This month’s focus is on and avionics-related developments.

Rockwell Collins takes integration to higher altitude The benefits in size, weight, power, reli- Integration is a top priority at the “If you look at what’s next on the com- ability, and functionality of integration Iowa-based company, according to mercial side,” Standerski continued, “cer- are so great for avionics companies that Jeffrey Standerski, Vice President, tainly there’s an opportunity to integrate it cannot be ignored. Strategy Development, Commercial communications, and there’s an opportu- Rockwell Collins, if its activity in the Systems. It has been for some time, he nity to maybe integrate communications area is any indication, has gotten the noted, “And what you see now is things and navigation together. And we have a message. are moving to a next level of integration.” variety of different things going on to inte- In addition to market research and grate those capabilities.” analysis, Standerski is responsible for Rockwell Collins is mining integration “kind of pushing the organization from a opportunities on the military side as well. top-down perspective.” In that sense, he Many of the integration ideas for the says, his job is to keep his fingers on the commercial side apply to the military side pulse of the industry so Rockwell Collins as well, according to Standerski. “A can respond, as well as to be proactive great example of that is a program we in exploiting the company’s expertise and have called the joint tactical radio system innovation to help shape trends in the (JTRS). In the past, you had individual avionics and communications arenas. communications radios that now are all Rockwell Collins already has ad- being integrated into one subsystem— dressed integration in the area of naviga- one box—that features lower-band fre- tion, combining global positioning and quencies all the way up to satellite com- radar technologies to produce a multi- munications.” mode receiver. And on top of that, Rockwell Collins is With the Boeing 787 Dreamliner pro- moving toward what Standerski calls soft- gram, Rockwell Collins combines several ware-defined communications in which surveillance systems into one integrated radios can be reprogrammed from a soft- solution. “In the past, it was three indi- ware perspective to accommodate differ- vidual sensors,” Standerski said. “Now, ent frequency bands. “Things are being it’s one integrated system that includes integrated to provide much more flexibil- weather radar, collision avoidance, and ity to the user on the military side,” he terrain awareness. said. The company has an initiative for the commercial sector that it calls SWAP (size, weight, and power). The idea is to Rockwell Collins is the supplier and systems use integration for maximum reduction in integrator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s each of those areas for any given appli- flight deck display and crew-alerting cation. “Say you’re running four different system, pilot controls, communication and surveillance systems, the aircraft’s common communications boxes with four different data network, and the core network power amplifiers and four different anten- cabinet. nas. If you get that down to one radio system with maybe one or two power amplifiers and one or two antennas, you are really saving a lot of power. Anytime you can reduce the size, weight, or pow- er consumption of a piece of equipment, it’s a great thing for Boeing or Airbus or one of our business jet manufacturers. We very much focus our integration around that.” There are also advantages in reliabil- ity with integrated equipment that has fewer parts to break or malfunction. With Rockwell Collins’ eFlight information- “Things are moving to a next level of Rockwell Collins is a big proponent of management solution, electronic flight bags integration,” said Jeffrey Standerski, open systems architectures to integrate replace aircraft manuals and other paper Vice President, Strategy Development, flight operations with navigation and documents. Commercial Systems, Rockwell Collins.

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guidance functions. An open systems ar- Collins and the industry as a whole is chitecture involves what Standerski de- pursuing? Standerski said it is difficult to scribes as an “overall integrated com- answer that question. But he gave it a puter—whether a mission computer on try: “If you look at the computer industry, the military side or an avionics computer you see how it’s evolved as it relates to in the commercial market space”—that is size, weight, and power, and it’s the brains behind integrated functionality. evolved as it relates to additional pro- “Rockwell Collins is heavily involved in cessing and memory capability. As those the integration of products as well as the things evolve, they will allow us to get integration of systems, and we view our- more and more integrated and add more selves as a technology driver and a tech- and more functionality to an individual nology leader in this area,” said unit. So I don’t know if there’s a Holy Standerski. Grail. But what I do believe is that as Exemplifying the company’s expertise technology evolves we will continue to in this area are recent avionics upgrades integrate more functionality into smaller for several military programs. Rockwell packages.” Rockwell Collins makes a Joint Tactical Collins has applied open architecture Rockwell Collins is also heavily in- Radio System software-defined radio principles as prime avionics systems inte- volved in the information-management communications system for the military. grator for the U.S. Air Force’s C/KC-125 arena. Its eFlight product is designed to GATM program. For that program, the put into a convenient electronic form the Standerski said. “And as you can imag- company is providing the technology navigation charts and other information ine, airlines are all about trying to be that prepares aircraft for changing com- sources currently embodied in paper more efficient these days.” munication/navigation/surveillance and form, much of it in the cockpit. “Given eFlight provides increased airline op- air-traffic-management requirements as today’s technology, both in communica- erational efficiency by reducing the the airspace transitions to Free Flight tions and software, there’s no reason air- amount of paper involved and making operation. lines still need all that paper floating certain functions automated. For exam- Is there a Holy Grail that Rockwell around creating inefficiencies,” ple, Standerski said, a pilot can push a

