Avionics News January 2013 - 22

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RENEWAL & REVIVAL IN ALBUQUERQUE

Up until that point, Bendix/King had kept a solid hold on its market. The robust KX 155 and KX 165 VHF nav/comm boxes remain valued tools in many aircraft panels and are still selling after 30 years. On the GPS front, Bendix/King initially locked in a strong position with a collection of non-precision-approachapproved stand-alone GPS navigators – the KLN 89, KLN 89B, KLN 90 and KLN 94. The first three all sported rudimentary, monochromatic and small displays capable of showing basic navigation and moving-map graphics. Only with the release of the KLN 94 did Bendix/King offer an IFR GPS navigator with a color display, one still on the small side to fit within the front of a standard box. The company introduced links that let the later-model GPS navigators work with its nav/comms. Bendix/King also once held a commanding lead in standalone multifunction displays and technology morphed from the Skymap line acquired in the late 1990s. The KMD 150, KMD 550 and KMD 850 offered full-size displays, and all but the 150 could accommodate adapters for weather, traffic and terrain-avoidance sensors; the smaller standard-box-size KMD 250 offered a sharper, much-smaller screen and could fit more applications with less panel disruption. But Garmin, then Avidyne, began to outstrip Bendix/ King’s development pace, quickly rendering the KMD line old, lower-value-equation technology. After years lost trying to bring to market some basic, but advanced products to compete with Avidyne and Garmin, many observers began to conclude the days were numbered for the venerable brand. And the company’s place as part of a conglomerate also producing avionics products for the commercial and business-turbine markets wasn’t helping. “When you’re producing for the air-transport and business-turbine markets, there’s a need for more accountability and record keeping, and more structure than you can afford for the consumer market,” Jollis said. “The higher margins of those other lines weren’t available if we were to stay competitive for the more-consumer-oriented, discretionary buyers in general aviation.” A Strategy for Brand Rebuilding The earliest hints of change came on faint winds nearly two years ago. The compact staff of Bendix/King’s operations at its ancestral home in Olathe, Kan., shared whispers of stir22
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“We’ve entered into selective partnerships with good products... particularly where they’re willing to make it look like ours – but with added value, functional ease of use and aesthetics.”
ROGER JOLLIS, vice president of marketing, Bendix/King

rings at Honeywell with the Bendix/King brand likely to feel the changing currents. The scuttlebutt around the general aviation community was muted but not silent. Were people hearing about the final slipping of this once-grand brand to beneath the waves, joining other names once prominent in general aviation avionics? Then, in March 2011, Bendix/King and Aspen Avionics announced their partnership in completing development of the elder avionics company’s moribund KSN 770, an all-in-one VHF-navigator-communicator/GPS/multifunction display product intended to compete with similar existing and planned products from Avidyne and Garmin. Perhaps it was a late-breaking response to Garmin’s GNS 430/530 line. And, like new multipurpose-plus-display models announced by Avidyne and Garmin at the 2011 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., the new Bendix/King MPD would embrace a touch-sensitive display screen as part of its control architecture. By then, Bendix/King staff discussions concerning selling homes in Kansas and shopping for homes in New Mexico started circulating, and the picture sharpened despite still-unanswered questions about products in development. The sense seemed to be that no concrete answers would be immediately forthcoming for many questions. Assurances that the Bendix/King brand would be around for a long time merely altered the trajectory of the grapevine; now it grew toward the bright light of a sale. Was someone going to buy Bendix/King? Were Honeywell’s quiet back-office activities merely preparation for such a sale or a spin-off?

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january

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Avionics News January 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News January 2013