West Star Aviation Offers True Blue Power TS56 Battery Upgrade for Embraer Legacy 450/500 and Praetor 500/600
Why It MattersLonger maintenance intervals and lower parts costs from third-party STC replacements let operators cut downtime without OEM involvement, shifting some maintenance economics toward supplemental suppliers.
What happened
West Star Aviation, working with Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics, is now offering operators of the Embraer Legacy 450/500 and Praetor 500/600 the True Blue Power TS56 Emergency Power Supply as a direct replacement for the original OEM standby batteries, part numbers 6450LS-00 and 7450LS-00. West Star acts as a Mid-Continent dealer for the units and supplies both the equipment and installation through its Embraer-experienced maintenance teams across its network of locations.
The TS56 replaces the traditional nickel-cadmium (NiCad) battery chemistry with nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), which eliminates the memory effect associated with NiCad batteries — a characteristic that can reduce usable battery capacity over time. The new units recharge using aircraft power, keeping the emergency supply fully charged and available. Where the OEM system requires an annual capacity check, the TS56 requires one only every two years, reducing scheduled maintenance events, labor, and aircraft downtime.
Operators do not need to replace both emergency batteries at the same time; units can be swapped one at a time provided the remaining battery stays in airworthy condition. The TS56 is priced at approximately half the cost of the OEM emergency power supply, the Supplemental Type Certificate data package is included with purchase, and installation can be folded into a scheduled maintenance event to limit additional downtime.
Industry impact & what to watch
Cases like this show how third-party STC suppliers compete against OEM parts by targeting the recurring costs of ownership — inspection frequency, labor hours, and downtime — rather than only the upfront purchase price. A battery priced at roughly half the OEM equivalent, paired with a capacity check moved from annual to biennial, changes the total cost an operator carries over the life of the part, not just the sticker price at installation.
This is how the aftermarket parts segment for business jets generally works: a dealer network with type-specific maintenance experience pairs an STC'd component with the ability to install it during an already-scheduled event, so the operator avoids a dedicated downtime slot. Allowing one-at-a-time replacement instead of mandating a matched pair further lowers the barrier to switching.
What remains to be seen is uptake across the in-service Legacy 450/500 and Praetor 500/600 fleets and whether other OEM-supplied emergency power components on these types draw similar third-party alternatives.
