Dynon Adapts Light Sport Avionics for Air eVTOLs

Israeli eVTOL start-up Air has named Dynon Avionics its exclusive avionics supplier, adapting a glass flight deck popular among light sport airplanes for use in electric powered-lift operations.

Under the partnership, announced June 3, Dynon customized its SkyView HDX flight display for both the piloted, two-seat Air One personal eVTOL and the company’s uncrewed, heavy-lift Air One Cargo variant. That work involved adapting a display built for piston-engine airplanes to instead track electric propulsion and battery energy, along with what Air called “streamlined pilot interaction.”

SkyView HDX combines a primary flight display, moving-map navigation, synthetic vision, autopilot, and ADS-B traffic and weather data on touchscreens. Dynon introduced SkyView HDX for experimental and light sport airplanes in 2016 and added approvals for type-certified piston singles, starting with the Cessna 172 in 2018.

Air co-founder and CEO Rani Plaut said working with Dynon lets the company bring “proven avionics capability into a fundamentally new aircraft environment that demands more than a standard integration.”

Dynon president Brad Thurow said SkyView HDX “is built to adapt to evolving aircraft architectures” and that the partnership extends the system “directly into the advanced air mobility space.”

Air expects the FAA to approve the Air One under its Mosaic light sport rules this year, after which the company plans to start U.S. deliveries to its backlog of more than 3,300 customers.