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Aviation History
1982
1982 - 0023.PDF
Marconi computer-aids take off MARCONI AVIONICS tells Flight that the main feature of its new £750,000 computer-aided engineering (CAE) facility at Rochester, UK, is its ability to design very-large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits. The Ap- plicon CAE facility designs and checks for testability the VLSI circuit, be fore designing the silicon on which the circuit is mounted. The informa tion is then fed digitally to Marconi Electronic Devices for manufacture. The use of computer-aided design allows low-cost custom VLSI chips, rather than using standard, off-the- shelf circuits. The facility is the latest step in Marconi's programme to incorporate computer aids in design, manufacture, and automatic test. Marconi says that CAE is a prerequisite for many US aerospace contracts, citing its recent selection to develop a standard air- data system for the US Air Force and Navy (Flight, November 21, 1981). According to Marconi, the company's CAE capabilities were evaluated care fully by the USAF, since CAE is re garded as being necessary in efficient and high-quality design. Applicon's system comprises eight work stations, each of which has a colour display, keyboard and light- pen. Outputs are in the form of pen drawings, magnetic tape, or colour prints. Advantages of CAE include: • Speed, especially where repetitive calculations are involved • Reduction in errors • Better use can be made of available data throughout the complex pro cessing • More exhaustive calculations can be performed • Graphical information can be pre sented. This allows better design perception • It is easier to disseminate data within the company and to customers • Easier response to changes in re quirements and to the design • Tolerances and component perform ance can be taken into account comprehensively at the design stage, so the production entry should be less problematical • Production test and fault diagnosis are faster and less expensive Marconi cites several fields in which CAE is already making its presence felt. These include flight dynamics and turbulence modelling for automatic flight control; drawing ray paths for headup displavs; ther mal analysis of electronics; printed circuit board design; re-programming of airborne computers; and designing compensatory circuits for non-linear transducers. • Marconi Avionics recently intro duced its Compact Alpha automatic test equipment, which is distinguished by a single interface with the circuit board being tested—no special adap tor is needed for different boards. More than 200 pins are available on the interface. Compact Alpha can cope with 15MHz in production ver sions; this is said to be sufficient for all current fast processors. Marconi will provide a programming service for customers—its Teledyne LASAR system automatically produces a test pattern for any given circuit board. The diagnostic test program is gen erated on the Compact Alpha from the test pattern. An add-on analogue test capability is available. Compact Alpha will enter production in April. Three systems have been sold so far. Airbus Industrie is flying its A300 demonstrator with the A3IO's Thomson-CSF Electronic Flight Instrument System (Efis) TV displays on the right-hand siae. The first A3I0 is due to fly in April; this will also have the Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor (Ecom) displays. Before these tests, Airbus flew the new Sfena electromechanical AD/ and HSI on the A300. These are designed to work from the digital signals produced in the two-crew forward-facing crew cockpit version of the A300, which has been ordered by Garuda and VASP Racal-Decca's new airfield radar RACAL-DECCA hopes soon to an nounce the first order for its ASMI- 18X airport surface movement indi cator. Racal's claim of improved defi nition over previous radars is borne out by trials at Heathrow, Gatwick, the Far East, and, most recently, at Edinburgh Airport. Racal-MESL developed the system, which is a modified Racal X-band marine radar combined with a new digital scan converter. Racal says that runway lights, flocks of birds, and even a man 2km away from the antenna have been detected, as well as the aircraft themselves. This sug gests a security application as well as a safety one. X-band was selected for the radar because of its better weather-clutter rejection. Racal plans to add video mapping, suppression of echoes from unwanted areas, alpha- numerics, and video recording. Track ing, identification, and colour are also possible. Japanese parts for the USA HONEYWELL and Smiths Industries have ordered components from Japan Aviation Electronics Industry (JAEI) worth at least Yen60,000 million ($280 million). From 1982-92, JAEI will supply accelerometers, power units, and circuit boards to Honeywell for incorporation in the company's inertial navigation systems. Components which Smiths Indus tries of Clearwater, Florida, will re ceive over the next 14 years include radar altimeters for general-aviation aircraft. In 1982, the Honeywell and Smiths business will be worth $15 mil lion to JAEI, and this will increase to as much as $46 million a year in the mid-1980s. Pulses... Sundstrand's Universal Flight Data Recorder has been selected by Southwest Airlines and Western Air Lines for retrofit into both air lines' fleets. Southwest will fit the FDR in its Boeing 737s, while Western has specified it for its 727s, 737s, and DC-lOs. Sund- strand developed the unit for the Boeing 767 and 757 and Airbus A310, upon each of which it is standard equipment. Orders stand at more than 500. FLIGHT International, 2 January 1982 25 - -±-
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