News

Sandel Teams With WSI to Develop New Strategic Weather Tools for the SN3500 Series of Compact EHSIs

Oshkosh, WI., July 28, 2004-Sandel Avionics and WSI Corporation today announced their collaboration on the development of the SN3500W display, specifically designed to access and display satellite weather data. The SN3500W represents the next generation of strategic and tactical navigation planning products designed to help pilots maximize their routing efficiency and safety through weather.

The initial platform for the new joint strategic flight planning capability will be the recently announced Sandel SN3500 series of compact, upgradeable EHSI systems. A revolutionary product that provides enhanced situational awareness, the Sandel SN3500 system features a unique combination of navigation and safety functions, including compass, map, flight plan and RMI, along with traffic, terrain and weather displays.

The basic SN3500 EHSI, which features Sandel's third-generation, ultra-wide-viewing angle display and incorporates Nav functions and support for selected Mode S transponder traffic input and WX-500 Stormscope®, is supplemented by the SN3500W, which adds the WSI datalink weather interface. The series also includes the SN3500TW, which provides Nav and WSI weather, along with such safety functions as TAWS and traffic annunciations, and a terrain-capable version designated as the SN3500T.

Designed for compatibility with virtually all digital and analog aircraft, the SN3500 EHSI series accommodates a wide variety of sensor inputs. The system's long list of built-in features includes an internal Nav converter, internal autopilot switching, an internal Jeppesen NavDataT database, and a bright, sunlight-readable display that provides as much screen area as a four-inch instrument.

"WSI is the industry leader in providing datalink weather information to the industry, and we are proud to be working with them," said Gerry Block, President and CEO of Sandel. "But just displaying weather is not the whole story. We believe we can change the way pilots plan and execute flights around weather system elements. There has been a long-felt need for an instrument specically tailored to display and manipulate weather data by adding weather data display to navigation, terrain and traffic in a structured way can really give a pilot the big picture throughout the flight plan," Block noted.

"The demand for accurate weather information in flight is very strong and WSI InFlight has achieved the leadership position in the market," commented Lynne Wilson, Executive VP of WSI's Aviation and Marine Business Group. "Our focus now is to develop partnerships with leading avionics display manufacturers in order to serve an increasing number of pilots," she added. "We are excited about integrating WSI InFlight with Sandel's SN3500TW display, since the combined system allows pilots to view critical information in real time and make flight decisions that take weather, terrain and traffic into account," Wilson concluded.

Sandel has developed several different integrated, stand-alone 3-ATI panel instruments based on its patented high intensity, wide-viewing-angle video projection technology. Owing to their integrated design, Sandel's avionics can both display and prioritize different data components from various sensor inputs. This unique design makes Sandel the only practical choice for the advanced requirements of dynamic, interactive weather media.