Piper Aircraft, Inc. has received Type Certificate approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to incorporate the Garmin G1000 avionics suite into new single-engine Piper Archer aircraft models available in 2013.

Initial fleet customers for the new Garmin G1000-equipped Piper Archers include the Florida Institute of Technology and CAE Oxford Aviation Academy. The Florida Institute of Technology's College of Aeronautics is taking delivery of eight single-engine Piper Archer TX training airplanes equipped with the G1000 during 2013. CAE Oxford Aviation Academy will take delivery of 22 single-engine Archers in 2013. Both organizations have follow-on options for additional training aircraft.

Piper President and CEO Simon Caldecott said, “With this milestone approval from the FAA, the G1000 Archer will be able to put flight-critical data at the finger tips of future Archer pilots. We are pleased the pilot training marketplace has validated this development with two significant fleet orders.”

Garmin's G1000 is a seamlessly integrated all-glass avionics panel that makes flight information easier to scan and process. G1000's design brings new levels of situational awareness, simplicity and safety to the cockpit. The G1000 flight deck presents flight instrumentation, navigation, weather, terrain, traffic and engine data on large-format, high-resolution displays. It replaces the G500 suite currently on Archer aircraft. Garmin's reliable GRS77 Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) provides accurate, digital output and referencing of aircraft position, rate, vector and acceleration data.