of the cockpit is increasing dramatically,” said Dan Reida, vice president of of sales, marketing and support, Universal Avionics. “Using popular navigation applications such as Jeppesen or Foreflight combined with Aspen’s Connected Panel, we are able to provide a means to integrate navigation and flight planning data wirelessly to the InSight Integrated Flight Deck from personal devices making flight planning a less demanding task.”
“Mobile devices have revolutionized how pilots use flight data, but until now smart devices have been unable to communicate with onboard systems,” said John Uczekaj, president and chief executive officer of Aspen Avionics.
“Aspen’s Connected Panel creates a wireless bridge between smart devices and Universal Avionics InSight Integrated Flight Deck increasing the pilot’s access to navigation data while increasing the utility of their mobile devices,” he continued.
Aspen’s patented Connected Panel hardware is enclosed in a small unit called the CG100U which is blind-mounted behind the aircraft’s panel. The CG100U contains wireless interface protocols as well as flash memory storage. Leveraging commercially available technology, the CG100U includes standard protocol ports and communications slots that will allow Connected Panel developers to add peripheral hardware as needed to enhance the utility of their own applications.
Initial installations of the Connected-enabled InSight Integrated Flight Deck are expected in 2015.