Just after the 100th anniversary of its founder’s birth – Jan. 28, 1907 – Arapahoe County-based Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. is building on his historic aviation-chart business by flying toward a high-tech future.
Pilots still use paper flight charts derived from the hand- written navigational notes Elrey Jeppesen made in the 1930s. To supplement them, the company is developing digital charts and diversifying into the rail and marine industries.
Its growing marine division got a boost Monday when Jeppesen’s parent company, Boeing, closed on its acquisition of electronic maritime-chart company C-Map.
The move toward diversification started in earnest in 2003, Jeppesen president Mark Van Tine said.
“We sat back and said, ‘Are we going to continue to grow vertically in aviation or is there a need and an opportunity to take this into other market segments?”‘ Van Tine said. “We realized that the problems are virtually the same – the vessels are different, of course, but the need for accurate navigation information and optimization tools and also the need for digitization, digital solutions, are there.”
Boeing last year acquired Gothenburg, Sweden-based Carmen Systems, an airline and railroad crew-scheduling and disruption- management software company, making Carmen part of Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. and diversifying into the rail and logistics business.
The C-Map acquisition is another major step forward, and Jeppe sen has an advantage because of the economics of scale of its aviation business, Van Tine said.
“What we don’t have is the subject-matter excellence – people who really understand ship management – and so we’ve been hiring and acquiring those experts,” he said.
The growth is also dependent on regulation of the industry such as requirements for electronic- chart displays, and adaptation.
If better navigation can help ships cut several hours off their voyages, it could result in significant savings on fuel costs, Van Tine said.
“It’s really exciting,” he said. The marine segment could be so large, “it could create another Jeppesen.”
In aviation, Jeppesen’s flight charts are instrumental for major airlines and pilots around the world.
“No one within recent history has done as much for aviation as Elrey Jeppesen,” said retired United Airlines pilot Ted Wilkinson. “When you see pilots in the terminal, they’re always carrying a flight kit,” a rectangular case loaded with Jeppesen manuals and charts that they routinely use, particularly in bad weather.
Jeppesen also offers flight-planning and flight-operations services, aviation training, navigation systems and flight-planning software.
Van Tine said the company is taking practices learned from Elrey Jeppesen “and developing those into electronic forms.” The firm’s “electronic flight bag” puts flight charts on computer screens in the cockpit instead of just on paper.
Financially struggling U.S. airlines have not adopted the electronic flight bag as other segments of aviation have, but Jeppesen hopes that will change as airlines become profitable.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
ELREY JEPPESEN
Born: Jan. 28, 1907
Died: Nov. 26, 1996
Background: At age 14, he flew with a barnstormer, then earned his pilot’s license at 20. Flew for Varney Airlines and Boeing Air Transport as an air-mail pilot, taking notes as he flew on obstacles and airport layouts and gathering other useful data. In 1934, he founded Jeppesen & Co. to make navigational charts for pilots. Denver International Airport’s terminal is named for Jeppesen.
Read all about him: “Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book” by Terry L. Barnhart and Flint Whitlock (Savage Press, $24.95).
Jeppesen & Co.: The times, they are a-changing
1934: Jeppesen & Co. opens in Salt Lake City, selling instrument flying charts.
1941: Jeppesen moves the company to Denver.
1957: Expands to Frankfurt, Germany, to provide services to the Eastern Hemisphere. Denver continues to serve the Western Hemisphere.
1961: Times Mirror acquires Jeppesen, and eventually merges it with Sanderson Films.
1973: The first commercial airlines use Jeppesen’s electronic NavData.
1990s: Opens Australasia office.
1996: Opens China office.
2000: Boeing acquires Jeppesen; it becomes a subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Airlines.
2001: Opens Russia office.
2002: Introduces electronic flight-bag software and applications.
2005: Launches marine division, introducing the industry’s first integrated desktop flight-planning and navigation software suite.
2007: Completes acquisition of electronic maritime chart company C-Map.
Source: Jeppesen Sanderson Inc.
