Definition
Companies that design and produce the electronic equipment installed in aircraft, including navigation receivers, flight management systems, autopilots, communication radios, and the navigation databases that drive them. In the context of airborne navigation databases, avionics manufacturers are the entities that build the cockpit equipment which loads, stores, and uses the navigation data supplied by data providers.
Plain English
The companies that make the electronic boxes and screens in the cockpit, and the software that runs them.
Context Anchor
Seen when reading about airborne navigation databases, database updates, and whether a database is compatible with the equipment installed in the aircraft.
Derivation
"Avionics" is a blend of "aviation" and "electronics," coined in the 1940s as aircraft began carrying more electronic systems. So an avionics manufacturer is simply a maker of aviation electronics.
Why Pilots Care
The avionics manufacturer determines how a piece of cockpit equipment behaves, what data formats it accepts, and how database updates are loaded. Pilots interact with the manufacturer's interface every flight, and update procedures, software versions, and supported features all depend on the manufacturer.
Intuition Check
Do not read this as the company that built the whole airplane. In this context, it means the companies that make the aircraft’s electronic equipment, especially the navigation equipment that uses the database.
Example Sentence 1
Before each database cycle, the pilot downloads the update file from the avionics manufacturer's website and loads it into the GPS unit.
Example Sentence 2
Avionics manufacturers publish database update procedures that must be followed before flying instrument approaches.