A few years ago, there was a meme circulating on the Internet that showed a cassette tape and a pencil sitting side by side, with a smug caption declaring, “Our children will never know the link between the two”. That is, of course, unless they work in IFE! Aircraft are expensive for airlines to buy and maintain, and not something to be updated on a whim. As such, most airlines have a percentage of their fleet that are flying with entertainment technologies prevalent in the 80s and 90s.
Stepping into the legacy support office at Stellar is like stepping back in time. Cassette reels softly whirr, a stack of CDs, cassettes, PRAM cards, and floppy disks pile on shelves, and each corner of the room is stacked with bulky, boxy technology.
Speaking to one of our resident legacy technology specialists, Kane Maccabei, he explains how he uses the Matsushita (Panasonic) Avionics Systems, with his domain including putting media onto cassette tapes, PCMCIA flashcards, CDI and iPRAM. Our team works on monthly cycles for our roster of clients, supplying part of their fleets with PRAM (Pre Recorded Announcements Message) and music for older Boeing (in particular B737s), Airbus (such as A320s) and Embraer. On top of their regular workload, the legacy specialists are consistently asked to do ad hoc jobs from airlines around the world that are struggling to find a company that can work with legacy technology. A quick overview of some of the systems Stellar regularly works with includes:
Cassettes
RD-AX7308, RD-AX7351, RD-AX7271, Sony Cam DBX cassettes and many more.
Flashcards
PCMCIA, RD-AX7360, RD-AX7675, RD-AX7370CF, Becker DP4100
iPRAM (Gold Cards or Compact Flash)
Z163H, Z165H
KID Systems
CDI
RD-AX7095-01, Embraer DMP-180, DMP-200
Our team of specialists loves a challenge, so if your airline is still operating legacy aircraft, get in touch today to see how we can offer you support.
