January 2010

Applying
NextGen

Military Market
Business Outlook

www.avtoday.com/av
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Avionics
 inside
January 2010 • Vol. 34, No. 1
magazine

military
Growth Curb..................................18
U.S. military spending is shifting from big-ticket platforms to a more
diversified portfolio. What does this portend for avionics suppliers?
by Ed McKenna

business/GA
Business Climb Out...................... 22
After a difficult 2009, the business aviation sector faces another

18 challening year before an expected recovery begins in 2011

by Emily Feliz

special section
NextGen Task Force.................... 25
The U.S. aviation community looks to RTCA’s list of actionable
recommendations to implement NextGen operating capabilities.

product focus
Connectors................................... 33

33
Legacy connectors vie with newer designs for the latest applications
by Barry Rosenberg

Avionics Magazine holds four Royal Aeronautical

also in this issue
Society Journalism Awards, including Journalist of the Editor’s Note
Year, plus the American Business Advancing NextGen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Media’s prestigious Jesse H. Neal
Journalism Award. AviationToday.com
Military to the Rescue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The editors welcome articles, engineering and technical reports, new product information, and
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email: bcarey@accessintel.com Scan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Avionics Magazine (ISSN-1085-9284) is published monthly except twice in July by Access New Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
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 editor’s note
by Bill Carey
Advancing NextGen
J
anuary is the occasion for looking
forward, and there is no more forward-
looking topic than the Next Generation
Air Transportation System (NextGen).
To bring us up to date — you’ll recall the RTCA
NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force
issued recommendations four months ago that
have the potential to influence aviation policy
and practice for the next decade.
The work did not end with the delivery of that
report to FAA. RTCA President Margaret Jenny,
senior FAA executives, Department of Transpor-
tation Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III and
Our parent Gerald Dillingham of the Government Account-
company and ability Office testified on the Task Force report
Oct. 28 before the House Aviation Subcommittee.
RTCA have There, where the purse strings extend, the report
was well-received by committee members. Chair-
concluded a man Jerry F. Costello (D-Ill.) described it as “a
new agreement positive step forward and a significant break-
through in the NextGen effort.” Ranking minor-
that will see us ity member Thomas E. Petri (R-Wis.) called the
report “an important milestone in the long history
co-produce the of ATC modernization.”
spring RTCA The following day, the RTCA Air Traffic
Management Advisory Committee (ATMAC),
Symposium and responding to a request from FAA, established an
interim NextGen Implementation Work Group to
a second serve as a communications link between industry
conference and government as the Task Force recommenda-
tions are assimilated in FAA’s planning process.
this fall. The ATMAC also honored FAA’s request to form
a new Trajectory Operations (Tops) work group,
to “fill an urgent need for a common TOps con-
cept, understanding and vocabulary across the
aviation community,” the RTCA Digest reported.
How much of the “airport and metroplex-
centric” approach of the Task Force finds its way
into FAA planning will become clearer this month
with the release of the 2010 update of the Next-
Gen Implementation Plan. The Task Force report
provides a “definitive jump start to actually imple-
menting NextGen,” Hank Krakowski, chief oper-
ating officer of FAA’s Air Traffic Organization,
told the House subcommittee. “ … The intention
is to have as much of this framed out as possible
for the NextGen plan update in January.”
Michael Romanowski, FAA’s director of
NextGen Integration and Implementation, offers
insight into the agency’s decision-making process
in our NextGen special section, beginning on page
4 Avionics Magazine January 2010 www.avtoday.com/av
25. “What we’re doing right now,” he stated, “is
we’re going through, assessing those recommen-
dations against the current planning … identify-
ing where the gaps are, what adjustments need to
be made in the planning, what adjustments may
need to be made from a budgetary point of view.”
As have other FAA executives, Romanowski
spoke of the overriding importance of NextGen.
“It’s been clearly articulated from the president
on down, through the Secretary of Transporta-
tion to the new administrator, that NextGen is an
administration priority, it’s a national priority to
do this,” he said. Indeed, Transportation Secretary
Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy
Babbitt in November announced the formation
of a new federal advisory committee to study all
aspects of the aviation industry, with an emphasis
on NextGen, following an invitation-only meeting
with airlines, airports and labor groups.
Romanowski and other participants in the
RTCA Task Force served as panelists for our
Nov. 4 webinar, “NextGen Task Force: Applying
The Recommendations.” Their comments are
excerpted in the special section, which includes a
comparison of NextGen and the Single European
Sky ATM Research (SESAR) initiative by con-
tributing editor and retired Northwest Airlines
pilot Frank Alexander.
Through our “NowGenNEXT” conference
Sept. 15, organized in partnership with RTCA;
the Nov. 4 webinar, this month’s special section
and ongoing industry coverage, Avionics Maga-
zine has played a small but significant role in
disseminating information about NextGen to a
broad aviation audience. I’m proud of that con-
tribution to the future of aviation and pleased
to announce that our parent company, Access
Intelligence, and RTCA have concluded a new
agreement that will see us co-produce the RTCA
Symposium and a second conference this fall, ten-
tatively scheduled for April and September. Check
these pages and our Web site, aviationtoday.com,
for updates. Also, you can look forward to a new
series of webinars on NextGen topics.
As the leading publishing brand focused on
civil and military avionics, we’re doing what we
can to advance NextGen.
 FEBRUARY 2010

FEBRUARY HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE

Industry Scan: We spoke with executives from Panasonic Avionics Corp., Thales and Aircell
for our recent Webinar, “Latest Developments in In-Flight Entertainment.” See what they had to
say about the burgeoning market for airborne connectivity and ongoing innovation in passenger
in-flight entertainment.

Helicopter Safety: Following a spate of medical helicopter accidents, the National Transpor-
tation Safety Board has recommended several steps to improve helicopter safety. These recom-
mendations place emphasis on new avionics, including terrain warning systems, TCAS and
night-vision goggles.

Asia’s MRO Hub: Singapore is a regional hotbed for aircraft maintenance, repair and over-
haul. We take a look at some of the U.S. company investments in Singapore’s MRO market-
place, and ask what companies plan to emphasize at the Singapore Airshow.

Product Focus, Health Management Systems: From rotating parts to structures and
avionics, Health and Usage Monitoring Systems enable predictive maintenance.

Perspectives: No Fault Found and the F-16

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6 Avionics Magazine January 2010
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 EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Bill Carey
301-354-1818
bcarey@accessintel.com

Managing EDITOR Emily Feliz

301-354-1820
efeliz@accessintel.com

Online Publisher/Editorial Director John Persinos

301-385-7211
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Frank Alexander, Frank Colucci, Ron Laurenzo,
George Marsh, Ed McKenna, Douglas Nelms,
James W. Ramsey, Barry Rosenberg, Jean-Michel Guhl

ADVERTISING & BUSINESS

VICE PRESIDENT & GROUP PUBLISHER
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 industry scan
The G650, Gulfstream’s Largest Jet, Accomplishes First Flight
The G650 ultra-long range business jet completed its first flight Nov. 25 from Gulfstream headquarters in Savannah, Ga. The
pilots curtailed the systems testing regimen during the 12-minute flight because they noticed a slight vibration in a landing-
gear door, according to the airframer. The super-midsize Gulfstream G250 accomplished its maiden flight Dec. 11 in Israel.
BUSINESS/GA
Head-Up Guidance
Rockwell Collins in December received
FAA certification of its HGS-6605 Head-
Up Guidance System on the Bombardier
Challenger 605. The head-up display was
developed together with an Enhanced
Vision System by Rockwell Collins.
The HGS-6605, with inertial flight-
path vector, presents critical flight infor-
mation in the pilot’s forward field of view.
The display features 42 degree horizontal
and 30 degree vertical field of view.
Synthetic vision is possible as a growth
feature, the company said.
Air Routing
Rockwell Collins announced plans in
November to acquire AR Group, Inc.,
and its affiliated companies, including
Air Routing International, a provider of
trip support services for business aircraft
flight operations. Terms of the transac-
tion were not disclosed.
Air Routing, based in Houston, has
240 employees and provides flight depart-
ments with trip planning services.
Rockwell Collins said the acquisition
will extend its offerings to enable global
flight operation support services that
leverage emerging connectivity systems.
“The acquisition of Air Routing will
broaden our information management
8 Avionics Magazine January 2010
30
and aftermarket services offerings,” said
Clay Jones, Rockwell Collins chairman,
president and CEO. “Air Routing’s strong
customer relationships, flight opera-
tions support services and trusted agent
network complement our information
management strategy to deliver enhanced
value to business aircraft operators.”
Commercial
SE2020 Contracts
FAA in December said it is soliciting bids
from companies for NextGen support
contracts with a combined value of $7
billion, which would be the largest award
in the agency’s history.
Under the System Engineering 2020
(SE2020) effort, FAA will award as many
as five separate contracts to industry
teams for research and development
and systems engineering work. SE2020
“will complement and enhance” major
NextGen initiatives, including Auto-
matic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast
(ADS-B), System Wide Information
Management (SWIM) and Data Com-
munications, the agency said.
The contract teams will focus on a
series of operational capabilities, includ-
ing Trajectory-Based Operations, Col-
laborative Air Traffic Management and
Reduced Weather Impact. The goal is
to achieve early NextGen successes to
www.avtoday.com/av
Photo courtesy Gulfstream
improve safety and bring greater efficien-
cies to the National Airspace System,
FAA said.
“The team concept is designed to
create competitive synergy within each
group, driving innovation so that each
team comes up with the best possible
product,” the agency said. “The FAA
also structured the contracts, using mar-
ket survey data, to encourage bids from
teams that will include small companies
as prime contractors as well as subcon-
tractors. The agency is looking for the
best and the brightest, regardless of size.”
Five-year contracts will be awarded
next summer, with subsequent three- and
two-year options, according to FAA.
NextGen Park
Federal, state and local officials broke
ground Oct. 19 on a research park in New
Jersey dedicated to advancing NextGen
technologies.
FAA is leasing 55 acres to the South
Jersey Economic Development District to
build the NextGen Aviation Research and
Technology Park (http://nextgenaviation-
park.org), located next to FAA’s William
J. Hughes Technical Center and Atlantic
City International Airport in Pomona,
N.J. The state’s Casino Reinvestment
Development Authority in August
approved $1.6 million for initial organiza-
tional and construction design costs.
The park will offer a central location
for industry partners to perform research, Arrow Global Components president. Reverse Engineering
development, testing, integration and ver- “This strategic transaction will add to Software certification firm Verocel Inc.,
ification of NextGen technologies, FAA the breadth of Arrow’s customer base … of Westford, Mass., and consultancy
said. The park will complement the state while allowing for a variety of cross-sell- Certification Services Inc. (CSI) of East-
of Florida’s NextGen demonstration at ing opportunities with our existing busi- sound, Wash., were awarded a contract
Daytona International Airport. ness as well as other emerging markets.” from FAA to study the use of reverse
The research park can accommodate A.E. Petsche distributes products in engineering techniques in the develop-
up to 400,000 square feet of lab and sup- North America, the United Kingdom, ment of safety-critical avionics software.
port space, and is expected to create 2,000 France and Belgium. It employs 250 peo- Examples of reverse engineering
new high-skill jobs. A nonprofit corpora- ple; sales in 2008 were $220 million. include the development of source code
tion, the park is governed by a board of
trustees chaired by Herman Saatkamp,
president of the Richard Stockton Col-
lege of New Jersey.
Total private sector investment by the
time of completion is estimated at $80
million to $100 million.

Naverus Acquired
GE Aviation announced plans in Novem-
ber to acquire Naverus, of Kent, Wash.,
a provider of performance-based naviga-
tion (PBN) services. Financial terms of
the transaction were not disclosed.
“GE is committed to delivering solu-
tions that help our customers operate
aircraft more efficiently, with reduced
environmental impact,” said Lorraine
Bolsinger, GE Aviation Systems president
and CEO. “The acquisition of Naverus
brings some of the best PBN technol-
ogy to GE Aviation’s Systems business,
further expanding our commitment to
deliver environmental results for our cus-
tomers.”
GE said Required Navigation Perfor-
mance (RNP) expertise from Naverus will
enhance its existing suite of avionics and
flight management systems. In Septem-
ber, Naverus received FAA approval to
design and validate RNP flight paths for
public use in the United States.
“Customers will continue to benefit
from the same expertise and service
for which Naverus is known, while the
strength of GE provides a platform for
future innovation and growth,” said
Naverus CEO Steve Forte.

A.E. Petsche Acquired

Arrow Electronics, of Melville, N.Y.,
announced plans Nov. 17 to acquire wire
and cable manufacturer A.E. Petsche Co.,
of Arlington, Texas. Financial terms were
not disclosed.
“With this acquisition, A.E. Petsche
will expand Arrow’s product offering in
specialty wire and cable and will greatly
increase our presence in the aerospace
and defense markets,” said Peter T. Kong,

www.avtoday.com/av January 2010 Avionics Magazine 9

 industry scan
P-3C Simulator Upgraded For CNS/ATM Training and CSI to review current industry prac-
tices in reverse engineering and potential
safety concerns, and will result in a pro-
posed framework to help reduce potential
risks, the companies said.

