Garmin AXIS: the radio stack just moved inside the display — and from-scratch panels will never be the same

On July 8, Garmin announced AXIS™, a new family of flight displays that replaces the G3X Touch era with something genuinely new — and if you're planning a panel, especially a from-scratch one, this announcement changes the conversation.

The headline is simple to say and big in its consequences: the 11.6-inch AXIS display can be ordered with a TSO-certified IFR GPS, a NAV/COMM radio, and a full audio panel built into the display itself. Not connected to it. Not stacked next to it. Inside it.

Why that matters

Think about what a traditional IFR panel needs: a flight display, a navigator in the center stack, a separate COMM radio, an audio panel, plus the wiring harnesses, trays, cooling and panel real estate to tie it all together. Every box is money, weight, install hours, and another thing to fail.

AXIS collapses four boxes into one. For a from-scratch panel, that's not an incremental improvement — it rewrites the layout.

The built-in COMM is a real radio: 10 watts of transmit power, 8.33 kHz channel spacing, and standby frequency monitoring. The integrated audio panel gives you a four-place intercom, dual-COMM switching to support one external radio, COMM playback, and Bluetooth for music and phone. Three certified variants are offered: a base PFD/MFD, a GPS/COMM model, and a full GPS/NAV/COMM model — the latter two with the audio panel included.

The from-scratch builder's dream

This is where we get excited, because custom experimental panels are one of our specialties. When we design a panel from a blank sheet of aluminum today, the center stack drives everything — the radios and navigator dictate depth behind the panel, wiring runs, and how much display you can actually fit in front of the pilot.

With AXIS, a clean-sheet experimental design can put one or two large displays exactly where the pilot needs them and skip the stack entirely. Less harness fabrication, fewer trays, less weight, fewer failure points — and more usable panel space in airplanes that never had much to spare. Garmin's Team X kept experimental builders in the loop throughout development, and it shows: simplified wiring, more built-in I/O, and compatibility with most existing G3X-family sensors and LRUs.

Builders already flying behind a G3X Touch aren't left out. AXIS uses the same panel cutout and the same mounting holes, and Garmin says a typical display upgrade needs roughly eight connector pin changes — about a day in the shop, depending on the aircraft.

The safety story

AXIS carries over Garmin's best safety technology and adds a physical emergency button on the bezel. Press it and you get immediate access to Smart Glide — which finds an airport within gliding range and, paired with a GFC 500 autopilot, will fly you toward it — plus level mode, a 180-degree turn, and a shortcut to the emergency transponder code. On the ground, Runway Occupancy Awareness uses ADS-B to warn of potential runway incursions, 3D SafeTaxi gives you an exocentric view of the airport around your airplane, and optional SurfaceWatch helps keep you off the wrong pavement.

Certified airplanes are invited too

This isn't just an experimental story. AXIS launches with an AML STC covering hundreds of Part 23 Class I and II piston singles and twins, and the sport-pilot world gets access through LSA (MOSAIC) eligibility. The 11.6-inch displays are TSO'd and shipping this month; the 8-inch landscape and portrait versions follow in early 2027, along with certified twin EIS and GFC 600 compatibility.

As announced at launch, July 2026 — confirm current pricing with us. Every airplane is different, and the right answer depends on what's already behind your panel.

Sources: Garmin press release (July 8, 2026) · AVweb coverage. Product photos courtesy of Garmin. AXIS, G3X Touch, Smart Glide, SafeTaxi, SurfaceWatch and GFC are trademarks of Garmin Ltd.