Curtiss-Wright Corporation announced that it was selected by Scientific Research Corporation (SRC) to provide its industry-leading Fortress flight recorder system to upgrade the T-6 Texan II trainer aircraft used by the U.S. Air Force and Navy. This important military aircraft contract builds on Curtiss-Wright’s recent success in the Commercial Aerospace market, highlighted by our partnership with Honeywell to use real-time connectivity to reinvent the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) – commonly referred to as “black boxes” – for the commercial airline, cargo transport, and business jet markets.
Under the agreement, Curtiss-Wright is providing SRC with a new variant of the Fortress CVR25 recorder, developed specifically for use on military fixed and rotary wing platforms. The Fortress CVR25 combines a CVR, FDR, integrated data acquisition, and an independent power supply in a single lightweight, compact unit. The Fortress recorder’s ability to acquire additional data as customer needs evolve has helped further establish Curtiss-Wright’s position as a leader in this industry.
Curtiss-Wright’s custom Fortress recorder is a form-fit-function upgrade to the existing flight recording system utilized on the T-6 Texan II. It protects parametric flight data and 3 channels of voice communications to crash conditions in accordance with the ED-112A1 standard. In addition to serving as a combined CVR/FDR flight recorder, Fortress will also support data acquisition and real time data processing used for post-flight analysis. The data will be used in flight safety and pilot training programs, including the U.S. Air Force’s Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance (MFOQA), Aircraft Structural Integrity (ASIP) and Aircraft Safety Program (ASAP).
“Curtiss-Wright is one of the leading suppliers of modern flight data recorders, and we are very proud to have been selected to provide our innovative Fortress cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder to upgrade this important military training program,” said Lynn M. Bamford, President and CEO of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. “This award is a prime example of Curtiss-Wright’s ability to leverage its unique capabilities, technologies and experience in our commercial markets to deliver critical solutions to adjacent markets. We look forward to working with SRC to further enable the benefits of our modern-day flight recorder technology for additional applications serving the military aircraft market.
The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company (which became Hawker Beechcraft and later Beechcraft Defense Company, and was bought by Textron Aviation in 2014). A trainer aircraft based on the Pilatus PC-9, the T-6 has replaced the United States Air Force’s Cessna T-37B Tweet and the United States Navy’s T-34C Turbo Mentor. The T-6A is used by the United States Air Force for basic pilot training and Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training, the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps for primary Naval Aviator training and primary and intermediate Naval Flight Officer (NFO) training.
Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a global innovative company that delivers highly engineered, critical function products and services to the commercial, industrial, defense and energy markets. Building on the heritage of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, Curtiss-Wright has a long tradition of providing reliable solutions through trusted customer relationships. The company is headquartered in Davidson, N.C. and employs approximately 8,200 people worldwide.
