5 year anniversary on 12 April 2010
The issuance of a Supplementary Type Certificate (STC) is not normally an event that we commemorate years later… except of course if the STC is the first instance in Europe of Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications (CPDLC) using VDL Mode 2 being approved on an aircraft type.
I this case, EASA accorded the STC to the Airbus A300F4-608ST and the date was 12 April 2005.
EUROCONTROL’s Petal trials followed by LINK2000+ were groundbreaking activities that proved the technical and operational feasibility of CPDLC on VDL Mode 2 while also creating the basis for interoperability between the US and European digital link services.
The Airbus STC was an important milestone recognizing the maturity of the system. In subsequent years many other aircraft types received similar certification, all important milestones in their own right but the first one stands out as a beacon of success certainly worth remembering with pride.
