The Innovative Solutions & Support ThrustSense autothrottle for the Beechcraft King Air 200 and 300 series turboprop twins is now approved in more than 40 countries worldwide.
The winner of the 2021 Flying Editors’ Choice Award gained supplemental type certificate (STC) approval under EASA and Transport Canada recently, as the company announced this week.
“We’re feeling a wave of greater acceptance in ThrustSense safety and performance by business aviation owners and operators on all seven continents,” IS&S said in a statement. “With the prospect of general aviation movements increasing significantly with pandemic recovery, we’re seeing there’s a greater focused attention by aircraft operators on further enhancing the King Air’s utility and value by reducing workload in their flight operations.
“ThrustSense is a great example of IS&S’s capabilities as a key player in providing needed technology to deliver cockpit automation to this next level.”
In addition to the U.S. and Canada, those EU countries following EASA compliance join other countries in accepting the IS&S autothrottle in the King Air series:
- Australia
- Argentina
- Brazil
- China
- Mexico
- Philippines
- South Africa
- Taiwan
The ThrustSense autothrottle incorporates the company’s LifeGuard Protection for performance similar to that of a fadec installation, in most all flight regimes, from the takeoff roll to landing, and including a go-around mode.
Flying recently flew a demo of the ThrustSense autothrottle in the company’s test bed King Air 200, including a VMC demonstration. The autothrottle reduces engine thrust on the good engine as the aircraft approaches VMC in order to mitigate the potentially fatal effect of a VMC-induced roll. The ThrustSense is also standard equipment on the new King Air 260 and 360 from Textron Aviation.
The autothrottle can be installed at Textron Aviation service centers as well as associated King Air service centers worldwide, in the countries where the STC has been approved.
