Avionics News April 2013 - 57

“Esterline CMC may be one of the best-known
secrets in the avionics industry,” noted an airframe
executive who worked for the now-absorbed Canadian airframe company.
“Esterline CMC’s move into the Part 23 business is a bigger deal than the news it’s made,” said
the retired executive. “But only if the company
makes good on its potential.”
SmartDeck is a jump start.
This is one reason why, despite the tepid
market response thus far, SmartDeck continues
to be the focus on advanced developments at
Esterline CMC.

CMA-9000 Flight Management System

A Century-Long History of Achievement
The first transoceanic wireless transmission in 1901, was
a mere hint of what would come in the next decade and the
ensuing century.
Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Co. of Canada began in
1903, heralding the beginning of a commercial industry to
underpin the coming explosion in global wired and wireless
communications.
A Marconi Wireless Telegraph station received the first
land-side transmissions from the stricken Titanic in 1912. In
1919, the company established the first experimental broadcast station in Canada.
In 1925, the company name changed to Canadian Marconi
Co., which in 1931, established the forerunner to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Amid the company’s focus on terrestrial-based wireless
advances, the company made its foray into aviation with the
first FM-CW Doppler radar for air navigation.
What eventually became CMC Electronics moved aggressively and quickly into development of aviation and airborne
hardware.
By the time Esterline acquired CMC in 2007, the company’s combined inventory of products covered most of
commercial and military aviation, complete with electronic
flight bag products, WAAS GPS sensors and high-resolution
cockpit displays – along with advanced synthetic vision systems; communications; navigation systems; head-up display
systems; marine systems; systems for the commercial and
military aviation markets.

In a recent example of its strengths, the company announced, in early February, winning contracts from Pilatus
Aircraft to supply the avionics maker’s latest generation
CMA-9000 Flight Management System, the SparrowHawk
Head-Up Display sub-system, as well as the Up Front Control Panel for the fleets of PC-21 military turboprop training
aircraft selected by two international customers.
The most obvious void in the aerospace business lines of
Esterline CMC fell in the business- and general-aviation segments, where the company lacked equipment particularly for
the Part 23 and light Part 25 segments.
SmartDeck: One Door Closed, Another Door Open
The eyes of an industry were on L-3 Communications
when the company launched what was arguably the first-tomarket competitor for Garmin International’s strong-performing G1000 integrated avionics system.
Thanks to the architecture and software innovations and an
eager flock of original equipment manufacturer customers,
the G1000 took off like few expected.
Flexibility in configuration and pricing helped Garmin
place the package in the simplest and most-popular piston
airplane ever – the ubiquitous Cessna 172 Skyhawk – as well
as its siblings, the 182 Skylane and 206 Stationair, and even
the Cessna Caravan turboprop and Citation Mustang business jet.
Cirrus and Diamond are among the other mainline planemakers to embrace the G1000, and its market penetration
also extends into the retrofit arena.
For a time, the G1000 was the only game in town for
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Avionics News April 2013

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