A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

L3 Harris Technologies (Chalets V73 and&nbsp;CS46) alights at the Singapore airshow just months after the publicly traded U.S. company was created through the merger of aerospace and defense systems provider L3 Technologies&nbsp;and the Harris Corporation, a major technology developer. The merged company is the world’s sixth-largest defense company, with some 48,000 employees in more than 400 locations, customers in over 100 countries, and revenue&nbsp;of $17 billion last year.

 


Its products and services are delivered from four divisions: Integrated Mission Systems, Space &amp; Airborne Systems, Communication Systems, and Aviation Systems. It is doubtless that something among its span of offerings is of professional interest to every attendee at the Changi Exhibition Center.

 


Integrated Missions Systems offerings include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, and electro-optical systems including infrared, laser imaging, and targeting. Space &amp; Airborne Systems specialties include avionics, situational awareness solutions, space payloads, and optical and wireless networking, while the Communications Systems umbrella covers broadband communications, night vision, and public safety.

 


But L3Harris&nbsp;Aviation Systems is center stage in Singapore, with products ranging from airport security and data link communication to UAVs, collision avoidance systems and flight recorders. Commercial and military training systems include flight and maintenance simulation; its Link Training &amp; Simulation business traces its roots to the pioneering simulator manufacturer founded by Ed Link.

 


L3Harris Aviation Systems&nbsp;also provides a suite of M3 solutions—missionization, modernization, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO)—for military, government, and commercial customers, and specializes in complex widebody aircraft modifications. An FAA-/EASA-approved repair station with FAA Organization Designation Authorization, the division's Waco, Texas facility has completed projects on more than 95 platform types, including over 50 head-of-state aircraft completions, receiving more than 55 STCs along the way. Notable projects include modifying Virgin Orbit’s 747-400 for use as an airborne satellite launch platform; modifying engine manufacturers’ 747s for use as flying testbeds for new powerplants; and modifying a 747 SP for NASA’s SOFIA program, the world’s largest airborne observatory.

 


The MRO center includes a paint bay that can accommodate large civilian and military aircraft including the Boeing 747-8 and Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, and L3 recently highlighted its paint capabilities, which extend far beyond “austere military paint specifications,” said Jon Piatt, L3Harris’s v-p and general manager. In November, L3Harris showcased the complex new livery it applied to a 787—the facility’s third wide-body custom paint completion of 2019.

 


The 73,000-sq-ft&nbsp;(6,500-sq-m) paint bay includes multiple onsite component paint booths. Its analog HVAC system was recently replaced with the latest digital technology for temperature and humidity control in a multi-million dollar upgrade, allowing L3Harris’s paint specialists to produce custom paint jobs on a variety of aircraft. Rounding out its M3 portfolio, the enhanced paint capabilities make L3Harris “uniquely positioned to offer world-class aircraft paint services as part of our maintenance, repair, and overhaul solutions,” Piatt said.

 


Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, L3Harris has additional facilities in locations including Arlington, Texas, and Rochester, New York.

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