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The end of a once great company - Honeywell / Bendix-King?

It’s real…albeith years old. See video here:-



But yes, that’s some rubbish photoshopping in that image! But the rest of the panel is identical.

Last Edited by stevelup at 10 Apr 14:08

From Friedrichshafen 2019:

Yes indeed that panel does exist – at least as a mockup

HBK are badging various bits as usual; here are the Avidyne IFD boxes

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

A load of re-badged products here



and the presenter has already left HBK…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

No bigger critic of Bendix than me, but they did at Oshkosh come out with quite an aggressive plan to try to win customers back. Bendix has recently certified the Ki300/310 autopilots, and a new AeroVue PFD. They bought TruTrak autopilots. They also offer an avionics plan, with no costs up front. This could be a good option for cash poor users needing an avionics upgrade.

So they’re trying. It might be still too late, but I think it’s important for the market that we try to support as many players as possible. It’s not good if Garmin is the only player.

Bendix local copy

Last Edited by AdamFrisch at 09 Aug 18:03

Have they really certified the KA310? Their Homepage days that they accepts pre-Orders and expect shipment to Start in Q3.

And what is the difference to a G5 which is almost 1.000 USD cheaper?

I would love them to be successful as I agree that Garmin-only would be unhealthy to the market.

EDLM, Germany

The KA310 (with the KI300) replaces the KI256, which the G5 cannot ever do: act as a pitch/roll source for the King autopilots.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

If we could get Avidyne products (which are very good) without the Avidyne attitude to customers (which is appalling) it would be a game changer. It is just possible that this marriage will provide that, and then there will be a rational alternative to Garmin.

EGKB Biggin Hill

Some insider info I have is that Honeywell are spending many millions on keeping Bendix King afloat.

Specifically tens of millions were spent on the KSN770 which has practically totally failed to sell, but nobody in there is willing to chop it, because if they do, the same argument could be made for all the other recent introductions that aren’t selling either.

Obviously if the KSN770 was moving then HBK would not be re-badging Avidyne IFD boxes.

My take on customer service in general (not just in avionics but right across all business) is that it is directly related to

  • how much money you are making (if not making lots then you can’t do it no matter what)
  • your cultural attitude to customer service (in some countries, it is just not a priority, but in the US it usually is, and their GA vendors are judged hard on it)

HBK, like Avidyne, are clearly not making lots of money, but HBK are getting lots poured into them (for the time being) while Avidyne are having to generate their own cash.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Avidyne have two, rather different, problems with the way they deal with customers.

  1. Their inability to fix their boxes in a timely way and to communicate with customers what’s going on
  2. Their willingness to make wild promises to the market which they are then unable to fulfil

I agree that the former is mostly about money, but the latter is a matter of ethos. I do think that they have changed their behaviour after a couple of PR disasters (SBAS on the IFD and ADS-B on the TAS605), but I am not convinced that they have changed their ethos.

EGKB Biggin Hill

Like I’ve said before, the rarified earth that Garmin breathes where they can certify their own stuff, is not enjoyed by anyone else. So to the consumer it looks like Garmin is so much more on it and professional, able to certify much quicker etc. But the smaller players abide by completely different rules, they have to go through FAA’s reviews and things take forever. This makes it very, very hard for the small players to bring out multiple new platforms and devices in the same time frame Garmin does. Why do we thing BK is licensing stuff rather than certifying themselves? They’re obviously fully capable of doing so. Because it would take 5 years to get a product to market as it is now. I’m sure Avidyne would love to certify a PFD that can compete with Garmin, it would just probably break the company doing so with all the onerous stuff.

Last Edited by AdamFrisch at 10 Aug 18:07
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