Cessna’s announcement at the NBAA Convention in October that it will bring Garmin’s new G5000 integrated avionics system to a stretched version of
the Citation X–now called the Citation Ten–came as something of a shock to those who had assumed the logical replacement for the airplane’s Honeywell Primus 2000 cockpit would be Honeywell’s LCD-based Primus Elite avionics system or perhaps a version of Rockwell Collins’s Pro Line Fusion integrated cockpit.
With the surprise contract win, Garmin has at last ascended into the upper flight levels for good. In a way, Cessna probably owes a debt of gratitude to Brazilian competitor Embraer for the arrival of the G5000 avionics system so soon. After all, the Garmin Prodigy flight deck developed for the Embraer Phenom 300 laid the groundwork for G5000, Garmin’s first avionics system developed for large-category Part 25 business jets. By the same token, of course, Embraer should tip its hat to Cessna, since it was the Wichita business jet maker’s big bet on Garmin’s G1000 cockpit in the Citation Mustang in 2002 that marked the Olathe, Kan. avionics maker’s rise from light piston airplanes into business aviation’s big iron.
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