Ryan's Innovative Active-Surveillance Traffic Technology Added To Avidyne Product Lines; Ryan Team Joins Avidyne as Safety Systems Group

Avidyne Corporation and Ryan International Corporation have just announced the merger of the two companies. Under the merger agreement, Ryan's industry-leading active traffic display and alerting technologies will be added to Avidyne's product lines, extending Avidyne's product offerings for both the original equipment and retrofit avionics markets. Avidyne will maintain Ryan's Columbus, Ohio headquarters as the Safety Systems Group.

Ryan International, renowned as an innovator in avionics to improve aviation safety, was founded in 1981 by CEO Paul Ryan. Ryan, a 40-year industry veteran, also invented the Stormscope weather system, in addition to Ryan's line of collision avoidance systems. Paul Ryan will continue with the company as a consultant.

Avidyne is widely recognized as the innovator and the clear market leader in integrated flight decks for general aviation (GA) aircraft. Its Entegra Flight Deck revolutionized flying by making advanced glass cockpit systems -- previously only available in airliners and multi-million dollar business jets - affordable for pilots of small GA aircraft.

"In addition to the many positive technical and market reasons for the merger of Ryan and Avidyne, our corporate backgrounds and cultures are remarkably complementary," said Paul Ryan. "Each company was founded with a mission of developing new generation avionics that improve the safety of general aviation aircraft. Our combined resources will accelerate the process of bringing innovative and affordable new products to the market."

With the merger, the Ryan team based in Columbus, Ohio becomes the Safety Systems Group, responsible for traffic and hazard avoidance systems. It is one of four Avidyne locations across the United States that have expertise in key technologies that will be incorporated into future versions of Avidyne's Entegra integrated flight deck and other Avidyne products. Other Avidyne facilities are the Communication/ Navigation/ Surveillance (CNS) Group in Melbourne, Florida, the Guidance & Controls Group in Boulder, Colorado, and the Avidyne Headquarters in Lincoln, MA.

"This merger is an important milestone in our growth strategy," said Avidyne President Dan Schwinn. "With the entire Ryan team joining Avidyne, we are actively expanding our product line and actively strengthening our competitive position with expertise in virtually all areas of technology for the integrated flight deck."

"We have merged our two innovative companies with the goal of bringing the safety benefits of active-surveillance traffic to all of general aviation," said Mark Sandeen, Avidyne's Vice President of Sales & Marketing. "Avidyne and Ryan have been exclusively focused on the general aviation market, and together we are actively enhancing safety by developing innovative products to meet the needs of general aviation aircraft owners."

Thousands of Ryan traffic systems have been successfully installed in more than 100 different fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, and work with display systems from 15 different manufacturers including Avidyne's EX500 and EX5000 MFDs, Garmin's G1000, MX20, and 400/500-series, as well as displays from Honeywell, Collins, Chelton, Sandel, and others.

"The 9900BX Traffic Advisory System has been integrated with Avidyne's Entegra and EX500 systems for several years," said Samuel Dinnar, Avidyne's Director of Corporate Development.

"Over the years we have had a wonderful experience working with the Ryan professionals, and have come to fully appreciate the products' differentiated capabilities. We are very happy to take our partnership to the ultimate level by becoming one team."

In a separate announcement, Avidyne announced three new TAS traffic advisory systems for the general aviation market which feature Ryan Active Surveillance™ (RAS) technology.

FMI: www.avidyne.com