Honeywell BendixKing acquires TruTrak
In an exclusive interview with AOPA, TruTrak Flight Systems CEO and owner Andrew Barker assured customers that all is business as usual at his small autopilot company even though it was acquired by the BendixKing unit of Honeywell in late July.
The Springdale, Arkansas, company was started in 1999 and has sold some 15,000 autopilots mostly in the experimental market. However, TruTrak has been a leader in leveraging recent changes to FAA certification pathways that make it easier to install lower cost non-TSO’d products into certified aircraft. With that change, TruTrak has received numerous supplemental type certificates for installing autopilots in legacy aircraft.
“Honeywell and BendixKing's capabilities in the aerospace industry will accelerate the continued development of the products TruTrak has built from the ground up,” Barker said in a press release. “Their vision for autopilots aligns with ours, and personally I am very excited to join the BendixKing team and use the extensive resources now available to us to continue forging the future of autopilots.”
Barker will be joining the Bendix/King executive team, and his staff of engineers also will transition to the new company.
Carl Esposito, president of Electronic Systems at Honeywell Aerospace, said the two companies are well-aligned: “TruTrak is a natural fit with BendixKing, and this acquisition opens up an exciting new market to us. It provides great technology at affordable prices, which is central to BendixKing’s business. Furthermore, adding TruTrak to the BendixKing family will attract new talent, foster collaboration and help us identify new ways to bring value to our customers.”
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