Avionics-Aerospace News, Engineering, Defense Technology- Avionics Intelligence

DO-178C nears finish line, with credit for modern tools and technologies (Sep 1, 2010)

Avionics for new aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner will be certified under DO-178C. After five years, RTCA and EUROCAE, the U.S. and European avionics standards organizations, are nearing the finish line in updating DO-178B, the bible for developers of safety-critical software. A cast of 1,000-plus people have observed or participated in the process and about 100 people show up at every meeting, according to one member of RTCA Special Committee 205 (SC-205). The industry expects the final package -- DO-178C -- to be released in the first quarter of 2011 and be mandated six to nine months after ratification.

UAV ground control stations are becoming center of the network-centric battlefield for U.S. defense forces (Aug 19, 2010)

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- from jets to rotorcraft -- have given U.S. forces a huge tactical advantage on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan providing lethal strike capability and persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). UAVs are deployed for long hours in and greater numbers every year in military applications as well as in law enforcement and NASA research programs.

Synthetic vision: road to credit (Aug 4, 2010)

Honeywell Aerospace's high-end, business-jet synthetic vision system is called SmartView. Synthetic vision, a computer-generated depiction of the terrain and obstacles from the pilot's perspective, is coming into wider use in many aircraft -- from high-end business jets to workhorse helicopters. Although the technology has not yet received credit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), it clearly increases situational awareness and reduces workload in the cockpit. Regardless of the weather or time of day, it is always visual flight rules (VFR) at noon on the synthetic vision display.

Avionics displays designers see challenges in integrating commercial technology in rugged military cockpits (Aug 3, 2010)

Astronautics Corporation of America's Smart Display 6-by-8-inch multi-function color display (MFCD) is used in U.S. Force C-130 aircraft. Military avionics displays take advantage of the latest commercial technology, such as LED (light emitting diode) and active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED), yet designers still face challenges integrating the new technology in rugged environments. Mature technologies such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are "very mature and barriers to entry are low -- with lots of new players saturating the market, says Gregory Walters, marketing manager of crew interface products at Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix. "However, technological differentiators still exist in LED backlighting; lower cost, lower power consumption, higher reliability (almost 10 times), redundancy: no single bulb failure can shutdown the backlight.

Military avionics connectors, reduced in size and weight, could change mil-specs (Jul 14, 2010)

Unmanned systems, military and commercial avionics systems, and solder-mounted applications require power and data connectors that are lighter and smaller than ever before, yet long-standing military specifications do not account for these reduced size and weight requirements especially regarding standard military circular connectors that link electronics boxes to other boxes or devices.

A big year for ADS-B (Jun 30, 2010)

In this photo US Airways Flight1234 is on final approach for runway 9L, so the ownship (aircraft) is "position and hold" on 9L. Ownship has received an aural warning alerting the crew that there is "TRAFFIC ON FINAL" and the display turns the runway and traffic red. "NextGen is here!" That statement made by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in late May is a bit hyperbolized, but there can be no doubt that a major building block for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) now officially is here. LaHood's proclamation accompanied an announcement of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) ruling for equipage for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) "Out."

Critical military avionics and other electronic systems designers are using anti-tamper technologies seek to keep data in the right hands (Jun 16, 2010)

The incident of a U.S. Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft making an unauthorized emergency landing at a Chinese air base on Hainan Island in the People's Republic of China was the catalyst for anti-tamper development at the DOD. Nine years ago, a U.S. Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft made an unauthorized emergency landing at a Chinese air base on Hainan Island in the People's Republic of China. The stricken electronics intelligence aircraft landed in China after a mid-air collision with a Chinese J-8II jet fighter caused severe damage to the EP-3. While reasons for the incident are in dispute, the so-called "Hainan Island Incident" was perhaps the defining event that brought electronic anti-tamper technology to the forefront of military avionics and electronics planning and development.

DO-178B certification challenges for real-time Java applications (Jun 3, 2010)

Every software engineer working on avionics systems has to deal with certifying their code to the Federal Aviation Administration’s DO-178B safety certification standard. The process is required for any aircraft that flies in civilian airspace and can be quite costly.

Commercial avionics designers taking interest in MIL-STD 1553 databus (May 20, 2010)

DDC's MIL-STD 1553 products are being used on the Airbus 350 XWB avionics systems. Historically the commercial avionics designers have preferred Arinc 429 and other databus protocols for their systems, but databus manufacturers say they are seeing growing interest in MIL-STD 1553 for use in commercial aircraft cockpits.

Future is looking brighter for electronic flight bags (EFBs) (May 5, 2010)

Electronic flight bag (EFB) designers are hopeful as the commercial avionics market is starting to turn upward and airlines are becoming more receptive to EFB technology.

Embedded avionics and embedded military computers leverage COTS for increased performance (Apr 21, 2010)
Embedded computing companies in the defense and avionics industries forced to do more with less due the current economic environment are providing greater functionality in a smaller, lighter, and less costly package by leveraging commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies.

Understanding DO-254 certification (Apr 8, 2010)
Designers of avionics hardware components must comply with certain safety specifications under the RTCA DO-254 certification much the way software providers must certify their code for flight operations under DO-178B.

The many facets of RNP (Mar 4, 2010)
Defining required navigation performance (RNP) is fairly straightforward: it is the level of navigation performance necessary for operating an aircraft within a defined airspace. RNP is based on area navigation (RNAV), which allows aircraft to fly directly to a destination instead of zigzagging from beacon to beacon.

Embedded avionics market will see serious growth from VPX technology (Mar 3, 2010)
Embedded avionics designers are excited about the benefits VPX-based embedded computing, which is finally about ready to explode onto the market. Interoperability standards are settling down, and designers are demanding smaller, faster computer boards with powerful new multicore microprocessors like the Intel Core i7.

Avionics designers upgrade to enable performance-based requirements such as required navigation performance (RNP) (Feb 18, 2010)
The aerospace industry is moving from rules-based operations to performance-based operations (PBO) to be more efficient in navigation, flight control, synthetic vision, and fuel consumption challenging avionics designers to upgrade their current systems to enable PBO especially in the area of required navigation performance (RNP).

U.S. navy avionics systems embrace open architectures (Feb 4, 2010)
Designers of avionics equipment for U.S. Navy aircraft see obsolescence as their biggest obstacle in meeting the steady demand for upgrades and retrofits of existing aircraft. Their main weapon in this fight is to design each system with an open architecture.

Avionics connector users in commercial and defense applications demanding more capability, smaller size, more EMI protection (Jan 21, 2010)
Here's the good news for commercial and military avionics connector suppliers: there's a growing need for your products. Here's the bad news: systems integrators want more capability, higher bandwidth, increased ruggedness, more resistance to lightning and electro-magnetic pulse, less risk from materials, yet want connectors that are smaller and lighter than ever before.

Obsolescence in avionics, the headache that doesn't go away (Jan 7, 2010)
Designers of old and new avionics systems all share a common challenge ? obsolescence management. As they take advantage of all the performance advantages of using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology they continue to be troubled by the dark side of COTS ? that electronic components go obsolete sometimes even before an aircraft makes its first flight.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter leverages COTS for avionics systems (Dec 17, 2009)
Designers of the avionics systems for the F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft are using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) avionics wherever and whenever possible throughout the advanced fighter's cockpit.

Fiber optic avionics connectors have performance advantages for avionics systems (Dec 3, 2009)
A steady aerospace and defense market combined with the performance advantages of fiber over copper has designers of optical avionics connectors confident in the short and long-term future.

1 of 3

prev 1 2 3 next