WheelTug cockpit controllers to be built by Gables Engineering

Posted by John McHale
CORAL GABLES, Fla., 6 May 2011. Engineers at Gables Engineering, Inc., WheelTug plc, design and manufacture the pilot cockpit panel to WheelTug, plc, for their electric drive system on Boeing B-737NG aircraft.
Gables Engineering will design, test, certify, and manufacture the cockpit control panel and will work closely with WheelTug (system design) and its partners Resource Group Limited (software development) and Newport Aeronautical (system certification) to integrate and certify the final cockpit control panel.
To see samples of the WheelTug cockpit panel visit the WheelTug/ICE Corporation stand (Hall 4-5, Booth G10) or Resource Group Limited stand in Hall 2, Booth G194, at the Paris Air Show June 20-26 2011.
The WheelTug electric drive system uses high-performance electric motors installed in the nose landing gear wheels of an aircraft to provide full mobility while on the ground without the use of the aircraft's engines or tugs for both pushback and taxi operations. WheelTug enables aircraft to be electrically driven from the terminal gate to the takeoff runway and, upon landing, from runway exit to the gate. The resulting improvements in efficiency, flexibility, fuel savings, and reduced noise and engine foreign object damage (FOD) yield projected savings of more than $500,000 per aircraft per year, as well as substantial reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.
The WheelTug system is being developed initially for the Boeing 737NG, and systems for other commercial and military aircraft will follow.