Press Release

Issued by Collins Aerospace.

May 14, 2012

Rockwell Collins today announced the latest enhancements to its Ascend™ flight information solutions offering. These features include new capabilities for Ascend Flight Manager's iPad® application, as well as higher levels of integration between the Ascend Flight Operations System (FOS®) scheduling and dispatch software and Ascend Flight Manager web portal.

"We continue to bring market-first, value-added features to our Ascend offering that make it easier, faster and more cost-effective to manage flight operations," said Steve Timm, vice president and general manager, Flight Information Solutions for Rockwell Collins. "The new features for the iPad greatly reduce pilot workload and improve their efficiency."

The latest development to the Ascend Flight Manager iPad app is a document management tool that allows customers to view and edit a variety of documents related to the aircraft, airports, flight legs, training or trips.

The feature also allows schedulers and dispatchers to push these items to crew members in the form of video, images, PDFs or other file types. Once crew members have taken any required action, they can acknowledge completion. Additionally, the dispatcher can be alerted if the crew has not read the most current documents, which helps ensure crews are briefed on flight training updates and flight safety related changes.

Rockwell Collins is the first to bring this capability to flight operations planning.

Rockwell Collins also introduced additional improvements to the Ascend FOS software, made possible by continued integration between FOS and the Flight Manager system. Now the Ascend FOS system can run preliminary flight plans using aircraft performance data and weather information to calculate more accurate flight times and fuel burns.

"This is a great tool for the dispatcher and pilot," explained Timm. "The pilot can go to one place, file the flight plan and it syncs between the scheduling and dispatch system and the mobile app resulting in predictable aircraft availability."

The integrated system also allows the flight schedule to be synchronized with international handling services, which saves time and money by eliminating redundancy between systems providing a synchronized link between operations and the pilot.

Rockwell Collins is the only company that is seamlessly connecting schedule and dispatch capability with flight planning and other flight services to create an end-to-end solution that lowers the total cost of ownership and enhances efficiency. The full range of Ascend flight information solutions includes:

• FOS schedule and dispatch software

• Regional and international trip support

• Fuel pricing and service information

• Aircraft Information Manager (AIM) wireless content updates, including FMS databases

• Flight Watch dedicated meteorologist services

• Personalized expert services such as ground handling and regulatory compliance assistance

Ascend is scalable to the size and needs of an individual flight department. Operators can select the tools and services that fit their fleets' respective mission profile.