Asked about the market for cockpit retrofit installations, Honeywell vice president for aftermarket sales John Bolton said the floodgates have been pushed wide open by buyers seeking to renovate the flight decks of aging aircraft that thanks to fresh paint and new interiors still have a lot of life left.

“We’ve seen tremendous interest in the last year or more,” he said. “People really seem to be eager to upgrade to glass and the advanced features” of cockpits such as Honeywell’s Primus Epic CDS/R.

But Honeywell isn’t the only player in this suddenly booming arena. Most recently, Duncan Aviation (see Renovation Hardware, Part Two, page 62) announced that it had added six more Falcon 50 Pro Line 21 retrofits to its long list of active Rockwell Collins programs through its “Glass Box” project and Elliott Aviation touted the progress of Universal Avionics 890R upgrades through its “Elite Series” program spanning the Citation 550/S550/560 series, Citation 650 and Falcon 10/100. Industry observers predict such upgrades will keep avionics shops busy for years to come.