Avionics must meet a range of growing demands for commercial helicopters, while avoiding undue size, weight and power (SWaP) burdens. Vertical asked leading providers in the area to outline their latest technological advances and their goals for the coming years.
Chris Polynin, product line director for surveillance at L3Harris, highlighted two surveillance systems from ACSS, a joint venture between L3Harris and Thales. T3CAS and Lynx were both developed to meet the surveillance needs of the commercial helicopter market, he said, with the aim of providing a single, integrated unit that saves space, weight and power.
T3CAS combines a TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system) II, ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast), Class A TAWS (terrain awareness and warning system) and Mode S transponder in a 4-MCU (master control unit) line replaceable unit (LRU), Polynin said. The aim is to offer “significant size and weight savings compared to a federated approach, which is critical in the helicopter domain,” he said. It is typically installed on medium/heavy helicopters and is standard on the Airbus Helicopters H160.

The Lynx Integrated collision avoidance system combines TCAS I, Mode S Transponder, Class B TAWS and ADS-B In functionality. It is typically installed on light/medium helicopters and is currently used by Airbus Helicopters on the H135 and H145, as well as on Leonardo’s TH-119.
Additionally, Polynin said ACSS is working on two fronts to enhance safety. The first project is a rotorcraft proximity alerting system, which ACSS has been developing for the past few years to boost safety for helicopter operators and crews.
“The rotorcraft proximity alerting system is designed to provide pilots with proximity detection, display, and alerts during hover and low-speed operations,” said Polynin. “Our proposed solution is based on a certified sensor processing unit, which serves as the main interface for multiple types of sensor inputs.” This, he said, analyzes data to calculate the range of threat characteristics of obstacles through various sensors, including electro-optic cameras, LIDAR, infrared and more.
Secondly, the company is developing ACAS Xr for the urban air mobility (UAM) market, though it could also serve the helicopter market in both crewed and uncrewed configurations, Polynin noted.

Synthetic Vision
Jason Bialek, director of offering management at Honeywell Integrated Avionics, said the company is supporting both the helicopter market and the eVTOL and UAM/advanced air mobility (AAM) markets with advanced synthetic vision systems (SVS). The company’s SVS are optimized for vertical flight, he said.
Helicopters are particularly sensitive to weight and center of gravity, said Bialek. He said that newer avonics systems — such as Honeywell Anthem — use distributed processing modules.
“This retains the same benefits we had with integrated avionics, like higher computing power and better coordination across software modules, where actions taken on one display or interface by one pilot is reflected on the other displays or pilot interfaces — but because processing is now distributed in small hardware modules, installations become much easier.”
Bialek emphasized the importance of scalability. Advanced safety features such as helicopter or UAM-optimized SVS and improved TAWS that are not oversensitive when flying at low altitudes are available for all platforms, he noted. This is along with “advanced electronic checklists that automatically check items off — provided OEMs have the sensors installed for that system — and advanced display symbology like 3D waypoints and 3D traffic. These are supportable even with the less expensive, smaller installations you may see on AAM/UAM or light helicopters.”
Bialek expects to see more unmanned helicopter operations, including in agriculture and inspection tasks, which will impact avionics demands. There will likely be “better autopilots or autopilots integrated with systems that enable semi or fully autonomous operations even for traditional single rotor type helicopters, improved envelope protection for manned helicopters, and autopilot modes that take the complexity out of manually flying helicopters, including during hovering and autorotations.”
Additionally, Bialek believes there will be better, more consistent connectivity, allowing for real-time sharing of data or updating of terrain, navigation and charts.
“Flight plan sharing, database management, and other data that today requires a maintenance team or a pilot with a laptop plugging into the avionics locally will be superseded by connectivity solutions that allow staging data in ways that are cyber-secure, making things simpler and quicker for pilots and operators.”
AI could play a role in supporting pilots as they search for information, he added, helping them make better judgment calls on “whether to attempt to fly or continue flying or not once airborne, or with diversion decisions regarding which airport to use, monitoring for pilot errors and prompting pilots when errors are made, or asking whether the pilot wants something set up based on what AI may have observed previously during flights.”

Game-changing technology
Mark J. Rogerson is director of business development at Rogerson Aircraft Corporation, which owns Rogerson Kratos, a producer of a range of avionics systems for both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. He also highlighted the potential for AI in avionics, which he described as the biggest game-changer among new technologies. “Helicopters have several segments that can hugely leverage the operating environment. Rogerson Kratos’s focus is on the data processing and navigational issues for both commercial and military aircraft.”
Additionally, Rogerson highlighted the potential for the use of field-programmable gate arrays, where his company sees particular potential in surveillance graphic processing and command and control. He also pointed to evolutions in displays, with “needs for better environmental capabilities and requirements for even better graphics resolution to aid in surveillance.”
Finally, he pointed to the ongoing challenges around cybersecurity. “It’s a moving target, so keeping ahead of hackers is a constant effort.”
Radio navigation systems are being challenged as never before by radio interference and especially spoofing, said Nick Chalkiadakis, director at CMC Electronics. He said the company is addressing this challenge with a variety of new radio navigation products that will be spoofing-resilient or immune.

For instance, its new GNSS sensors will be able to positively identify spoofing under a variety of spoofing conditions, he said. When integrated with navigation sensors, they will be able to mitigate the effects of spoofing. Additionally, he said that CMC is developing a new radar altimeter that will be spoofing resilient.
Chalkiadakis said the company expects to see further advances in its Doppler navigation system, which will “likely go through a transformational change and emerge as a compact high-performance system.” Similarly, the company’s flight management system (FMS) is “undergoing a transformational change to be much more modular, capable, and become AI-enabled. With AI-enabling, the FMS will be focused on mission options, mission alternatives, and mission completion in a dynamic, possibly volatile environment.”
CMC has been developing a flight director/autopilot capability to “reduce pilot workload and effort and allow [the pilot to] focus on the flight itself, especially situational awareness under adverse conditions, rather than controlling the aircraft.”
Dror Yahav is CEO of Universal Avionics, producer of systems including Universal Flight Management Systems and EFI 890-H displays. He said the company has seen a significant rise in the adoption of Enhanced Flight Vision Systems.
“We’re excited about ongoing programs to integrate our SkyVis helmet-mounted display on the [Leonardo] AW169, as well as the [Airbus] H215 Super Puma, further enhancing safety and operational capabilities,” he added. “It works seamlessly with our EVS-4000 camera, which combines multispectral imaging and sensors to display terrain and symbology for pilots in all weather conditions or at night.”
The shift to software-based applications is transforming helicopter avionics, Yahav said, allowing for the adoption of new technologies without increasing weight or cluttering the cockpit. “A single computer can now run several software applications, simplifying installation and future updates,” he noted.
Universal first implemented this with its H-TAWS, he said, and is continuing the trend with the i-FMS, a software-based interactive flight management system that was undergoing flight testing on a Bell 212 helicopter as of September 2024.
“These advancements translate into tangible benefits for operators, including reduced maintenance costs, easier upgrades, and enhanced functionality,” he said.
