Calling the market entry of his company’s ST3400 TAWS (terrain awareness and warning system) in June a needed boost to the avionics industry’s capacity, Gerry Block, president of Sandel Avionics, said Monday at NBAA ‘02 that “interest and orders are increasing at a gratifying rate.” He added, “As you may know, we are nearing the point where industry will literally be out of the capacity to install the necessary number of TAWS between now and the 2005 compliance date.”
Block said orders for the Sandel TAWS have not been inhibited by Honeywell’s patent infringement suit against Goodrich, Universal Avionics, Sandel and ACSS. “There’s been a lot of questions asked about it, but they [Honeywell] haven’t asked for an injunction [against marketing of competing TAWS], so everybody gets to sell. It will drag on for years and finally be resolved. We take the position that it’s basically a groundless lawsuit, and we will defend it.” Block added, “It may be that for every call we get from a prospect there are 10 others out there who are holding off out of uncertainty. There’s really no way to tell.”
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