FDIR is a field of control engineering which involves testing the responses of a system and identifying faults presented in the system. This can be through live monitoring of the sensor data to observe any discrepancies, or it can be regularly testing using a bespoke testing system to simulate environmental conditions and monitor system responses compared to expected values. Continue reading
Guidance documentation for development and testing of Safety Critical Aircraft Software. It covers the planning process, development process and integration process of software in aircraft systems, this is a similar framework as the ARP4754A but more specified towards software development.
“A computer system that automates a variety of in-flight tasks, reducing the workload of the flight crew” to the point that modern civilian aircraft no longer require flight engineers or navigators. It’s main function is the flight plan.
AIRAC data (Aeronautical Information Regulation And Control) is updated every 28 days and includes data such as:
Back in the day, aircraft were simple. Instruments were mechanical and not interconnect, many were not required to fly but merely “indicated” to the pilot. Modern avionics employs many complex and interconnected systems, many of which are responsible for high level (aircraft level) function and play a huge role in modern aircraft safety. As instrumentation became more complex, they ran out of space in the cockpit, therefore units became multi-functional or “glass cockpits” were utilised to ensure that the right information is available to the pilot at the right time.
As these systems became more complex and more responsible for aircraft function and safety; the architectures and risks associated with these systems became more complex, novel and diverse. Due to the nature of aviation, in-depth failure mode analysis is required for each component/system in order to identify a wide variety of potential failures using existing knowledge. From this, the risks are assessed for their severity, likelihood and detectability and prioritised from there.