MONTREAL, 8 Sept. 2010. Embvue Inc. in Montreal is introducing the A-Switch software implementation of an AFDX switch avionics data bus applications. AFDX refers to ARINC 664 Part 7 standard for avionics networking. A-Switch is for avionics integrators who want to use AFDX deterministic switched Ethernet networks without relying on proprietary switch products.

CERRO MACO, Columbia, 7 Sept. 2010. SELEX Sistemi Integrati, a Finmeccanica company, won a contract from the Aeronautica Civil de Colombia, for the upgrade of a radar system set in Cerro Maco, Columbia, near San Jacinto in the region of Bolivar. The contract covers a hardware and software upagrade to the ATCR 22M primary radar and the SIR-M secondary radar.

SAVANNAH, Ga., 7 Sept. 2010. Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.'s G250 Integration Test Facility (ITF) has accumulated 1,000 hours of testing on the PlaneView250 software load that will be the basis for securing the aircraft's initial Type Certificate. Gulfstream reached the milestone just four months after evaluation of the Rockwell Collins-provided software began. Rockwell Collins is a strategic partner on the PlaneView250 flight deck, which features Pro Line Fusion avionics.

AMBLER, Pa., 4 Sept. 2010. MEN Micro Inc. now offers the 6U field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based, triple-redundant A602 64-bit VMEbus single board computer (SBC) that uses a lock-step architecture keeping software development at a minimum for avionics applications.

WESTFORD, Mass., 1 Sept. 2010. The accommodation of modern software tools and technologies receives the most attention in press accounts of the upgrade to the RTCA certification standard DO-178B -- DO-178C, however revisions to the body of the standard are also important. These revisions should not make the standard harder or easier to follow, says George Romanski, chief executive officer of Verocel, a software verification company in Westford, Mass. But it should make the playing field "more level," stopping the exploitation of certain ambiguities.

After five years, RTCA and EUROCAE, the U.S. and European avionics standards organizations, are nearing the finish line in updating DO-178B, the bible for developers of safety-critical software. A cast of 1,000-plus people have observed or participated in the process and about 100 people show up at every meeting, according to one member of RTCA Special Committee 205 (SC-205). The industry expects the final package -- DO-178C -- to be released in the first quarter of 2011 and be mandated six to nine months after ratification.

DENVER, 28 Aug. 2010. Rockwell Collins and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) conducted several flight tests of an unmanned F/A-18 subscale model air vehicle while dramatically increasing levels of damage on the aircraft. As part of the same DARPA effort Rockwell Collins also had a UAV fly aerobatics with position tracking. The results were discussed during a news briefing at AUVSI's Unmanned Systems North America 2010 showin Denver.

DENVER, 26 Aug. 2010. Engineers at ITT Electronic Systems in Van Nuys, Calif., designed a thin-tile array radar system for sense and avoid capability in the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), produced by Northrop Grumman. The radar will be located in the nose of the UAV.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- from jets to rotorcraft -- have given U.S. forces a huge tactical advantage on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan providing lethal strike capability and persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). UAVs are deployed for long hours in and greater numbers every year in military applications as well as in law enforcement and NASA research programs.

SAN DIEGO, 18 Aug. 2010. As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) become a bigger part of the U.S. military arsenal, Department of Defense planners are looking to create a common ground control station that operates multiple UAV platforms.

BOHEMIA, N.Y., 15 Aug. 2010. Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y., is introducing dataSIMS avionics data bus test and analysis software support for its line of AceXtreme data bus cards that offer MIL-STD-1553 functionality, including AC, Multi-RT, and concurrent monitor per channel, along with common API for test and embedded applications.

DALLAS, Texas, 14 Aug. 2010. Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] delivered the TOPSCENE Tactical Terrain Visualization System, a mission planning and rehearsal software package, to England's Ministry of Defense (MoD) in support of operations in Afghanistan.

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, 11 Aug. 2010. Air Arabia selected Thales to supply a large avionics package including flight management systems (FMSs) and traffic, terrain, and transponder collision avoidance systems (T3CASs) for its 44 new A320 aircraft.

PHOENIX, 10 Aug.2010. Honeywell (NYSE: HON) received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to begin delivering its Flight Management System (FMS) software upgrade that provides advanced GPS-enabled approaches and access to Future Air Navigation System (FANS) routes in congested air spaces and oceanic airways.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., 26 July 2010. Lion Air in Jakarta, Indoesia selected the Wireless GroundLink Quick Access Recorder (WQAR) from Teledyne Controls in El Segundo, Calif., to retrofit their 60 Boeing 737-900ER aircraft. The Indonesian airline also selected the AirFASE software, a flight data monitoring (FDM) tool jointly developed by Teledyne and Airbus to assist operators with their flight operations, safety management, and aircraft maintenance programs.

FARNBOROUGH, England, 23 July 2010. The U.S. Navy selected Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) to provide V-22 Osprey avionics systems software, situational awareness software and prototype hardware, and avionics acquisition support.

FARNBOROUGH, England 22 July 2010. Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC) has delivered the operational software package for the AN/AAQ-37 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (EO-DAS) to Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) for integration into the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

FARNBOROUGH, England, 22 July 2010. Rockwell Collins and Bombardier Aerospace released the "V7" cabin electronics system (CES) software for operators of Bombardier's Global 5000 and Global Express XRS business aircraft. The new software includes dozens of improvements to enhance the look and feel of the system.

FARNBOROUGH, England, 21 July 2010. Time-Triggered Protocol (TTP) avionics specialist TTTech in Vienna is introducing the TTP Star Coupler flight assembly that separately protects each branch of a star-topology avionics databus. TTTech is introducing the TTP Star Coupler at the Farnborough International Airshow this week in Farnborough, England. Protecting each branch of an avionics star-topology databus separately enables avionics designers to improve fault isolation and produce architectures with higher availability than traditional bus topologies, TTTech officials say.