Collins Aerospace has introduced new upgraded features and functionality to its connected platform Izon. These enhancements build on Collins' mission to transform the disparate and often complex data streams necessary for flight into an integrated, intuitive and mobile platform that simplifies flight, adapts with changing customer needs and transforms data into insightful information.

“Izon's expanded catalogue of feature-rich capabilities provides our business aviation customers with the critical information, data management tools and security necessary to make each flight a success,” says director of business aviation Nazeif Habboub. “The increased tools and customisation options bring enhanced functionality to the already intuitive user interface, allowing for simplified and more effective workflows to get customers to their destinations quicker, more efficiently and safely.”

Izon is cloud-based and mobile-friendly, with an open-architecture design to accommodate future enhancements, updates and scale to provide a best-in-class experience in all aspects of flight operations management. With seamless access to ARINCDirect applications, Izon's latest updates include:

- Enhanced customisable dashboard: users can add and remove applications/widgets from their dashboard as they like as part of the customised workflow within Izon, granting individual control based on the unique needs of the operator and the flight.

- Advanced, real-time weather planning: the METAR and TAF widgets are the first of many dynamic widgets available within the Izon dashboard, providing operators up-to-the-second airport weather conditions from any airport around the globe and creating efficiencies in flight planning and fuel usage.

- Crew and passenger data management: the Contacts application manages the logistical and personal data of everyone on board, keeping everything from passports, visas, contact information and more readily available at a moment's notice.

- Additional security and improved productivity: coming early next year, multi-factor authentication (MFA) capabilities that blend seamlessly with Izon's single sign-on feature to verify user identity without the hassle for multiple passwords across several applications, saving time, increasing security control and improving productivity.

Izon customers currently have access to Collins' ARINCDirect flight support and connectivity services as well as the recently launched Calendar Exchange application, an intelligent app to plan, manage and connect a flight department's entire aviation ecosystem. As the Izon platform grows, the portal will allow for additional Collins and third-party applications to share and exchange data.

The company has also achieved a technical standard order (TSO) for its combined vision system (CVS), that provides clarity to pilots in all types of weather to confidently and securely navigate aircraft through low visibility situations.

Collins' advanced CVS algorithms blend the full enhanced vision system (EVS) image and synthetic vision system (SVS) into a single conformal view, creating the best possible image on the head-up display (HUD) and primary flight display (PFD) that pilots use to safely and efficiently navigate through challenging environments.

“TSO certification is an important step in our journey to provide dynamic CVS technology to customers who rely on our vision systems to guide them through low visibility situations in every stage of flight,” says general manager of vision systems Craig Brown. “Whether it's poor weather, smoke, dust, demanding terrain or busy airports, CVS clearly and automatically displays the critical visual information pilots need to safely operate their aircraft.”

CVS brings together Collins' proven HUD, PFD, SVS and EVS technologies, to present the best view to pilots. Advanced algorithms detect and extract real-time features from the complete EVS image, such as from the company's EVS-3600 multi-spectral EVS sensor, and integrate them with feature-rich SVS which accurately presents terrain, obstacles, airports and runways, independent of the visibility conditions. These CVS images are displayed conformally on the HUD and in colour on the PFD, providing clarity through low-visibility conditions like smoke, fog and darkness.

The CVS is a single enhanced view, enabling pilot visibility far beyond what the eye can see. This greatly improves situation awareness, reduces workload by eliminating the need for manual switching between vision systems and enables maximum operational credit by allowing aircraft to continue all the way to the runway surface in low visibility scenarios rather than necessitating a go-around. CVS is ready to support these future operations, such as EFVS take off and EFVS approaches in lower visibilities.