Avionics System AVIation electrONICS.

Electronics has been introduced in Aviation during World

War II.
Avionics are the electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial
satellites, and spacecraft.
Avionic System – Any system in an aircraft which is
dependent on electronics for its operation. Electro-
mechanical elements – FBW.
 Avionics Industry
The avionics industry is a major multi-billion dollar industry world-
wide.
Avionics equipment on a modern military or civil aircraft can account
for around 30% of the total cost of the aircraft.
40% in the case of a helicopter and 75% of the total cost in the case
of an airborne early warning aircraft (AWACS).
Modern general aviation aircraft also have a significant avionics
content – colour head down displays, GPS satellite navigation systems,
radio communications equipment.
 Need for Avionics and its major
drivers
Avionic systems are essential to enable the flight crew to carry out
the aircraft mission safely and efficiently.
A major driver in the development and introduction of avionic
systems has been the need to meet the mission requirements with
the minimum flight crew.
Other very important drivers for avionic systems are increased safety,
air traffic control requirements, all weather operation, reduction in
fuel consumption, improved aircraft performance and control and
handling and reduction in maintenance costs.
 Display System
It provides the visual interface between the pilot and the aircraft systems –
HUD, HMD, HDD.
HUD and HMD can project the display information into the pilot’s field of view
so that the pilot can be head up and can concentrate on the outside world.
HUD can also display a FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) video picture.
The HMD enables the pilot to be presented with information while looking in
any direction, as opposed to the limited forward field of view of the HUD.
Multi-function colour displays (HDD) provide the primary flight displays (PFDs)
of height, airspeed, Mach number, vertical speed, artificial horizon, pitch
angle, bank angle and heading, velocity vector and also engine data.
HUD- Heads Up Display
HDD- Head Down Display
HMD- Helmet Mounted Display
Communication System
Need for reliable two way communication between the ground bases
and the aircraft or between aircraft.
Essential for air traffic [Link] first avionic system – radio
transmitter and receiver equipment.
Long range communication – HF (2–30 MHz).Medium range
communication – VHF (30–100 MHz), UHF (250–400 MHz) – line of
sight propagation systems.
Satellite communications (SATCOM) – World wide communication.
Aircraft State Sensor
Air data systems and the inertial sensor systems.
Air Data Systems provide accurate information on the air data quantities (the
altitude, calibrated airspeed, vertical speed, true airspeed, Mach number, etc).
This information is essential for the control and navigation of the aircraft.
The Inertial Sensor Systems provide the information on aircraft attitude and
the direction in which it is heading which is essential information for the pilot
in executing a manoeuvre or flying in conditions of poor visibility, flying in
clouds or at night.
Inertial Sensors – Gyroscopes (measures angular rotation) and Accelerometers
(measures linear acceleration).Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS).
Navigation System
Navigation – determination of position and velocity of a vehicle with
respect to a reference.
Dead reckoning navigation – Inertial Navigation, Doppler Navigation.
Radio Navigation – VOR, DME, ADF, LORAN, [Link] Navigation –
GPS, GLONASS.
Approach guidance – Instrument Landing System, Microwave Landing
System.
Task Automation System
These comprise the systems which reduce the crew workload and
enable minimum crew operation by automating and managing as
many tasks as appropriate so that the crew role is a supervisory
management one.
Navigation Management – It comprises the operation of all the radio
navigation aid systems and the combination of the data from all the
navigation sources to provide the best possible estimate of the
aircraft position, ground speed.
Autopilot and Flight Management System (FMS) – grouped together.
Flight Management System
Flight planning.
Navigation management.
Engine control to maintain the planned speed or Mach number.
Control of the aircraft flight path to follow the optimised planned route.
Control of the vertical flight profile.
Ensuring the aircraft is at the planned 3D position at the planned time slot;
often referred to as 4D navigation. This is very important for air traffic
control.
Flight envelope monitoring.
Minimising fuel consumption.
Engine Control and Management
System
It carry out the task of control and the efficient management and
monitoring of the engines.
Engine control electronics is physically mounted on the engine. Modern
jet engines have a full authority digital engine control system (FADEC).
FADEC automatically controls the flow of fuel to the engine combustion
chambers by the fuel control unit so as to provide a closed-loop control
of engine thrust in response to the throttle command.
The control system ensures the engine limits in terms of temperatures,
engine speeds and accelerations are not exceeded and the engine
responds in an optimum manner to the throttle command.
House Keeping Management System
Fuel management – This embraces fuel flow and fuel quantity
measurement and control of fuel transfer from the appropriate fuel
tanks to minimise changes in the aircraft trim.
Electrical power supply system management.
Hydraulic power supply system management.
Cabin/cockpit pressurization systems.
Environmental control system.
Warning systems.
Maintenance and monitoring systems.
Major “ilities” of Avionics
Capability.
Reliability.
Maintainability.
Availability.
Certificability.
Survivability (military).
Susceptibility.
Vulnerability.
Major “ilities” of Avionics
 Capability
– How capable is avionics system?
– Can they do the job and even more?
– Designer to maximize the capability of the system within the constraints that are imposed.
 Reliability
– Designer strives to make systems as reliable as possible.
– High reliability = less maintenance costs.
– If less reliable customer will not buy it and in terms of civil airlines the certificating agencies will not certify
it.
 Maintainability
– Closely related to reliability
– System must need preventive or corrective maintenance.
– System can be maintained through built in testing, automated troubleshooting and easy access to
hardware.
Major “ilities” of Avionics
Availability
– Combination of reliability and maintainability.
– Test runs and for sorties (military aircraft).
Certificability
– Major area of concern for avionics in civil airlines.
– Certification conducted by the regulatory agencies based on detailed,
expert examination of all aspects of aircraft design and operation.
– The avionics architecture should be straight forward and easily
understandable.
Survivability– It is a function of susceptibility and vulnerability.
Major “ilities” of Avionics
Susceptibility
– measure of probability that an aircraft will be hit by a given threat.
Vulnerability
– measure of the probability that damage will occur if there is a hit by the
threat
Weight and power
– Minimize the weight and power requirements are the two fundamental
concepts of avionics design.
– So the design must be light weight and power consuming which is possible
through the data bus and latest advancement of electronics devices.