DO-178B Certification
SYSGO, of Mainz, Germany, said its
first software-based ARINC 664 Avionics
Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX)
system received DO-178B Level C certifi-
cation. The implementation is part of an
engine monitoring unit (EMU) developed
Photo courtesy Symvionics

by Vibro-Meter SA, a Meggitt company.

SYSGO said the AFDX software
implementation offers design possibilities
that hardware solutions can not provide.
Host drivers are available for SYSGO’s
PikeOS, Linux and other major COTS
real time operating systems, SYSGO said.
Symvionics Inc., Arcadia, Calif., recently completed the fourth of six U.S. Navy
P-3C Operational Flight Trainer modifications (above). Incorporated in the simu-
lator were two Rockwell Collins CDU-7000 displays, four MFD-255P displays, MILITARY
two IS&S air data display units, two Honeywell embedded GPS/inertial systems,
a BAE APX-118 IFF with Mode S and Rockwell Collins AN/ARC-210 radios.
Simulation software runs on GE VME-based 7751 single board computer and Goodrich Acquisition
Ballard Technology OmniBusBox with Mil-Std-1553 and ARINC 429 cores. Goodrich Corp. in November signed an
agreement with an investment affiliate of
J.F. Lehman & Co. to acquire guidance
before requirements are developed, or ties Software Team (CAST) in a position and navigation system supplier Atlantic
formalizing the design after the code is paper, CAST-18. “Reverse engineering is Inertial Systems (AIS) for $375 million.
complete. The research also will apply to widespread in the software avionics devel- The transaction was expected to close by
reverse engineering of commercial off- opment industry, but guidance in this the end of 2009.
the-shelf (COTS) software. area is misunderstood and not applied AIS was created following its divesti-
Concerns about using reverse engi- uniformly, leading to confusion,” stated ture from BAE Systems to J.F. Lehman
neering forEMS
avionics software applications
SATCOM_AM_1_3pg_Jan_10.pdf 12/14/2009 MikePMDeWalt, CSI chief scientist.
4:03:47 & Co., in August 2007. It employs 800
were raised by the Certification Authori- The two-year project calls for Verocel people at facilities in Cheshire, Conn;

CM

MY

CY

CMY

10 Avionics Magazine January 2010 www.avtoday.com/av

Heath, Ohio; Totowa, N.J., and Plym- ment Systems for Rockwell Collins. “The transponder completed interoperability
outh, U.K. Sales in 2009 were expected to end result has been the development of a testing at the U.S. Naval Air Systems
be $180 million. The company’s products radio that is used for airborne multi-band, Command (NAVAIR) laboratories in
include inertial sensors, inertial measure- multi-mode communications across most Patuxent River, Md.
ment units (IMU), integrated IMU/GPS branches of the U.S. military.” The tests, organized by the French
systems, stability systems, and terrain Defense Procurement Agency and U.S.
avoidance systems for missiles, military IFF Interoperability Department of Defense, successfully
aircraft and land systems. Thales in November said its New Gen- demonstrated communications between
The AIS Terprom digital terrain sys- eration Mode S/Mode 5 Identifica- the Thales Mode 5 IFF systems and
tem, which provides non-GPS navigation tion Friend or Foe (IFF) interrogator/ American equivalents, using NATO
and obstacle avoidance, is in service on
5000 aircraft, including the Eurofighter
Typhoon and Royal Air Force Hawk
Advanced Jet Trainer.
AIS will become part of Goodrich’s
CZlEdX`ZiH^oZYB>A"HI9"&**(
Sensors and Integrated Systems business,
within its Electronic Systems segment. In
addition to AIS, Goodrich, of Charlotte,
VcY6G>C8)'.iZhiZgh###
N.C., recently acquired Sensors Unlim-
ited, TEAC Aerospace, Recon/Optical
and Cloud Cap Technology.
“This acquisition provides the com-
pany with another high growth platform
in the defense market that builds on exist-
ing Goodrich capabilities,” said Marshall
Larsen, Goodrich chairman, president
and CEO. “AIS’s portfolio of inertial
sensors is an excellent complement to

###i]Vih]VcYn
Goodrich’s guidance, control and naviga-
tion systems. Combining our engineering
strengths and technology will enable us
to further support U.S. and allied forces
across the full spectrum of guidance and
control systems.”
6>B"6EJ&**("m 6>B"6EJ)'."m
ARC-210 Award
The U.S. Navy awarded a four-year pro- L^i]6>BÉhcZlVcYEdlZg[ja=VcYnEdgiVWaZJH7
duction contract to Rockwell Collins for
ARC-210 radios, potentially worth $450 WVhZYiZhihdaji^dchndjXVcVcVanhZVcYk^hjVa^hZndjg
million over the life of the program.
The ARC-210 provides two-way, multi- B>A"HI9"&**(dg6G>C8)'.Zfj^ebZci[gdbndjgE8
mode voice and data communications Vcni^bZ!VabdhiVcnl]ZgZ
over a 30 to 512 MHz frequency range. It
includes embedded Ultra High Frequency
(UHF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) È=diEaj\ÉVcY:VhnXdccZXiidVcn
anti-jam waveforms and other data link E8k^Vi]Z^cYjhignhiVcYVgYJH7'#%
and secure communication features.
The contract includes the next genera- CdZmiZgcVaEdlZg6YVeidg
tion ARC-210 radio, which will enter pro-
duction in 2010. The fifth generation of the 6>BeZg[dgbVcXZ!gZa^VW^a^inVcY
ARC-210 is software reprogrammable and
features several new capabilities, including fjVa^indjgXjhidbZghZmeZXi^c
extended frequency range for interoperabil- dcZ]VcYnh^oZYWdm
www.aim-online.com

ity with civil agencies.

“This contract continues a nearly
20-year relationship between Rockwell
Collins and the U.S. Navy and serves as a
model for government-industry teaming,”
said Greg Churchill, executive vice presi-
dent and chief operating officer of Govern-
AIM GmbH Tel.+49 761 45 22 90
AIM UK Tel.+44 1494 446844
AIM USA Tel. 1-866-AIM-1553
Right on Target

www.avtoday.com/av January 2010 Avionics Magazine 11

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12 Avionics Magazine January 2010
11/5/09
industry scan
3:34 PM Page 1
Mode 5 encryption keys.
Two versions of the Thales system
were tested: the TSB 2512, an IFF Com-
bined Interrogator Transponder (CIT)
fitted to the Dassault Rafale fighter; and
the TSC 2002, a remote IFF transponder
fitted to platforms including the C-130,
E-3F AWACS and EC725 helicopter.
Thales has been awarded a contract to
supply 160 sets of the IFF equipment.
MEMS Navigation
Tronics Microsystems, based in Crolles,
France, a manufacturer of custom micro-
electromechanical systems (MEMS), and
Thales on Dec. 8 announced a “strategic
supply agreement” for navigation systems.   Optics Acquisition
Under the agreement, Tronics will
produce high-performance, vacuum-
packaged inertial MEMS-sensing ele-
ments based on two design concepts that
Thales invented, designed and patented to
meet the navigation requirements of air-
craft, satellites and other platforms. Both
designs, one for accelerometers and one
for gyroscopes, require advanced MEMS
and vacuum-packaging technologies.
“The MEMS technology is a major
breakthrough” that reduces volume
weight, power consumption and cost
in navigation technology, said Norbert
Herail, Thales director of navigation sys-
tems activities. “This technology will drive
the future of the navigation market in the
same way as the ring laser gyro technol-
ogy dominates the market today. As the
leading driver of these two inertial tech-
nologies, Thales will be the sole European
company capable of proposing a full range
of navigation solutions to the market.”
Crypto Management
EADS Defence & Security said its next-
generation crypto variable communica-
tions management unit, developed in
Newport, South Wales, U.K., will debut
on the Eurofighter Typhoon beginning
in 2010.
The Aircraft Crypto Variable Man-
agement Unit, a variant of the company’s
Ectocryp Steel electronic key manage-
ment system, manages key distribution
for multiple communications systems on
the aircraft using a secure single point
device. Crews can pre-load and store
mission scenarios. The system securely
retains the key material after the platform
is “stood down,” ensuring it is instantly
available for the next mission.
“Traditionally, modern military air-
www.avtoday.com/av
craft and ground installations require
multiple communications systems to
enable them to cooperate in a network
centric environment; these systems
include radio, IFF, GPS and data links,”
EADS DS said.
“The need for high demands of secu-
rity also requires multiple cryptographic
protection devices, each of which have
different requirements for key variables
and fill devices. This has made key man-
agement a time consuming and labor-
intensive task, often requiring erasure
and re-keying between missions when
aircraft are powered down.”
France’s Sagem said it finalized the acqui-
sition of optics manufacturer Optics 1,
after receiving the necessary approvals
from U.S. authorities.
Announced Dec. 2, the acquisition
was carried out through Sagem’s Swiss
subsidiary Vectronix AG, enabling Sagem
to expand its footprint in the U.S. market,
“especially for defense applications.”
Optics 1, with Commercial and
Defense Systems divisions based in
Westlake Village, Calif., and Manchester,
N.H., respectively, specializes in optics
and optical system design. Vectronix AG
operates in the United States through
Vectronix, Inc., in Leesburg, Va.
EOTS Delivered
Lockheed Martin in late November deliv-
ered the first production Electro-Optical
Targeting System (EOTS) units for the
F-35 Lightning II.
Embedded in the fuselage of the air-
craft, with a faceted sapphire window,
the EOTS combines forward-looking
infrared and infrared search-and-track
functionality, giving the pilot air-to-air
and air-to-ground situational awareness
in a single, passive sensor.
The first production units were deliv-
ered to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in
Fort Worth, Texas, for integration on the
F-35. EOTS production is being ramped
up to produce up to 200 units a year.
Chilean C-130s
Esterline CMC Electronics (CMC) was
selected by the Chilean Air Force for the
avionics upgrade of its C-130 fleet. As
prime contractor, CMC will deliver its
Cockpit 9000 suite, including the sup-
ply of turnkey installation kits. CMC is
also responsible for in-country activities,
including labor, training and support.
Cockpit 9000 is an integrated digital
glass cockpit tailored to the requirements
of transport aircraft. At its core is CMC’s
CMA-9000 flight management system.
AIM Anniversary
Avionics test and simulation system pro-
vider AIM GmbH, based in Freiburg,
Germany, recently marked its 20th anni-
versary since its founding by four former
LITEF engineers in 1989. AIM traces its
beginnings to the Eurofighter program,
for which it developed and built the first
test equipment for the NATO standard
STANAG 3910 data bus.
The company, which employs 49
people, produces avionics test and simu-
lation modules, embedded interfaces,
databus analyzer software, data loaders
and system solutions for Mil-Std-1553,
STANAG 3910/EFEX, ARINC 429,
AFDX/ARINC 664, Gigabit Ethernet,
ARINC 825 (CAN bus), Panavia Serial
Link and Fibre Channel/ARINC 818
applications.
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Global Hawk Order
The U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop
Grumman a $302.9 million contract for
five RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude,
long-endurance (HALE) unmanned air-
craft systems (UAS).
Under the contract, Northrop Grum-
man will build two Block 30 systems
and three Block 40 systems for the 303rd
Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright
Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. The
award includes a ground station consist-
ing of a launch and recovery element and
a mission control element, plus two addi-
tional sensor suites that will be retrofitted
into previous production aircraft. The
Lot 7 contract runs through 2011.
In 2010, Northrop Grumman
will deliver the two Block 30 aircraft
equipped with the Enhanced Integrated
Sensor Suite providing electro-optical/
infrared and synthetic aperture radar
imaging capabilities. These aircraft will
be retrofitted to incorporate the produc-
360-Degree Sensor
Lockheed Martin tested a new infrared
sensor turret aboard its hand-launched
Desert Hawk III, marking the first time
a small UAS has flown with a 360-degree
infrared sensor, the company said.
Flight tests of the Desert Hawk III’s
new payload offering were conducted
Sept. 23-24 at the Minnesota National
Guard’s Camp Ripley unmanned vehicle
proving grounds, to validate the aircraft’s
ability to improve night-time ISR for
ground forces. By providing 360-degree
infrared coverage, troops can obtain
greater target location accuracy and
superior image stability.
The Desert Hawk III UAS system,
used by the British Army in Iraq and
Afghanistan, consists of a lightweight,
ruggedized air vehicle with “Plug and
Playloads” snap-on payload capability,
a portable ground station and a remote
video terminal.
The payloads include a 360-degree
turret with a mix of electro-optical and/
or black and white low-light imagers, an
infrared stabilized imager in a roll axis
out to 90 degrees, a signals intelligence
sensor, the new 360-degree infrared sen-
sor and the upgraded 360-degree E/O
imager with continuous zoom.
CONTRACTS
➤ The NATO Eurofighter and Torna-
do Management Agency and Eurofighter
GmbH on Nov. 17 signed a five-year
contract worth Euro 600 million ($891
million) with Italy’s Finmeccanica Group
for integrated support services of Italian
Air Force Typhoons. Support services
will be carried out by Alenia Aeronau-
tica, as prime contractor, together with
Selex Galileo, Selex Communications and
Elettronica. Alenia Aeronautica will be
responsible for managing the supply and
repair of all equipment on the aircraft,
including avionics equipment.
➤ Indonesia airline PT. Garuda Indone-
sia (Persero) selected a suite of Honeywell
avionics for its 25 Boeing 737-800s. The
contract, valued at more than $28 mil-
lion, includes an option for 25 additional
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www.avtoday.com/av January 2010 Avionics Magazine 13

