BOMBARDIER HAS selected French firm Sextant Avionique as the risk-sharing supplier of avionics for the de Havilland Dash 8-400 70-seat, high-speed, regional turboprop.
The integrated avionics suite, Sextant's first for a regional airliner, will include flat-panel cockpit displays, flight controls, instrumentation, radio communications and navigation, sensors, weather radar and centralised maintenance.
Sextant will itself supply the liquid-crystal displays and automatic flight-control system, but is expected to subcontract other elements of the package.
Bombardier says that the -400 avionics will permit a common type-rating with other Dash 8 models. The -400 airline advisory panel is meeting at de Havilland on 23 October to determine the final configuration of the avionics , including the number of displays.
Sextant is already a risk-sharing partner on the Bombardier Global Express long-range business jet and a components-supplier on the Dash 8 and Canadair Regional Jet.
Bombardier has also selected Abex NWL Aerospace, another participant in the Global Express project, to supply the hydraulics system for the Dash 8-400.
Source: Flight International
