NBAA-BACE 2019

STORY BY– Dave Higdon

Source: Avionics News, December 2019

AEA MEMBERS SHINE WITH NEW AND EVOLVED PRODUCTS

The delegates in attendance at October's National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Las Vegas were greeted to a theme of innovation and outreach on sustainability.

Activities and advances announced by Aircraft Electronics Association members added depth to an event known more for its role as a launch point for new business aircraft, engines and services.

Industry buzz kicked into high gear the night before the show's official opening when Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. unveiled a new flagship business jet, the Gulfstream G700. The company revealed a full-scale mockup of the new aircraft, which will become the tallest, widest and longest cabin in the industry and can fly 7,500 nautical miles at Mach 0.85. And not surprisingly, the concept of urban air mobility was on full display in the exhibit hall.

As always, Avionics News was on-site at the show to listen and learn about the multiple new and evolved products unveiled at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Oct. 22-24. There were plenty of avionics companies with newsworthy announcements to share, so let's dive into the deep end and get to it.

Avidyne launches new Atlas FMS for legacy jets

What do you get when you take an Avidyne IFD550 all-in-one navigator/communicator and rotate it 90 degrees around its longitudinal axis, reorient its display screen, convert that display to a hybrid user interface to go with its new QWERTY keyboard and carry over many of the cutting-edge features of the IFD products? Avidyne calls the resulting flight management system “Atlas,” and it's due for approval in 2020. Thanks to Avidyne's Legacy Avionics Support Technology, integral to the entire IFD line, Atlas interfaces directly with Collins' Pro Line 21 and Honeywell's Primus integrated avionics systems - both from an era before precision GPS approaches - and brings sime new tricks to those old stacks.

Atlas comes equipped to provide SBAS, GPS, RNP and RNAV, LPV, LNAV, VNAV, LNAV-only, and approaches with vertical approach modes. Avidyne is pursing Federal Aviation Administration approval under TSO-C146c for full SBAS/LPV approach guidance according to Avidyne’s Tom Harper.

Among the many features carried over from the IFD models, Atlas' capabilities cover flight planning with one-touch departure, airway, and arrival navigation, as well as Avidyne's efficient GeoFill waypoint nomination, the QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen. The touchscreen doubles as a “hybrid” user interface, allowing control of the FMS functions as well as displaying moving-map, SiriusXM Weather or ADS-B In weather, traffic from TCAS, TAS, or ADS-B In, and geo-referenced Jeppesen approach plates and airport diagrams.

Avidyne designed Atlas to interface with a variety of EFISs, PFDs, CDIs, HSIs, remote sensors, and autopilots, as well as transponders, for which Atlas is also an approved position source for ADS-B Out.

Avidyne also carried over to Atlas many of the features popular with IFD users, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; a USB charging port; integration with ForeFlight and other EFB apps. A 16-watt VHF com is among the options, as are VOR, localizer, and glideslope receivers, and BendixKing radar display. TAWS-B is another option.

Base price is under $45,000 - and Atlas' dzus-rail mounts and size make it a candidate for replacing old, non-GPS FMS systems or adding the equipment to older business-turbine aircraft.

Aviator S series satellite communication system

Cobham highlighted its AVIATOR S-series satcom system, with compliance with FANS A/1 regulations and improved performance across the AVIATOR line of products.

Among the benefits: better utilization of the airspace environment, meaning that more aircraft can be safely squeezed into the airspace; and the ability to obtain and share operational data, such as fuel data and performance, making the aircraft a node on the network. Cobham's range of AVIATOR Satcom systems for the cabin enable voice and data connectivity over Inmarsat SwiftBroadband and Classic Services for all types and size of aircraft. Cobham stressed the ease of installation of its AVIATOR SwiftBroadband systems and their ability to deliver simultaneous high-speed data and highquality voice for applications including email. interne browsing, voice calls, data transmission, ISDN, smartphone connectivity and streaming video.

AVIATOR SwiftBroadband systems bring broadband connectivity to air transport, business jets and even unmanned aerial vehicles. AVIATOR 700D combines the SwiftBroadband services with classic safety services for the cockpit (CPDLC) to ensure that both passengers and crew are served from the same system, saving space and weight.

Business travelers can work from an office in the sky, while specialist government and military missions receive high-quality, fast and reliable data and voice services at all times.

Collins Aerospace launches business aviation's first digital oceanic plotting chart

Collins Aerospace Systems redefined flight operations for business aviation with the industry's first digital oceanic plotting chart for pilots. This new offering, available on the company's ARINCDirect iPad app, eliminates paper plotting charts and manual processes being used today for navigating oceanic airspace.

This new feature is included with all ARINCDirect flight planning subscriptions at no additional cost. It is already actively used by flight departments including Planet 9 Private Air, which owns and operates the largest global fleet of Falcon 7X aircraft.

The new digital plotting chart also includes a feature called Live Equal Time Points, or Live ETPs, and updates bearing, distance and arrival time constantly throughout the flight. Live ETPs are computed and updated for any scenario addressed with the flight plan including engine failure, depressurization and medical emergency. This completely eliminates the need for manual computations by the pilot so he or she can maintain a focus on flying.

