Saving money is always a good thing. Saving hundreds of millions of dollars is even better. That’s what Mary L. and her team did for her military customer and their new constellation of satellites.

Mary’s military customer had begun to work on a ground station that would support satellites. As a Lead Principal Analyst, Mary led the team brought in to help find development cost savings. She did this by mapping efficiencies developed for the Network Operation Center of ARINC’s Global Network (AGN) to the requirements of the satellite ground station. Those efficiencies ultimately resulted in the AGN combining multiple communication systems. An entire room full of computers was replaced by a few 19 inch racks of servers and computing equipment. Mary relished the chance to learn about the new satellite constellation but even more so, the new technologies ARINC has developed to advance aerospace communications. In her words, "It was amazing to be able to deliver to the client this finished product and watch their gratitude for the work and the reduction in cost." Amazing doesn’t really seem to cover it, does it?

Think back to 1978. This was the year the Air Force launched the first GPS satellite and when Karl E., then an Air Force lieutenant, began working with the new technology. Although the program started with just one satellite in the sky Karl gathered some excellent experience.

Things have changed quite a bit in GPS since 1978. So when Karl talks about installing GPS upgrades at ARINC, he isn’t talking about affixing a handheld GPS unit to the windshield of an SUV. The vehicles in question are just a little larger than that.  Karl and his team have handled integrating GPS devices into McDonnell Douglas C-9s, Gulfstream C-20s, and the larger than life McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender. He also has to keep in mind that the GPS program is constantly changing—so upgrades, as you can image, are always needed. The upgrade process is ongoing, as is Karl’s focus on providing technical expertise to ensure that the design and integration is state-of-the-art, meeting his military customers’ requirements—both on land and sea.

So no, you haven’t done GPS like this.

Aaron G. knows his way around an aircraft. He started in the U.S. Navy, where he served eight years as an avionics technician on F-14 Tomcats. That position awarded him excellent experience to build upon and ultimately opened the door to a career at ARINC. When he left the armed forces, that experience made the decision to join the ARINC team an easy one.

Aaron has worked on variety of aircraft ranging from performing preventative and corrective maintenance on the F-14 Tomcat to performing aircraft data link upgrades on the Boeing 747 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. So, of course, he was right at home when his military customer tasked ARINC to completely modernize the cockpit of their aging aircraft. Deemed one of Aaron’s favorite projects at ARINC, his team set to work, removing the antiquated avionics and replacing them with a fully-integrated digital avionics suite and autopilot. He served as the Avionics System Upgrade Project Manager, leading a team of 15 people to the successful completion of the 18-month undertaking. Aaron saw the project through from receiving customer requirements to initial concept to prototyping and obtaining final FAA approval via the Supplemental Type Certificate process.

When asked about what makes employment enjoyable at ARINC, he claims that "...the answer is simple—it’s all about a team sharing the same common vision and ultimate goal and working together at each step along the way to achieve that goal."

A properly maintained supply chain is crucial in any military operation. ARINC’s Todd H. has made asset tracking his top priority, and he’s using 21st-century tech to get the job done.

Long gone are the days of cargo passing through single checkpoints with fixed infrastructure. By employing wireless mesh tags, Todd is working on a solution to more easily track and manage containers, weapons and anything else under transport. He’s creating a wireless mesh tracking system that uses GPS coordinates to pinpoint the location of vital military cargo—every single piece of that cargo. Each container’s tag tells the military where the item is, globally, but also tells them what is in the container. This kind of new innovation, called Asset Assure, will help provide needed efficiencies and higher levels of security to the military supply chain.

Red eyes, circle trips, open jaws—all common lingo for the frequent flyers who are masters of tracking down their connecting flight departing gates. They seem to be able to scan a flight board to find their flight info within seconds. But can you imagine the immeasurably more difficult job taking place behind the scenes on the other side of those flight boards, especially if the airport serves 90 airlines and 46.1 million people?

