June 6, 2014
Within the R&D project, Telit is responsible for setting up a comprehensive communication system for critical helicopter components. Each of these components is fitted with an Active RFID tag, based on ZigBee standard protocol. Information about the current status of the component is transmitted to a central system. From there, the information is transferred to a back-end server so that it is possible to monitor the helicopter’s overall configuration.
"Reliability and low maintenance costs are the critical factors when developing new helicopter models," explained Christian Feuillebois, RFID research project manager at Eurocopter. "That is why we are investing a lot of hope in the communication system being developed by Telit RF. Should the development project prove to be a success, this could mean a long-term reduction in maintenance costs on our helicopters and therefore give us competitive advantage."
A total of eleven companies are involved in this project.
"Eurocopter is the world’s largest supplier of civilian helicopters and we are delighted that the company is so strongly committed to the M2M market," said Felix Marchal, Global VP of Sales for Telit Communications PLC. "We regard the R&D project with Eurocopter as a strategically important move for pushing ahead our business in the new sector of RF technologies."