The Requirement
The Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) operates five Cessna Citation XLS aircraft. These aircraft perform airways flight inspection taskings and have a secondary role as personnel transports. To fulfill their primary function, these aircraft required conversion to carry a specialized Advanced Automatic Flight Inspection System (AAFIS).
Why the Operator Selected MC2
China and the CAAC needed several aircraft equipped in a consistent manner with a very specialized set of flight inspection avionics. Mid-Canada Mod Center (MC2) continues to innovate, designing, installing and certifying creative avionics solutions for special mission aircraft that require specialized expertise and experience. The MC2 team’s understanding of the demands of such aircraft missions were a key to the successful completion of these Citation aircraft.
Main Benefit
These green XLS aircraft had state-of-the-art technology introduced that allowed these aircraft to more rapidly and accurately perform airborne inspection of space- and ground-based instrument flight procedures and the validation of electronic signals in space transmitted from ground navigation systems.
About the Mods
Modifications for multi-mission aircraft are complex. These five Citation aircraft were no exception and the special mission experts at MC2 delivered the AAFIS-equipped aircraft which included these systems:
- AAFIS inspector’s console and equipment rack equipped with advanced navigation sensors from Honeywell, Collins Aerospace (Rockwell Collins) and Ashtech. This AAFIS suite was also integrated with a number of the aircraft’s existing systems and had dedicated antennas added.
- Chelton Direction Finding (DF) System
What the Operator Says
“These modifications were quite important to the CAAC and the Government of China, as our aviation industry continues to grow and thrive, and air traffic continues to increase. The team at MC2 has a deep understanding of the missions we need to fly, which is key to the success of these modifications.”
Need to Add Capabilities to your Special Mission Aircraft?
Contact Norm Matheis, Special Mission Business Development, to learn how we can meet your needs.