Virtual co-pilot
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Trained in computer science, Amir Tirosh has been an innovator in technology all of his working life. Some 30 years after his arrival in Brooklyn as a graduate student in technology forecasting, that applied skill at innovation drives the growth of AirGator Inc., the small Mount Kisco company he owns and whose digital electronic products guide pilots both in the air and at sea.
A native of Israel, Tirosh for 12 years ran an information technology consulting firm in lower ManhattanSmith Avenue. Later he “rode the dot-com thing,” developing software and hosting Web sites until shortly after the dot-com bubble burst around 2000. that served Wall Street companies “through the initial stage of the whole PC revolution,”™ he said last week at his office on
In the late ”™70s, Tirosh flew his first aircraft while serving in the Israeli Air Force. Years later, after moving his residence and consulting business to Westchester County, a network systems engineer he had hired, a flight instructor and former F-16 fighter pilot, “got me back into flying” on a trip to Danbury, Conn., he said. Tirosh now is an instrument-rated commercial pilot for both single-engine and multi-engine planes ”“ “so I could technically fly the space shuttle,” he noted. Business demands, however, might keep him grounded for that mission.
As a technology innovator and a pilot, “I was looking for something where I could marry vocation and avocation,” he said. He found that enterprise in a moment of frustration.
He had bought a Global Positioning System (GPS) product to use on his hand-held computer during flights. “I was looking for something interesting to do and I kept on being frustrated by this product that had promise but wasn”™t delivering,” he said. “So I decided to pursue that market.”       Â
Tirosh in 2001 began developing his company”™s first NavAir product, a moving map that uses real-time GPS for navigation and flight plans. In the first of several strategic business alliances, his company partnered with XM Satellite Radio to provide satellite-fed weather information to the cockpit for XM WX subscribers. Introduced to the market in 2003, the company”™s NavAir product line now also includes electronic copies of terminal approach plates for pilots that show GPS positions and altitudes, hand-held computer or PDA systems and electronic flight bags that replace the voluminous guidance information on paper carried by pilots.
“We were the first one to deliver the satellite weather feeds into the airplane, the first to show GPS position and altitudes on instrument approach procedures. We”™ve expanded from that into what”™s called electronic flight bags” ”“ maps, charts, approaches. “Today we are one of the leaders in the electronic flight bag market,” Tirosh said.
Though corporate cost constraints have left commercial airlines slow to adopt the electronic packages, they are used by “thousands” of private pilots and charter and freight operators, he said. “We”™ve got some really cool customers.” They include the U.S. Marine Corps, whose Osprey aircraft are equipped with AirGator systems for training and evaluation flights “to keep the pilots safe,” Tirosh said, the U.S. Navy, which uses the company”™s products on its Aegis test and development cruisers, and NASA, which uses NavAir on some of its space-shuttle training aircraft and astronaut transports.
Two years ago, AirGator formed a partnership with Sirius Satellite Radio to bring its marine weather services to the boating market. Introduced to the market about a year ago, the Mount Kisco company”™s WX Mate product delivers similar capabilities to navigators at sea as NavAir provides aircraft pilots. “For boat owners, we can tell you not just where the storms are, but sea surface temperatures, winds and waves,” Tirosh said.
The marine market already has grown to about 40 percent of the company”™s business. About 70 percent of those customers are recreational boaters and the rest are commercial fishermen, Tirosh said. Having formed partnerships with marine industry mainstays that include The Hinckley Co., Sea Ray and Raymarine Inc., AirGator aims to have more than 2,000 marine systems installed by the end of this year.   Â
The five-employee company hopes to be at $3 million to $5 million in revenue within a year, he said.
Tirosh said he is actively seeking more larger-company partners and investors “to bring in the capital and the muscle to enter the mass market.”
From air and sea, AirGator next will venture onto land, partnering with Motorola Inc. to bring GPS capabilities through phone systems mounted in commercial and delivery vehicles.
“What we really do is we do mobile computing, location-based services and context-awareness applications,” said Tirosh. “In simple terms, we know where you are. We know what you”™re interested in. We know what information you need to do your job or for the safety of your flight and we deliver that information to you.”