L3 Aviation has partnered with Thomas Global Systems to develop L3’s new EFI-650 LCD upgrade for legacy business jets and regional airliners, the company announced at AEA 2017 this week. The EFI-650 is an LED-backlit LCD that weighs half a pound, about half as much 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. The EFI-650 received its FAA TSO in 2016 and FAA approved model list supplemental type certificate in January. L3 has submitted paperwork to EASA and Transport Canada for their approvals.

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 in 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.

L3 is also highlighting its Lynx NGT-9000 ADS-B transponder at the AEA 2017 show and announced that Westwind Helicopters selected the NGT-9000 for its Bell 407 fleet, as well as for its Bell 206s, Sikorsky S-76s and MD 500s. All of these helicopters will be equipped with the NGT-9000+ with the active traffic option. 

The touchscreen NGT-9000 provides both ADS-B OUT and IN, with Nexrad and textual weather, moving maps, Notams, TFRs and winds and temperatures aloft as well as traffic. In a recent software upgrade, L3 added features to the NGT-9000 such as improved filtering for the optional ADS-B Traffic Advisory System and tracking of aircraft below 380 feet; interfacing with L3's Stormscope WX-500 lightning detection system; L3 Lynx TerrainVision, which is not quite a full H-TAWS, but provides terrain awareness with a color-coded display to improve ground proximity situational awareness; the ability to configure the NGT-9000 to remove the “Squawk VFR” button; and dual installation capability, whether remote or panel-mounted.