44 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 AviationWeek.com/awstJohn Croft WashingtonI
n the fall of 2012, Textron AirLand found that neither of
the two avionics companies it had hired to independently
develop versions of an integrated fl ight deck for its then-
secret Scorpion light attack jet project could deliver on a
highly compacted, two-year concept-to-fi rst fl ight schedule.
That’s when they called on Cobham Commercial Systems in
Mineral Wells, Texas.
The challenge was pretty much business as usual for
Cobham, a provider of electronic fl ight information systems
(EFIS), autopilots and other avionics. The company already
had an impressive track record of government and special-
mission fl ight decks for programs such as the Sikorsky S-61T
modernization and the service life-extension program for the
Embraer 312 Tucano.
One year after Textron signed a contract with Cobham,
the tandem-seat Scorpion achieved fi rst fl ight in December- Cobham displays were in the front and rear cockpits,
the fl ight management system and terrain awareness warn-
ing system, solid state gyros and autopilot.
Earlier this year the team that pulled of the project—Cob-
ham’s EFIS and S-TEC autopilot divisions—split from Cob-
ham in name and ownership (but not location), and became
Genesys Aerosystems.
Along with supporting legacy products, Genesys has a new
strategy to bolster its market share for integrated cockpits
in large Part 25 air transport category aircraft. Behind the
buyout were Cobham Commercial Systems General Manager
Roger Smith and Controller Tammy Crawford, and EFIS en-
trepreneurs Gordon Pratt and Rick Price, who completed the
deal in April. “We’ve got a reenergized focus with a company
of dedicated people,” says Smith of the 140 employees in Min-
eral Wells. “We’re investing in new activities.”
New activities include increased functionality for the EFIS,
a new autopilot for Part 25 fi xed-wing aircraft, and expanding
the HeliSAS autopilot line for helicopters with more supple-
mental type certifi cates. The company’s EFIS units have sup-
plemental type certifi cates (STCs) in more than 700 dif erent
aircraft types, and S-TEC has certifi ed autopilots in nearly
1,000 aircraft types and delivered more than 40,000 systems.
Genesys Aerosystems’ EFIS expertise stems from Pratt
and Price, whose fi rst company, Sierra Flight Systems, was
acquired by Cobham in
2001 and renamed Chel-
ton Flight Systems. Chel-
ton was the fi rst company
to certify a synthetic vision
primary fl ight display for
Part 23 aircraft with its
FlightLogic line in 2001,
and remains the only com-
pany with synthetic vision
EFIS certifi cations for all
four light- and transport-
category fi xed-wing (Part
23 and 25) and rotary-wing
(Part 27 and 29) aircraft,
says Pratt. Other “fi rsts” for Chelton include GPS/WAAS
(wide area augmentation system) navigation, highway-in-
the-sky guidance, conformal runway depiction and traf c
depiction on the primary fl ight display.
Forward-fit placements for the EFIS include the Grob
G120TP turboprop trainer and the AgustaWestland AW109
GrandNew twin-turbine helicopter. “We are a fi rst-tier sub-
contractor at the cockpit-level for EFIS-based systems, but
we also supply individual EFIS and autopilots,” says Smith
of the company’s approved supplier status for Sikorsky, Em-
braer, Kaman and others. “We can supply piece parts, or can
rip the entire cockpit out of a civil aircraft and install a new
integrated fl ight deck.”
The Scorpion cockpit is designed for three Genesys inte-
grated display units (IDU) in the front seat, for the pilot. For
the back seat—meant for a second pilot, mission systems
or weapons of cer—a single Genesys IDU-680 (6 X 8-in.) or
IDU-450 (4 X 5-in.) can be installed; either provides all func-
tions. Both seats have fl ight controls in place.
Genesys keeps its displays simple with minimal part num-
bers. “The same displays can be installed in a Bell Jet Ranger,
Lockheed C-130, Mil Mi-17, or the Scorpion,” says Pratt. “We
can meet special mission requirements very rapidly and with
a high degree of fi delity at relatively low costs.” Pratt says the
core processor in IDU can drive a larger display, but there
has been no demand for that from customers. He says the
next generation of display hardware will “probably” have
certain touchscreen capabilities, but he notes that Genesys
has “strong biases” about how to implement touchscreen
technology, in part because of the ruggedness requirements
of its customer base.
Conservatism and commonality in displays means the
company is not apt to move with the latest consumer trends
in displays because it customer base is military and paramili-
tary—groups that need tough equipment. “It’s not driven by
the newest coolest stuf you can buy at Circuit City or Best
Buy,” says Pratt. “It’s the stuf that will power up at -55C and
operate at 100C continuously. We’ll produce a display for 15
years, so we want to make sure we don’t produce a product
that goes the way of the 8-track or Beta Max.”
Genesys’s installed-EFIS base is split roughly equally be-NEXT-GENERATION AVIONICSOasis in Texas
Special missions comprise a large part
of Genesys Aerosystems’ new portfolio
Textron AirLand came
to Genesys predecessor
Cobham Commercial
Systems for the cockpit/
autopilotfor the Scorpion
light attack jet.TEXTRON AIRLAND
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