Curtiss-Wright Controls awarded contract for data acquisition & "black box" technology for use on new helicopter

Curtiss-Wright Controls, Inc. today announced that it has received a contract from a leading helicopter manufacturer to supply rugged flight data recorders for use on a new multirole helicopter. Under the agreement, Curtiss-Wright Controls Avionics & Electronics (CWC-AE) division will provide its Data Acquisition Flight Recorder (DAFR) products, used to provide data acquisition and “black box” Accident Data and Voice Recorder functions, on the new rotorcraft. The initial contract is valued at $4 million. Shipments of flight data recorder units will commence in the second quarter of 2013.

“We are very proud that our flight recorder technology was selected for use on this important new helicopter platform,” said Tom Quinly, president of Curtiss-Wright Controls. “We have had great success supplying our Multi Purpose Flight Recorders (MPFR) on multiple rotorcraft, with 100% positive accident data retrieval feedback from an installed base of hundreds of MPFRs. This new agreement extends and grows our successful relationship with this helicopter manufacturer, while reinforcing Curtiss-Wright's position as a critical supplier of critical rugged data recorders.”

Curtiss-Wright's highly versatile DAFR provides additional data acquisition in a single, highly compact, light weight unit, and is fully approved for current and anticipated crash recorder requirements. Data can be downloaded on-board in less than two minutes and can be networked directly to a remote operational base for diagnostics and fault reporting. The DAFR comes with easy to use PGS data analysis and visualization software that enables customers to collect, access and analyze data from the first flight.

The Curtiss-Wright Controls P+G business unit, part of the CWC-AE division, is manufacturing the products covered by this agreement in its Christchurch, UK facility.