On the Record with GARY KELLY, MARKETING DIRECTOR, GARMIN
INTERNATIONAL
It has been a huge year for Garmin International. The announcement
of the G1000 integrated avionics system and its selection for the
Cessna Mustang launches the company into the big leagues of avionics
suppliers, while the acquisition of UPS Aviation Technologies-now
Garmin AT-puts the company in a leading role in the new world of
air traffic management.
"If you look across the spectrum, we have a very strong team,"
says marketing director Gary Kelly. "We have all the elements
needed to bring an integrated system together, whether for a retrofit
or an all-new system. We have flight control systems, attitude and
heading reference systems and communications, navigation and identification,
and a strong, strong capability in glass."
The Mustang was "a significant win," says Kelly. "It
proves that we are capable of providing a full, integrated package
for a turbine-powered aircraft." On the Mustang, the G1000
will have a three-screen layout with dual 10-inch primary flight
display (PFD) screens left and right and a 15-inch multifunction
display (MFD) in the middle. The system includes fully integrated
air-data computers, solid-state attitude and heading reference systems,
a digital radar and a complete terrain awareness and warning system
with a worldwide terrain database. A similar system with two 10-inch
screens has been selected for Diamond's DA 42 TwinStar twin-diesel
aircraft.
Cessna senior vp for product engineering Jack Pelton predicts
that the G1000 "will become an avionics platform that will
be carried not only by Cessna but by other new products, and as
an upgrade to existing products." Cessna picked the G1000,
says Pelton, because it offered a comprehensive set of features
and was a flexible system with many potential upgrades, and because
it was impressed with Garmin as a quality supplier.
Garmin is continuing to pursue new opportunities for the G1000.
"There are lots of other folks out there," says Kelly.
(Among new-start jets, Avocet and Diamond, with the D-JET, have
yet to select their avionics vendors.) Garmin will also continue
to pursue the retrofit market. "There are tens of thousands
of King KX 170B and Narco Mk 12s out there, and as we bring the
cost down the retrofit becomes more attractive."
Garmin completed the acquisition of UPS Aviation Technologies
in August, paying $38 million for the former division of United
Parcel Service. The company had developed as a result of UPS' operational
involvement in early tests of automatic dependent surveillance (ADS)
technology. The acquisition was unusual for Garmin, says Kelly.
"We have typically developed our technology internally, and
we are vertically integrated."
In the case of UPS Aviation Technologies, Garmin was interested
in "a very powerful group of individuals" with unique
experience in ADS. "The human resources were as important as
the technology," says Kelly. Garmin AT's 150 people will continue
to operate as a subsidiary in Salem, OR. No other acquisitions are
in Garmin's immediate future, he says. "We're always listening,
but not aggressively pursuing anything."
