ATM ModernizationEditor's Note: Congress' Compliant With RTCA Congress, a wag once said, is "a body of men brought together to vote on unpopular laws." That may be a harsh definition of the U.S. Congress, but sometimes, one can only…
CommercialAvionics 99 Highlights CFIT, TCAS, ADS-B and, of course, Free Flight were some of the more widely used buzzwords heard at the Oct. 26-28 Avionics 99 conference at Bellevue, Wash. Manufacturers are engineering the means…
Editor's NotePiloting the Engineer Engineers and pilots view cockpit avionics from very different perspectives. Whereas an engineer may view his product as an enhancement to the operational environment, the pilot may see that product as yet…
ATM ModernizationSafety in Avionics: Not Your Father's Loran Just as the value of real estate has been based on the word "location" repeated three times, the commendable safety record of the airline industry has been built on redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.…
Business & GAAvionics System Design: 'Why Do the Wings Dip When I Hit Play' Due to an odd alignment of the stars or something this month, I have recently had numerous calls and e-mails about the odd topic of personal electronic items causing "in flight" disruption,…
ATM ModernizationEditor's Note: The Race for ADS-B There is a race going on —a race against time. Pressure is mounting against the Cargo Airline Association (CAA), which is working feverishly to make automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) a viable contributor…
ATM ModernizationSafety in Avionics: Bubble of Protection There is a subtle yet profound difference in the flight control systems on Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Yes, they both have ailerons, flaps, slats, rudders and spoilers. And, yes, both manufacturers have…
ATM ModernizationAvionics System Design: Asking the Question 'Why?' In several discussions recently, I found myself explaining why some aviation and mil-spec techniques and methods are used, and it struck me that commonly we know the how, but not the why…