TAM, Täby Air Maintenance, has developed a smart and easy-to-install LPV-modification kit for the Saab 2000 (LPV – localizer performance with vertical guidance). The LPV- or RNP-approach-equipped aircraft will be mandatory in Europe in early 2024. TAM’s LPV-modification was certified by EASA on August 10, 2023, and now also by the FAA on October 25, 2023. The modification package, developed in-house in collaboration with Canadian CMC Electronics, is tailormade for the Saab 2000 and allows the cockpit layout to remain virtually unaltered, utilising current screens. New annunciators from Applied Avionics and nav-database update equipment from Advance Interface Technologies.
When installed, modified aircraft will be able to make high-precision approaches to any airport, where older ILS-systems have been replaced with a GPS-based LPV solution due to cost. Beginning this spring, the first system has been the subject of extensive live testing in a Saab 2000, equipped with a Collins Proline 4 system. As the first compliance flight tests were successfully performed, a parallel EASA-/FAA-certification programme has been ongoing, with the final EASA test flights done early this summer. Following the EASA certification, the corresponding FAA validation has now been performed.
“This exciting LPV-modification package, now on offer to Saab 2000 operators, actually began as a customer request. Now, the system is airborne and certified, thanks to our engineers’ deep knowledge of the Saab 2000, combined with a creative ability to ‘think outside the box’” says Pär Gulle, TAM Managing Director. “We see an interesting and potentially huge market open up, as the LPV-modification kit is designed in such a way that it is adaptable for installation in other aircraft equipped with Collins Proline 4.”
