Redbird Newsroom
Founder and largest shareholder, Jerry Gregoire, to focus full-time on design and strategy.
“Soon after starting Redbird Flight Simulations eight years ago, we realized that achieving our vision would take us far beyond engineering simulators and software development,” said Redbird Flight Simulation’s CEO Todd Willinger. “That’s why we’re thrilled to announce Craig Fuller as the new Chairman of the Board while our founder, Jerry Gregoire, will focus on expansion strategies, research, and new product development. This addition to our leadership team is exactly what we need to continue and manage our rapid growth.”
Overwhelming response met goals three weeks ahead of schedule, but supply can’t meet demand
“In preparing for this experiment, we planned for traffic averaging eight times normal,” said Jeff Van West, spokesman for the Skyport experiment to sell avgas for one dollar during October. “Actual response has been four times higher that that—over 30 times our normal volume. By the end of the first week, we’d reached our data collection goal for the entire month.”
How does fuel price really influence aviation activity? This October, a group of companies will use the Skyport aviation laboratory, in San Marcos, Texas, to find out.
“This experiment isn’t about the cost of avgas,” says Jeff Van West, Director of Redbird Media, and spokesman for the experiment. “It’s true that we’re selling avgas for $1 per gallon for the entire month of October. But we’re really using fuel price as a catalyst to stimulate activity and generate data. Of course $1 gas will increase flying activity, if by novelty alone. That’s not the point. The core question is: increase it by how much and for how long? A ten-fold increase says fuel price plays a huge role. A 40-percent increase? Maybe not so much. And if fuel price isn’t the barrier, what is?” Integral in the experiment will be data collected on all pilots fueling their aircraft at the Skyport, located at San Marcos Municipal Airport (KHYI).
Former AOPA Chief brings industry and organizational experience to Redbird’s leadership team
Redbird Chairman Jerry Gregoire today announced the appointment of former AOPA Chief, Craig Fuller, to the company’s Board of Directors. “Craig Fuller is the perfect addition to our leadership team, and we look forward to benefiting from his insights and experience,” says Jerry Gregoire, Chairman of the Board for Redbird Flight Simulations. “His leadership at AOPA has put him in touch with every facet of the aviation community. This is vitally important to Redbird, as we reach far beyond building flight-simulation equipment toward more complete training solutions, including the Redhawk training aircraft.”
Redbird Cygnus lets pilots in SimCom flight simulators see position, speed and altitude on any iPad app exactly as if they were flying in a real cockpit
The iPad has become a core tool for pilots, but its integrated GPS means an iPad in a simulator knows it’s on the ground rather than in flight. Redbird Cygnus changes this by connecting wirelessly to the iPad to send GPS information matching the position and velocity of the simulator. The result is an iPad that believes it’s in flight—and lets pilots practice using all the iPad’s tricks, including aircraft speed and altitude, position on charts, airspace awareness, terrain warnings, flight planning and more.
