TCAS 2000 and TCAS II from ACSS get EASA Change 7.1 certification

Posted by John McHale
PHOENIX, 19 April 18, 2011. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a European Technical Standard Order (ETSO) Authorization to ACSS, an L-3 Communications & Thales Company, for Change 7.1 software for its TCAS 2000 and TCAS II traffic alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS).
The Change 7.1 enhancement meets EASA's Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) for TCAS and makes the ACSS equipment compliant with the new C119c standard.
EASA's expected mandate calls for Change 7.1 software to be installed on all newly built aircraft operating in European airspace by no later than March 2012 and by December 2015 to retrofit existing aircraft. The Change 7.1 upgrade applies to all manufacturers of TCAS II products and delivers two important enhancements --reversal logic and new aural alerting for Adjust Vertical Speed. Several business jet manufacturers that offer TCAS 2000 as a standard product are in the process of developing Service Bulletins to make the new Change 7.1 software available to their customers.
"Change 7.1 is an important aviation safety enhancement, and we're making it available to our TCAS 2000 customers as an easy-to-install software upgrade," says Jean-Michel Clairis-Gauthier, vice president of sales, marketing and customer service for ACSS. "We are also offering special incentives for customers to bring their TCAS units up to this new standard."
For more information, please contact the ACSS sales line at +1-623-445-6900 or visit www.acss.com.