Celsius and Saab invest in systems for safer air and sea traffic

Citation

(1999), "Celsius and Saab invest in systems for safer air and sea traffic", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 71 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1999.12771cab.033

Celsius and Saab invest in systems for safer air and sea traffic

Celsius and Saab invest in systems for safer air and sea traffic

Keywords Acquisition, Celsius, Saab, Safety

Celsius and Saab are each acquiring 50 per cent of GP&C Sweden AB from the Swedish Aerospace Corporation. GP&C Sweden AB develops and markets a system for transferring position and identity information between aircraft and ships. The acquisition will provide the companies with a strong platform for further development, manufacture and marketing in a segment that is expected to see rapid expansion in the coming years.

The orientation of GP&C Sweden AB has mainly been applications shipping. In 1998, the company had a turnover of SEK 8 million. Activities will be co-ordinated with the existing operation carried on jointly by Celsius and Saab in this field under the product name LINCS, which has mainly been oriented towards aircraft applications.

The LINCS and GP&C products are based on a Swedish patent. They utilize GPS (global positioning system) to determine the operator's own position, which is transmitted together with identification data and other information to other users of the system within range of the system's radio equipment. From an aircraft with a monitor showing a map display, it is thereby possible to see the positions of all other aircraft equipped with the system as long as they are within radio range. There is no need to log into the system. Instead, operators are connected and automatically allocated a time window within which data are transferred.

Lars Bergholtz, currently purchasing manager at Saab AB, Commercial Aircraft, will be appointed president of the company. The chairman will be Ingvar Johansson, head of professional management systems at Celsius.