Modern Avionics Architectures

Presented By Timothy Etherington

Abstract

This tutorial explores architectures from numerous civil and military aircraft. Key architecture and design challenges are described for legacy as well as the newest aircraft types. Architectures are examined with comparisons of hardware and avionics functions of each are discussed in detail. Civil aircraft investigated include Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. Military aircraft include F-22 and Rafael. IMA 2G and other advanced concepts will be explored. Specific architecture examples are used to represent real word design challenges and solutions. Integrated and connected aircraft concepts are explored in reference to the integrated modular avionics architectures and how they can support integrated digital datalink and future air traffic management. Architectures have been carefully chosen to cover the following:

Broad spectrum of aircraft types, military and civilian
Federated and integrated designs with emphasis on the latest modern commercial and military aircraft
Emphasis on the latest integrated architectures with partitioning and connected aircraft
Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) vis-à-vis modular packaging
Impact of the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) on architecture
Range of non-essential to flight critical applications and the impact on future designs
Connected aircraft and design decisions for integrated designs

Presenter(s)

Timothy Etherington graduated from North Dakota State University with a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1987. Tim conducts flight deck research at NASA Langley Research Center and is recently retired from Collins Aerospace as a Technical Fellow. Mr. Etherington had worked at Rockwell Collins for over thirty years with extensive experience in military and commercial flight deck design and applied human factors. He helped design the flight decks for the Canadair Regional Jet and other business and regional primary flight display systems. He led the perspective, synthetic and enhanced flight deck research at Rockwell Collins including the flight-testing completed with NASA Langley and Air Force Research labs. He holds an FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate with a Citation Type Rating and holds commercial fixed wing and private pilot rotorcraft ratings. Mr. Etherington is co-chair for RTCA SC-213 working on standards for enhanced and synthetic vision systems.