WASHINGTON, 4 Nov. 2010. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would require helicopter air ambulance operators to make significant changes in equipage, infrastructure, and procedures. While operators avoided mandates for autopilots and night vision goggles (NVGs), as the National Transportation Safety Board had wished, they will have to equip with approved terrain avoidance systems (TAWS) if the NPRM goes through as written.

SAN JOSE, Calif., 3 Nov. 2010. Military FPGA specialist Xilinx Inc. in San Jose, Calif., is introducing two families of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that are qualified for aerospace and defense applications. The Spartan-6Q family is for low-power, low-cost, and secure-communications applications like military communications, missiles, and munitions, while the Virtex-6Q family is for ruggedized, anti-tamper applications that need high performance and logic density up to the military temperature range.

SAN JOSE, Calif., 3 Nov. 2010. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control has selected the Independence IDX 6000 Quantum3D in San Jose, Calif., image generator as an addition to their installation of IDX systems.

SAN JOSE, Calif., 3 Nov. 2010. Electronic chassis designers at Extreme Engineering Solutions Inc. (X-ES) in Middleton, Wis., say they have come up with a way to help engineers developing air transport rack (ATR)-packaged avionics and other electronic systems to write software and make other enhancements quickly without dealing with the difficult connectors and confines of the ATR rack itself. X-ES is doing this with the Avionics Development Platform (ADP), a electronics and backplane enclosure that acts as a 3U OpenVPX development platform that provides the kinds of functionality and I/O that avionics designers typically need for their ATR-packaged applications.

MIDDLETON, Wis., 1 Nov. 2010. Extreme Engineering Solutions, Inc. (X-ES) is shipping the Avionics Development Platform (ADP) to facilitate the development and rapid deployment of avionics systems. The ADP is a prepackaged 3U OpenVPX development platform that provides functionality and I/O commonly required by avionics applications.

ATLANTA, 21 Oct. 2010. Cobham announced plans to certify its large format IDU-680P 6-by-8-inch portrait flight display. Currently undergoing MIL-STD qualification, the IDU-680P shares 90 percent commonality in hardware and Level-A software with its IDU-450 4-by-5-inch display. The IDU 450 is certified to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) standards.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., 20 Oct. 2010. GE Intelligent Platforms in Charlottesville, Va., is introducing the rugged OpenVPX-compliant SBC312 3U VPX single board computer based on the 8-core Freescale QorIQ P4080 processor for demanding space- and weight-constrained embedded computing applications like unmanned vehicles. The SBC312 CPU board is available in five air- and conduction-cooled ruggedization levels, and also is available in VITA-48 format for two-level maintenance.

BOHEMIA, N.Y., 12 Oct. 2010. Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y., is introducing a MIL-STD-1553 native PCI-Express avionics databus card offering fast data rates and powerful multi-function capabilities. The native PCI Express BU-67X06K card takes advantage of the advanced features, enhanced power management, and expanded bandwidth that PCI-Express offers in expanding the capabilities of MIL-STD-1553 for embedded computing as well as test and measurement applications. The PCI-Express card is for data-intensive applications and future programs.

BOHEMIA, N.Y., 7 Oct. 2010. Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y., is introducing the BU-672 series of PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC), PCI, CompactPCI/PXI, and PCI Express MIL-STD-1553 cards designed around DDC's next generation AceXtreme 1553 core, for avionics databus test and simulation. The BU-672 series adds multi-function capability that enables a 1553 bus controller (BC), as many as 31 remote terminals (RT), and bus monitor (MT) to run concurrently per channel. The cards are available with as many as four dual-redundant 1553 channels.

SAN DIEGO, Calif., 7 Oct. 2010. The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), like many military systems, has evolved toward a more open design through the use of common interfaces, data formats and protocols. The earliest variant, Block 10, integrated all flight and mission functions in one processor with proprietary software, in order to minimize size, weight, and power (SWAP) and maximize payload and fuel capacity, says Bill Walker, director of business and strategy development for Northrop Grumman's Future Unmanned Systems, Strike and Surveillance Systems Division. The mission computers use 6U VME boards made by Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing in Ashburn, Va. 

The U.S. Defense Department (DoD) and world militaries are facing growing obsolescence problems in their air fleets. Airplanes are flying decades longer than originally expected and aging avionics systems require attention. In recent years DoD has adopted an open systems strategy for designing and upgrading avionics to combat obsolescence and reduce lifecycle costs.

ARLINGTON, Texas, 1 Oct. 2010. L-3 Link Simulation & Training (L-3 Link) won contract modifications from Computer Sciences Corp. to provide a third OH-58D Operational Flight Trainer (OFT) and convert three existing UH-60A/L Instrument Flight Trainers (IFT) to full-motion OFTs in support of training services for the U.S. Army's Flight School XXI program.

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., 29 Sept. 2010. Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics from Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC) were used in the service-level testing and field user evaluation for the U.S. Marine Corps Mobile Tactical Air Operations Module (MTAOM) command and control system.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa 29 Sept. 2010. Rockwell Collins delivered its Virtual Avionics Procedures Trainer (VAPT) system to Corporate Aircraft SA, an authorized dealer of Hawker Beechcraft aircraft, for an unnamed operator. The device will train pilots flying King Air aircraft, which are equipped with Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics.

BOSTON, Mass., 21 Sept. 2010. AdaCore announced an update to GNATbench, the Ada plug-in that brings the advantages of AdaCore's GNAT Pro toolset to Wind River's Workbench integrated development environment for embedded systems running VxWorks. The latest version of GNATbench, 2.4.1, is now available as part of the recent GNAT Pro 6.3.2 release, and is supported on Wind River Workbench 3.1 / 3.2, hosted on Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

OWEGO, N.Y., 21 Sept. 2010. The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) a $10 million contract to develop software that will enable MH-60R and MH-60S multi-mission helicopter aircrews the latest technology to pre-plan their missions. The U.S. military's Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS) was developed by the U.S. Navy and Air Force based on a commercial-off-the-shelf architecture that standardizes how aircrews file their mission flight plans. JMPS will replace other legacy mission planning systems.

BOHEMIA, N.Y., 21 Sept. 2010. Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y., is introducing Total-ACE MIL-STD-1553 avionics databus interface terminals that consolidate protocol, memory, dual transceivers, and dual transformers in one 0.7-by-1.1-inch plastic BGA package. The models include ordering options for 4K-by-16 or 64K-by-17 internal RAM, PCI, or local host bus interface, and RoHS or leaded packages, that all include direct and transformer coupled MIL-STD-1553 connections on one package.

BOHEMIA, N.Y., 17 Sept. 2010. Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y., is announcing extended commercial avionics utilities databus analyzer and ARINC 615 data loader software support for its line of ARINC 429 PMC, PCI, CompactPCI, PXI, and USB databus interface board products. DDC’s BU-671 series ARINC 429 lineup includes multi-I/O combo cards (ARINC 429 and MIL-STD-1553), for dual protocol applications, and ARINC 429 only cards optimized for single protocol use.

PHOENIX, 15 Sept. 2010. HighRely announced DO-178B and DO-254 training courses for Sept. 29-30 in Phoenix and Oct. 25-26 in Bristol, England. The courses present methods to minimize development and certification costs while achieving full compliance.