The unveiling of new aircraft and orders placed by operators dominated the headlines at EBACE in Geneva.

But the show, estimated attendance this year of over 9,000, also underlined the growing sophistication of new products, systems and maintenance options available to the operators. And it highlighted he strength of emerging markets including eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East, for the sale and operation of private aircraft.

Cockpits continue to evolve in looks and functionality. One of the latest trends is towards a paperless cockpit.

The PilotView electronic flight bag (EFB) portable computer from Canadian avionics manufacturer CMC Electronics is plugging into these aspirations.

CMC says the PilotView EFB has attracted business aircraft makers seeking higher levels of sophistication. It features FMS-style line select keys, a high resolution 8.4 inch display and a rugged housing.

PC-12 owners will have more display choices in the cockpit. They will be able to assess the EFI-890R triple-screen EFIS display system. It will be offered by Universal and Kansas City Aviation Centre (KCAC).

Flight testing is scheduled to be completed within weeks.

The three new screens are colour LCDs in a dual primary flight display and single navigation display format. The new cockpit system can provide uplinked TAWS, aeronautical charts, synthetic vision and video.

Wulfsberg Electronics has certified its next generation FliteLine navigation and communications equipment with the FAA. The company is producing line replaceable units for VHF com, VHF nav and DME. These will work with Wulfsberg colour control display units that were certified in late 2004.

CMC Electronics envisages a combined receiver that will have access to 50 satellites and will be able to verify navigational accuracy by checking one system against each other.

It wants to develop a Galileo satellite-based navigation receiver that, in the years to come, will provide even more accuracy than CMC's currently GPS-based CNS/ATM navigation systems.

CMC says it should have its new SatLite compact satellite communications high gain antenna system certificated and in production within weeks. The SatLite antenna has been optimised for business jet, regional and narrow body aircraft applications. It supports Inmarsat Aero-H, Aero-H+, Swift64 and the new SwiftBroadband satellite.

Rockwell Collins is introducing the next generation of High Speed Transceivers (HST) to support Inmarsat SwiftBroadband for speeds up to 432 kbps for business jet and VIP operators. The broadband service is due to become available next year.

The HST-2110 and HST-2120 work with Aero-H phone services on single or dual 64 kbps channels. They will work with the new service after a software upgrade and the addition of a small module.

Rockwell Collins is also focusing on a system that will enable business jet users to watch live broadband television while flying in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

It says it will deliver its first Ku-band eXchange data and live TV network system to a business jet customer this summer. This follows completion of flight tests and the granting of a Federal Communications Commission licence.

Rockwell Collins says that eXchange will offer up to four channels from services including MSNBC, CNBC, BBC World, EuroNews and EuroSportNews.

Boeing has a strategic agreement with Connexion. This combines the advanced antenna technology and signal processing capabilities of Rockwell Collins' Tailwind 5009 multi-region Direct Broadcast Satellite TV system with the high-speed Internet connectivity of Connexion.

There was an important emphasis on maintenance systems.

Munich-based Leitner EDV-Beratungs has launched an upgraded version of its maintenance workflow processing software - the LTB/400 Small Edition (SE). The SE can be run from as few as two workstations.

The baseline LTB/400 has been improved to include a new automatic updating feature for the system's historical record of aircraft and components. This replaces the old-style manual inputs.

Flight planning specialist AirData is to launch its new SwiftOps.com online flight planning and crew briefing system this autumn. AirData says the system is designed to automate flight planning processes and cut crew workload during busy operations.

It will provide data and access control; integration with other operational systems; training; a consolidated message centre; content management and electronic flight folder support.