BETA and Garmin Develop Avionics for AAM

Here at BETA, we often think of the avionics as the window into the soul of an airplane.

Avionics allow the pilot to monitor the heartbeat of the aircraft, syncing with every system and guiding every move. The interface helps manage critical systems such as the electric motor, the high voltage batteries, and the fly-by-wire control system. It’s also a lifeline to the outside world, hosting communications and navigation functions so the pilot can talk to ATC or find the closest airport in the event of bad weather or an emergency.

We’re a bunch of pilots building an aircraft for other pilots. So, when we first started designing ALIA, we had a strong sense for how we wanted the aircraft to look and feel. We wanted a seamless interface that had real finesse. We wanted it to feel innovative and new, without compromising the feeling of tried and true familiarity. And, as pilots, we knew the avionics were going to be key.

After an extensive trade study to measure the tangibles — cost, weight, features, commercial value — and the intangibles — culture fit and willingness to care as much as we do — we knew Garmin was the best company to help us deliver on our vision.

The gold standard in practical, interactive, and well-designed avionics, Garmin’s flight decks are simple and clear. They create great platforms that make it easy for pilots to do what they do — but even better.

That’s how they are to work with, too. Garmin developed the new G3000 PRIME flight deck and gave our team the platform and guidance we needed to go in and configure the look, the feel, and the functionality of indications and synoptics for an electric aircraft exactly as we wanted. Their expertise and the flexibility of their platform allowed us to go right into prototyping, spinning up idea after idea until we got it exactly right.

The Garmin team made it easy for us to do what we do here at BETA, helping us to bridge intuition and technology to create a flight deck that feels like an extension of the pilot’s own senses.

We loved the challenge of distilling electric aviation into a key set of simple indications. The challenge of finding the balance of what a pilot needs to know to fly the plane as safely and intuitively as possible.

We’re so excited to have G3000 PRIME in ALIA, and we’re proud of what we’ve developed together with Garmin. It’s an amazing adaptation of existing functionality, made to fit into our electric airplane. Tried and true AND innovative. We can’t wait for our customers to try it.