Thursday, June 9, 2011

First Look on Airplane Avionics


Avionics derives from "aviation" and "electronics". It comprises electronic systems for use on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft, comprising communications, navigation and the display and management of multiple systems. 

It also includes the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles, these can be as simple as a search light for a police helicopter or as complicated as the tactical system for an Airborne Early Warning platform.

History

The term avionics is believed to have been coined by journalist Philip J. Klass. Avionics was pioneered in the 1970s, driven by military need rather than civil airliner development. Military aircraft had become flying sensor platforms, and making large amounts of electronic equipment work together had become the new challenge. 

Today, avionics as used in military aircraft almost always forms the biggest part of any development budget. Aircraft like the F-15E and the now retired F-14 have roughly 80 percent of their budget spent on avionics. Most modern helicopters now have budget splits of 60/40 in favour of avionics.

The civilian market has also seen a growth in cost of avionics. Flight control systems (fly-by-wire) and new navigation needs brought on by tighter airspaces, have pushed up development costs. The major change has been the recent boom in consumer flying. As more people begin to use planes as their primary method of transportation, more elaborate methods of controlling aircraft safely in these high restrictive airspaces have been invented.

19 comments:

  1. cool post! i trained for a private pilot license a few years ago. very interesting history here :D

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  2. My uncles been a pilot for 7 years now, so I'm always interested in this stuff... gives me something to talk to him about.

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  3. interesting topic!
    Maybe a bit off topic.. how long does it take to become a pilot of a small airplane?

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  4. Nice man, i remember learning how to fly in a glider. it was pretty awesome :)

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  5. My father has worked designing some Avionics, it can be pretty complicated stuff.

    Nice blog, I haven't come across a similar one before =D Followed.

    Take a look at mine if you have the time:
    http://serenityindex.blogspot.com/

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  6. That's very cool. The inside of cockpits has always fascinated me. Looks very complicated though.

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  7. I wish I could fly, maybe one day.

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  8. Wow, these are the details the average person never knows about when the thinking about flying. i look forward to more posts!

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  9. making me want to get my flying lic more and more now..

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  10. My buddy took me flying in a small single prop, very fun. Followed!

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  11. Hey, my dad's a pilot, and I wanted to show this to him. Thanks.

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  12. I wanna fly! but with out a plane...

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  13. i going to learn to fly a plane

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  14. Very cool and impressive blog! followed!

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  15. very interesting love this blog! followed

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  16. Really interesting blog, keep it up!!

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  17. I'm surprised how many little knobs and swictes they can fit into such a tiny compartment

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