Garmin International has entered into an agreement with Deutsche Aircraft to provide the Garmin G5000 integrated flight deck for the D328eco Companion flight deck. Deutsche Aircraft is working to develop the new D328eco, which is expected to provide the regional air transportation market with a more sustainable and environmentally friendly aircraft option by 2025.

“Deutsche Aircraft is developing the D328eco to be a disruptive new entrant in the regional air transportation segment, and we are proud to work in close coordination with its team to help it bring new technologies to this market,” says Creighton Scarpone, Garmin director of airline and business aviation sales. “Garmin has an established history of supplying innovative, forward-looking avionics technologies to operators across the industry and we are honoured to have been selected to bring our G5000 integrated flight deck into the regional airline market on Deutsche Aircraft's D328eco aircraft.”

“We are thrilled having Garmin join our D328eco programme and offering the first newly designed flight deck for a sub-70 seater regional aircraft in this century,” adds Dave Jackson, Deutsche Aircraft MD. “The new D328eco Companion flight deck, based on Garmin's G5000 proven capabilities, will set the standard for the future of this segment.”

The G5000 flight deck for the D328eco aids in Simplified Vehicle Operation by simplifying the crew interface and integrating key aircraft systems and other features into touchscreen displays, helping to reduce flight crew workload. Pilots can simultaneously view important flight data linked to the G5000 such as maps, charts, checklists, electronic documents and manuals, flight plan information, traffic alerts and weather for quick and easy access in busy flight environments. Incorporation of touchscreen overhead controls simplifies the overhead panel with electronic circuit breakers, switches, and overall system status presented in a clean touchscreen interface.

Garmin SafeTaxi is an available feature of the G5000 and helps pilots more easily navigate busy airport and terminal environments by featuring geo-referenced airport diagrams that displays runways, taxiways, as well as ramp information that dynamically adjusts based on where the aircraft is on the field. To increase situational awareness of flight crews during lower visibility operations or busy taxi environments, SafeTaxi identifies airport hot spots and overlays hold short lines on airport diagrams to provide crews with an active representation of threats during ground movement and helps avoid runway incursions. In addition, SurfaceWatch enhances situational awareness and adds a safety tool in the terminal environment by providing visual and aural cues to help prevent flight crews to keep from taking off and landing on a taxiway, on a runway that is too short or on the incorrect runway based on performance data entered during preflight.

Garmin has pioneered synthetic vision systems (SVS) for years and is now bringing its revolutionary synthetic vision technology to the Part 25 air transport market with the G5000 integrated flight deck. Garmin SVT is a safety-enhancing feature that presents flight crews with a 3D virtual depiction of terrain, obstacles, traffic and the runway environment to help pilots increase situational awareness in all phases of flight.

When navigating around challenging weather and storm cells, the GWX 8000 StormOptix weather radar provides a complete picture by using automatic threat analysis to better profile significant weather with a four times greater colour palette than typically found in other weather radars on the market. In addition, GWX 8000 StormOptix eliminates the requirement to manually adjust the radar and simplifies the operational process to help mitigate task saturation often associated with operating complicated weather radar platforms.

The G5000 for the D328eco is designed with flexibility in system architecture to meet future needs by more easily enabling software updates and growth in new technologies. In addition, the G5000 has advanced architecture to support special missions capabilities through the touchscreen controllers without needing to make hardware changes, ultimately simplifying the process for these operations.

The G5000 for the D328eco, boasts a multitude of other situational awareness and performance features that are desirable to air transport operators. Operators gain access to more airports and lower approach minimums throughout the world as the G5000 has PBN/RNP 0.3 with LPV/APV approach capability; active and passive traffic surveillance functionality is included, using advanced TCAS II/ACAS II technology and featuring patented Garmin ADS-B target correlation and tracking for cutting edge traffic management and airspace monitoring; Future Air Navigation System (FANS-1/A+) and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) support and services, including Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC) functions enroute are available; it includes optional Iridium transceiver providing worldwide weather datalink in addition to voice and data communications; and touchscreen controller allows crews to access Takeoff and Landing Data (TOLD) as well as other advanced performance data.