Collins Aerospace also debuted its first-to-market 4K video offering on Bombardier's new Global 5500 and Global 6500 aircraft cabin. This new capability on Collins Aerospace's Venue

Cabin Management System provides customers sharper images, more vibrant colors, and a cinematic and immersive entertainment experience. Compared to a full HD 1080p image, 4K resolution provides four times the pixels, making for a clearer and more defined picture. Venue is currently the most fielded CMS with more than 1,300 aircraft currently equipped. Venue has been customized for Bombardier to best meet the needs of its passengers and to offer the same ultra-fast, flexible, reliable and intuitive system.

Garmin completes King Air access to G1000 NXi

The avionics powerhouse from Olathe, Kansas, announced the STC to install the G1000 NXi advanced integrated flight deck in the Textron Aviation Beech King Air C90 series of twin turboprops.

The addition of the C90 series to the STC for the NXi package completes Garmin's sweep of the entire King Air line, after earning approvals for the B200 and 350 series of this long-running product line.

Benefits of adding the 61000 NXi package include the addition of the Flight Stream 510 and Connext technology within the integrated flight deck, enabling wireless database transfer and two-way flight plan transfer. Additional features include visual approach guidance, SurfaceWatch, map overlay within the HSI, split-screen view on the MFD, as well as the option to view sectional charts and IFR low/high en route charts on the flight display.

The G1000 NXi also supports the display of ADS-B In traffic and FIS-B weather. The use of common connectors and same-size displays means aircraft owners and operators can easily upgrade to the G1000 NXi with minimal aircraft downtime and disruption of the panel.

Universal Avionics, an Elbit Systems Co.

Universal Avionics unveiled its latest wearable PFD system providing the pilot with the capability to navigate using a "Fly by Sight" system. The company debuted its latest advancement in the Fly by Sight flight deck concept at the 2019 NBAA Convention, a package which combines UA's Fly By Sight navigation system, itself a combination of the company's ClearVision SkyLens headwearable display and the company's recently unveiled Interactive FMS, or i-FMS.

This is the next generation in UA's drive to expand head-up operations, augmenting the real world through head-up technologies with line-of-sight (head-tracking) functionality that pilots can use to accomplish highly demanding tasks during critical phases of flight.

“We believe the future of flying should be simplified, automated, and more intuitive, utilizing new avionics techno- logies and systems," said CEO Dror Yahay. "At NBAA, we are demonstrating how integration between the FMS and a wearable HUD like the SkyLens can greatly improve the way pilots fly – reducing workload while maintaining high efficiency and heightened situational awareness."

This expansion of read-up flying uses sensors monitoring the point of attention of the pilot's eyes and a click-to-activate input that does not require the pilot to look down at anything.

The i-FMS is a software-based FMS designed on a flexible and open architecture system that can be hosted on a variety of hardware platforms. It enables new concepts in human-machine interface such as augmenting head-down displays with ClearVision head-up displays and head-wearable displays, allowing pilots to fly by sight.

Designed and built from the ground-up by Universal Avionics, a pioneer in FMS systems, the i-FMS tackles one of the main challenges pilots face today with FMS operations: the need to propose changes to the FMS during critical phases of flight such as takeoff and landing.

Normally, pilots are required to shift their attention from outside the cockpit window to the FMS display unit during these phases of flight, all to enter new data into the FMS and then validate that changes are correct —requiring last-minute updates and significant head-down operations. The i-FMS allows pilots to project waypoints and information from the FMS onto the real-world, superimposed on UA's HUD or SkyLens HWD.

This reporter sampled the combination at last year's NBAA Convention in Orlando, and it worked as advertised, allowing the pilot to select approaches, radio frequencies and more, then confirm and enter the info into the FMS with a button click.

When combined with the company's multispectral vision sensor, the views from an enhanced-vision sensor appears on the SkyLens view, as does the output from a synthetic-vision system program — visible and accurate no matter where the pilot looks.

The combination proves a helpful tool for night and instrument approaches.

True Blue Power's new fifth-generation lithium-ion batteries

The Wichita-based company, a unit of Mid-Continent Instrument Co. Inc., unveiled its fifth-generation lithiumion main-ship battery line, approved and used by Textron Aviation in the company's new Citation Longitude. Todd Winter, True Blue Power president, noted that two of the new batteries are among the 10 True Blue products flying on the new jet.

Among the items from True Blue are two DC-to-DC voltage converters, six DC-to-AC inverters and two of the newly approved intelligent batteries.

The lightweight batteries, two 11344 44-amp-hour models, arc but one model of True Blue's proprietary lithium-ion batteries. The TB44s each weigh a mere 51.7 pounds.

At 600%o lighter than the batteries they replace, thc11344s contribute to a weight reduction of 60 pounds, increasing the payload capacity and increasing the aircraft's cruising speed. All the new batteries sport an integral battery-check display and require no recurrent maintenance, cutting maintenance costs by 90% in addition to their higher cranking power, faster recovery time and quicker recharging.