The tailBeaconX replaces a rear navigation light and combines a transponder, ADS-B Out, satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) GPS, and a rear LED position light. The company is working with the FAA for approval of supplemental type certificates for numerous general aviation aircraft models. Approvals of STCs are expected in the first quarter of 2021, uAvionix said in a January 26 news release.
A preorder discount of $500 was also announced, making the tailBeaconX available for $2,499. The company also is offering pricing incentives for bundling the tailBeaconX with the AV-30-C digital primary flight display.
The tailBeaconX is “designed as a globally compliant, easily installed ADS-B Out solution” for GA and urban air mobility vehicles that meets “current and future 1090 MHz ADS-B mandates,” uAvionix said. The tailBeaconX was “built to offer maximum compatibility with both ground and space-based ADS-B receivers,” and was “extensively tested with Aireon and Nav Canada,” showing “significantly increased performance levels” over “traditional bottom-mount antenna installations,” the announcement said.
“By getting ahead of numerous impending international mandates we are ‘future proofing’ aircraft, and enabling safe operations in areas that were simply ‘off the radar’ previously,” uAvionix Chief Operating Officer Ryan Braun wrote in an email to AOPA, describing the tailBeaconX as “groundbreaking transponder technology” that represented the product of years of research and development.
In the company’s new release, Braun detailed the advances by noting that “combining a LED rear position light replacement, a 1090 MHz Mode S ES ADS-B Out transponder, SBAS GPS position source, and a dipole antenna into a single package was a major feat for our team—resulting in major cost reduction to our customers.”
Braun added that the 140-gram-weight unit takes up no critical panel space and incorporates its own antennas, simplifying a path to ADS-B compliance for many aircraft.
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