High Risk, High Cost Global Aerospace Wireless Industry Initiative

For_Immediate_Release:

Montreal, Canada October 2, 2007

The CANEUS organization is pleased to announce the establishment of an international “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the aircraft / spacecraft stakeholders from USA, Canada, Europe, Brazil and Japan. I welcome NASA's active participation in this collaborative Wireless Working Group initiative, says CANEUS Chairman, Dr. Milind Pimprikar.

The CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group is an international forum promoting the advancement of a broad range of wireless technologies for use by the global aerospace industry. Membership in the working group includes all the primary industry stakeholders, including new technology developers, system integrators, and aerospace end-users.

The CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group is the steward of the aerospace industry’s strategic and technology roadmap for wireless technologies. The CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group has established a collaborative environment wherein resources from member organizations are pooled to focus on high-risk, high-cost initiatives aimed at accelerating the infusion of emerging wireless technologies into aerospace applications.

The Working Group also acts as the broker for licensing intellectual property jointly developed by its collaborative consortia. System integration efforts focus on the development of the appropriate supply chain organizations. The CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group is the premier advocacy group addressing FAA regulations, the development of standards and certification requirements for RF/EMI/EMC, and RF spectrum management. The Working Group manages an industry portal for members’ technologies.

In summary, the CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group is chartered with creating and sustaining the entire “ecosystem” for wireless technologies for aerospace applications. Beginning with a strong participation by worldwide industry stakeholders, the Working Group will establish a robust supply chain to sustain the entire technology development pipeline. Partnership with key sponsoring agencies is critical. For example, in the USA, the CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group will partner with agencies directly involved in aerospace activities such as the FAA, NASA, DOD and DARPA, as well as agencies that are connected peripherally to aerospace activities such as NIST, NSF, DOT and NIH. Spin-off applications into other market sectors such as the petroleum and chemical industries; rail transportation, automotive and biomedical sectors will also be actively pursued. The following “Focus Areas” have been identified for initiating technology development projects.

CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group Focus Areas: • System Engineering and Integration to reduce cables and connectors in aircraft and spacecraft • Modular and accessible wireless architecture • International Spectrum usage for use of On-board Wireless

CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group Founding Organizations: Founding organizations for the CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group include CANEUS, NASA, Boeing Corp., EADS (Europe), Industry Canada, Mitsui Corp. (Japan), Embraer (Brazil).

Benefits of Participation in the CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group: Participating individual members as well as institutions are assured of the following benefits: • Cost and risk mitigation: Access to jointly developed pre-competitive technology and proprietary product development • Participation in collaborative technology, product and business development environments • Licensing access to a fair and equitable IP-brokering service • Reduced time-to-market and rapid system-level product deployment through supply chain collaboration • Participation in the development of global standards in cooperation with leading aerospace corporations and agencies worldwide • CANEUS-mediated “harmonization” of various national policies controlling collaborative international technology development • Access to CANEUS forums/conferences as key networking platforms for members to address relevant issues • Access to CANEUS’ global “technology portal” that identifies state-of-the-art wireless technologies as well as the technology developers and suppliers

CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group Structure, Scope and Funding: CANEUS Working Groups operate semi-autonomously with oversight from the parent CANEUS organization. Thus, the CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group will be responsible for electing an Executive Board for managing the Working Group’s various activities. The Board working in conjunction with the membership will appoint sub-committees responsible for the various thrusts that the CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group undertakes. Examples of such sub-committees include: Standards, R&D Requirements, Investments, Technology Roadmap, Industry Portals, and Industry Outreach sub-committees. The primary organization within the Working Group that recommends the formation of these sub-committees is the Stakeholder committee. The Stakeholder committee is derived from among the Working Group membership and has representation from the technology developers as well as the product-manufacturing supply chain.

The CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group will initiate new collaborative Pilot Projects in each of the “Focus Areas” identified above. The funding for each Pilot Project is derived from a combination of funding from sponsoring agencies and from the membership. Pilot Project funding constitutes 88% of the total expenditures of the CANEUS/NASA “Fly-by-Wireless” Working Group with 12% of the total expenditures being reserved for administrative overhead.

Contact:
Rick Earles, Executive Director, 1-330-774-3999
Milind Pimprikar, Chairman, CANEUS 1-514-499-3959
Click to see the introduction flyer of the CANEUS international wireless working group

About the CANEUS Organization: CANEUS (www.caneus.org) is a global non-profit organization serving the needs of the aeronautics, space and defense communities by fostering the coordinated, international development of MNT (Micro-Nano-Technologies) from concepts to systems. As a “hands on” organization, CANEUS is focused on the practical aspects of transitioning MNT rapidly and efficiently, by bringing together technology developers, aerospace end-users, governmental policy makers and investors across the world.