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ETTC'2003 - SEE

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BACK<br />

Merging Military Aircraft and Commercial Aircraft<br />

Flight Test Architecture and Technologies<br />

Abstract<br />

Commercial aircraft are in the process of<br />

defining new standards with the<br />

introduction of the Airbus 380, involving<br />

the latest digital information techniques,<br />

such-as the AFDX onboard real-time<br />

network. Military aircraft are also in the<br />

process of using COTS hardware and<br />

software elements with the European<br />

Fighter being the latest example.<br />

CES is involved in the two fields and is<br />

presenting a test system with the latest<br />

methods used for the A380 matched with<br />

the technology used for military aircraft.<br />

Commercial aircraft:<br />

Although the technology used in the<br />

design of the A380 and its test systems is<br />

completely new, the architecture of its test<br />

system evolved from a continuous<br />

modeling effort over the last 10 years. The<br />

resulting IENA model has a scalable<br />

structure incorporating modular function<br />

units, based on enhanced hardware and<br />

software COTS elements, and a precise<br />

global datation system for all elements in<br />

the chassis. This architecture has been<br />

validated with the then existing aircraft<br />

interfaces, ARINC 429 and PCM.<br />

The AFDX standard, a major innovation in<br />

aircraft technology first used in the A380,<br />

introduces telecom Ethernet-based<br />

technology as well as switch connection<br />

topology rather than point-to-point links or<br />

buses.<br />

Philippe RICCO<br />

Martin WEYMANN<br />

François-Henri WORM<br />

Creative Electronic Systems<br />

Email: ces@ces.ch<br />

Airbus and CES partnered to develop a<br />

building block, which allows the<br />

simulation, test or connection of any<br />

AFDX equipped element, covering all of<br />

the ground test, simulation, and flight test<br />

equipment requirements, thus the name<br />

AFDX general purpose test platform.<br />

It has been introduced in the IENA<br />

concept, which has been adapted to the<br />

AFDX topology. Another element has<br />

been the choice of Ethernet links and<br />

switches as the data extraction channels<br />

with the addition of redundancy and time<br />

control of the data transmission.<br />

Finally a very advanced source<br />

synchronized datation system has been<br />

introduced so that all data is correctly time<br />

aligned directly at their entry in the flight<br />

test computer.<br />

Military aircraft:<br />

Different programs have allowed CES to<br />

develop the most common military aircraft<br />

interfaces, such as MIL 1553B, EFABUS<br />

and its extensions, private CCDLs, highspeed<br />

imaging interfaces and ATM or IPbased<br />

data deployment interfaces.<br />

These function units share the same<br />

hardware and software elements as the<br />

commercial aircraft function units (i.e.<br />

VME, CompactPCI and PMC real-time<br />

PowerPC processors, multiple PCI buses,<br />

RTOS (VxWorks® and LynxOS®)).

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