The General Dynamics subsidiary, Airborne Electronics Systems has recently been acquired by Astronics Corporation for $13 in cash and a $4 million payout for performance next year. The deal delivers commercial aircraft products such as Your Entertainment System (YES) and Empower (AC and DC) to the New York manufacturer of airborne electronics. In addition, Astronics will also acquire GD-AES’s line of commercial aircraft lighting and heating control products as well as their “wild power” system developed for the Eclipse Aviation business jet aircraft set to fly in 2006. This deal approximately doubles the size of Astronics and should help fit well with their already 50/50 mix of military and commercial and general aviation electronic products. As the latest federal budgets raise concern about new military aircraft programs, it is probably prudent for Astronics to hedge their bets in the public sector and build an even bigger commercial aircraft product base. We talked to Mark Peabody, now Vice President of Astronics division in Redmond and he told IFExpress; “I couldn’t be happier, this deal fits our company product lines well and we are operating in a – business as usual- mode.” Mark noted that he plans no changes, no layoffs, no moves, and no product upheavals. He also noted that with the products delivered by both companies, Astronics will be working even more at the system level as their both product lines combine and integrate and form systems on aircraft. While the IFE term seems to be missing from the Astronics news release, Mr. Peabody assured our readers that the existing GD product line is very much in the forefront of Astronics development and marketing planning. We also queried him about the future of Your Entertainment System (YES), the IFE system based on laptop computers and Mark confirmed the rumored airline testing. We understand that they are being reliability tested on Virgin Atlantic in a stand-alone mode and working very well.