 people
Neilson Mackay
EMS Technologies, of Atlanta, named
Neilson A. Mackay president and
CEO, following the departure of Paul
B. Domorski. Mackay most recently
was executive vice president and chief
operating officer. Before that, he was
executive vice president, strategy, vice
president of corporate development
and president of EMS Satcom. He was
Neilson Mackay
senior vice president and general manager
of Satcom from 2001 to 2007. He joined the company in 1993,
when the company acquired the Ottawa, Ontario, space satellite
communications business of which he was president.
Cheryl Galloway
EMS Sky Connect, of Takoma Park, Md., named Cheryl Gal-
loway senior account manager. Galloway will focus on sales
for Forté in-flight office capability systems to OEMs. Galloway
has held a range of sales positions, most recently at West Star
Aviation/Premier Air Center. Her previous employers included
Pentastar Aviation and Simuflite Training International.
Patricia McMahon
Northrop Grumman named Patricia McMahon deputy of its
Aerospace Systems sector Battle Management and Engage-
ment Systems Division. Most recently, she led the Information
Operations/Electronic Attack business for the company. As vice
14 Avionics Magazine January 2010 www.avtoday.com/av
president and deputy, she will continue her role as the site man-
ager for the division headquarters in Bethpage, N.Y.
McMahon joined Northrop Grumman in 2003 and has
managed the Information Operations/Electronic Attack busi-
ness, which included the EA-6B Prowler ICAP III aircraft
and EA-18G Growler programs. Before taking her Northrop
Grumman post, McMahon was a vice president and general
manager for BAE Systems in Greenlawn, N.Y.
Bruno Rambaud
Rockwell Collins appointed Bruno Rambaud managing direc-
tor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In this position,
Rambaud is responsible for developing the company’s business
and overseeing all Rockwell Collins’ operations in the region.
He will be located in Toulouse, France.
Rambaud served for the last 11 years at Thales, most recent-
ly as executive vice president, Europe. In that position, he was
responsible for the company’s operations in 15 countries.
Previously, he was senior vice president and managing direc-
tor of Thales’ Land and Joint Systems group.
StandardAero Appointments
StandardAero, of Tempe, Ariz., named Pat Conroy regional
sales manager for Southern California.
Conroy joins StandardAero as a long-time sales profession-
al within the business aviation industry. He previously worked
for major aviation service providers including Garrett Aviation
where, earlier in his career, he served as regional sales manager.
 In another recent appointment, StandardAero named Joe
Brady leader, Mobile Services. He is responsible for functional
leadership of the Business Aviation sector’s Mobile Services
Team and for participating in the sector’s overall strategy devel-
opment.
Brady comes to StandardAero from the Honeywell Process
Solutions Division, where he served as director of Customer
and Field Support.
He has more than 30 years of experience in the aerospace
industry including 20 years with Honeywell, where he held a
series of leadership positions in the customer service, field ser-
vice, quality assurance and program management areas.
Ryan Vickers
DIT-MCO International, based in
Kansas City, Mo., named Ryan Vickers
regional sales manager for western Unit-
ed States. Vickers spent three years as a
field service technician for DIT-MCO
customers in all of its markets, including
commercial and military aircraft.
Prior to joining DIT-MCO, Vickers Ryan Vickers
served in the U.S. Air Force for eight years,
where he was assigned to numerous domestic and international
locations. He worked extensively on F-15 flightline avionics,
finishing his military career in Okinawa, Japan.
DIT-MCO provides automated product testing solutions for
wired assemblies.
Mitch Gaudyn
D.L.S. Electronic Systems, of Wheeling, Ill., named Mitch Gau-
dyn manager of its Conformity Assessment Compliance Testing
Group. Gaudyn comes to the company from Charles Industries,
where he was product manager for OSP Telecom and other elec-
tronic products.
Jim Wright
West Star Aviation, of Grand Junction, Colo., named Jim
Wright regional sales manager responsible for the Northeast
sales territory.
Wright previously worked for Rockwell Collins Government
Systems as principal account manager for the Northeast region.
Prior to joining Rockwell Collins, he spent 20 years as a profes-
sional pilot operating fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.
Wright has a sales background and operational experience
on Gulfstream, Challenger, Hawker, Learjet and Falcon aircraft.
Albert Yost
Esterline Corp., Bellevue, Wash., promoted Albert S. Yost to
corporate group vice president.
Yost has more than 17 years of operational experience in the
aerospace/defense and medical technology sectors, including
more than two years as president of Esterline’s Advanced Input
Systems unit. He first joined Esterline in 1999 as director of
finance for the company’s Mason Electric operation.
Prior to joining Esterline, Yost held positions at the Moog
aircraft group and with Raytheon Aircraft.
www.avtoday.com/av January 2010 Avionics Magazine 15
 calendar
February
2-7 Singapore Airshow, Changi Exhibition Centre. Visit www.singaporeairshow.com.
20-23 Heli-Expo 2010, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston. Con-
tact Helicopter Association International (HAI), phone 703-683-4646 or visit
www.heliexpo.com.
March
8-12 PMA-209 Air Combat 2010, Silver Legacy Resort, Reno, Nev. For more
information, visit www.navair.navy.mil.
9-10 FAA Aviation Forecast Conference, Walter E. Washington Convention
Center, Washington, D.C. Telephone 202-267-7924 or visit www.faa.gov.
9-11 ATC Global Exhibition, Amsterdam RAI Center, Amsterdam, the Neth-
erlands. VIsit www.atcevents.com.
29-April 1 AMC/AEEC Joint Meetings, Hyatt Regency, Phoenix.
Contact organizer ARINC, phone 410-266-2008 or visit www.arinc.com.
April
7-10 Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) International Convention and
Trade Show, Orlando, Fla. Contact AEA at 816-347-8400 or visit www.aea.net.
14-17 Quad A Annual Convention, Fort Worth, Texas. For information,
phone 203-268-2450 or visit www.quad-a.org.
26-29 Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley, McEnery Conven-
tion Center, San Jose, Calif. For information, phone 866-535-8993 or visit
http://esc-sv09.techinsightsevents.com.
16 Avionics Magazine January 2010 www.avtoday.com/av
May
3-5 Navy League Sea-Air-Space Exposition, Gaylord National Resort &
Convention Center, National Harbor, Md. Visit www.seaairspace.org.
4-6 European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE),
Geneva PALEXPO and Geneva International Airport, Geneva, Switzerland.
Visit www.ebace.aero
18-20 Aircraft Interiors Expo, Hamburg Messe, Hamburg, Germany. For infor-
mation, phone +44 (0)208 271 2174 or visit www.aircraftinteriorsexpo.com.
June
8-13 Berlin Air Show, Berlin-Schoenfeld Airport, Berlin. Visit www.ila-
berlin.de.
July
14-17 Airborne Law Enforcement Association (ALEA) Annual Convention,
Tucson, Ariz. Contact ALEA, phone 301-631-2406 or visit www.alea.org.
19-25 Farnborough International Airshow, Farnborough Airport, England.
Visit www.farnborough.com.
26-Aug. 1 EAA AirVenture, Wittman Regional Airport, Oshkosh, Wis. Visit
www.airventure.org.
August
24-27 Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI)
Unmanned Systems North America 2010, Colorado Convention Center, Den-
ver. Visit www.auvsi.org.
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 military
military
avionics
Growth Curb
U.S. military spending is shifting from big-ticket platforms to a more
diversified portfolio. What does this portend for avionics suppliers?
By Ed McKenna
I
n 2009, a new U.S. administration
and a shift in defense priorities stirred
unease throughout the military aero-
space industry.
After years of substantial growth
in defense spending, the Obama admin-
istration endeavored in its first defense
budget to trim and retarget spending.
The objective, according to Defense Sec-
retary Robert Gates: replace high-priced
“niche, silver-bullet” solutions, such as
the F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter
with “a portfolio of military capabilities
with maximum versatility across the wid-
est possible spectrum of conflict.” That
portfolio will feature the multi-role F-35
Lightning II as well as unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAV), already widely used in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
The policy shift, plus the need to
address growing battlefield and mili-
tary personnel costs, is likely to put the
squeeze on aviation spending. “Every-
thing is being stretched out on the air
side because of the ground-side needs”
from technology upgrades to aircraft
programs, said Frost & Sullivan analyst
Wayne Plucker.
Overall, the outlook for avionics sales
is mixed not only because of the program
cuts and delays, but also the fact that the
Air Force and Navy will have fewer funds
to work with after finishing “a bunch of
really expensive avionics upgrades on the
legacy airplanes,” Plucker said. Those
improvements include investments in
cargo and tanker aircraft under the Glob-
al Air Traffic Management program.
The upshot is “the mod-cycle budgets
are going to be very small, and there are
few drivers that could cause an uptick
(before) 2013,” Plucker said. However,
there is a significant effort to retrofit digi-
tal data link systems on legacy aircraft,
18 Avionics Magazine January 2010
although that initiative has been stretched
from three to five years or maybe longer
depending on the aircraft, he said.
Still, with the United States involved
in a two-front war, communications
technology “is probably less (affected by
budget pressures) because the military
realizes it needs information superiority,”
said Theresa Hartley, defense electronics
analyst for Forecast International.
This need is spurring demand for
systems like the Multifunctional Informa-
tion Distribution System (MIDS) sup-
plied by ViaSat, of Carlsbad, Calif., and
Data Link Solutions, the joint venture of
Rockwell Collins and BAE Systems.
The F-35 Lightning II is
destined to become the
world’s dominant fighter.
But one caveat is cost.
Last June, the Air Force’s 653rd Elec-
tronic Systems Group at Hanscom Air
Force Base, Mass., awarded Northrop
Grumman a $276 million contract for the
Battlefield Airborne Communications
Node (BACN) “to fulfill an urgent and
compelling requirement for enhanced
communications capability,” according to
the company’s announcement. BACN is a
forward-deployed airborne communica-
tions relay and network-centric informa-
tion server. The contract covered installa-
tion on two Bombardier BD-700 Global
Express jets and two Global Hawk Block
20 UAVs, as well as continuing operation
of a BACN-equipped BD-700 deployed
in December 2008.
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Recon-
naissance (ISR) is another area with
urgent need. “The commanders in Iraq
are screaming for it,” Hartley said.
www.avtoday.com/av
Improved communications and ISR
actually “go hand and hand,” she said.
It won’t matter “if you have great intel-
ligence and an F-22 can’t communicate it
to an F-16.”
Lockheed Martin, for example, is
developing its Video from Unmanned
Aircraft for Interoperability Teaming-
Level 2 (VUIT-2) to help solve the afore-
mentioned issue by delivering imagery
from UAVs to Apache cockpits.
The military also is pushing ahead
with efforts to move its aircraft from fed-
erated to integrated architectures, Plucker
said. Eventually, all systems brought onto
aircraft will be plug-and-play, and the
F-35 is “the poster child” for this effort.
Unlike older aircraft with strapped-on
targeting pods, for example, the F-35’s
Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS)
from Lockheed Martin is integrated into
the fuselage with a sapphire optical win-
dow. The system provides high-resolution
imagery, automatic tracking, infrared
search-and-track, laser designation
and range finding. Lockheed Martin in
November announced the delivery of the
first EOTS production units to its Aero-
nautics division in Fort Worth, Texas.
The company is ramping up to produce
200 units a year, with a production goal
of more than 3,000 units.
The single-seat, single-engine F-35
uses Northrop Grumman’s integrated
communications, navigation and identifi-
cation (CNI) system, providing the equiv-
alent of more than 40 avionics subsystem
functions, including IFF transponder,
automatic acquisition of fly-to points and
voice and data communications.
While airborne ISR and communica-
tions hold some promise for avionics
suppliers, the new aircraft market offers
fewer prospects. In fact, the capping
of the F-22 program is part of a “shift
Photo by Randy Hepp, courtesy NAVAIR
The first F-35B Lightning II STOVL variant, designated BF-1, lands Nov. 15 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., after flying from
Fort Worth, Texas, and Dobbins AFB, Ga. The first production-representative CTOL variant, AF-1, made its maiden flight Nov. 14 at
Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth facility, the fourth F-35 to begin flight operations. Lockheed Martin reported 31 aircraft in assembly.
away from the high-end, more complex,
larger aviation systems (to) UAVs, like
the Predator, Reaper and possibly the
Navy Unmanned Combat Air System
(N-UCAS) and the Joint Cargo Aircraft,”
said Todd Harrison, a defense budget
analyst at the Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessments. “All of these
systems are more applicable to the types
of irregular conflicts we are in in Iraq and
Afghanistan,” Harrison said.
The lone exception is the F-35 Light-
ning II, which is destined to become “the
dominant fighter program in the world,”
said Raymond Jaworowski, senior aero-
space analyst at Forecast International.
While technologically sophisticated, the
F-35 fulfills Gates’ call for versatility
with its conventional takeoff and landing
(CTOL), short take-off and vertical land-
ing (STOVL) and carrier-based variants.
“Anyone who flies anything from F-16s
to early model F/A-18s and Harriers can
be looked at as potential F-35 customers,”
said Jaworowski.
One caveat is cost. In 2008, the Penta-
gon’s Joint Estimating Team indicated the
program was “coming in at a much higher
figure (than planned) and that is going to
really eat into things,” said Harrison.
Analysts already concede the U.S.
military will scale back its planned over-
all acquisitions. Slated to acquire 1,763
of the CTOL variants, for example, the
Air Force will more likely buy about
1,500, Jaworowski said. The Navy and
Marine Corps plan to acquire 680 aircraft
between them.
Meanwhile, the next generation fighter
“has been put off for the time being,”
said Harrison. John Pike, director of
GlobalSecurity.org, said that aircraft will
likely mark a move to unmanned combat
air vehicles. The main question now “is
whether the F-35 is the UCAV incumbent
or whether unmanned combat capability
is so different that a robotized F-35 will
simply be one of several contestants,” he
said. Both Boeing and Northrop Grum-
man have UCAVs that would likely com-
www.avtoday.com/av
pete for the program.
The unmanned aircraft will offer some
challenges to avionics companies. “You
are going to need avionics regardless of
what is in the cockpit,” but the flat-panel
display and HUD suppliers “may need to
rethink what they are doing,” Pike said.
An unmanned fighter aircraft would
seem to be a logical follow-on to the
explosive growth of military UAVs
since 9/11. “When we got into Iraq and
Afghanistan, and (the battles) shifted
to counter insurgency campaigns, the
demand for UAVs really took off because
the U.S. didn’t have enough troops to gar-
rison every square mile of (those coun-
tries),” said Larry Dickerson, unmanned
vehicles analyst for Forecast Internation-
al. Before that time, the United States had
a couple hundred systems in service; now
it has more than 6,000.
“There are more UAVs being pur-
chased because they have proved their
worth,” said Plucker.
Nevertheless, while effective in the
January 2010 Avionics Magazine 19
current engagements, “these systems
really haven’t been tested in what you
would call a Category One conventional
war where you have two very advanced
armies engaging each other,” Dickerson
said, adding it is unclear “whether or not
the current demand for UAVs will extend
beyond these operations.”
UAV Rationalization?
Analysts are by no means predicting a
fall-off in the enthusiasm for unmanned
systems for military, law enforcement and
civilian applications. In a recent study,
the Teal Group estimated overall UAV
expenditures will double within a decade
from $4.4 billion annually to $8.7 billion,
with more than $62 billion spent over the
next 10 years.
However, there could be a rationaliza-
tion of the military UAV market after
such sharp growth. “Eventually the
tempo is going to stop, and acquisition
is going to drop,” said Dickerson. The
market may drop in value, he added, “but
it will stabilize at a much higher level than
prior to this big surge.”
Trends in the market include the possi-
bility of substantial growth in VTOL sys-
tems like Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8B
Fire Scout, “especially if you see more
maritime applications,” said Dickerson.
“Putting the fixed-wing systems on small
destroyers just hasn’t been working.”
Platforms may grow in size to accom-
modate customer demands for increased
range, endurance and on-station time.
Also, there could be “composite air wings
in which a single ground control station
controls a whole array of vehicles, includ-
ing the Predator, Reaper and maybe” the
follow-on MQ-X, Dickerson said.
In the transport segment of the mar-
ket, it is more a story of retrenchment
and survival. Unlike the case of the F-22,
Congress rebuffed the Obama adminis-
tration’s attempt to kill the Boeing C-17
Globemaster III and funded up to 10
additional transports. The C-17 lifeline
was extended at least in part by “genuine
concern as to whether or not there is a
need for additional airlift” for current
conflicts, said Jaworowski.
However, the investment in C-17s may
“at some point cut into (the) money that
is available to re-engine the older C-5s,”
said Harrison. In strategic terms, the
Air Force needs to maintain a balance
between the two transports because of
their different configurations.
Control of the L-3/Alenia North
America C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo
Aircraft (JCA) program, embroiled in
inter-service rivalry, was wrested from
the Army by the Air Force and trimmed
back. “Traditionally, the Air Force does
not like the Army to get into fixed-wing
aircraft and thought it could largely do
(JCA’s) mission with C-130s. … That
debate played a role in the JCA being cut
back,” said Jaworowski.
The JCA, though, remains a model for
future programs because of its use of a
derivative aircraft (Alenia G.222) instead
of a new development, said Harrison. “I
think we are going to see more of that in
the future because it makes for much bet-
ter development time,” he said. “You are
just adapting them and can produce them
more economically.”
The C-130 Avionics Modernization
Program (AMP), on the other hand,
seemed at this writing to be on life sup-
port. The program has been stretched
and “some of the notional parts” are not
being funded or postponed, said Plucker.
If the AMP is cut or terminated, there
will be an increased need for new C-130Js,
said Jaworowski.
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Avionics Magazine January 2010 1 www.avtoday.com/av 13/11/09 16:30:42
A400M four-engine turboprop made its
long-delayed first flight Dec. 11 in Spain,
but remained a troubled program with
$3.4 billion in cost overruns. Representa-
tives of France, Germany, the U.K. and
other countries that first placed orders for
180 aircraft were negotiating their respec-
tive contributions to the program.
“The military need for those that
ordered the aircraft is real,” said

