Center stack not required

Genesis of Axis

Garmin provided AOPA a demonstration of the Axis integrated flight display system at its headquarters in Olathe, Kansas, where Jim Alpiser, Garmin’s director of aftermarket sales and marketing, recounted the evolution of Garmin’s glass panel avionics. Garmin’s first foray into integrated flight decks was the G1000, introduced in 2004 and available only on new aircraft. The introduction of Garmin’s retrofittable G500 and G600 flight displays was “the next step of being able to bring glass to the masses,” Alpiser said. “From there, there was still a need for Garmin to be able to get into a lower price point, and that’s when we were able to introduce the G3X.”

In the years since the G3X was introduced, Garmin has incorporated new technology and software into its displays, resulting in its current G3X Touch and G500/G600 TXi product lines. However, “these solutions as more retrofittable still kind of lean into a center stack of separate IFR GPS, nav, and com,” said Alpiser. And it begged the question, why not offer a solution more like the G1000 (that does not require a center stack of avionics) as retrofits and upgrades?

With a large base of G3X Touch primary and multifunction flight displays installed in both experimental and certified aircraft, Garmin began working on a new integrated flight display system that would provide an easy upgrade path for G3X Touch customers, G1000-level integration, expanded capabilities, and fewer components to purchase and install.

Garmin named the new integrated flight display system Axis. “One of the things that this product has the potential to change across the GA fleet is the radio stack as we know it today,” said Scott McCurley, Garmin’s manager of aviation marketing. “So, obviously, you see that in just about every GA airplane but with Axis there’s no need for it. And so that means that Axis is now the center of the panel and that’s the thing that all the axes revolve around.”

Axis is a bright, high-definition 8- or 11.6-inch touch-screen display system for experimental or certified Class I/II aircraft (the system includes the flight display and sensors for attitude, air data, heading, and more.) Base units have PFD, MFD, and engine indication system (EIS) capabilities, and include a VFR GPS. Certified (TSO) 11.6-inch displays are available with an integrated IFR GPS, com radio, and four-place audio panel, or with an IFR GPS, nav/com radio, and four-place audio panel—significantly freeing up panel space by replacing the traditional radio center stack and requiring less wiring and fewer connectors. 

Garmin designed Axis to be a drop-in replacement for G3X Touch flight displays, using existing panel cutouts, mounting points, sensors, and connectors. Since the bezels are narrower on Axis displays, seven-inch G3X Touch displays can be replaced with eight-inch Axis displays, and 10-inch G3X displays can be replaced with 11.6-inch Axis displays. As with the G3X Touch (which will remain in production), Axis will have broad compatibility with Garmin GPS navigators, radios, autopilots, and other instruments—and select third-party interfaces.

“Ultimately, this system is really designed to support just about any panel configuration or any combination of products so that customers have a simple and straightforward path to adding it to their aircraft,” said McCurley.

Design and features

Brian Plank, Garmin’s manager of aviation systems engineering, who spent more than five years helping develop Axis, showed us its features before we took a flight in Garmin’s Beechcraft Baron with Jessica Koss, Garmin’s corporate flight department team lead.

It’s quickly evident that Axis incorporates many of Garmin’s most popular features from existing product lines—and adds new ones. The familiar radio and flight plan apps are there, but new is a row of “different applications along the bottom of the display that provides easy access to all sorts of information for your flight, whether that be waypoint information, charts, engine instruments, weather, or traffic,” said Plank, noting this layout is inspired by the Garmin Pilot electronic flight bag app—as is the map radial menu that, with a tap on the map, provides easy access to airport and waypoint information. “With [Axis] being an integrated system, we really worked hard to make flight planning easy and intuitive, but also very flexible and powerful,” said Plank.

An applications menu in the lower right-hand corner of the display is taken from the Garmin G3000 Prime. The menu includes the same primary applications that appear along the bar at the bottom of the flight display, and more. “You’ve got quick actions for things like loading procedures or another way to get to your radios. This might be a good option if you’re wanting to use buttons or knobs in turbulence,” said Plank.

Axis includes helpful safety features such as an emergency button; an HDMI video input to install a forward-facing camera; Garmin Smart Glide; and Garmin’s 3D SafeTaxi, SurfaceWatch, and Runway Occupancy Awareness (ROA) to help avoid potential runway incursions. Koss orchestrated an impressive display of ROA as the Baron approached to land on a runway that was suddenly occupied by another Garmin aircraft. ROA provided repeated and increasingly urgent visual and audio warnings to Koss until she performed a go-around.

Some of these safety tools “have previously only been available on integrated flight decks, partially due to the level of information being pulled from various systems,” said McCurley. “And now with Axis, we’re bringing a lot of those capabilities down to the GA fleet, which we’re really excited about.”

“The emergency button is really trying to bring safety features to the forefront of the system,” said Plank. “You can press emergency and have access to aviate, navigate, and communicate and have all of those things right in front of you. Sometimes when things get tough and you’re just struggling to process, we want you to focus on flying the airplane and give you some nice, quick reminders. ‘Hey, these are the things you can be doing so you don’t have to dig that out of your memory.’”

To maximize pilot situational awareness, Axis offers numerous tools including enhanced synthetic vision technology with more realistic terrain, shadows, and lighting; customizable widgets for flight plans, weather, and other functions; a horizontal situation indicator map overlay; split-screen engine indicating system layouts; and connectivity options.

Each Axis display comes standard with a USB-C port to load software, download logs, and charge a mobile device.

Pricing and availability

At launch, only 11.6-inch Garmin Axis display systems will be available. Base VFR display systems for experimental aircraft retail for $8,000. Base units are primarily intended for owners who recently upgraded to a modern IFR GPS navigator, radios, or audio panel, but still want the other features that come with Axis. Single IFR display systems for certified aircraft with nav/com and audio panel retail for $28,000, and dual display systems retail for $51,800.

While that might sound like a lot, Alpiser notes that a fully optioned 11.6-inch Axis is about $1,500 less expensive than purchasing a 10-inch Garmin G3X Touch display, a GTN 650Xi (that includes an IFR GPS navigator and nav/com radio), and an audio panel.

Garmin says eight-inch Axis displays will be available in the first quarter of 2027.

“One nice thing about this system is you can customize the display in lots of different ways,” said Plank. “With Axis, there’s a lot of flexibility and many ways you can set up your cockpit. There are different features and functions that we want to tailor to your style of flying and let you interact in the way that you want. I’m really excited because Axis is the foundation of our next era of avionics, and there is so much more that we’re excited to continue bringing to this product line and to the general aviation market.”