Avionics News April 2014 - 25

powerplant status and talk to controllers and other pilots
while en route.
Coordination through the International Civil Aviation
Organization has encouraged compatibility and uniformity of aeronautical systems, which in the past 20 years
seem to have evolved more rapidly than the prior 50. Nations often adapt to new technologies at different rates,
and in some cases, never completely do. For example, the
U.S. official approach to 121.5 MHz emergency locator
transmitters - OK to use, still, but pretty much only within
U.S. airspace.
Most other countries shifted to new-technology 406
MHz beacons. Similarly, the U.S. shut down its Loran C
network, while other nations enhanced theirs as a backup
and compliment to GPS.
For the end user, keeping up with advancing technology
can be as simple as buying a new plane; that's an expensive approach.
Upgrading the panel provides an alternative to gaining
new technologies and their expanded capabilities. Upgrades have particular appeal to owners of airplanes with
performance comparable to new versions of those same
models - save for their panels.
The past 20 years of advances in avionics far outstripped airframe and engine advances going back 50
years, particularly among Part 23 aircraft.
In that time, aviation morphed from ground-based navigation following swinging needles to moving-map displays driven by globally available, satellite-referenced
positioning systems. By 2020, the FAA wants GPS-referenced ADS-B to underpin air traffic surveillance and
control - a path most of the world also is following, under
ICAO coordination for international operations.
The steam-gauge-instrument technology adorning our
panels yielded to video screens displaying computer-generated graphic representations of attitude and air-data instruments, engine gauges, the radio frequencies we tune,
even the world outside with images constructed from
computer databases.
And pilots and operators outside the U.S. value improved
avionics as highly as any other technologies, particularly
those universally useful: GPS navigators; moving-map displays and synthetic vision driven by the appropriate terrain
database; and collision avoidance.
These advances naturally hold huge appeal for most
new-aircraft buyers; they hold equal appeal anywhere pilots want the maximum in utility and situational awareness.
The depth of international markets helped make this
rapid development of new general aviation products more

viable by providing an
expanded market base to
enhance both after-market
and upgrade businesses
and continue to grow with
new-plane output, whether
U.S. or internationally produced.
"To continue growing at a reasonable rate of growth, one
has to look at the international market," Southgate said.
"The actual numbers aren't always well appreciated by
many here in the U.S., but there's been more recognition of
the potential for growth - it is so much higher (internationally) than here in the U.S."
Since 2008, exports of U.S.-made aircraft have run at a
higher percentage than the running average of the past 20
years; billings for those aircraft account for more than 50
percent of the total for each of the five years.
The international fleet of business and private aircraft are
growing faster internationally than in the U.S. and Europe.
And retrofit and upgrade work is as popular overseas as in
the U.S.
"It all adds up to a market we want to be a part of," Harper said. "We consider everything we make as a prospect for
international sales, providing it has application there."
From top to bottom, whether single-engine-piston simple or pressurized-fanjet-powered complex, avionics must
work in their environment for air traffic control, communications, surveillance and navigation - and unquestionably,
U.S. products and systems are a major force in satisfying
aviation's needs around the world.
Penetrating those markets, however, requires approvals
and authorizations beyond that required to sell and install
in the U.S. The sum of these efforts shows a total of $2.4
billion in worldwide avionics sales in 2013, according to the
Aircraft Electronics Association's Avionics Market Report.
This level of sales would not be possible without the internationally diverse avionics products and services available
in the marketplace.
Entering foreign markets: A simple 18-plus-stop-process
Early in aviation history, U.S. products mainly needed domestic acceptance; for decades North America by itself accounted for the overwhelming majority of the global market.
But as the aviation business long ago learned, global
success requires something akin to global acceptance. For
sales success, avionics makers must meet the requirements
of the target nations.
Continued on page 62

avionics news

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Avionics News April 2014

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