Avionics News June 2015 - 19

But then, it's always been this way. While today's
rate of change exceeds what we consider a standard
rate of change in the past, it bears remembering that
the VHF NavComm itself represented a major step
in avionics' technological advance back when it was
unveiled more than 50 years ago.

As King Radio's invention put transmitter and
receiver into one box, the innovation started aviation's
move away from coffee-grinder tuning of individual
units and toward transceivers. The innovation also
provided a degree of labor-saving technology: tuning
both transmitter and receiver in a single-step process.
Simultaneously, tuning in a VOR frequency also
No standing still:
became easier, faster and more precise.
The original NavComm was an innovation
Of course, the competition quickly followed, and
Aviation has never been a world with only two
King Radio didn't have the concept to itself for long.
inevitabilities - that legendary death-and-taxes
But evolution continued the NavComm revolution King
duo. Progress remains the third
launched.
constant; progress by way of raw,
GPS, the new star of GA
unrelenting change.
panels, met a booming demand
If anything, aviation serves as a
for navigation gear employing the
TODAY'S AIRCRAFT
microcosm of the world at large -
relatively new availability of spacealways evolving. Aircraft evolved
based navigation, and BendixKing
OWNERS AND PILOTS
from wood-and-cotton construction
brought to market a GPS/Comm
FACE ONE OF THE
into today's metal- and
- a unit which continues to enjoy
SLIMMEST SELECTIONS
composite-constructed airframes.
popularity and support.
OF NAVCOMMS
Components, specifically avionics,
But then came the advent of the
evolved from vacuum tubes
"all-in-one" box.
to transistors and into today's
Garmin's then-revolutionary
microprocessor world of avionics.
GNS 430 and 530 sported an
The VHF NavComm is both a
IFR-capable GPS navigator, a
victim of advance and an originator
VHF navigation receiver (with
of a past shift in panel equipment.
glideslope) and a 760-channel
Radio beacons provided our first
comm transceiver.
long-distance, electronic-based
Today, several avionics players
navigation tool; the ADF/NDB
offer their own versions of the
system made their use more sophisticated and flexible.
all-in-one box while the humble VHF NavComm defies
The four-way radio range gave way to VHF range and
forecasts of its demise.
VORs ... now, space-based navigation increasingly
dominates in-cockpit navigation equipment.
The NavComm of tomorrow
The NavComm itself provided a milepost on the road
In conversations with various staff members
to today's avionics.
associated with avionics manufacturers, and while
Ed King launched his company, King Radio, on
researching this story, the consensus view points toward
the foundation of this then-revolutionary invention:
the VHF NavComm remaining, but now as a companion
A precisely tunable merger of the once-separate
to the increasingly dominant all-in-one. Development
VHF communications transmitter and the VHF
focus is largest on advancing the all-in-one concept,
communications receiver blended with a VHF navigator
with interest in a WAAS GPS/Comm considered a
using the relatively new VOR system.
Essentially three units in one - sound familiar? This
new product caught King's competition unprepared.
Continued on following page

SINCE THE
CONCEPT FIRST
HIT THE MARKET.

avionics news

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june

2015

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Avionics News June 2015

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