Guardian avionics system introduced

Nighthawk Flight Systems has introduced its Guardian large format glass cockpit avionics system.

“Guardian is a lightweight, customizable, and easily expandable system that operates seamlessly with the owner’s current cockpit avionics while providing unmatched situation awareness and reduced pilot workload,” company officials said.

“We developed Guardian to give general aviation aircraft an affordable system with all the functions and features of advanced glass systems, but better. We provide a much lighter, more affordable system with the best, most realistic synthetic vision on the market,” said Nighthawk Flight Systems CEO Paul Martin. “We offer general aviation pilots, owners, and operators a far superior fully customizable glass cockpit, with unmatched simulated vision. We use ‘Smart I/O’ to operate seamlessly with existing systems and sensors on a single or multiple touchscreen displays.”

The graphics display consolidates multiple sources of obstacle, flight environment, traffic, weather, terrain, satellite imagery, and more, displaying it in a high-resolution 3D view on programmable touchscreen displays, according to company officials.

The Guardian system’s compact computing center, called the NEST, can be installed anywhere in the aircraft, connected to the panel display through a single cable.

The NEST houses individual “blades” that provide mission computing (the MCU), air data/attitude/heading reference system (ADAHRS), and smart I/O (programmable input/output to connect to existing avionics). The MCU contains all computational and graphical information for display. The smart I/O pulls together information from existing onboard avionics, including autopilot, GPS, radios, navigation aids, weather, ADS-B In, and more for access on the programmable displays, company officials explained.

The NEST can be fitted with additional blades for added capabilities not currently installed in the aircraft or to replace existing avionics such as radios, navigation, ADS-B, transponder, GPS, and more, company officials added.

The launch aircraft of the new avionics system is the Comp Air Aviation 6.2 Piston and 6.2 Turbine utility aircraft.

For more information: NighthawkFS.com, CompAirAviation.com