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Briefs

Embraer is extending use of Thales ’ Integrated Electronic Standby Instrument (IESI) on its air- craft. The IESI will be used on Embraer’s Light and Very Light Jet programs, the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300. The unit provides the classi- cal standby instrument functions of aircraft attitude (gyro horizon), airspeed, and altitude The Pro Line in a single electronic instrument. It also pro- 21 open- vides the data interface with other avionics architecture systems to display and provide additional in- avionics system formation. The IESI is produced using Thales' from Rockwell own active matrix LCD technology. The com- Collins is an pany claims that, compared to electromechani- integrated unit cal instruments, its electronic unit performs for various three to four times better in terms of mean time business jets between failures. It also claims an improve- such as the ment in direct maintenance costs of 50% over Bombardier "today's instruments." Challenger 605 (shown). The SkyWatch 497 Collision Avoidance System from L-3 Avionics Systems now features button on a display instead of signing his emphasis is more on the cabin than on Verbal Intruder Positioning (VIP). The VIP capa- name to approve an aircraft’s weight and the cockpit. Connectivity is the name of bility extends aural alerts of range, bearing, balance. More broadly, e-Flight provides the game there. Executives want an ”of- and relative altitude when a traffic advisory is real-time communication between an air- fice in the sky,” said Standerski, so cabin issued for a threat aircraft. “Traffic, traffic, 12 craft and other parts of the airline—be it electronics to supply real-time Internet o’clock high, 3 miles” is an example of the the back office or ground-support opera- access and other sources of information type of threat warning that will be heard. The system will continue to provide visual warnings tions. sources is the focus. and can display up to 10 targets simultane- For business jets, Rockwell Collins’ Patrick Ponticel ously, depending on an aircraft’s display capa- bility. Landmark busy with Chelton avionics Lockheed Martin will complete the integration installations of sensor and avionics systems on 12 Sikorsky Aircraft MH-60R multi-mission helicopters and Chelton’s avionics systems are proving to that interfaces the remote-mounted AHRS begin work on 25 others under separate con- be a nice source of business for [attitude heading reference system], air tracts with the U.S. Navy. Lockheed Martin is Landmark Aviation, which recently data computer, GPS, and WAAS receiver the prime systems integrator and cockpit pro- equipped and delivered its first M28 as well as existing VHF navigation equip- vider to Sikorsky for the aircraft. It will deliver SkyTruck utility aircraft with the Chelton ment. The system has its own terrain the first 12 by late 2008 and the additional Flight Systems FlightLogic Synthetic Vision awareness and warning system. 25 by mid-2009. Electronic Flight Instrumentation System “Landmark is pleased to deliver this CMC Electronics has selected the Green Hills (EFIS). SkyTruck aircraft equipped with a lead- Platform for Avionics with the Integrity-178B In recent months, Landmark’s ing-edge avionics system that provides real-time operating system to support the devel- Roanoke, VA, facility has installed several optimal situational awareness, naviga- opment of integrated cockpit avionics solu- other Chelton Flight Systems Synthetic tion, and ‘moving maps’ that are fully tions. CMC Electronics Aircraft Management Vision EFIS. It installed the first Dual integrated into the cockpit displays,” said System supports an all- anchored Sensor 4-Tube SV-EFIS System as part of Mike Anderson, Director of Avionics, by two powerful CMC Integrated Avionics a project with Chelton to amend a current Landmark Aviation. “The Chelton system, Computers that are fully qualified to commer- Supplemental Type Certificate for the Part which has its own display in the cockpit, cial standards. The rugged mission system uses 23 Large/Commuter Class Aircraft. The enhances aircraft safety by improving a PowerPC 7457 processor and will support multiple display functions. M28 SkyTruck project is the second sys- situational awareness and reducing pilot tem to include the same dual sensor ar- workload.” AgustaWestland has approved Engenuity chitecture. The fea- FlightLogic supports optional traffic Technologies as an airborne software supplier tures 3-D perspective terrain modeling and weather systems to create a single, and selected the supplier’s VAPS XT 661 for with real-time GPS/WAAS (Wide Area integrated console for all flight-deck op- use in the development of its ARINC 661 Augmentation System) positioning, and erations. The FAA-certified EFIS, designed cockpit displays. Based on the open architec- ‘”highway in the sky” predictive flight to replace primary , and ture of VAPS XT, VAPS XT 661 gives develop- director guidance from takeoff to touch- mechanical gyros and compass systems, ers control over virtually every object param- down. provides innovative technology and func- eter, allowing for greater creative freedom, The FlightLogic EFIS is a complete tionality that delivers new situational according to Engenuity. flight navigation instrumentation system awareness and groundbreaking auto-

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mated flight-management capabilities, according to Landmark. The FlightLogic EFIS combines ad- vanced head-up display symbology with real-time, forward-looking 3-D terrain to create what Landmark calls an innovative primary flight display. Chelton’s autopilot interface can guide the aircraft through departure procedures and standard terminal arrival routes, arc approaches, procedure turns, and com- plex holding pattern entries with no pilot interaction. The integral master caution voice warning system provides a wide range of alarm and alert information that also appears on the screen for undesir- able conditions that may arise during the flight. The Chelton system currently has The Chelton Flight Systems FlightLogic Synthetic Vision Electronic Flight Instrumentation Technical Standard Order and System recently was installed in an M28 SkyTruck by Landmark Aviation. Supplemental Type Certificate for installa- tion on more than 740 aircraft. available for different cargo aircraft ap- service fixed-base operation with avion- The M28 SkyTruck, suited for passen- plications. The aircraft is sold throughout ics maintenance and installation capabil- ger and/or cargo transportation, is de- the world. ity. signed for multiple-mission usage, and is Landmark’s Roanoke facility is a full- Patrick Ponticel

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