The year 2000 brought fundamental change to Thomson-CSF, now called Thales. First, there was the acquisition in June of Racal Electronics Plc, the UK manufacturer of a wide array of aerospace electronic…
Storing and archiving design, service and production data is far trickier than it might initially appear. The original data often is computer generated, which means it must be stored in some electronic…
This year looks good for avionics databus technology in the United States. Numerous products will ship in the first six months. The Mil-Std-1553 market holds its own, with new aircraft programs and…
The issue of ultra-wide-band (UWB) technology’s possible interference with the Global Positioning System (GPS) signal has become nothing short of a can of worms. We’ve followed this issue intently for several months…
Avionics to Kill GA? After reading your February 2001, Avionics Magazine articles on ultra-wide band (pages 20 and 28) and Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (page 16), I felt compelled to write to you…
A new electro-hydrostatic flight control and power system, intended for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), promises to revolutionize fly-by-wire technology. Calling it "power-by-wire," the Lockheed Martin JSF team developed the system and…
The world’s worst aviation accident occurred in 1977, almost a quarter of a century ago, at Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands. Five hundred and eighty-three persons were killed when a…
First, the disclaimer: It’s impossible for me to write about cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and digital flight data recorders (FDRs) with less than a passing interest in the subject. I fly jets…