Innivative Meld of Telematics, GPS Tracking and Helicopters

System Transmits Key Helicopter Performance Data to Help Ensure Safety of Military Helicopters in Flight

SO. ST. PAUL, Minn., May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Digital Angel Corporation (Amex: DOC - News), an advanced technology company in the field of rapid and accurate identification, location tracking, and condition monitoring of high-value assets, announced today that its OuterLink subsidiary was honored this week by the American Helicopter Society (AHS) for OuterLink’s In-Flight Reporting System, a real-time, satellite-based data communications system being used by the U.S. Navy to help ensure the safety of its pilots, among other attributes… Full Article Here:

I posted on this very subject just a few days ago. OuterLink is a semi-big bucks company and I am not a dealer for their products, although I certainly would be. I’m glad to see a quality service being recognized. I’m also glad to see the US DoD … the ones who built and operate the GPS for us everyday, after all, getting credit for innovation.

A number of commercial helicopter services use OuterLink or some competitor’s product to track their helicopter’s position … in near-real time, virtually world-wide. The Navy decided it was smarter to add what’s known as “telematics” to the mix. It really costs very little more to add critical health and status checks of aircraft systems to the standard position data message … so what is keeping managers from doing this everywhere?

A reluctance to know (if I didn’t know it was happening, I can’t be blamed for not taking action), or a belief in the supreme autonomy and supremacy of pilots? Not sure. As a pilot (non-commercial) myself I of course want to believe in my own abilities, but the best pilot in the world can’t always know about impending systems failures until it’s too late.

High time this was looked at for all commercial air operations, and I am not just talking helicopters either. What people don’t know can kill them … and others.