LHT makes ‘nice HD’ even nicer Lufthansa Technik is presenting its new “Innovation Corner” at the NBAA show (Booth No. C9919), featuring prominently its next-generation “nice HD” cabin management and in-flight entertainment system. According to the German MRO, completion and refurbishment specialist, the open architecture of nice HD is “highly configurable and flexible, allowing Lufthansa Technik to offer a wide number of cabin equipment packages.” “Customers can experience innovative ways to control cabin communications and entertainment functions with our thirdgeneration user interface,” said
director of the innovation business unit Andrew Muirhead. The system incorporates an animated graphical user interface (GUI) with an integrated scroll wheel and touchscreen.” The scroll wheel allows the passenger, using a thumb or finger, to simply roll a small barrel, which corresponds to the animated GUI. Once the selection is chosen, the user can simply push to select the function. Rounding out the user interface, the system also offers nice wireless remote for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The app is available for download from the Apple App Store.
One of the more important additions to the original nice system is a Hollywood-approved encryption/decryption package that allows streaming of highdefinition video to each seat location without breaking digital rights management protection requirements. Other new upgrades include: • Consolidation of numerous nice system components into fewer, smaller and lighter LRUs with more functionality. • Increased network bandwidth and capacity with gigabit Ethernet to each seat. •R emote system access for maintenence and product support. o
Smyrna Begins Flight Testing H80 Engines Smyrna Air Center has begun flight testing its Power90 Conversion for the King Air 90 with the 800-shp GE H80 engines. The H80s are expected to deliver enhanced performance and are capable of full power up to 107 degrees F at sea level. Performance will be measured up to the aircraft’s 30,000 foot ceiling. The company calls the H80 engines “the next step up in performance for the Power90 conversion.” A Power90 King Air is on display at the Convention Center static area. Smyrna Air Center (Booth No. N1731) was founded 26 years ago as a full-service FBO and later added maintenance and modification capabilities for the Beechcraft King Air 90 series twin turboprop. Currently the company offers the Power90 conversion with the GE/Walter M601 engines (705 shp each) and 14 have been done since 1999. The
H80 engine upgrade will be added to Smyrna’s supplemental type certificate (STC) for that conversion. GE acquired assets of Czech Walter Engines in 2008. A 2010 analysis of the Power90 conversion with the M601engine by Conklin & de Decker found that the $532,000 conversion provided enhanced safety and performance, reduced operating costs and firmed up resale value over the stock Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-21 engines. The conversion increases maximum cruising speed by nine knots to 256 ktas, increases range by 60 nm to 1,185 nm and boosts the one-engine inoperative ceiling to 18,000 feet from 16,500 feet. Overall, Conklin & de Decker found that the Walter engines burned 14 percent less fuel than the stock Model 90 engines over the course of a typical year and were substantially less expensive to maintain. n
They’ve got an app for that
CY CYR
Ryan Frankhouser of Arinc poses with an iPad announcing Arincs’s latest app. In business for 80 years, the Annapolis, Md. company has been providing worldwide communications and flight support, including flight planning, fuel, weather services and international trip planning.
46 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com
MARIANO ROSALES
by Kirby J. Harrison
Flying Colours furthers its Asian ambitions through its first international alliance with Hong Kong-based Metrojet. John Gillespie (left), CEO of Flying Colours, and Bjorn Naf, CEO Metrojet, sign the memorandum of understanding here at the show.
Flying Colours, Metrojet join on Asian refurb center Flying Colours, which specializes in interior completions and refurbishments, has partnered with Hong Kongbased Metrojet, a charter, management, maintenance, acquisition and sales company. Under terms of a memorandum of understanding signed here at the show, Flying Colours will open an operations base in Asia that will focus on interior refurbishment for mid- to large-size
business jets, including models from Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream and Hawker Beechcraft. Specifics of the deal are still being finalized, and ratification is expected by mid-2012. “This is the first time that Flying Colours has partnered with an international company, so we are excited by the opportunity it offers,” said John Gillespie, CEO of the company, which is exhibiting at Booth No. N5500. –J.B.
WSI recreates Fusion with new wx software Weather Services International (WSI) has released a new version (4.0) of its Fusion software, which it bills as a “workflow-based aviation-planning/ decision-support tool.” The latest version adds more meteorological features, including an easy-tounderstand graphic presentation of weather events and conditions. Among the new features are the North American Radar Mosaic, which provides a comprehensive view of radar across the continent without the need to overlay multiple radar types; a Hot Storm Index, which determines the potential impact of severe weather events; and High Definition Convective Weather Layers, which among other things features a new EchoTop mosaic that offers better spatial resolution and clearly shows the highest tops of greatest concern. WSI touts Fusion as a way for operations management to gain early insight into changing flight, airfield and airspace conditions and to streamline
the decision-making workflow. It combines global, public and proprietary weather information with data on airspace constraints, flight tracks and navigation. The company has also just debuted an iPad app for its WSI Pilotbrief Optima service. With it, a pilot can retrieve the information needed for a flight directly from the device. Among the data available on the app: high-definition weather layers; route-specific weather and Notam briefings; recently FAAcleared flight routes; tropical storm tracks; textual aviation weather reports and forecasts; and 10-day forecasts. WSI (Booth No. C9213) is a Weather Channel company headquartered in Andover, Mass. –J.B. AINonline iPhone App NOW AVAILABLE