21 April 2006

Dr. John Ferrie, President, Smiths Aerospace commented, "We are delighted and proud to receive the Queen's Award. Our world leading Remote Interface Unit is the result of focused investment in technology and the dedicated efforts of our most talented people."

The Remote Interface Unit (RIU) product family is a range of units that offer incredible flexibility with the ability to digitise real world signals like voltage, current, frequency and temperature, and effectively communicate this to a large number of aircraft systems over the central nervous system of a modern aircraft - its communication network.

Benefits of the RIU product family include the way in which one design can be reused on many different aircraft and in different ways without having to start from scratch each time - saving both time and money, and minimising development risk. This provides aircraft manufacturers with simplified aircraft electronics, lower development and unit costs, shortened development lead-times, reduced development risk, and weight (fuel) savings.

The RIU family supports the aerospace industry's transition to Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architectures - providing a standardised unit that can interface to multiple types of aircraft sensors, and communicate with centralised computing resources.

Smiths Aerospace, a part of Smiths Group, is a leading transatlantic aerospace systems and equipment company, with more than 11,000 employees and $2.2 billion revenues globally. The company holds key positions in the supply chains of all major military and civil aircraft and engine manufacturers and is a world-leader in digital, electrical power, mechanical systems, engine components and Systems Customer Services. www.geaviationsystems.com

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