Enter Ray J. It was Ray’s job, along with multiple team members, to install ARINC’s MUSE (Multi-User System Environment). This cutting-edge system basically ended the need for dedicated airline kiosks and stations. The software pulls together all the disparate information from each airline and their related services so that a single client PC can handle multiple carriers. Ray has installed over 1,200 workstations and trained his clients on this new product in Hong Kong and, most recently Singapore.

Currently working from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport as a senior system analyst, Ray is still dealing with big numbers. He manages over 300 work stations, and when you add in the scanners, computers, flight information displays, the grand total is about 5,000 pieces of equipment that demand attention. For Ray, it turns out there really never is a dull day.

If we’ve learned one lesson over the last few years, it’s that money matters, big time. Kathy P., who works as a program manager for ARINC’s Airport Technology Center, probably knows this better than most people, as she is charged with keeping tabs on the budgets of ARINC’s internal customers.

Currently, the ARINC Airports Technology Center (AATC) is handling four capital projects along with a number of matrixed projects. Kathy makes sure AATC stays within their budget, both time-wise and money-wise. How? Kathy created a new set of reports that helped her team keep better track of budgets which has lead to significant savings for ARINC. In addition, her team helps support bids and proposals for new projects—keeping up with a challenging number of requests from across the globe. Kathy and her team are true masters of financial management.

Software developers, listen up. Before ARINC, Ana D. spent time on such lofty projects as developing space station software. But now, as a Senior Principal Engineer, Ana has the opportunity to handle entire software development projects—from start to finish.

A recent project began with interviewing the team’s internal customer (something that few developers get the privilege of doing) and using the results of the interview to produce the project’s requirements. ARINC and its customers were in need of a new program that would allow clients to review, for instance, all messages passing between the on-ground flight crews and the control tower for a specific flight. After her team established the requirements, they completed the design phase. Finally, Ana coded and successfully launched the software. Ana says it best, “Today I scope requirements, tomorrow I write code. Very few places allow you to own work on a project like this from start to finish.” To sum up Ana’s words, ARINC is a place where you can see projects through.

Elvis Presley fans are likely familiar with the now legendary tale of the Fool’s Gold Loaf. As the story goes, the King was craving the sandwich so much that he ordered his private jet to fly him from Memphis to Denver in the dead of night so he could satisfy his late-night craving. The owner of the restaurant famous for making the sandwich met Presley at the airport with a fresh batch of sandwiches for Presley, his flight crew and entourage.

Now how does Elvis have anything to do with ARINC? Ryan F. could probably explain. After all, he was a member of the team who built ARINC’s Business Aviation International Trip Planning Service. This service delivers to each client tailored flight planning, logistics support, communications, flight clearances, ground transportation and yes, even in-flight catering. The ARINC Direct team works with some interesting clientele, from heads of state and foreign diplomats, to corporate executives and the entertainment industry’s elite. According to Ryan, a manager for the Business Aviation Solutions unit, ARINC arranges almost everything that a private or corporate jet would need—flight plans, weather packages, regulatory clearance, ground crews, security, ground transportation, fuel, permits, catering.

And that Fool’s Gold Loaf? The ARINC Direct team can probably get that, too.

In his 20+ years at ARINC, Staff Principal Engineer Omar P. has seen his fair share of out-of-the-ordinary aeronautics projects. Approving Boeing E-4 design plans on behalf of the FAA may seem like something any old engineer gets to do, but you might not know that the E-4 is not your typical, run-of-the-mill aircraft. Omar and his team completed a number of aircraft upgrades, including new instrument panels that went from steam gauges to all glass equipment, making the cockpit more user friendly for the pilot.

And if approving E-4 designs isn’t cool enough, Omar has also had the chance to make improvements to expensive business jets used by celebrities and royalty. Working around a cabin of gold and silk, “it’s an interesting day when the owner makes you wear booties,” says Omar. Talk about not scratching the paint.

