Expect More: Spider X Delivers

Nicola Tims
September 13, 2020

It’s often hard to believe that aircraft tracking was once only attainable for the top tier of aviation. Less than a decade ago, innovations in the sector typically involved heavy boxes and expensive installations — the cost and complexity of these impeding mainstream adoption.

Spidertracks came to market with fresh thinking and a simple product philosophy that broke down these barriers and revolutionised aircraft tracking. Today, tracking has industry-wide adoption — the benefits of increased safety and operational efficiencies have seen Spidertracks become the gold standard.

The same barriers that existed for flight tracking in the GA sector, still exist today for flight data monitoring. Installation and complexity of hardware into the aircraft came at a significant cost; not just the purchase price for the installation; not just time; but also, the complexity of accessing that data and getting it off the aircraft.

Technicians weren't trained to pull out an SD card.

We’ve heard stories where teams can't get the data [off the aircraft], which means there are ‘information islands’ on a lot of a lot of devices that aren't being used, just because of the basic practicality of pulling out a storage medium.

Recent technological advancements have made data and information much more accessible — which means insights into aircraft activity now has the potential to be more than just a dot on the map.

Our latest revolutionary device makes that potential a reality. Spider X, announced at Heli-Expo 2020 in Anaheim, California, brings richer, more insightful data to the GA market and is changing the face of aviation safety as we know it.

Building on its predecessors, Spider X provides more capability and insights with the introduction of AHRS data — enabling you to not only know where your aircraft is, but also how it’s being flown.

It makes flight data available to all operators as a simple to install, plug-in-play, lightweight solution. Mission-critical data such as location, speed, altitude, and direction is sent and received via a dedicated Iridium® satellite channel, with the assurance it is delivered on-time, every time, without exception. There’s no requirement of retrieving an SD card off an aircraft, plugging in cables, or removing any hardware — it all happens automatically.

Spider X was designed and developed in-house by our team based in New Zealand. It’s packed with forward-thinking technology such as cellular, Bluetooth, USB-C, and serial port interface capability, to provide an ideal platform for future development and third-party integration.

“We’re carving out a unique opportunity for a digital transformation within a traditionally analogue industry, by redefining the way data is accessed and received from an aircraft, delivering more usable insights and helping solve problems the industry faces,” notes Dave Blackwell, CEO, “The biggest opportunity we have is to make it a practical reality. We are very excited about the next chapter in the journey.”

Our evolution began with locating a downed aircraft but now seeks to prevent an accident from occurring through the use of Internet of Things, machine learning, computer vision and some secret-sauce, making the aviation community a safer place to live and operate in.

Spider X is now shipping worldwide! Order yours today here.

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