Not sure of all the facts, but this is the story I heard when considering the purchase of a 429. Was told that Bell elected to take on the role of avionics system integrator, selecting subsystems from a wide range of manufacturers and tying these together with their own interfaces, software, etc, rather than electing to purchase an integrated avionics suite from Garmin, Honeywell, Rockwell/Collins, etc (such as with the 407 GX, 505, 525). If true, this may be partly because no major suite was certified for this class of helicopters at the time. In any event, this choice would put Bell in the role of having to make all this stuff play together, and owners dependent on Bell for future feature development and support for a very long time - whether this is a good thing or not depends on one's point of view. (One downside of this approach is that Bell's efforts will apply to a very small number of airframes compared to, say, the G1000 or G3000, which may limit Bell's enthusiasm/investment for further development.) When I was looking at the 429, the avionics was a work in progress, with many features yet to be developed and delivered. This was a factor in my decision not to purchase a 429.
I will not be surprised to see Bell transition, at some point, to in integrated suite from one of the majors for the 429.
Last edited by B407; 15th Jul 2015 at 14:41.