Tapping avionics'
'hot niche'
Avionyx focuses on flight software engineering
by Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal
A few months into Ace Computer Engineering's first spinoff, president Larry Allgood already is thinking of doing it again.
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The West Melbourne software engineering company spun off a subsidiary in March, launching Avionyx Inc. The new company focuses on full life-cycle software engineering services exclusively to the avionics industry.
That business requires adherence to stringent recordkeeping and certification standards imposed by the FAA, an expertise that might prove versatile for the company. "Our process is applicable in a number of industries," Allgood said. Military, space and medical software also would need to submit to approval procedures of regulatory agencies.
"Don't be surprised if there's a Medionyx in the future," Allgood said, revealing his vision for a medical software company.
Avionyx works with software for embedded systems, that is, anything that uses a microprocessor. In daily life, that would be your car, TV remote control, or printer. For Avionyx, it's "just about anything that would go in a cockpit," Allgood said. Navigation, communication and collision avoidance systems are some of the areas Avionyx addresses.
That's a hot niche in the industry, said Paula Derks, president of the Aircraft Electronics Association in Independence, Mo.
"Not a lot of new aircraft are coming off the assembly line. A lot of pilots are retrofitting cockpits with new aviation electronics," she said.
That trend speaks well for the company in the long run. But for now, Avionyx and the industry in general are suffering the aftereffects of the attacks of Sept. 11. Ace trimmed employment from 42 to 27 by letting go of its contract workers and co-op students. Last year's sales of $3.5 million marked the first year that the company didn't grow at an average rate of 35 percent, and sales this year are off by 40 percent. "Once the airlines stopped getting customers, they quit buying expensive equipment," Allgood said.
That slowdown seems to be reversing, Derks said. She noted an "extremely positive atmosphere" at the organization's convention in April, which saw 22 products introduced. Weather and collision avoidance systems in particular are showcasing advances.
Member companies tell her their business has been picking up since the start of the year. "I think it took a few months for everyone to get back to business," she said. Charter companies have seen business jump since Sept. 11, and some companies are abandoning the hassles of commercial air travel in favor of beefing up their private jet fleet. Both those trends mean increased demand for upgrades in charter and corporate aircraft, Derks said.
Allgood also sees improvement on the way, despite the difficult first months of this year. "A lot of people have just been waiting. But a lot of these projects can't wait indefinitely," he said. He sees Avionyx beginning to hire again in the next six months, with new projects expected to come in by October.
The company has one project that's tied directly to Sept. 11. In those attacks, the terrorists turned off the planes' transponders, hampering ground control's efforts to track the aircraft. Avionyx is working on an anti-terrorist system that would prevent the transponder from being disabled after the crew had activated a hijack mode on board.
The system is one of seven or eight projects the company typically is working on at one time.
Avionyx's parent company has been through its own evolution. Allgood started out as an engineer for Harris Corp. after graduating from University of Florida in 1981. He later worked in technical sales, where he developed the extensive customer contacts that made Ace Computer Engineering possible. He founded Ace in 1989 as a technical staffing company that offered software consulting services, primarily software testing.
Four years ago, Ace shifted to managing products rather than simply providing people. The company moved from Orlando to West Melbourne to be near its biggest customer, Rockwell Collins Inc., and started an engineering facility.
Most Ace customers since the company's inception have been in the avionics field. The spinoff lets the company focus on that industry, while freeing Ace to pursue other engineering programs, Allgood said. The two companies remain privately owned and share facilities on Dairy Road, just south of U.S. 192.
On the Web: www.avionyx.com
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