Raytheon Technologies subsidiary Collins Aerospace has signed an agreement to acquire aviation data company FlightAware. FlightAware, which provides “global flight tracking solutions, predictive technology, analytics and decision-making tools,” will be joining Collins’ avionics strategic business unit as part of the company’s information management services portfolio. An expected closing date and the financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Interesting that two big-name aviation products of the digital age came from Houston. ForeFlight and FlightAware are both from that area. Both started as garage operations, and both have now been acquired by a major long-standing aerospace corporation.
One of the really cool features of FlightAware’s business case is the fact that virtually all of those “tens of thousands of receivers” feeding their system are sited and provided with free internet access by us aviation enthusiasts. In many cases the enthusiasts also provided the receivers themselves.