Anja B.’s career has literally spanned the globe. After getting her start in Switzerland as a flight attendant, Anja went on to become a full-fledged pilot, flying throughout Europe. It was her experience in the aviation industry that finally brought her to ARINC.

She came to the United States in 2004 and began working as a Flight Coordinator for ARINC Direct. This service delivers to each customer tailored flight planning, logistics support, communications, overflight permits, ground transportation, and more. Anja remembers putting her talents to work for a particularly noble cause, the 2010 Special Olympics. Cessna, a long-standing ARINC customer, lined up a number of Cessna owners and their crew in an effort to provide volunteer flights for Special Olympics athletes to arrive in Lincoln, NE from all over the U.S.   Anja and her ARINC colleagues pitched in by coordinating hundreds of flights for these athletes to compete in the Special Olympics.

With thousands of flights every day and millions each year, it’s easy to see the potential payoff behind Sr. Staff Analyst Angelica L.’s efforts to maximize the efficiency of these flights. Angelica is responsible for the ACARS^® (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) Program in Latin America, and has led the RVSM (Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums) monitoring program in the region for seven years. RVSM essentially lowers the minimum vertical distance required between airplanes in flight creating new flight levels.

The effect of Angelica’s work is staggering. ARINC has significantly increased the number of ACARS^® stations in Latin America and the Caribbean expanding the number of ground stations to nearly 150. Similarly, after initially starting with no RVSM market share, Angelica and the ARINC RVSM team have grown the market share to 90%. Angelica’s ACARS^® team has their work cut out for them beyond just day-to-day maintenance, operations and customer service. With regional, political and economic challenges confronting them, the team must work daily in order to comply with complex regulations and requirements in the region. But that hasn’t stopped Angelica’s infectious attitude. “I am very proud of being part of an excellent team that is always willing to give the extra mile. Aviation in Latin America is growing fast. This means new challenges, goals and a lot of work, which I really enjoy.”

For all the work ARINC does to help clients work harder, smarter, and faster having internal systems that can keep up with today's innovations is as equally important. Enter Scott M. Scott currently administers over 200 servers at ARINC, a big job. And to add to his already full schedule, Scott and his team have been working on virtual plans for ARINC's IT infrastructure. And by virtual, we mean virtualization. Scott and his team recently consolidated 75 physical servers to a mere 10 interactive virtual hosts and have long-term plans to continue to consolidate most of the remaining physical servers.

From project inception, design and now execution, Scott has been and will continue to be a big part of the decision making process that drives this virtual beast forward. And as if tackling this project wasn't enough, Scott still helps troubleshoot daily IT questions and issues, continues to plan the virtual server migration for other select ARINC locations and most recently started testing application virtualization through Citrix, to name a few. Saving money and lowering your corporate energy footprint—that's one well-oiled machine.

ARINC does airports and aviation. ARINC does security. ARINC does public safety. So, is it any surprise that ARINC manages one of the world’s largest private computer networks?

It’s called the ARINC Global Network, and Scott F. is one of the people who makes sure it’s running properly. Scott, who’s been with the operations center for about a decade, helps ensure that the ARINC Global Network, which includes some the nation’s most crucial airports, exceeds 99.99% uptime. It’s a demanding job, to be sure, and one that is ever-changing. The network Scott and his team manage handles all types of aviation communications—sometimes things as minor as relaying the score of the world cup games, but can be as important as an aircraft position report. “I never know what I am going to walk into each day,” Scott says, “and that keeps this job really interesting.”

American heroes whose jobs are to keep us safe—police officers, firefighters, soldiers, doctors. ARINC engineers? Count on it. Marvin I. has worked as an engineer for the U.S. Air Force, as well as, Westinghouse, but now calls ARINC his home. And Marvin helped to lead an effort to integrate the various communications systems used by emergency services and public transportation and safety organizations.

You see, police and fire radio systems, for example, often don’t use a unified communications system. Imagine being an AT&T customer who couldn’t call a Verizon customer, that’s the issue that these communication systems are facing—one emergency provider may receive a call while another doesn’t. ARINC set out to tackle this problem, and Marvin helped develop a solution that connected over 250 radio systems, allowing everyone within the system mutual communication.

