By John McHale

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Engineers at Boeing’s Integrated Tactical Avionics Programs (ITAP) Laboratory in Long Beach, Calif., are using simulation design tools from Engenuity in Montreal to create a new PC-based integration lab.

They are using Engenuity’s VAPS, STAGE Scenario, STAGE Flightsim, and in-house software to replace ITAP’s 10-year old, more traditional integration lab.

ITAP has saved about 20 man-years of effort by using VAPS rather than an OpenGL approach and an additional 20 years by using STAGE Flightsim and STAGE Scenario as opposed to tailoring a legacy simulation system, says Mike Prindle, senior engineering specialist of ITAP. “By using Engenuity’s products, four man-years of effort were expended in completing a task that would have taken 40 man-years of effort using the previous development approach.”

“The old lab was expensive to create, is no longer reliable and will be difficult to carry into the future because of increasing maintenance expense,” says James Lawson, chief engineer for ITAP. The ITAP Lab is part of Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems, Logistics Support Systems organization.

The ITAP group has developed a new approach to the design of flight-qualified multifunction display (MFD) operational flight programs (OFP) to create the new lab.

“Because we have mixed commercial and Boeing-developed components, we have achieved the flexibility to create cost-effective solutions that allow ITAP to focus on the development of our primary product-the aircraft operational flight program software,” Lawson says. Also, since “many components for the new integration lab, namely the flight simulator, simulated real-world environment, and out-the-window visual systems, are commercial, PC-based products, they will be relatively easy to maintain.

This new integration lab represents a shift in how MFD OFP are made, Engenuity officials say. The team first develops the MFD OFP in a Windows environment, Prindle says. Then, the team ties it to STAGE Flightsim through a translator that mimics the normal inter-face of the mission processor OFP. Finally, once the MFD OFP looks fairly mature, the ITAP group recompiles it to operate on an aircraft’s computer, connects it to their PC-based simulator, and flies it around the environment.

“The nice fallout from this approach to the development is that it provides us with several demonstration options because our MFD OFP can operate on a PC,” Prindle says. “The MFD OFP can be put on a laptop and can be demonstrated statically, or it can be put on a desktop simulator with STAGE Flightsim and STAGE Scenario. In addition, it can also be put on a larger simulator that has the Vega Prime out-the-window graphics. The advantage is that, in every instance, the demonstration is running the real aircraft OFP. This means that the group does not have to maintain separate software for the aircraft and for various levels of aircraft simulation.

The ITAP group also has reduced the complexity of the software implementation and has a more modular and maintainable software system, Engenuity officials say. By using the same OFP for both aircraft and training system applications, the group can minimize the costs of fielding incremental improvements in fielded systems.

“The next step for the ITAP group is to convert the mission-processing OFP to comply with the same standards as the MFP OFP,” Lawson says. “We have already begun this conversion.” For more information see www.engenuitytech.com.