Anyone know of any news or things coming down the road?

[Patriot996]

Like the thread title, Anyone know whats happening with Airtronics? I would like to keep flying their radios, but I need something to keep my interest here like a one wire connection to the FBL, etc. (Just saying...)

[Dennis P]

We have all been waiting for a long time and still no sign of the Bus !

[TMoore]

Not happening and it's time to move on. Sanwa has discontinued Air radios. We were after them to do S-Bus RX's, updated software, new Radios and they simply are scared sh*tless of the Futaba 6 channel with Telemetry and honestly that's what made them get out of the Air radios. They felt like they couldn't compete. The new distributor won't fare any better but they will do OK with Surface radios for now.

[Rush fan]

Sad to hear for sure. If the SD10G had Sbus and telemetry it would have been a rock solid competitor although I don't think any of the guys at my field would leave JR or Spektrum to buy an Airtronics. That's just the way it is at my field....some guys have not even heard of Airtronics till I show them my radio. When I started flying planes in the early 90's the 4 channel airtronics was my first radio and never had a glitch. I think the real customer base in the new millenium were glider guys. Sad to see the air support gone but there really is some stiff competition out there.

[Patriot996]

So am I understanding correctly? They will no longer support the SD10G radios? If that's the case, it is a sad day for sure. I've flown Airtronics since the mid 80's.

[TMoore]

Originally Posted by Patriot996

So am I understanding correctly? They will no longer support the SD10G radios? If that's the case, it is a sad day for sure. I've flown Airtronics since the mid 80's.

It's not a matter of not supporting the product, Global is no longer the importer so support is a moot point. This isn't a Global problem it's a Sanwa problem. You can't sell what you don't have.

[3Dmuse]

Originally Posted by TMoore

It's not a matter of not supporting the product, Global is no longer the importer so support is a moot point. This isn't a Global problem it's a Sanwa problem. You can't sell what you don't have.

I don't think many know the difference between Sanwa and Airtronics and their intricate relationship since the early 1970's. Global appeared in the picture only in 2007, I believe. It doesn't matter now anyway. As you said, time to move on. Many great air radios out there made by companies that are still willing to compete.

[TheKingPhisher]

I think the problem is there is not enough customers who buy Airtronics air radios to warrant development of a new radio. Also now that the Chinese aka FrSky's Horus is on the horizon there's really no point to dump money into designing a new radio.

[3Dmuse]

Originally Posted by TheKingPhisher

I think the problem is there is not enough customers who buy Airtronics air radios to warrant development of a new radio. Also now that the Chinese aka FrSky's Horus is on the horizon there's really no point to dump money into designing a new radio.

The irony is they didn't even have to create a new radio, just make a receiver with a serial output so that heli guys could use it with any of the modern FBL controllers. They waited too long and the competition wasn't sleeping either. Also don't forget that the SD-10G was released in 2009 and not even a single firmware update was ever released for it. Many bought a $20 cable for nothing.

[TMoore]

Originally Posted by 3Dmuse

The irony is they didn't even have to create a new radio, just make a receiver with a serial output so that heli guys could use it with any of the modern FBL controllers. They waited too long and the competition wasn't sleeping either. Also don't forget that the SD-10G was released in 2009 and not even a single firmware update was ever released for it. Many bought a $20 cable for nothing.

That's right and every year Sanwa would change Engineering development teams so every year the engineering staff would take 6 months to get up to speed on what the last team did. In earlier years the Engineering team had been in place for years and never underwent changes on a yearly basis. We requested single wire out for years and had a whole list of revisions that we wanted on top of Global wanting and having the money to buy the SD-10G software so we could rewrite it ourselves. No dice. Sanwa wasn't selling and wouldn't consider it. They made so many mistakes over the years when we blatantly told them what would sell and what wouldn't and we still got stuff that wouldn't sell.

Let the new importers lie their asses off about what's coming down the line if they want to but until President Suzuki signs an executive order and someone publishes it; there are no new Air radios in the pipeline. When Futaba came out with their 6 channel that has telemetry for $199.00 as far as Sanwa was concerned that was the end or Air radios. They gave up at that point.

[TheKingPhisher]

This reminds me of the death of famous Japanese HiFi audio brands like AKAI, Sansui, and Nakamichi...

[OddJack]

Originally Posted by TheKingPhisher

This reminds me of the death of famous Japanese HiFi audio brands like AKAI, Sansui, and Nakamichi...

Yes I remember those brands, I used them.

I think this is what happened to them and to Airtronics. Cheaper products that did the job, better marketing, planting roots.

Kinda like Walmart can do to local businesses.even to bigger ones. They came up with consumer conveniences. Spektrum striked deals with RC model makers. Just bind and fly. Netflix came up with streamis, stay home and enjoy = Blockbusters closed.

Unfortunately, we will have to move on. AT is not coming back, neither is Nakamichi.

[JasonA]

This is a major bummer, I've been a ATX user since the early 90's.. Spectra and moved on to my RD8000 (first major computer radio for me!)..

Then the SD-10g... but now reading on other forums that there's NO MORE repair or support?

I've been looking at the Graupner and Horus (Ugly as sin) radios.. but now we need telemetry with the new F3x stuff and sailplane competitions.

I'm sad to see ATX out of the game as I left Futaba early on due to cold solder joints and bad junk and NEVER had a failure with my ATX gear.

As a matter of fact, my SD-10g has been so solid, flying in noisy environments, I've had both Futaba (FASST) and Spektrum (DSMx) go down at the same time and my latency slowed down by never lost a link!
Goodbye Airtronics !

You've been excellent to me and never let me down!

[JasonA]

I just got a response back that ATX is gone for good ;-(

Audios fellas! You've been good to me!

I just scored on a MZ-24 Graupner.