A new regulation issued in recent weeks by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) will enable passenger jets to land at airfields under difficult vision conditions resulting from heavy fog, stormy weather, and air pollution. Under the new regulation, passenger jets will be allowed to take off for various destinations even if the stormy weather awaiting them causes impaired vision. They will be able to land there using special accessory systems.
The system accommodates landings without pilots having natural vision, and without the flight team using the infrastructure installed at airports. Up until now, airplanes could not take off for destinations if the landing there was liable to be rendered dangerous by extreme weather conditions. Because there were no regulations allowing landing with the use of devices, passenger jets were sent to land at airfields in which the weather conditions allowed it.
The new FAA regulation will soon take effect at all US airports, and many countries around the world are expected to follow suit at a later time. Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT) has been developing the ClearVision system for a decade, and launched its new generation of the product a year ago. The company expressed satisfaction with the US regulation; its implementation is likely to lead to a wave of deals for procuring the innovative system by airlines around the world. Elbit Systems today declined to estimate the monetary potential of such deals, the signing of which is expected in the coming years.
A senior company source told "Globes" today, "There is a great deal of interest in our system on the part of airlines throughout the world. For us, the civil aviation market is one big blue ocean."
Elbit Systems aerospace division co-manager Yoram Shmueli said that the new generation of ClearVision had already been installed in executive jets and civilian helicopter throughout the world, adding, "We are the first in the world to offer suitable and complete systems corresponding to the new FAA regulation."
The system was developed for warplanes, and has been adapted for civilian aircraft. It is based on a camera that screens a picture of the airport for the flight team on a special screen, even in difficult vision conditions. A senior Elbit source said that the system meets the needs of many airlines around the world flying to destinations in North America where heavy fog prevails, and to Far Eastern destinations, such as China and India, where pilots frequently encounter vision problems caused by smog resulting from air pollution.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 3, 2017
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017