As I have noted many times, the advances that have taken place in piston airplane development over the past 25 years have been portable. New avionics, better interiors, more powerful engines, improved propellers and even air conditioning can usually be installed in an existing airplane, as well as a newly manufactured one. This evolutionary process increased the value of existing airplanes by making it possible to make them nearly as good as new, but that era is now over. The glass cockpit, particularly Garmin’s G1000 system, is an advancement so profound, and so integrated into the airplane, that it can deliver its full potential only when installed in an airplane as it is manufactured.
The reason the G1000 needs to be built into a new airplane is that it is so comprehensive. This system handles every avionics function, including advanced capabilities such as traffic and terrain warning and weather datalink, but also displays information about all critical non-avionics systems such as engine, fuel and electrical systems. An airplane is literally built around the G1000 and its capabilities, something that will be very difficult to do in the field with existing airframes.
