Government mandates and new technologies are driving the test market. Looming deadlines for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) and controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC), as well as new systems such as the CSeries SmartProbe, are keeping test equipment makers and users busy, even as both sides attempt to deal with challenges posed by aftermarket avionics manufacturers. As the most obvious challenges in avionics testing, the expanded presence of the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the after-market and associated restrictions on access to intellectual property (IP) needed to develop new test sets affect both tester developers and equipment users. "The [third-party] bench test market is shrinking" for just that reason, asserted Jeanne Rau-Flattery, president of avionics test distributor Aero Express. "The bench market is shrinking because the avionics OEMs are restricting data, thus reducing the availability of third-party equipment to maintenance, repair, and overhaul organizations doing bench work."
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