| T²CAS™ RECEIVES SECOND CERTIFICATION
Combined Terrain & Traffic System Certifies
GPS Option and New TAWS Standard
Contact:
Steve Henden
Manager, Communications
ACSS, an L-3 Communications & Thales Company
623-445-7021
PARIS, June 17, 2003 – ACSS, an L-3 Communications & Thales
Company, has received its second certification from the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) for T²CAS™, a combined terrain and traffic
collision avoidance system. The second FAA technical standard order authorization
(TSOA) certifies T²CAS to the new TAWS standard, C151b, and for its
optional navigation-grade GPS, C129a.
T²CAS introduces a higher level of safety by increasing a pilot’s
awareness to potential terrain hazards and basing its alerts and avoidance
maneuvers on an aircraft’s actual ability to climb at a given moment.
“This is an important step in the ongoing growth
of this product,” said Joe Hoffman, president of ACSS. “A
number of our customers have ordered the GPS option and we’re pleased
to add it to the initial TSOA we received in February.”
ACSS will begin making deliveries to its launch customers beginning in
June. The growing list of T²CAS customers includes Aero California,
Aeromexico, Federal Express, Mesaba, Northwest Airlines, the U.S. Customs
Service and Virgin Express, as well as several others to be announced
shortly.
In addition to T²CAS’s ability to increase
an operator’s situational awareness and provide avoidance maneuvers
based on an aircraft’s actual performance capability, the combined
TCAS (traffic alert and collision avoidance system) and TAWS (terrain
awareness warning system) reduces weight, power consumption, space requirements,
and wiring. The T²CAS line-replaceable unit (LRU) is the same as
the TCAS 2000, which allows the operators of the more than 6,000 TCAS
2000 units flying throughout the world to simply swap out the TCAS box
for the new T²CAS and use existing power and wiring.
The combination of safety functions, which also
includes an optional navigation-grade GPS and reactive Windshear, also
lowers the operator’s total cost of ownership.
ACSS (Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems, LLC), an L-3 Communications
& Thales Company, is a leader in safety avionics systems. ACSS products
include the TCAS 2000 and TCAS 1500 traffic alert and collision avoidance
systems, a family of Mode S transponders and the T²CAS, a combined
traffic and terrain collision avoidance system. More than 8,000 units
of ACSS' TCAS products are currently operating in commercial, corporate
and military aircraft. Thales Avionics is the exclusive sales agent of
ACSS products to the Commercial Air Transport market. To learn more about
ACSS, please visit the company's web site at www.L-3com.com/acss.
Safe Harbor Statement
under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Except for
historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this
news release are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements
set forth above involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from any such statement, including
the risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's Safe Harbor Compliance
Statement for Forward-looking Statements included in the company's recent
filings, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q, with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
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