Photo by A. De Pablo, courtesy Airbus Military

Jaworowski. “They tend to be using aging
C-130s and old C-160s. These countries
are likely to buy (newer) C-130s or per-
haps C-17s if the A400 really falls apart.”
The U.S. Air Force is set for trainer
aircraft through 2020 after its T-38 Talon
fleet underwent a multi-year avionics
upgrade program. The Navy is expected
to acquire 260 upgraded T-6B turboprops
equipped with the CMC Electronics’
Cockpit 4000 integrated avionics suite.
There also is life in the rotary-wing
Three years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, the Airbus A400M
segment. It is “much more dynamic than flew for the first time Dec. 11 in Seville, Spain. After viewing the flight, representatives
other areas, (and) we expect to see growth of the seven nations that first ordered the transport resumed negotiating its future.
over the next few years before it levels
off a bit,” said Jaworowski. “The existing ing AH-64 Apaches to D standard and With programs like the UH-60 Black
assets are being heavily used and we are CH-47 Chinooks to F standard. “There Hawk, which had become a procurement
seeing increases in requirements for both is still a lot of that going on, but they’ve of rebuilt aircraft, “there seems to be a
new and rebuilt helicopters.” also begun to buy a lot of new AH-64Ds movement away from all rebuild to more
The military planned to rebuild exist- and Ch-47Fs,” Jaworowski said. of a mix,” he said.

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www.avtoday.com/av January 2010 Avionics Magazine 21

 military
business/GA
avionics
B USINES S
Climb-Out
After freefalling in 2009, the business aviation sector is faced with
another difficult year before an expected recovery begins in 2011
By Emily Feliz
L
ast year was one of the worst
years in recent memory for busi-
ness aviation, leaving suppliers
and manufacturers hopeful the
bottom has been reached. How-
ever, even the most optimistic of forecasts
predicts a soft business aviation market in
2010 and beyond.
The symptoms of the global reces-
sion are evident throughout the busi-
ness aviation sector; airframers, avionics
manufacturers and other companies have
experienced cancelled or delayed orders,
shrinking backlogs, lower profits and
layoffs. The National Business Aviation
Association (NBAA) annual convention
and exhibition in October in Orlando,
Fla., was decidedly downbeat as splashy
product announcements and elaborate
displays were supplanted by empty booth
space and lower foot traffic.
On the eve of NBAA, Honeywell
released its bellwether business aviation
forecast, which revealed what many in the
sector already knew — business aviation is
facing a steep climb back to the peak deliv-
ery levels of 2008. According to the fore-
cast, the sector won’t begin to see recovery
until 2011, and it will be 2017 before deliv-
eries rebound to the 2008 benchmark.
Through the third quarter of 2009,
business jet deliveries were down 25 per-
cent from the previous year, representing
a 24 percent decrease in constant 2009
dollars. Looking forward, Honeywell fore-
casts deliveries will continue to drop off
in 2010 before climbing in 2011. Peak-to-
trough decline (2008 to 2010) will be in the
range of 40 percent or more, according to
the forecast.
There is a bright side, according to Rob
22 Avionics Magazine January 2010
Wilson, president of Honeywell business
and general aviation. The forecast points
to stabilization in fleet utilization and used
aircraft; net new jet orders are expected to
be positive in 2010 and 2011; and 40 per-
cent of survey respondents planned to buy
a business jet in the next five years.
“It really isn’t all bleak,” Wilson said.
“There’s strong belief by the customer
base that business aviation is something
they’re going to continue invest in.”
Also, demand outside of North Amer-
ica is forecast to be stronger, according to
Honeywell.
“The relatively stronger levels and tim-
ing of international purchase plans sug-
gests that pent-up demand will improve
both order intake and new jet delivery
rates by 2011-2012, similar to what the
industry experienced in the last cycle,”
Wilson said. “Despite some program can-
cellations and delays, there is still a solid
pipeline of new, high-value models sup-
porting long-term growth and our survey
indicates that international demand will
remain significant.”
Not all industry analysts are optimistic
about a near-term recovery. Speaking Oct.
27 during an Aviation Today Webinar,
“Business Jets: Separating the Reality
From the Hype,” Brian Foley, president
of Brian Foley Associates, of Sparta, N.J.,
questioned the timing and strength of any
recovery. (To hear an archived version of
the discussion, visit www.aviationtoday.
com/webinars.)
“In the next 10 years we don’t even see
(business jet) deliveries coming back to
2008 levels,” Foley said. “The business avi-
ation industry is a fairly young industry. …
We’ve been blessed that after every trough
we hit a new peak, but is that sustainable?”
www.avtoday.com/av
Business jet manufacturers were par-
ticularly hard hit in 2009, with customers
walking away from deposits, backlogs
shrinking and used aircraft inventories
growing. The conditions forced Cessna to
cancel its large-cabin Citation Columbus
development, a jet that was to be equipped
with the Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion
avionics suite.
Jack Pelton, Cessna chairman, presi-
dent and CEO, described 2009 as “brutal,”
but added “we think the worst is behind
us. We’re seeing the tide turning slower
than we would have liked,” but “people are
back flying again. Phones are starting to
ring, which is good news for aircraft order
intake.”
Certification and customer deliveries
are expected for some new airframes in
2010, including the Cessna Citation CJ4
with Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 suite
and large-cabin Embraer Legacy 650,
equipped with Honeywell Primus Elite avi-
onics, both in the second half of the year.
Embraer provided some excitement at
NBAA last October by revealing the Lega-
cy 650, a longer range version of the super
midsize Legacy 600 that first flew Sept. 23
in Brazil. The Gulfstream G650 is moving
forward with its flight test program as well;
the ultra-long-range aircraft achieved its
first flight in November 2009.
For avionics OEMs the economic
downturn provides an opportunity to
invest in current products, adding new
capabilities and new airframe applications.
“Successful companies are the ones
that continue to be innovative despite the
downturn,” said Esterline CMC Elec-
tronics President Greg Yeldon. In recent
months, CMC’s GPS product line was
FAA-certified for stand-alone approach
operations. Its PilotView electronic flight
bag received European certification for the
Dassault Falcon 7X business jet.
Among other avionics developments
announced at NBAA:
➤ Rockwell Collins announced five
new updates to its Pro Line 21 avionics
retrofit package for Dassault Falcon 50s,
including expanded XM Satellite weather
capabilities, three engine indicator moni-
tors and Automatic Dependent Surveil-
lance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out capable
transponders. Also, Rockwell Collins now
offers a Pro Line 4 to Pro Line 21 display
upgrade for Dassault Falcon 2000s.
➤ Honeywell unveiled its Certification
Foxtrot upgrade to Gulfstream business
jets equipped with the PlaneView flight
deck. FAA approved Foxtrot, the sixth
upgrade to PlaneView, in September.
The Gulfstream Synthetic Vision-
Primary Flight Display, based on Honey-
well’s “SmartView” system, is upgraded
to the 2.0 version. Other improvements
include WAAS-LPV and Required Navi-
gation Performance (RNP) 0.1 capability;
FANS 1/A datalink and v7.1 flight man-
agement system.
Honeywell also announced certifica-
tion flight testing of the EASy Phase II
cockpit with synthetic vision on the Das-
sault Falcon 900EX. The upgraded suite
includes SmartView, WAAS-LPV naviga-
tion, ADS-B Out transponder, Automatic
Descent Mode and paperless charts.
Honeywell is flight testing an improve-
ment to its Primus Epic suite that merges
SmartView with an infrared camera input
to provide a head-down view of the envi-
ronment outside the aircraft.
➤ Innovative Solutions & Support, of
Exton, Pa., said it is seeing strong aircraft
OEM support of its Vantage Cockpit/IP
system. In October, Cessna was awarded
a supplemental type certificate for the sys-
tem, called “AdViz” in Cessna aircraft, for
retrofit on legacy Citation jets.
Dassault Falcon Jet, meanwhile, select-
ed IS&S to provide flat-panel displays as
part of a Falcon 2000 upgrade.
➤ Emteq, New Berlin, Wis., announced
the selection of its SkyPro Cabin Manage-
ment System for the new HondaJet. The
system includes touchscreen monitors,
audio/video on demand, moving map,
exterior camera and cabin control.
➤ Garmin introduced the G3000, an
integrated avionics suite designed for Part
23 light turbine aircraft. The suite will fea-
ture 5.7-inch, touchscreen LCD displays,
part of the GTC 570 vehicle management
system. The console-mounted GTC 570
2009 Outlook for Business Jet Deliveries
Honeywell forecasts 10,000 to 11,000 new business jets entering the market between
2009 and 2019. Deliveries will remain soft in 2010 before climbing back to peak levels.
allows for radio management, audio
management, flight management, weather
systems management, synoptics, and other
systems, Garmin said. Piper Aircraft is the
launch customer.
Connectivity Focus
Despite the lagging economy, outfitting
business aircraft for in-flight voice and
data capabilities is a welcome growth area.
Customers continue to demand these
capabilities and are willing to spend money
to install the equipment, suppliers say.
Communications system providers
including ICG, EMS SkyConnect and
Panasonic Avionics announced new
Inmarsat and/or Iridium satcom systems
at NBAA. And Aircell, of Broomfield,
Colo., signed an agreement with fractional
ownership company Flight Options, of
Cleveland, to install its High Speed Inter-
net system on the majority of the compa-
ny’s fleet of 110 business aircraft, including
new Embraer Phenom 300 light jets.
John Wade, Aircell senior vice presi-
dent and general manager of Business
Aviation Services, said connectivity has
“changed the way people spend their time
in the air.” Wade said he sees the growth
rate and adoption rate of these technolo-
gies increasing in 2010. This is just the
beginning of broadband expansion in the
industry, he added.
“The economy is probably slowing it
down a bit, but connectivity is the coun-
ter story in this down economy,” Wade
said. Aircell is “shipping units as fast as
we can make them. … If this is what a
down economy looks like, we’ve got some
exciting times ahead.”
Panasonic Avionics, of Lake Forest,
Calif., is entering the high end of business
www.avtoday.com/av
Graphic courtesy Honeywell
aviation by installing its Global Commu-
nications Suite (GCS) on a Boeing Busi-
ness Jet. The company in October said it
had agreements with three customers for
14 aircraft.
David Bruner, vice president of Glob-
al Communications Services, said the
company was in discussions with other
potential customers who operate aircraft
including the Airbus Corporate Jet,
Embraer 135 and Boeing 747 and 777.
“Office-in-the-sky has never really
achieved its promise,” Bruner said. “The
importance of this system is that it deliv-
ers that type of [desired] bandwidth.”
EMS SkyConnect, of Takoma Park,
Md., a division of EMS Technologies,
introduced the Forte AirMail Commu-
nication System, which uses the Iridium
satellite network to provide e-mail service
for WiFi-enabled smartphones, iPhones
and BlackBerries. The system is priced
at $25,995, including WiFi interface,
Iridium transceiver and antenna.
Wiley Loughran, EMS SkyConnect
vice president of sales, said Forte Air-
Mail is the first system of its kind in the
marketplace. “We’ve had up to 10 users
sending and receiving e-mails using the
Iridium system and it was almost in real-
time,” he told Avionics Magazine.
ICG, of Newport News, Va., unveiled
“Sora,” for the Japanese word to fly, a
system combining its own ICS 220A
Iridium satcom system with the Cobham
SDU 7320 SwiftBroadband terminal and
IGA 5001 intermediate-gain antenna.
The systems are linked by ICG’s Nxt-
Mail server. Sora provides global voice
and data capabilities, weighs less than 39
pounds and comes with a suggested retail
price of $164,500.
January 2010 Avionics Magazine 23
 With 87,000 flights per day, America’s ground-based radar system has hit the ceiling of its growth capacity. Gridlock, safety
concerns, and environmental impact are inevitable. A total reinvention of America’s airspace system is necessary to keep
pace with the growing demand. That’s where we come in. ITT is a lead systems integrator for the FAA’s NextGen Air
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24 Avionics Magazine January 2010 www.avtoday.com/av
ITT, the Engineered Blocks logo, and ENGINEERED FOR LIFE are registered trademarks of ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. and are used under license. ©2009, ITT Corporation
 A special section to Magazine

