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TOUCHSCREEN MANIA
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dix/King’s calls its “new multifunction display,” a package which can replace up to four separate units. The KSN 770 combines an IFR GPS navigator, integrated TAWS function, weather radar display, a 16-watt digital VHF comm and VHF nav/ILS. And, now it’s getting a touchscreen interface to augment Bendix/King’s already simple three-step interface. The KSN 770 sports a large, high-resolution display with a comprehensive moving map and a fully certified 24-channel WAAS-LPV GPS navigator. Finally, Rockwell Collins took the touchscreen control interface upscale by giving displays in its Pro Line Fusion system – the PFD and MFD – touch-sensitive-screen control. “These displays demonstrate our focus on empowering pilots with natural head-up, eyes-forward interfaces,” said Colin Mahoney, vice president of sales and marketing for Rockwell Collins. “Touch-controlled, icon-based controls on the main displays help keep pilots’ attention focused up and forward for safer and more efficient flying. For example, when programming the flight management system, instead of entering information on a console-mounted keypad, pilots can redirect to a graphically displayed waypoint or destination with a single swipe of a finger.” From Portable Devices to Panel-Installed The inroads of touchscreen interfaces into many consumer-electronic devices certainly helped improve availability and, most importantly, made them more affordable, a factor cited by all the avionics makers involved. For example, Tom Harper of Avidyne offered this perspective after introducing the world to the company’s new IFD540, an all-in-one VHF
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navigator, communications radio and WAAS GPS – with a touchscreendisplay interface. “Touchscreen technology has been around in various forms for several years, but the rise in popularity of electronic devices, such as smartphones and automotive mapping systems, has done much to make this technology ubiquitous and much more affordable for special purpose applications like avionics,” Harper said. Brad Hayden of Aspen Avionics noted the company’s joint decision with Honeywell to equip the developmental KSN 770 – another all-in-one – was mutual. “The touchscreen idea came out of both camps,” Hayden recalled. Earlier this year, Aspen entered into a collaborative relationship with Honeywell to finish certification of the long-awaited 770 – a device originally conceived without a touchsreen control interface. “This is a very collaborative project,” Hayden said. “They had this product well along when we came in. We both agreed that touchscreen really needed to be added.” And, from Garmin, the company that started the touchscreen-interface ball rolling with the G3000 two years ago, avionics product manager Bill Stone offered this: “The touchscreen, the touch-sensitive aspect is half the appeal. The other half is the programmable nature that makes it context sensitive for whatever you want to do.” Today, Garmin offers two varieties of touchscreen control interfaces on five products: a remote touch-sensitive control head for the integrated G3000 – the first launched – and the G5000 and G2000, launched this spring in Cessna’s Coravlis piston singles. And, all four parties – Aspen, Honeywell, Avidyne and Garmin – cited the technology’s suitability for use because of its open nature and ability to
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Pilot's Guide to Avionics 2012-2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pilot's Guide to Avionics 2012-2013
