Elbit Systems recent purchase of Universal Avionics Systems creates a new wide ranging avionics integrator able to offer products to every segment of aviation. But the move also opens new markets for Elbit.
The acquisition was announced March 22 and closed on April 11. Universal Avionics, which was privately owned, fetched $120 million in the transaction, but its value to Elbit may be far more over the long run. Universal Avionics is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems and will be the lead for commercial sales in North America for Elbit’s Aerospace Division commercial aviation business line.
“Over the years it was hard [for Universal Avionics] to compete against the big [avionics] OEMs, being a private company,” said Dror Yahav, Elbit vice president, Commercial Aviation, Aerospace division. “Now that it’s part of Elbit, this new entity can be a big force [in the industry].”
He added, “We will explore synergies, and allow them to access our product portfolio. They will be part of Commercial Aviation and will maintain their own identity and brand. It is a big step for us. The company is very impressive, with a long heritage. They’re a worldwide expert in what they do.” Universal also brings its own certification team and two flight test airplanes, which will help Elbit improve product development efficiency. “That’s a big plus,” he said.
Elbit already serves the Part 25 avionics market for business and commercial aviation with enhanced vision systems (EVS) and head-up displays (HUD), including its new SkyLens wearable HUD.
Yahav sees opportunities to build on the Universal Avionics distribution and product support network. “On top of having a full avionics package,” Yahav said, “[the acquisition] provides us access to the aftermarket, which is quite appealing to us, especially with our wearable solution that is easy to install and can serve as a HUD. That fits well in this marketplace.”
What is new for Elbit in the Part 25 space is Universal’s bread-and-butter flight management systems and communications products, which are key components of NextGen avionics installations. “Universal touches new trends in aviation,” said Yahav, “[including] ADS-B Out and SBAS-LPV through FMS upgrades and new FMS [installations]. Elbit brings EVS. When we look at the whole package, we call it a NextGen air transport package. It makes sense to upgrade the airplane with both.”
Elbit has offered traditional HUDs to the business jet market and even STC’d its HUD in a Challenger 604. “We found that due to the complexity of the installation and cost, it was hard to penetrate this market,” he said. “One of the reasons we developed SkyLens is that we wanted to be able to install it overnight with a minimum impact on the cockpit.”
So far, ATR is the first customer for SkyLens in a fixed-wing aircraft and plans to begin flying with the HUD in 2019, following certification later this year. Leonardo has selected SkyLens for its helicopters. “There are others that we haven’t announced yet,” Yahav said.
Elbit and Universal Avionics are looking beyond EVS and HUD into new ways to present information to pilots. Yahav gave a hint of what this might look like and promised more details at this year’s NBAA convention. “We didn’t just want to connect aviation to HUDs and EVS,” he said. “That’s been done. We wanted to bring the head-up, head-down display operation to the next level. What we’re talking about is a fully augmented reality environment that allows the pilot to get all the information available in the cockpit superimposed on the real world and being able to feed back with the environment to influence the cockpit.” This is all with the goal of making flying more intuitive and increasing situational awareness.
One manifestation of this new technology is to display ADS-B In traffic on a HUD. “Think of the potential benefit,” Yahav said. “Such integration can only be done if we master both technologies. It’s quite complex. We will demonstrate this concept at the NBAA show. It’s not only integrated, but it’s a smart integrated cockpit.”