Bendix/King’s New Portables

We’ve known for several years that Bendix/King’s engineers have been busily developing new products and, surprisingly, three of them came out of the ground this week at EAA AirVenture. Specifically, the company announced three portable devices, one a high-feature budget model and two sophisticated electronic flight bag type products based on Samsung tablet PCs and integrated from the VistaNav line which Bendix/King just bought. All of these products fly under a product flag called AV8OR.

We've known for several years that Bendix/King's engineers have been busily developing new products and, surprisingly, three of them came out of the ground this week at EAA AirVenture. Specifically, the company announced three portable devices, one a high-feature budget model and two sophisticated electronic flight bag type products based on Samsung tablet PCs and integrated from the VistaNav line which Bendix/King just bought. All of these products fly under a product flag called AV8OR.

The budget model is called the AV8OR Handheld Multi-Function Display and sells for $749. It has a self-contained GPS displaying on a 4.3-inch diagonal with touchscreen control with touch-and-drag capability for map panning. Like other state-of-the-art portables, the AV8OR Handheld will accept external XM Satellite weather data (via Bluetooth) and it includes 4GB worth of storage for an onboard MP3 and movie player. The portable also includes a sophisticated package for ground navigation with three dimensional color maps. Although the weatherlink requires a separate XM receiver, at AirVenture, Bendix/King is offering a $250 coupon toward the purchase of a new one.

At the upper end of the market segment are the AV8OR Horizon 3D and Vision 3D models, both based on Samsung tablet computers and both best thought of as serious cockpit EFB entries. Both of these systems include an air data sensor, attitude heading and reference and GPS capability. Both can also interface with external traffic and weather sensing, plus approach plate display functions. There's one other intriguing option in the Horizon and Vision offerings: Synthetic vision based on a detailed onboard terrain database. The top-of-the-line Vision 3D, a ruggedized Class II EFB, will sell for $6995 while the Horizon model will retail for $4995. For a detailed interview on these products with Bendix/King's Chad Cuniff, click here. Find these products on the web at BendixKing.com/AV8OR.