NextGen
Task Force
Applying The Recommendations

After seven months of intensive meetings involving

some 300 aviation industry stakeholders, the RTCA
NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force
issued a final report on Sept. 9, 2009. Some of the
recommendations may be reflected in FAA's latest
NextGen Implementation Plan, due this month. We
asked several of the participants in the Task Force to
describe the thinking behind the recommendations,
which could influence aviation for the next decade.
 NextGen Task Force

‘Excellent Head Start’

These are the words FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt used to describe the recommendations of the RTCA NextGen Mid-
Term Implementation Task Force at the NowGenNEXT conference Sept. 15. Following that conference, organized by RTCA and
Avionics Magazine, we assembled an on-line panel with four participants in the Task Force. Below are excerpts of the discussion.

trying to measure what our level of ben-

efit is from one of these [capabilities].
“The Task Force developed actionable recom- We implement an operational capability
mendations, and those recommendations were that will mitigate the problems we have;
run through an analytic and objective assessment how do we measure this for the CEOs
process ... tempered with operational input.” and CFOs of our respective corpora-
−Ray Glennon, Vice President, RTCA tions? … We had to look at each one
of the problem areas and figure out
how we were going to come up with a
metric.
Ray Glennon, RTCA associated with data communications, In the Elements group we had, we
may be necessary, but it is not sufficient took each one of these problem areas

T
he focus was to come up with a
small list of operational capabili-
ties long on details … rather than
focusing on technologies. One of the
things that drove the Task Force was
the idea that these capabilities needed
to be capabilities that were desired by
a particular operator, and to be able
to describe in appropriate detail what
that capability was, where it would be
required and where it would be able to
deliver benefits, and when that capabil-
ity would be able to do that. Critical
to all of this was that it was based on a
performance-based operating environ-
ment; it wasn’t a technology specific
approach to the problem.
Unlike earlier task force efforts, we
also included the operators’ financial
decision makers to try to get an assess-
ment of the costs and benefits and
[recognizing] that any modernization
needs to be operationally and finan-
cially beneficial. The Task Force devel-
oped actionable recommendations,
and those recommendations were
run through an analytic and objective
assessment process that was also tem-
pered with operational input, and the
goal was to provide recommendations
with a maximum benefit and a mini-
mum risk. The goal truly was to start
the community on a joint path to imple-
mentation by building mutual trust and
confidence.
Over 330 individuals participated in
to enable weather reroutes or revised they had developed in the earlier part
predeparture clearances to be deliv- of the Task Force — a list of about 125
ered. You deploy ADS-B infrastructure operational capabilities — and we
for what you can do with it, such as assessed each one of these for what
reduced aircraft separation or efficient are the issues that would have to be
merging and spacing. The key point addressed prior to implementation of
being: we’re looking to deliver capabili- one of these operational capabilities by
ties, not technologies. the 2015-2018 time frame.
… In addition to seven operational The other area that had to be
domain areas (see chart, page 27), addressed was operational approvals.
which had 29 specific operational capa- Operational approvals, by necessity,
bilities addressed in them, there were have become very complex. But by the
four recommendations considered criti- same token, if we are able to come up
cal to success that were overarching. with a plan to provide the benefits from
One was to achieve the existing 3 and these problems areas and solve these,
5 nautical mile separation standards we can’t be held hostage for a couple
that exist in the system today through of years trying to work through opera-
changing culture and some of the buf- tional approval. We needed to find a
fers that get built into the system today; way to work that in parallel.
to incentivize investments; streamline … People look at Data Comm and
the operational approval of the new say, ’well, isn’t that a technology?’ …
technology; and then to collaborate It’s something that we found was a
with FAA and the aviation community required enabler for a majority of these
on post Task Force implementation. problem areas if we were going to solve
“That was really kind of the basic premise of
the Task Force. What is the low-hanging fruit, and
in order to accomplish that, looking at it from a
metroplex standpoint became an obvious way.”
−Capt. David Strand, American Airlines
Capt. David Strand them. It is the way that we’re going to
be able to change the mindset, the real

one or more of our seven plenary meet-
ings. Those individuals were from 141
different organizations.
... To merely deploy a data communi-
cations network, or the ERAM updates
26 January 2010 nextgen Special Section
A
s we looked at these problem
areas, one of the key problems
that we have as operators, wheth-
er it’s a major airline or a business jet or
even light aircraft General Aviation, is
way that a controller is able to manage
the airspace. That became something
of high importance and it was some-
thing we [described] as a cross-cutting
capability that went across several of
 NextGen Task Force

the operational capabilities. Problem Area High Level Capability Description

… As we were looking at these opera-
tional capabilities, it became clear that
the way we were going to be able to
tackle these was from a metroplex or
airport-centric approach.
… There were obvious areas of oppor-
tunity depending on equipage levels
of aircraft in certain regions. Today, we
have a certain percentage of airplanes
that are equipped and capable of data
comm over VDL Mode 2 in the NAS,
but those aircraft tend to be oper-
ated in certain regions or in certain
metroplex areas. The other thing that
a metroplex-centric approach allows us
to do to gain benefits early on is, when
you look at areas such as Chicago and
Midway, or in the New York area, with
LaGuardia, Teterboro, Islip, Newark
and JFK, these airports, just because
of their geographic location, create
conflicts with one another depending
on the direction of operation and the
orientation of the runways.
Coming up with ways to decon-
flict some of the airport operations to
where we’re not impacting adjacent
ones is something we found we’d be
able to do early on if we implemented
some of these capabilities [without
requiring] a huge level of investment
or training for the controllers or the
flight crews. That was really kind of the
basic premise of the Task Force. What
is the low-hanging fruit, and in order
to accomplish that, looking at it from a
metroplex standpoint became an obvi-
ous way to approach this.
… We had financial people working in
parallel and in conjunction with us. … It
is a challenge that we recognized early
on that had to be addressed if we were
ever going to be able to make these
business cases. In this particular eco-
nomic environment, corporate require-
ments are that we have a payback in as
Source RTCA
• Improve the management of airport arrivals, departures,
taxi, and ramp operations by expanding surveillance
coverage and implementing real-time sharing of this
Airport Surface information.
Operations • Candidate locations include all major airports beginning
with the New York area airports.
• Enablers: ASDE-X, SWIM
• Improve the use of closely-spaced parallel, converging,
and intersecting runways during reduced visibility condi-
tions.
• Candidate airports include JFK, Las Vegas, and Newark,
Runway Access
Seattle, Memphis
• Enablers: FMS, GPS, Staggered Approach, PRM-A,
Converging Runway Display Aid (CRDA).
• Improve the capacity and efficiency of airspace that
affects multiple airports near large metropolitan areas,
including Chicago, New York/New Jersey, and Southern
Metroplex Access California.
• Enablers: RNAV/RNP, Airspace and Procedure Redesign
• Improve efficiency and reduce flight delays via increased
availability of real-time Special Activity Airspace (SAA)
information, improved flow management around choke-
Cruise points, and more flexible routings.
• Enablers: Real-Time SAA Info and Predictability, RNAV,
Required Time of Arrival (RTA)
• Improve efficient and safe access to low-altitude airspace
and smaller airports by publishing precision approaches
Access to the and adding surveillance and broadcast weather/traffic
National Airspace services at these locations often not served by radar.
• Full range of candidate locations are still under develop-
System ment.
• Enablers: LPV using GPS/WAAS, ADS-B
• Improve traffic efficiency through air-to-ground digital
data communication of revised pre-departure clear-
ances and controller-pilot data link and multiple aircraft
Data Comm weather reroutes
• Initial implementation in Dallas and Houston region
• Enablers: Data comm avionics, VDL-2 data link, FAA
automation upgrades
• Integrate air traffic management (ATM) solutions across
pre-flight and in-flight to minimize delay and maximize
ability of operators to achieve business objectives in the
Integrated ATM context of overall system efficiency

little as 12 or sometimes 24 months. … • Enablers: Collaborative ATM Automation, SWIM, Data

If you add all of these together by cross
cutting this across several different
capabilities — TFM, tailored arrivals,
CPDLC weather reroutes — now you
have the business case that can make
the case for the financial people.
Bob Hilb, Aviation Consultant
exchange among ATM decision support tools
program that’s being deployed; RNAV Low-altitude access and LPVs — LPVs
and RNP have been around for awhile are being deployed, and the ADS-B
and are being deployed; closely spaced infrastructure is being put out there for
parallel approaches down to 3400 feet increasing low-altitude access for the
— we just need to expand the usage. general aviation community.
Enroute data link has been tried before I would call less mature recommen-
and at least the initial implementa- dations [those that are] very traceable

I
looked at the capabilities that I would
call shovel-ready, mature capabili-
ties. I think those are the kind that we
can move forward on very quickly, and
that’s surface surveillance; the ASDE-X
tions of it can be used and we need to
take advantage of those. Traffic Man-
agement Advisor, again, that’s been
deployed at a number of airports and
it just needs to continue expansion.
to NextGen, but [with] some question
on the technologies and a fair amount
of work to be done before we can real-
ly move forward. That’s like Integrated
ATM. FAA needs to do a lot of work in

