Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc. receives Delta Air Lines, Inc. Award for NextGen Flat Panel Display System and Flight Management System Turnkey Upgrade to its MD-88 and MD-90 Aircraft Fleet

Upgrade to reduce MD-88/-90 fleet CO₂ emissions by 80 million pounds annually and noise footprint by more than 50%

EXTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Delta) placed an order today for more than $60 million with Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISSC) for a complete Systems Integration, Dual GPS Navigation and Cockpit Avionics upgrade of Delta’s MD88 and MD90 aircraft. IS&S will supply all the equipment and installation kits. Specially trained IS&S installation teams will remove existing equipment and install all the LRUs, on site, and prepare the aircraft for return to service. It is anticipated that this turnkey modification will take fewer than six days

“I am very pleased with the opportunity to work with Delta on this important program. This advanced system is an important milestone that confirms and endorses our 5 year development efforts of a Next Generation Flight Management System”

This Delta Air Lines order for a fleet wide retrofit of MD-88/-90 aircraft will provide those aircraft with full RNP, RTA, and GPS (Required Navigational Performance, Required Time of Arrival, and Global Positioning System) capabilities with similar efficiency and performance to the newest production aircraft. In addition, the flight deck integration eliminates legacy CRT and Flight Management avionics, leverages recently developed advanced technology, and provides the flexibility to install future upgrades. The ISSC system includes an advanced flight management system, an integrated standby system, and primary flight displays. The system implements Data Link and ADS-B capabilities.

“I am very pleased with the opportunity to work with Delta on this important program. This advanced system is an important milestone that confirms and endorses our 5 year development efforts of a Next Generation Flight Management System,” said Geoffrey Hedrick, Chairman and CEO of Innovative Solutions & Support.

IS&S’s advanced Flight Management System and Global Positioning System Receivers have been selected in all three market segments of Air Transport, Military and Business Aviation. IS&S supplies Flight Management solutions to the commercial market for B-737, MD-80, MD-88 and MD-90. IS&S supplies the military market for C-130, L-100 and the Business market for the Eclipse E500 and E550 aircraft. These flight management systems are amongst the industries most advanced aircraft performance and navigation solutions. The dual IS&S precision Beta 3 GPS navigation system provides three-dimensional position and velocity information accurate to 10 feet. The IS&S dual redundant, RNP compliant Flight Management System continuously computes the aircraft flight path and updates steering commands to the flight crew and flight control system twenty times a second.

The RNP and GPS capabilities will enable the Delta MD-88/-90 aircraft to fly shorter flight paths and optimum idle-thrust descents, thereby reducing fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and noise levels.

“We are delighted that Delta Air Lines has chosen Innovative Solutions and Support to upgrade its MD-88/-90 fleet,” said Shahram Askarpour, President of Innovative Solutions & Support. “The Innovative Solutions & Support Cockpit/IP® offering provides cost-effective solutions for upgrading legacy avionics platforms with state-of-the-art technology and brings NextGen capabilities to the older generation air-transport aircraft.”

“Adding RNP and GPS is a significant step in the future for the NextGen air traffic control system,” continued Askarpour. “This upgrade will reduce fleet CO₂ emission by an estimated 80 million pounds annually and the noise footprint of the MD-88/-90 aircraft by more than 50%.”

The IS&S system will provide further operational benefits to Delta, including standardized flight deck to support NextGen requirements, increased operational flexibility and reliability, improved dispatch and on time arrival availability and simplified maintenance. In addition the system will provide enhanced safety through improved situational awareness, and reduced crew workload.

The upgrade for the MD-88/-90 is adaptable to other aircraft types to facilitate compliance with NextGen requirements, including CPDLC, RNP, RTA, LPV and ADS-B and to provide substantial power and weight savings. The economic benefits of the upgrade are to shorten trip times, thereby reducing fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions.

This program complements the IS&S FPDS either under contract or installed successfully on more than 400 B757/B767 and Classic B737-300/-400/-500 aircraft. The Cockpit/IP for the MD-88/-90 employs IS&S’s open architecture flat panel display system that allows operators to upgrade their aircraft to a glass flight deck while leaving third party avionics installed in the aircraft. This design approach benefits the operator by minimizing the cost and down time of an upgrade. The flight management system supports satellite-based operations, which result in improved efficiencies, related to RNAV, RNP, and LPV procedures.

This award significantly increases the company’s backlog now approaching $100 million. In addition, the Company is the sole source provider on two new general aviation aircraft with product orders expected over the next decade.

About Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc.

Headquartered in Exton, Pa., Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc. (www.innovative-ss.com) is a systems integrator that designs and manufactures flight guidance and cockpit display systems for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s) and retrofit applications. The company supplies integrated Flight Management Systems (FMS) and advanced GPS receivers for precision low carbon footprint navigation.

Certain matters contained herein are “forward-looking” (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Because such statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those discussed in filings made by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of the factors that will determine the Company’s future results are beyond the ability of management to control or predict. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflects management’s views only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.