This solution made a big, real-world impact when a school bus became stuck in a snowstorm and lost contact with its dispatcher. But with ARINC’s communications system in place, the bus was able to connect with police and orchestrate a rescue. For Marvin his job is about the innovative technology and a little more, "We are fundamentally changing public safety communications, yes, but even more than that, we are helping save lives."

Imagine unifying the software systems that handle the trolley, light rail and train services of a major metropolitan area—then do it again a second time.  ARINC has done this for both San Diego and Los Angeles, and Jill O. has witnessed it first hand for SANDAG’s rail system. For this project, Jill followed the lead of the Project Manager to learn the ins and outs of project management and how to ensure the project runs smoothly, on time and within budget. She’s since gone on to work as a Project Controller, overseeing the budget on a new project but says she is, “by way of circumstance, really just a jack of all trades.”

Jill has, in fact, worn many hats at ARINC. She started as an administrative temp but moved on to handle Quality Assurance and then Configuration Management before settling on becoming Project Controller. Based on Jill’s growth in her eight years at ARINC, one can only guess what job title she will hold next.

The mighty Schuylkill River flows through the heart of Philadelphia. Care to take a guess at how many gallons that is? Actually, don’t—it’s a lot, enough to flood the entire city if the subway tunnel was destroyed in a terrorist attack. To make sure that doesn’t happen, Bill S., Manager of Systems Integration, was part of an ARINC effort to maximize security around the tunnel. Bill and ARINC brought all the toys—thermal cameras, intrusion detection systems, video analytics and more. And this is just one of the many opportunities Bill has had to bring custom-built security solutions to big-time customers.

Bill started this security systems integration group with two people and has since seen it grow to twenty. With projects ranging from nuclear power plant security to airport perimeters there has been plenty of growth opportunities and chances to try new things. This is what keeps Bill motivated, the chance to use technology to innovate security measures that keep us all safe—that and he gets to play with thermal cameras.

Look up the word security, and you might find a description of ARINC. Ok, so that’s not true, but ARINC does take its security seriously. It’s a huge part of everyday life at ARINC—with government projects comes specific guidelines and protocol to make sure sensitive information is protected.

As one of ARINC’s facility security officers (FSOs), Shanna V. is in charge of visit requests for cleared employees, visit requests for vendors, following contract security orders and making sure her San Diego facility is running safely. Every year, Shanna and her fellow FSOs gather together to discuss victories, refine strategies, and plan for the future. In short, ARINC’s many FSOs unite in order to brainstorm ways to improve the company’s DoD security solutions and keep it top of mind. Naturally, organizing all the necessary accommodations for such a conference is no small feat, but Shanna handled it with poise. Moreover, Shanna organized the first FSO conference not held at ARINC’s Annapolis headquarters, arranging meals, lodging and speakers. These yearly meetings are important to Shanna and her colleagues, because every year, every ARINC location is inspected and rated by the Defense Security Service. But even more so, says Shanna, “Security is important because if we don’t follow the correct procedures and guidelines we can potentially put the company and the public at risk.”

Talk to software engineer Francis N. for even a short amount of time and you’ll see that he lives for software development. Like many of ARINC’s software programmers, Francis enjoys the opportunity to work a project from design to execution, a rare treat in his field, “I try to bring the same enthusiasm that I had at the beginning of the job through to the end.”

Designing, coding, and testing error-free software is intense enough, but Francis’s group at ARINC is responsible for providing critical infrastructure protection systems to nuclear power facilities, mass transit, government facilities, military installations, airports, seaports, and education campuses; unparalleled execution is vital, and there is no second-best. In addition his own drive to produce exceptional work, Francis credits ARINC’s cultivation of an incredible team-oriented atmosphere as one of the key reasons for the company’s success in security software industry. There is true power in a job well done.