The expansion of the hangar is in direct correlation to the announcement at MEBA of the signing of Comlux America’s first wide body completion, an A330 aircraft based in the Far East. This aircraft will be the 9th interior completion for Comlux America overall. The new hangar expansion, will include an extension to the existing facility, which was first inaugurated in 2012. The expansion will take approximately 6 months to complete and will increase the total size of the hangar from 128,000 sq. ft. to 157,000 sq. ft. The new facility will be able to house 1 wide body and up to 4 narrow body aircraft simultaneously.

(L to R): Mayor Greg Ballard, Mayor of Indianapolis; President Mitch Daniels, current President of Purdue and former Governor of Indiana; Al Kite, Chairman of Kite Realty; Victor Smith, Secretary of Commerce and Scott Meyer, CEO Comlux America.

“We are now capable of doing any type of narrow or wide body completions, making us an even stronger player in the industry and on an equal playing field with our biggest competitors,” said Richard Gaona, Chairman and CEO of Comlux the Aviation Group. “As we have continued to tell the world our intentions to expand and grow, this reiterates how serious we are about our future and maintains the Comlux reputation as one of the best completion and service centers in the world.”

First FANS project on Challenger 601

In further news, Comlux has announced the successful installation and certification of the first FANS program on a Challenger 601 aircraft. For Comlux, this comes on the heels of receiving the STC in March 2015, for installing FANS capable equipment in the entire 600 series aircraft.

Scott Meyer, CEO of Comlux America stated, “The Challenger CL-600 airframes represent a large segment of our services division. We are now able to offer our customers a solution that will allow them to operate in an environment that requires FANS and Link 2000+ capability. We are proud to be the very first company to have been awarded this STC and for the success of the first program.”

Comlux will also soon be able to announce another FANS installation and certification as the second 601 aircraft for FANS is currently in work in Indianapolis and scheduled to be delivered in 2015. The FANS STC project installs and certifies the equipment required for operation in airspace requiring Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC). Comlux America has partnered with multiple suppliers to provide FANS to our customers by utilizing equipment provided by Universal Avionics, ICG (International Communications Group, Inc.), and L-3 Aviation Recorders.

“Comlux America demonstrates their progressive avionics vision in completing their Challenger 600/601/604 FANS STC,” said Bruce Bunevich, Universal Avionics Great Lakes Regional Sales Manager. “The Challenger fleet gains significant international functionality when upgrading with Universal Avionics SBAS-FMS and UniLink UL-800/801 CMU,” he added. “Universal Avionics is pleased to have Comlux America as an Authorized Dealer supporting this noteworthy STC achievement.”

“We have worked very closely with Comlux on this project and are extremely pleased to now add the Challenger 601 to the growing list of aircraft equipped with FANS over Iridium systems featuring our NxtLink components,” said Tim Rayl, ICG’s senior vice president of Sales and Marketing.