Germanwings Selects Teledyne Controls’ Wireless Solution For A320 Retrofit Installations

El Segundo, CA | May 20, 2014– Germanwings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Airlines, has chosen the latest wireless solution for electronic Software Part distribution and loading from Teledyne Controls, the aircraft data and information management business, to retrofit on the operator’s fleet of 64 Airbus A320 aircraft.

Germanwings is the first operator to certify and install Teledyne’s Wireless Software Parts Distribution System on an Airbus A320 fleet.

The package selected includes Teledyne’s LoadStar® Server Enterprise (LSE) software application, enhanced Airborne Data Loader (eADL) unit and new Wireless GroundLink® Comm+ (WGL Comm+™) system that supersedes the original Teledyne WGL technology that Germanwings used for flight data retrieval.

With this solution, Germanwings electronically records its flight data and wirelessly transfers it, via the WGL Comm+™ system, from the aircraft to the ground, within minutes of landing, and from any of its airport hubs in Germany. In addition, Germanwings wirelessly distributes Software Parts directly from its ground station’s software configuration system, LSE, through the WGL Comm+ system to the eADL for loading into onboard systems.

The use of electronic Software Part distribution eliminates the need to manually carry and load hundreds of floppy disks onto the aircraft, saving time and manpower and reducing overall costs.

Hajo Heyen of Germanwings, Analyst Engineering-Avionik (Certifying Staff CAT B1/B2/C) says that the operator has been quick to realize the high value that Teledyne’s system provides: “The connectivity between our ground and onboard networking systems will allow us to streamline our crew workload through wireless data transfer by automating flight data download and Software Part upload,” he says.

Gerrit Neubauer of Germanwings, System Engineer – Maintenance Safety Officer agrees: “It will relieve the labour-intensive task of manually loading floppy disk software every month,” he adds.

Hans-Juergen Neufert, Regional Sales Director of Teledyne Controls, says that it has been a pleasure to work with the Germanwings team: “We look forward to supporting Germanwings’ needs as their flight data management program expands,” he says.

“Our system provides Germanwings Airlines with direct access to their fleet anywhere they fly and simplifies their flight data processes with wireless connectivity via the LSE Gateway and network.”

Teledyne Controls announced last year that its Wireless GroundLink® Comm+ system had achieved certification to be retrofitted on all major commercial aircraft types. It now supports additional applications that require more bandwidth. These include a new WGL-Fi™ capability providing content transfer and data communication over an onboard wireless hotspot for WiFi enabled EFBs, iPads, tablets and other Flight Operations computers, and the WGL-AID™ Aircraft Interface Device application that can provide EFBs, iPads and tablets with access to aircraft parameter data.

Germanwings will trial both WGL-Fi™ and WGL-AID™ in the second quarter of this year.

An enhanced version of Teledyne’s popular WQAR technology, which has been in commercial service for over a decade, the WGL Comm+™ system provides aircraft manufacturers, systems integrators and aircraft operators with a robust and dependable solution to wirelessly connect aircraft equipment with operators’ back office systems. The technology, featuring multiple channels of cellular high-speed data, requires no infrastructure investment and delivers efficiency improvements for numerous applications that can benefit from aircraft data connectivity when the aircraft is on the ground.