January 2010 nextgen Special Section 27

 NextGen Task Force
integrating the whole picture, in get-
ting the SWIM information out to ev-
eryone so that we have a total picture
of what’s going on in the NAS. I think
that’s critical. There is a fair amount
of work that still needs to be done in
that direction. Special Activity Airspace
management; obviously there is a lot
of negotiation that has to occur with
the Department of Defense, so I think
that may take a while to get where we
want to go with that, especially making
sure that the military needs are accom-
modated. Converging and crossing
runway utilization — work’s been done
on that for quite a while and it’s not
quite ready to be implemented. I think
there are some alternatives that need
to be looked at.
So again, more work [to be done]
but certainly a big payback. Same with
closely spaced parallel approaches
less than 3400 feet. We’re getting to
the point where if we want to go much
below 3400 feet, we do have to have
better ways of alerting the crew that
there has been a blunder and [enable
them] to do a missed approach. Then
airspace redesign; I think that’s critical
to NextGen and it really needs to be
“We can’t look at all these technologies in a silo
and try to optimize a subsystem. We have to take
a look at the total system and come up with a total
system optimization.”
done. But we do have some competing
capabilities here. In some of the large
metroplex [areas], New York City for
instance, to really separate the airports
so they can operate independently …
we probably need to go down the RNP
route. [But] we don’t quite have the
equipage levels we do with RNAV, so if
we try to do an airspace redesign that’s
based on RNAV it may not get us where
we want to go and we may have to
come back and do an RNP redesign.
The Task Force was very short-term,
and a lot of the things that we need to
delve into a lot deeper, we really didn’t
have time. That’s why the work needs
to continue. I think it’s critical for us to
do an integrated CNS/ATM approach.
The ICAO FANS work in the eighties
showed that that’s really where you
get your major benefit, where you can
really get the maximum capacity and
efficiency out of the system. And I think
28 January 2010 nextgen Special Section
it goes back to the business case deci-
sion also. Bundling within, for instance,
a datalink is great, and you can build a
business case. But you’re kind of build-
ing that in a silo. Are you really inte-
grating it across all the technologies
and getting the best use of data com-
munications? The same thing can be
said about navigation or surveillance.
You really need to integrate those
technologies. If you’re really going to
go in and do a major retrofit on the
aircraft, you don’t want to go in and do
datalink this year and RNP next year,
add the GPS the next year and then do
ADS-B the next year. The out-of-service
[time] would just kill you.
So you really have to have the inte-
grated package and put those togeth-
er. I think that integrated package
is the only way we’re going to move
from air-traffic control to air-traffic
management, just as we have moved
to the flight management systems on
the aircraft, [where] the pilots do a lot
less hands on. … It reflects in the work
of the FAA also. We can’t look at all
these technologies in a silo and try to
optimize a subsystem. We have to take
a look at the total system and integra-
−Bob Hilb, Aviation Consultant
tion and come up with a total system
optimization.
We have a problem with mixed equi-
page. RNAV/RNP is an example of that.
We have a very large percentage of
RNAV capability, but the RNP capability
is not nearly that high. So we can move
forward on RNAV but we certainly want
to encourage people to take the step
to RNP. We have such a broad spectrum
of capabilities in our aircraft today that
we have to do that major retrofit, [but]
airlines can’t afford to do that right
now. We really need to have a creative
way of actually getting the money to
the airlines so that they can make that
major upgrade of all their equipment
and up-level all the aircraft so that we
don’t have the mixed equipage prob-
lem and so we can proceed faster …
something like low-interest loans that
you pay back out of the benefits. Some-
thing where we can get the Congress to
say this is critical to the nation to move
forward.
There also needs to be a little more
work into mapping the next generation
roadmap, taking these capabilities and
showing a clear path where we’re going
to go. There are some capabilities that
were recommended by the Task Force
that basically solve the same problem,
especially, for instance, in the Cruise
[domain]. There are six or seven that
go after the same benefit. They are all
good ideas, but which idea or combina-
tion of ideas or capabilities give you the
biggest bang for your buck because I
don’t think you can afford to do all of
them. That’s something the FAA will
have to do, to basically take a look at
alternatives analysis. … The Task Force
really looked at the cost/benefit from
an operator’s perspective. Obviously
there’s government costs involved and
complexity, so the total investment
needs to be looked at and evaluated.
Items Outside The Scope
… Operators need [an Avionics Road-
map] when they’re out buying equip-
ment. They need to know which piece
of equipment is ready now, which one
is coming down the road. For instance,
if you’re out buying a GPS today, you
should probably take into account that
GPS III and Galileo will require a differ-
ent antenna than the one being put on
aircraft today. If I was an operator out
there putting on a GPS, I would want
to make sure that not only is the GPS
capable of being upgraded to handle
the new frequency but also that the
antenna is capable of handling things
down the line.
Michael Romanowski, FAA
W
e’ve been talking about a
lot of the complexities of
NextGen, but more impor-
tantly we’ve been talking about a path
forward together. On that point, it’s
incredibly successful what the Task
Force has done. … This was not an easy
challenge. A year ago, the questions we
were facing were not how do we move
forward with NextGen together and
what are the priorities, they were ‘what
is NextGen?’ What the Task Force has
done has served to bring a coalescence
of all the stakeholders on how to move
forward, so that is a huge benefit.
One of the things we recognized
when we looked at sponsoring the
Task Force, and asking for the Task

“The Task Force clearly comes out and validates
an approach that says we have to implement Next
Gen incrementally. We have to build on existing
capabilities that are resident in our aircraft today.”
Force to occur, was the fact that Next
Gen deployment is not just an FAA
responsibility. There are things that we
are deploying in infrastructure, things
that get deployed in procedures, but
at the same time we also need to have
the investment by the private sector;
the operators to equip their aircraft in a
number of areas; we have to have man-
ufacturers producing the avionics and
the like. Recognizing that a year ago,
we felt that we really needed to jump-
start this discussion, and we needed to
have this under a very tight timeframe if
we were going to make the impact that
we need to make together. [We asked]
will the industry come together and
examine and make recommendations
on strategies to accelerate the achieve-
ment of benefits? Then, along with that,
to incorporate capabilities in an aircraft,
you’ve got to make a business case. So
how can we facilitate the business case
for investment by the private sector?
Those were the key motivations behind
the Task Force. Given where we are
right now, with the clear priorities that
have emerged, I think we’re well posi-
tioned to move forward.
The Task Force clearly comes out
and validates an approach that says we
have to implement NextGen incremen-
tally. We have to build on existing capa-
bilities that are resident in our systems
today, and resident in our aircraft today.
That’s the only way we’re going to get
to the long-term full implementation
of all the NextGen capabilities. The
Task Force said, while we’re addressing
these priorities, ’don’t stop there, keep
doing the other things you’re doing’ to
incorporate the capabilities that are not
explicitly called out here.
There are still a lot of details that
we need to work together. In terms of
how we’re proceeding here in the FAA:
We’ve been doing a lot of work inter-
nally on our nominal planning [going
forward] the next year or two (see chart,
right). That factors in as well with what
we have been doing with execution
because there’s been a lot of good
activity going on there, and feeding
that back in. At the same time, we have
NextGen Task Force
−Michael Romanowski, FAA
a new administration. It’s been clearly
articulated from the president on down,
through the Secretary of Transportation
to the new administrator, [Randy] Bab-
bitt, that NextGen is an administration
priority, it’s a national priority to do this.
They asked us to take a look at how we
can accelerate NextGen. We created a
number of scenarios internally; at the
same time the Task Force was looking
at some of those similar issues.
What we see really is a coalescence
of the thinking of how to move this
forward. What we’re doing right now is
we’re going through, assessing those
recommendations against the current
planning and thinking that we have,
identifying where the gaps are, what
adjustments need to be made in the
planning, what adjustments may need
to be made from a budgetary point
of view, a resource allocation point of
view. We’re working to incorporate all
of that into our NextGen Implementa-
tion Plan that reflects this thinking,
which will be released in January.
As I said, NextGen is a joint enter-
prise; there’s an FAA component of this,
there’s an industry component, and
obviously all of that has to be coopera-
tive for it to be successful. In terms of
looking at coordinating the response
Convergence Strategy
Nominal Acceleration
FY10-11 Planning Concepts
NextGen Optimized Implementation Strategy/
2010 NextGen Implementation Plan
(January 2010)
Source FAA
January 2010 nextgen Special Section
to the recommendations and how we
move forward together, on the external
side we have the Air Traffic Manage-
ment Advisory Committee. The Task
Force asked us to utilize the ATMAC
as a means to keep linkage in terms of
where the planning is and the execu-
tion, and we intend to do that. We’ve
also asked for the establishment of the
NextGen Implementation Work Group,
which was another of the Task Force’s
recommendations. It’s really the lead-
ership team of the Task Force, the co-
chairs, the working group co-leads and
the subgroup leads. We asked that this
be established as a transitional vehicle
for us to really ensure that we under-
stand all the subtleties and details and
the key thrusts of the recommendations.
We’re going to be convening with that
group in the very near future. We want
to make sure we understand the intent
of those recommendations as we’re
looking at how we’re addressing them.
We also need to get into some of
the issues on the business case. What
are the priorities within the recommen-
dations? For example, if a recommen-
dation says let’s deploy at all OEP air-
ports, clearly some of those are going
to have a higher priority than others.
How would we go and establish those
priorities as we move forward? In addi-
tion, we have a strong internal process
that ensures accountability and trans-
parency of actions within the agency.
An archived version of the webinar,
"NextGen Task Force: Applying The
Recommendations," is available at
aviationtoday.com/webinars.
RTCA Task Force
Recommendations
29
 NextGen Task Force
Stacking Up
SESAR, NextGen
Recommendations of the RTCA NextGen Mid-Term Implementation
Task Force will be reflected in FAA’s NextGen Implementation Plan.
How do those recommendations compare with plans in Europe?
By Frank Alexander
T
he origins of the Single European
Sky ATM Research (SESAR) pro-
gram and RTCA’s NextGen Mid-
Term Implementation Task Force, or
Task Force 5 (TF5), differ significantly in
that SESAR originated as a result of leg-
islation created by the European Com-
mission in 2004. It established a political
framework for the development of an
advanced air-traffic management envi-
ronment that would support the dou-
bling of capacity by 2020.
TF5 began with a request from the
chief operating officer of FAA’s Air Traf-
fic Organization and associate admin-
istrator for Aviation Safety, asking that
a task force be formed to “establish
a community-wide consensus on the
NextGen operational improvements to
be implemented during the transition
between now and 2018.”
The key difference between SESAR
and TF5 is that SESAR encompasses
the full range of research, develop-
ment, regulations and implementa-
tion of changes to European airspace
from the present to 2020 while TF5 is
primarily focused on the implementa-
tion of operational capabilities that are
achievable up to 2018.
SESAR is broken down into three
major phases: Definition, Development
and Deployment. The Definition Phase
(2005-2008) was managed by the Air
Traffic Alliance, a grouping of EADS,
Airbus and Thales, and developed by
a representative group of stakehold-
ers consisting of more than 30 opera-
tors, Air Navigation Service Providers
(ANSPs), airports, airlines, Eurocon-
trol, Airbus, avionics OEMs and air-
traffic management (ATM) providers.
It defined the system performance
30 January 2010 NextGen Special Section
requirements to and beyond 2020,
established a Master Plan for research,
technology and validation programs
and proposed legislative, regulatory
and financial frameworks for its imple-
mentation.
The SESAR Master Plan identifies
three Implementation Packages (IP).
IP1 consists of existing R&D programs
that are ready for short-term deploy-
ment. IP2 addresses R&D for mid-term
deployment, and IP3 encompasses
R&D for the far term. Each IP is also
further defined in terms of Level of Ser-
vice and Level of Capability.
Develop and Deploy
The Development Phase (2009-2014) is
managed by the SESAR Joint Under-
taking, led by the European Commis-
sion and Eurocontrol with contribu-
tions from industry partners. During
this time, work will be done to develop
and validate the IP2 concepts for the
deployment phase and to generate
the regulatory framework to support
the proposed changes to the airspace
system. In addition, research will be
performed on IP3 long-term concepts.
Finally, the Deployment Phase
will begin around 2015. During this
timeframe, most of the technological
advances will be phased into the sys-
tem. In parallel, the European Commis-
sion will begin deploying IP1.
The RTCA NextGen Mid-Term
Implementation Task Force report,
issued Sept. 9, provided recommenda-
tions to FAA intended to focus on the
near and mid-term timeframes extend-
ing out to 2018. The recommendations
adopted by FAA will be incorporated
into the next editions of the NextGen
Implementation Plan and Enterprise
Architecture that serve as the planning
documents for improvements to the
U.S. National Airspace System. Chang-
es adapted to these documents will be
made in the first quarter of 2010.
Both programs have support from
their respective user communities
and include implementation plans for
operational capabilities of both air-
craft and the ATM system. They also
include financial analysis, incentiviza-
tion, research and post implementation
analysis. The operational capabilities
are similar, differing mostly in terminol-
ogy, though SESAR seems to place
greater emphasis on capabilities of the
ATM system than on the aircraft and its
avionics, especially during the period
up to 2013. TF5 recommendations are
more heavily dependent on aircraft and
avionics capabilities, policy changes
and an emphasis on greater use of
Area Navigation (RNAV), Required
Navigation Performance (RNP) and
Vertical Navigation (VNAV)-based flight
profiles.
Some of the more notable differ-
ences between SESAR and the TF5
Report include the fact that SESAR’s
scope is larger than that of TF5, reach-
ing much deeper into the areas of
research, airspace management, insti-
tutional issues, safety management,
environmental and human factors,
among others. The European enroute
airspace structure is completely RNAV-
based (RNAV-5) while U.S. enroute
airspace is largely conventional, using
ground-based navigation aids to define
the routes.
Conversely, the United States has
moved aggressively in developing
significant numbers of terminal RNAV
procedures using RNAV-2 and RNAV-1
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www.goodrich.com January 2010 NextGen Special Section 31
 NextGen Task Force

