So, I spoke to the Honeywell guy at the AOPA fly-in today and asked
abou the long-awaited WAAS replacement for the KLN-94. If you remember,
last year they were saying that they'd got the GPS engine done, and
were looking how to productize it. They even sent round a questionaire
to figure out if people wanted a stand-alone navigator or a
GPS/NAV/COM. The story today was that nothing will be happening this
year, and but that something will be forthcoming in 2007. (Hmmm. Heard
that before from anyone else???) The guy said it will NOT be a
stand-alone navigator, but will be an integrated GPS/NAV/COM with
synthetic vision as a key feature. He didn't know if it would fit in
the same space as a KLN-94 and KX-155/165 combo. He also said they
"badly needed" this unit, and seemed a little disconsolate about how
long it's taking to get to market, and presumably about how they're
getting their ass handed to them by Garmin.

My own take on this is that not having a KLN-94 replacement is a dumb
move, as they still have a solid installed base that they could retain
with such a unit. If someone's going to have to re-wire and re-rack,
other options will get a much bigger look-in. The next best will be an
integrated unit that fits in the 94/155 hole, and hopefully provides an
upgrade route that doesn't involve redoing the whole stack. Otherwise,
as I say, what do you gain by sticking with King rather than looking at
the other options available? King have proved they aren't winning the
technical battle, so they need to leverage what advantages they do
have. Not providing a clean upgrade route would be failing in this key
area.