Story ID: 540 L3Aviation
L3’s Display Simplifies Cockpit Upgrades
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: The L3 Aviation Products EFI-650 is TSO approved and installable via an approved model list supplement type certificate.
Word Count: 317
L3 Aviation Products has received FAA technical standard order (TSO) authorization as well as an approved model list supplemental type certificate (AML-STC) for its EFI-650 LCD cockpit display in a number of regional and legacy business aircraft. L3 has also submitted paperwork to EASA and Transport Canada for their approvals. 

The EFI-650 was developed as part of L3’s alliance with Thomas Global Systems and incorporates the latter company's branded Adaptive Display Architecture processing technology. L3 Aviation Products is a division of L3Technologies (Booth Y60).

Weighing half a pound, the EFI-650 is an LED-backlit LCD. That's about half as much weight as the cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays that it replaces. It is a form-fit-function replacement, meaning that the EFI-650 can quickly be swapped with old, worn-out CRTs that are too expensive to repair. When the old CRTs are removed, so, too, are their high-voltage power supplies, which are no longer needed. There is also no need for cooling fans as the new displays are passively cooled.

Tens of thousands of business jets—Challengers, Citations, Falcons, Gulfstreams and Hawkers—and regional airliners still fly with CRT displays and are candidates for the EFI-650 upgrade, according to Larry Riddle, L3 Aviation Products v-p of marketing and sales for general aviation. “I think the potential is significant.” Parts and repairs for CRTs are increasingly difficult to find, and the mean-time-between-failure for the EFI-650 is more than 25,000 hours. The new displays can be swapped individually or all at once, giving operators latitude in how much they want to spend as their CRTs wear out. Retail price of the EFI-650 is $34,500. 

“This solution is lighter, produces less heat and requires less power than aging CRTs,” said L3 Aviation Products president Stuart Mullan, “and will extend the life of legacy aircraft by offering reliable active-matrix LCD technology for displaying critical flight data.”