Crane Aerospace & Electronics announced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for Crane’s SmartStem Wireless Tire Pressure System for Learjet 40 and 45 aircraft. The certification for the Learjet 40/45 system adds to the growing list of SmartStem Tire Pressure Sensors already certified for use on a variety of other business jets including Cessna Citation Sovereign, Citation X, Dassault Falcon 50, and Bombardier Learjet 60. In addition, SmartStem is certified on several commercial aircraft including the Boeing 777, 787 and Bombardier Q-Series models. Crane is in the process of certifyingSmartStem on additional business, regional, and large commercial aircraft.
To fit an aircraft with SmartStem technology, the existing tire inflation valve stem is simply replaced with a SmartStem tire pressure sensor, which, in addition to serving as the inflation valve, contains special electronics. SmartStem sensors communicate tire pressure, temperature and other stored information wirelessly to a Handheld Reader, making tire pressure measurement simple and quick while at the same time creating unique data records which can be used as part of a tire management program. In addition, since this information is communicated wirelessly and does not require the removal of the valve cap, no gas is lost during routine tire pressure checks.
