In a flat market for new aircraft, the best place for avionics makers is to focus their resources on the aftermarket, and indeed that’s what we’re seeing — witness the panel upgrade competition between Sandel, Garmin, Universal, Avidyne and others. Prices for some avionics, such as transponders and thunderstorm detectors, have tumbled or risen only marginally, while cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and flight data recorders (FDRs) are up dramatically.

I am a gear head — a mechanical guy; a dying breed. From age 15 I did all of my own tune-ups. And then one day I bought a car that had no distributor. My precious timing light and dwell meter were instantly buggy whips in a horseless world. And I was technologically back to square one. I felt helpless as my slow downward drift into cyber bewilderment began.

In the not-too-distant future, it will be possible to fly anywhere over the planet in an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast environment affording benefits equally to flight crews, operators and air traffic controllers.

Manage the background processes and optimize the data flow.

MRO providers and OEMs are preparing to use data streaming from new aircraft and components to improve predictive maintenance, reducing failures and service disruptions for airline customers.