while Europe has been somewhat be proposed by the FAA ADS-B rule research but not to the depth as that
slower to introduce Precision-RNAV although the DO-260B transponder included in SESAR.
(RNAV-1) into their terminal manage- standard is expected to be the same. During the near- and mid-term
ment areas (TMA). timeframes, SESAR and TF5 support
The United States has a large num- Datalink Communications the greater use of expanded RNAV ter-
ber of RNAV and increasing number Europe has taken a more aggressive minal procedures, Continuous Descent
of localizer performance with vertical position on the use of ATC datalink Approaches, Continuous Climb Depar-
guidance (LPV) approach procedures communications. It has established a tures, surface movement safety and
as well as RNP Authorization Required mandate for the use of ATN Control- awareness, and traffic flow manage-
(AR) approach procedures. RNAV, LPV ler Pilot Data Link Communications ment. SESAR also will implement run-
and AR procedures have not evolved (CPDLC) for all new aircraft (forward way occupancy reduction techniques
as quickly in Europe. fit) delivered after Jan. 1, 2011. By and as mentioned earlier, will provide
Another significant challenge in 2015, all aircraft operating in the core for the implementation of datalink ser-
Europe will be coordinating the activi- of Europe will be required to have vices for routine ATC communications.
ties of the European Union member datalink communications capability. The TF5 report places a great deal
States together with neighboring non- The baseline for the data link will be of emphasis on further development
member states. the ATN protocol, however, there are of closely spaced parallel runway pro-
Europe is utilizing an Enhanced provisions to allow the use of FANS- cedures, both arrival and departure.
Mode-S surveillance system to supple- 1/A during a transition period that has Recommendations to FAA in this area
ment its existing secondary surveil- not yet been defined. include changes to current policy to
lance radar (SSR). The U.S. surveil- By Feb. 7, 2013, all state ANSPs par- enable the simultaneous use of RNAV/
lance system is expected to remain ticipating in the Link 2000+ program RNP approaches in parallel operation
primarily SSR-based with a phasing in must have an operationally compliant with ILS procedures, revision of the
of Automatic Dependent Surveillance- ATN data link system ready for use. blunder assumptions that have estab-
Broadcast (ADS-B) capabilities begin- The SESAR implementation plan lished the current minimum runway
ning in 2013 when the ground system and the TF5 recommendations focus separation requirements for simultane-
is expected to be operational. on the initial application of trajectory- ous parallel approach operations and
A European Notice of Proposed based operations, approach and land- changes in policy that would allow
Rulemaking has been issued calling ing operations, surface safety and simultaneous RNAV/RNP departure
for all operators to be equipped with efficiency. Both place emphasis on the procedures without requiring an initial
ADS-B transponders by 2015. An near-term utilization of existing aircraft heading to ensure course divergence.
exemption will be granted for all air- and avionics capabilities and support These are viewed by American
craft weighing less than 12,500 pounds the early use of basic levels of col- operators as having significant opera-
and with a cruise speed of less than laborative decision-making and infor- tional benefits with little or no modifi-
250 knots. This is five years earlier than mation sharing. SESAR also focuses cation to existing aircraft capabilities.
what has been proposed by FAA. Also on continuing research and policy SESAR does not appear to address this
of interest is the fact that the European development for advanced capabilities capability during the near and mid-
notice does not require the same per- beyond the midterm. The TF5 report term time frames.
formance values that are expected to does make recommendations for future In summation, both SESAR and the
RTCA NextGen Mid-Term Implemen-
tation Task Force report address the
European Airlines, Business and GA Join SESAR Program need to expand and improve their
respective air-traffic infrastructures.
The SESAR Joint Undertaking in September signed contracts with several European airlines,
The methodologies differ somewhat
the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and organizations representing business and
as do some of the desired timeframes.
general aviation to participate in the SESAR Development Phase.
The Brussels-based public/private organization, tasked with managing the multi-year Both strive to meet the goals of their
development phase, announced agreements with Air France and its subsidiary Regional, respective user communities and ser-
KLM, Iberia, Lufthansa Group, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, TAP Portugal, Novair and IATA. Also vice providers and both agree that
signing on to the effort were a consortium coordinated by the European Business Aviation interoperability is an essential piece of
Association, including NetJets Europe and Dassault Aviation, and the International Aircraft ensuring success.
Owners and Pilots Association. The TF5 report stresses maximum
“It is essential or even vital for the success of SESAR that the expertise of the airlines is improvements at minimum cost to
integrated as from day one of the development phase,” said Patrick Ky, SESAR JU executive the operators initially, but acknowl-
director. “They will participate and analyze the outcomes of the SESAR projects from techni- edges that changes in equipage will
cal and cost perspectives, which will reinforce the user-driven approach of the future SESAR be needed to further improve the sys-
technologies and procedures.” tem. SESAR places a greater emphasis
The organization said it requires technical support in the areas of flight operations, in on ATM operations and procedure
particular fuel efficiency; flight-planning processes and supporting systems; avionics system
enhancements in the near and mid-
specifications; operations and control processes; data link; aircraft scheduling and network
management; crew training and cost and revenue evaluation.
term and will require the mandate of
Last June, the SESAR JU announced contracts with 16 industry partners, including Thales, upgraded avionics capability (datalink
Honeywell, air navigation service providers, airports, airframers and ground equipment firms. and ADS-B) to achieve some of the
expected improvements.

32 January 2010 NextGen Special Section

 product focus
Connectors
Legacy connectors vie with newer designs for the latest applications
By Barry Rosenberg
T
he design philosophy of
ARINC’s connector working
groups until recently has trended
toward new generation connec-
tors designed specifically for
high-throughput in-flight entertainment
(IFE) applications. The economic realities
of commercial aviation, however, drive
continued interest within the ARINC
groups to standardize older, but already
proven and less expensive connectors for
IFE applications, even if their perfor-
mance isn’t up to the capabilities of the lat-
est IFE systems from Panasonic Avionics,
Thales, Rockwell Collins and others.
That’s created a bit of a push-pull
between different factions participating in
the working groups. On one side are the
interests of manufacturers supplying leg-
acy connectors, whose voices are increas-
ingly holding sway. Stakeholders who want
more emphasis on connectors with next
generation throughput capability represent
the other side.
“There is not a consensus that some
legacy products are entirely problematic,”
said Jay Sandidge, district sales manager
with Positronic Industries, of Springfield,
Mo., and a member of the Connector
Working Group in ARINC’s Cabin Sys-
tems Committee. Sandidge spoke of a
growing call to use legacy connectors even
though they are not the best choice from
a performance aspect for IFE systems
demanding lots of bandwidth.
“There are a lot of people in the same
room competing for the same piece of
business, so you have to weigh people’s
opinions against that fact,” he said.
Another ARINC connector committee
is working to develop a common way of
characterizing connectors regardless of
form factor. That’s because the industry is
using a variety of different connector types
for what would be called “non-traditional
applications,” or those for which they
weren’t originally designed. An example
would be a connector of moderate
throughput that is being asked to carry the
signals of top-end IFE technology.
The newer connectors are a better tech-
nical fit with modern-day IFE systems, but
older-generation connectors remain popu-
lar because they are proven and cost less.
With additional shielding to prevent inter-
ference, the tried and true copper wires
running through these connectors can be
pushed to gigabit transmission speeds.
And since older and newer connectors are
being produced in quantity, the different
manufacturers are equally represented
on standards-setting bodies such as those
within ARINC.
Photo courtesy Positronic Industries
Positronic said its PosiBand connector series, left, improves upon legacy split tine con-
nectors, right, by providing greater contact interface without increased insertion force.
“Regardless of whether you’re trying to
make older connectors work or introduc-
ing new generation connectors you need a
common method of characterizing them,”
said Larry Patterson, principal technical
designer, Airplane System Laboratories,
with Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Patterson is a member of a number of
ARINC working groups and leads its Eth-
ernet test standardization efforts, which
are helping develop design standards for
gigabit Ethernet connectors destined for
IFE and other applications requiring high
bandwidth.
“I would say that we’re still sorting
out (the definition of) high-throughput
connectors,” Patterson said. In the case
of connector applications “where there
is a lot of volume involved,” he said, “the
interest is in using products that are out
there that are lower-cost. Keeping cost low
www.avtoday.com/av
is most important even when new connec-
tors are introduced.”
The people working on gigabit Ether-
net standards development at ARINC are
also looking at connectors and cables that
combine high-speed data transmission
with other signals like power currents. The
goal there is to create a manufacturing
and performance standard for connectors
that maintain adequate isolation between
whatever two (or more) channels are being
carried.
The technical questions of the con-
nector business remain the same as in the
past, namely, how do you make connectors
smaller, with better contact and higher
throughput? “All of those would be on
everybody’s list, though probably in differ-
ent priorities,” said Sandidge. “My opinion
is that bandwidth concern has been a pri-
mary driving force.”
Positronic Industries introduced a
contact system called “PosiBand” this
past summer that addresses some of those
criteria, and Sandidge said it is “the most
important product release from Positronic
in years.”
“PosiBand is essentially an alternative
design to the traditional split tine design
that you find on most mil-spec female
contacts,” he explained. “It doesn’t split
the mating barrel so you don’t end up with
two fingers that can open. It is one solid
piece of metal all around.”
PosiBand contacts separate the
January 2010 Avionics Magazine 33
 connectors “because the design is all about

Photo courtesy Emteq

the female contact … it doesn’t matter
what the housing is.”

More Throughput
Emteq RJ45 Ruggedized Connector Like Sandidge, Kerry Stuckart, product
manager for coax cables, connectors and
equipment trays at Emteq, New Berlin,
mechanical and electrical function of the is increased surface engagement and the Wis., believes that bandwidth is the defin-
contact system, and a spring clip provides product doesn’t have to be annealed, which ing factor in connector development today.
more stable mechanical function and could be one of the biggest advantages, “We’re using so much of the electronic
resistance to vibration and corrosion in because that’s another manufacturing step, bandwidth that signals are starting to
aerospace environments. Positronic said which increases costs and adds inspection interfere with themselves,” she said.
greater contact interface is achieved with- criteria.” That’s partially due to the use of prior-
out increased insertion force. Sandidge said the PosiBand concept generation connectors for present-day IFE
“The advantages are that mechanically can be used in D-sub connectors and rect- applications, and because development
it is more robust,” Sandidge said. “There angular connectors, as well as new IFE of aerospace-grade IFE connectors lags
behind those developed for retail electron-
ics, like HDMI connectors for high-defini-
Market Moves tion TV, for instance. The fact that a vari-
ety of connector companies are supplying
Following are some recent developments announced by connector manufacturers. both legacy and now-generation products
➤ Sabritec, of Irvine, Calif., means that “we’re seeing a lot more com-
in December released a series petition in connectors for the IFE market,”
of High Power Connectors said Stuckart.
and Contacts for the aero- Even connector suppliers that don’t
space market. The company currently compete in the aerospace market
said the connectors (left) plan to do so in the near term. An example
utilize Hyperboloid contact is Yokowa America Corp., the U.S. subsid-
technology, and provide iary of a Japanese company that bills itself
high current ratings with smaller contacts for the same power, thus saving overall as the world’s largest spring pin connector
weight and space. Other features of the series include low coupling force; shock manufacturer.
and vibration resistance; operability in harsh environments; reduced contact resis- Naoki Kawata, managing director
tance; increased power handling capability; and improved low-rate of wear and of Yokowa America, and Tommy Tsub-
high coupling durability, the company said. okawa, sales manager for its west coast
➤ Arrow Electronics, based in Melville, N.Y., announced plans in November to division, in an interview said they intended
acquire A.E. Petsche, a wire and cable manufacturer based in Arlington, Texas. to compete in the aerospace connector
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Arrow Electronics said the market in the next couple years.
deal was designed to expand its footprint in the aerospace and defense markets. “Price is what’s most important for
“This strategic transaction will add to the breadth of Arrow’s customer base connectors in other industries, but in the
and increase our staff of highly experienced sales professionals, while allowing for case of aviation quality is key,” said Tsub-
a variety of cross-selling opportunities with our existing business as well as other okawa. “We’re working to miniaturize
emerging markets,” said Peter T. Kong, president of Arrow Global Components. connector size while creating flexibility
➤ ITT Interconnect Solutions in June released a hermetically sealed connector tailored to customer needs.”
with a lightweight aluminum shell for low-pressure water immersion or fording One way they’re doing that in a connec-
applications. The connector is suited for military and aerospace applications, tor designed for non-aerospace communi-
including integrated avionics, communication and navigation equipment, displays cations is through development of hybrid
and instrumentation, data processing equipment, electronic warfare systems, module connectors. The use of metal injec-
radar and sensors, weapon controls and targeting systems, electronic countermea- tion molding facilitates the manufacture of
sures, radio and telecommunications devices and battery packs. more complex designs such as one Yokowa
➤ Positronic Industries, Springfield, Mo., expanded its power connector line, developed that combines a spring-loaded
adding the Scorpion series. The line is modular, allowing customers to configure pogo connector and a leaf (metal plate)
a power connector for their individual requirements. Power options include 60 connector in a single connection. Tsuboka-
amperes size 8, 40 amperes size 12, and 30 amperes size 16 contacts, with contact wa said that product isn’t necessarily one
resistance values as low as 0.001 ohms. Size 22 signal contacts are also available. that would have aerospace applicability,
➤ Omnetics Connector Corp., based in Minneapolis, in November said its design, except for the design philosophy of doing
production and quality assurance systems were certified to the ISO 9001:2000, more with less and in a small space.
AS9100 Revision B, International Quality System Standard. ISO9001:2000 com- Emteq has noticed a marked increase
bines three standards of 9001, 9002 and 9003 into one and focuses specifically on in hits on its Web site, which Tony Forst,
design and development procedures. applications engineer for coax cable and
The company's quality system was audited and certified by Smithers Quality connectors, attributes to the constant hunt
Assessments Inc., an independent registrar accredited by both the Dutch Council for connectors that are lower in weight,
for Accreditation and the American National Accreditation Body. cost less and/or have better performance.

