Presumably there are some reasons for the higher cost, or someone else would come along and sell the radios for much less and take over the market. I expect in

Presumably there are some reasons for the higher cost, or someone else would come along and sell the radios for much less and take over the market. I expect in aviation higher reliability requirements would add something to the average costs for many things. People (me included) complain about the same thing when it comes to 'marine' parts - they're often 2 - 3 times higher in price than land-based parts (usually automotive or RV parts). There are actual differences in the items in many cases though - for example, marine engine parts have to ensure they never throw any spark, because explosive fumes in an enclosed engine compartment are a real safety concern that well ventilated automotive engines don't have. That takes extra R & D and different manufacturing processes for much smaller production runs (increasing pro-rated capital costs). Plus, market forces seem to show that people are willing to pay the higher prices - perhaps that's in part because most of the people buying these things have more money than people buying commodity (automotive etc) parts.