Avionics News October 2014 - 75

Rockwell Collins'
Pro Line Fusion

EVOLUTION WITHIN A REVOLUTION
While	still	relatively	new	but	now	coming	into	its	
own,	the	main	new	element	here	comes	from	the	recent	
integration	of	touch-sensitive	input	controls	into	avionics	
themselves.	
Not	too	many	years	ago,	the	cursor-control-device	
pioneered	the	idea	of	touch	control,	sometimes	with	a	
partner,	the	track-ball	controller;	roll	the	ball,	drag	a	finger	
on	the	touch-sensitive	surface	and	watch	the	cursor	move.	A	
button	"click"	or	double-tap	of	the	touch-sensitive	input	pad	
executed	the	input	command	and	made	things	happen.
Today,	notebook	computers	increasingly	sport	touchsensitive	screen	displays,	but	the	touch-pad	cursor-control	
device	remains	popular.
Early	liquid-crystal-display	devices	often	depended	on	
so-called	"soft	keys"	-	buttons	whose	functions	varied	
according	to	the	task.	The	button's	current	label	appeared	
on	the	LCD	screen	adjacent	to	the	button.	Touching	the	
screen	did	nothing;	touching	the	button	executed	the	next	
command.
Today,	the	device	offers	an	unfathomable	variety	of	
control	options,	each	represented	by	its	own	"button"	or	
"tab,"	rendered	in	full	color	-	and	existing	on	the	screen	
only	as	long	as	needed	to	let	the	user	click	through.
Remote-entry	devices	remain	popular	in	higher-end	Part	
25	avionics;	but	in	place	of	those	plain	track-pads	with	
button	and	double-tap	capabilities,	dedicated	touch-sensitive	
screen	controllers	are	taking	over,	able	to	display	all	those	
commands	and	menus	once	shown	on	panel	screens.
TOUCHING ON TODAY'S OPTIONS, WE FIND...
Avidyne,	Honeywell,	Garmin,	Rockwell	Collins	-	if	
they're	into	making	avionics	for	aircraft,	any	level	of	
aircraft,	those	companies	are	on	board	with	touch-controlled	
avionics	packages	for	the	Part	23	and	Part	25	crowds,	with	

everything	from	stand-alone,	all-in-one-box	panel-mounted	
units	to	multiple-screen	integrated	packages	with	displays	as	
controllers	-	as	well	as	separate-controller	managed	packages.
From	remote-access	touch-pad	input	devices	to	
electronically	responsive	color	screens,	most	of	the	
adaptations	came	to	multifunction	displays	and	the	color	
displays	of	today's	all-in-one	WAAS	GPS/nav/comm/ILS	
panel-mounted	boxes.
ROCKWELL COLLINS PRO LINE FUSION
Rockwell	Collins	chose	the	Experimental	Aircraft	
Association's	AirVenture	in	Oshkosh	to	introduce	its	first	
touch-sensitive	primary	flight	display.	The	touchscreen	PFD	
serves	an	integral	role	in	the	company's	latest	Pro	Line	Fusion	
package	and	breaks	with	the	dominant	pattern	of	the	touchsensitive	display	screen	belonging	to	something	other	than	the	
PFD.	Not	that	there	was	anything	wrong	with	that.
But	acceptance	of	the	stability	and	reliability	of	today's	
hardware	and	software	needed	to	go	a	long	way	beyond	
trusting	the	old	input-device-talks-to-processing	unit	to	make	
other	peripherals	work.
In	2012,	the	Cedar	Rapids,	Iowa-based	company	started	
flight	testing	of	Fusion	working	with	what	then	was	Hawker	
Beechcraft's	Global	Customer	Support	to	STC	the	system	for	
King	Airs	flying	with	Pro	Line	21	systems;	an	STC	for	Pro	
Line	21-using	Hawker	800s	also	is	available.	A	HUD	option	
is	available	for	even	smaller	cockpits.
Beyond	retrofit,	Pro	Line	Fusion	quickly	penetrated	the	
OEM	market.	It's	certificated	and	flying	on	Embraer's	new	
Legacy	500.	In-development	programs	flying	Fusion	include	
the	500's	sibling	Legacy	450,	due	in	2015,	as	well	as	Learjet's	
new	composite	Learjet	85.	Expect	more	to	come.

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Avionics News October 2014

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