34 Avionics Magazine January 2010 www.avtoday.com/av

 Companies

A.E. Petsche Co. .......................................www.aepetsche.com Emteq ............................................................. www.emteq.com

Aeroflite Enterprises ....................................... www.aeroflite.com
Air Electro . .................................................. www.airelectro.com
Airborn, Inc...................................................... www.airborn.com
Airtechnics ................................................www.airtechnics.com
Ametek Aerospace .........................................www.ametek.com
Amphenol Aerospace ................www.amphenol-aerospace.com
Array Connector ..................................www.arrayconnector.com
Astonics . ..................................................... www.astonics.com
BTC Electronic Components .................www.btcelectronics.com
Carlisle Interconnect Technologies .................. www.carlisleit.com
Conesys ...................................................... www.conesys.com
C&K Components ............................. www.ck-components.com
Dallas Avionics ..................................... www.dallasavionics.com
Deutsch ..........................................................www.deutsch.net
ECS/Carlisle Interconnect Technologies ........ www.ecsdirect.com
Electro Enterprises . ........................ www.electroenterprises.com
Excalibur Systems Inc. ................................. www.mil-1553.com
HS Electronics Inc. ................................ www.hselectronics.com
Intro Corp..................................................... www.introcorp.com
ITT Interconnect Solutions ............................ www.ittcannon.com
Kapco . .................................................... http://kapcoaero.com
Molex . .............................................................www.molex.com
Omnetics Connector Corp. .......................... www.omnetics.com
PEI-Genesis ..............................................www.peigenesis.com
Phoenix Logistics . ................................... www.phxlogistics.com
PIC Wire & Cable ............................................ www.picwire.com
Positronic Industries ........................ www.connectpositronic.com
Radiall .............................................................. www.radiall.com
Sabritec ........................................................www.sabritec.com
Souriau ..........................................................www.souriau.com
Tri-Star Electronics International ........ www.tri-starelectronics.com
Tyco Electronics ................................. www.tycoelectronics.com

“We see a lot more engineers research-
ing new technology,” said Forst. “Ninety
percent of the hits on our Web site are
engineers looking for new products and
trying to find what’s out there.”
Forst said he’s noticed that younger
engineers, those fairly new to the indus-
try, spend more time searching for new
technologies, as opposed to engineers
more established in their jobs who might
and reliability, Sandidge said.
Emteq is seeing a demand from the
military for self-locking connectors as a
replacement for connectors with safety
wire (which keeps a pair of threaded
connectors from loosening over time).
The company is providing these type
of connectors in quantity for the C-130
Avionics Modernization Program, the
long-running upgrade program managed
by Boeing.
Avionics Magazine’s Product Focus is a
monthly feature that examines some of the
latest trends in different market segments
of the avionics industry. It does not repre-
sent a comprehensive survey of all compa-
nies and products in these markets.

Antennas &
be more willing to “use what’s always
been in the drawings.”

Static
If they’re engineers working on a busi-
ness jet, performance is likely their num-

Dischargers
ber one criteria, because of the “home
entertainment center in the sky” nature
of cabin furnishings. In that category,
silver contacts trump zinc, and gold con-
tacts trump silver. If they’re working in
commercial aviation, price is the defining Dayton-Granger manufactures a
element. “The airframers have seen their complete line of top quality
production slashed, and are shifting their aircraft antennas and static
focus to weight reduction programs,” said dischargers for military,
Stuckart. “They might be willing to pay airline, business and general
more than in the past to save weight. aviation aircraft.
The commercial airline industry
wants weight reduction, and the connec-
tor industry is responding with an evolv-
ing product list.
“Today we tend to produce a lot of
products that take weight out of the air-
craft,” said Sandidge. “To do that, you
use one metal instead of another, such as
aluminum versus zinc, which gives you When you want top performance and long,
weight savings out of the gate but with trouble free service life, rely on the
something that is mechanically identical.” industry leader, DAYTON-GRANGER.
Positronic Industries is getting more
Tel: (954) 463-3451
requests for connectors that can hold
Fax: (954) 761-3172
more signal pins without the shell becom-
www.daytongranger.com
ing larger, or for 22 gauge wire instead of
sales@daytongranger.com
20 gauge, but with the same performance

www.avtoday.com/av January 2010 Avionics Magazine 35

 new
newproducts
products
‘NAVPad’ Electronic Flight Bag
AirGator, of Mount Kisco, N.Y., expanded its
NAVPad family of electronic flight bags (EFB)
with the addition of NAVPad 8X and 10X.
The systems use the Intel ATOM processor at
1.6GHz, which is up to three times faster than
the previous generation of NAVPads, with lon-
ger battery life and lower power consumption,
according to the company. The EFBs are con-
figured standard with 2 GB RAM — double the
memory available in previous versions — and use industrial solid state drive com-
ponents rather than flash drives. The EFBs are decompression tested to 45,000 feet
and are engineered for use in all cockpit environments with a rugged, light weight
magnesium alloy case. Visit www.airgator.com.
UAV Radios ideal for sensors, UAVs and unmanned
FreeWave Technologies, of Boulder, ground vehicles.
Colo., added to its MM2 family of radios The MM2-M13 radios are backward
— the MM2-M13 and the MM2-MU. compatible with FreeWave’s P Series
The MM2-M13 operates in the 1.3 radios; the MM2-MU family is backward
GHz band and the MM2-MU operates in compatible with the company’s F series
the UHF band at 340 to 400 MHz. wideband radios. Other features include a
The new radios offer all of the high- 2 watt (1W for the MM2-M13) transmit-
performance capabilities of larger radios ter power; increased operating voltage
but in a smaller form factor, making them to 8-30 VDC; receive sensitivity of –107
dBm for BER 10-4; and 230.4 kbps max
throughput for transferring data.
Visit www.freewave.com.
Power Supply
American Avionic Technologies Corp.,
of Medford, N.Y., introduced the Model
1268 3U VME, 250 Watt power supply.
The power supply provides outputs of
+5, +/-12 and +3.3 Volts with a Mil-Std-
704F, +28 Volt DC input. It operates at a
temperature range of -55°C to +71°C.
Visit www.aatcorp.com.
Cabin Management
Flight Display Systems, of Alpharetta,
Ga., introduced the Select Cabin Man-
agement System, which allows pas-
sengers to manage HD video sources,
audio, window shades, lighting, tem-
perature and other cabin amenities from
a touch-screen interface.
Components include an audio cros-
spoint switch, a video crosspoint switch,
an accessory interface node and multiple
cabin control modules.
Visit www.flightdisplay.com.

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36 Avionics Magazine January 2010 www.avtoday.com/av

 ad index
Pg Advertiser Web Address

7 Aerospace Optics Inc................................................................................ www.vivisun.com

11 AIM.........................................................................................................www.aim-online.com
17 ATC Global.............................................................................................. www.atcevents.com
20 Avionics Expo....................................................................................www.avionics-event.com
40 Ballard Technology...............................................................................www.ballardtech.com
2 Data Device Corp................................................................................... www.ddc-web.com
35 Dayton-Granger................................................................................www.daytongranger.com
9 ECS/Carlisle Interconnect Technologies................................................ www.ecsdirect.com
10 EMS Satcom......................................................................................... www.emssatcom.com
31 Goodrich Corp........................................................................................ www.goodrich.com
39 HAI.................................................................................................................www.rotor.com
36 Intro Corp................................................................................................ www.introcorp.com
24 ITT Corp..............................................................................................................aes.itt.com
12 Men Micro.............................................................................................. www.menmicro.com
15 Nav-Aids Ltd........................................................................................... www.navaidsltd.com
21 PIC Wire & Cable.......................................................................................www.picwire.com
13 Pickering Interfaces...........................................................................www.pickeringtest.com
37 Sabritec.....................................................................................................www.sabritec.com
16 SEA Wire & Cable.................................................................................... www.sea-wire.com
5 Spectralux Avionics...............................................................................www.spectralux.com
14 Staco Systems...................................................................................www.stacosystems.com

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www.avtoday.com/av January 2010 Avionics Magazine 37

 aviationtoday.com
by John Persinos
Military to the Rescue
L
et’s be blunt: Aviation took it in the shorts
in 2009. Few analysts are optimistic that the
pain will substantially ease in 2010, but as
we gird for the uncertainties of a new year, bright
spots are apparent. One of the most promising
niches is military avionics.
Many places on the planet remain wracked by
strife. And despite budget deficits and recession-
ary economies, the world’s militaries won’t be
financing their purchases with bake sales. Case
Despite in point: the Pentagon’s 2010 military budget
is $680 billion, more than all of the rest of the
budget deficits world’s military expenditures combined. In 2009,
and recessionary the Pentagon budget was $651 billion. These fig-
ures don’t even include many of the expenditures
economies, the for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The continued growth of military spending in
world’s militaries 2010 — and the boost it provides to military avi-
won’t be onics — was scrutinized during a recent Aviation
Today Webinar, “Aviation in 2010: Challenges
financing their and Opportunities in the Year Ahead,” Dec. 10.
Among those on the speaker panel was Michel
purchases with Merluzeau, managing partner, G2 Solutions, an
bake sales. aviation consultancy in Kirkland, Wash. Our
Webinars are recorded; you can access this online
event at www.AviationToday.com.
According to G2 Solutions, the world’s air
forces are at various combat aircraft replacement
and upgrade cycles, which is good news for the
avionics market. Most NATO countries are in an
active replacement phase for their 1970s designed
aircraft, while emerging nations such as India
will evaluate entirely new aircraft sources in the
near future. More than 5,000 combat aircraft will
be entering service globally over the next decade,
with a peak of 524 deliveries in 2014.
The military avionics market also will be
fueled in 2010 by expanding airlift operations
worldwide and the corresponding need for new
communication, navigation and surveillance
equipment that allows military aircraft to share
airspace with commercial aircraft.
Programs such as the Lockheed Martin F-35
Lightning II are set to dominate the marketplace
through 2029. Lockheed Martin’s Cooperative
Avionics Test Bed (CATBird), a modified Boeing
737, recently completed a two-week deployment
to Edwards Air Force Base in California, where
it demonstrated the capabilities of the advanced
military avionics systems under development for
38 Avionics Magazine January 2010 www.avtoday.com/av
the F-35. The CATBird deployment featured air-
borne testing of the F-35’s radar, electronic war-
fare and communications/navigations systems.
What’s more, G2 Solutions expects aircraft
such as the Dassault Rafale to gain more trac-
tion on the export market through 2014.
“Rafale has had issues with some export
tenders this decade, due to a mix of unfavor-
able political considerations and system overall
technical maturity,” said Merluzeau. “However,
the outlook has improved, with market potential
for Rafale around 300 aircraft to 2019, more if it
wins the Indian MMRCA fighter competition.”
Thales, Sagem, Snecma and MBDA provide the
main subsystems on the Rafale.
Airframes of concern this decade include the
Saab Gripen and Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle (SE)
export fighter. Gripen has been relatively suc-
cessful, but now competes for tenders in Brazil
and India where the aircraft is clearly at a dis-
advantage against the Boeing F-18E or Rafale.
Failure to gain additional orders might see the
program come to a standstill by 2015. However,
smaller opportunities, such as for Argentina’s
military, are ideally suited for Gripen.
“The upgraded F-15SE is an interesting niche
option for existing F-15 operators, but the mar-
ket opportunity window is tight and the address-
able market is probably fewer than 100 aircraft,”
stated Merluzeau.
Merluzeau also highlighted the remarkable
longevity of the Lockheed Martin F-16 series,
soon to be supplanted by the F-35. G2 Solu-
tions predicts that more than 200 F-16s will be
delivered between 2008 and 2019 — a remarkable
achievement, because it has been 30 years since
the fighter entered service. Lockheed Martin will
maintain a commanding lead with a market share
greater than 43 percent, ahead of Boeing, China’s
AVIC I, Eurofighter-EADS and Dassault.
It all adds up to money-making possibili-
ties in the military cockpit. The Webinar also
addressed what’s on the horizon for the global
airspace, as initiatives such as the Next Genera-
tion Air Transportatin System come to fruition.
John Persinos is publisher and editorial director
of Aviation Today. He can be reached at jpersi-
nos@accessintel.com or 301-385-7211.
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