14 June 2003

The in-service evaluation campaign took place at Alitalia and Frontier Airlines from October 2002 to February 2003; with on-site support from Airbus, Smiths and Thales. The equipment fitted was the final version, fully certified for revenue service by the JAA and the FAA. Over 15000 flight hours were carefully monitored during the evaluation period: the REV 1 New FM software proved its maturity and stability.

Thales Avionics and Smiths Aerospace have successfully developed the New FM by building on the strengths of each team partner. Smiths Aerospace is renowned for its flight management expertise, time proven with the 737 FMS. Thales Avionics draws on its extensive experience of Airbus aircraft systems, architecture, and man-machine interface, acquired during the development of most key systems fitted on Airbus aircraft.

The New FM is a highly attractive alternative for Airbus operators, boasting a solid market share. It introduces a new LCD Multipurpose Control Display Unit (MCDU), the largest navigation database capacity available on Airbus aircraft (5 mega bytes), superior flight planning flexibility (multi revision temporary flight plan, undo function, improved DIR TO...), and upgraded display functionality: "what you see is what you fly".