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CHAPTER 16. Avionics System Design

16.1. General
Safety - rules/regulations are based on a history of accidents

16.1.1 Canadian Approval Organization

Final Authority for airworthiness lies with Transport Canada headquarters but the routine certification process is done at regional headquarters i) Atlantic Region - Moncton ii) Quebec Region - Montreal iii) Ontario Region - Toronto iv) Prairie and Northern Region - Winnipeg v) Pacific Region - Vancouver

16.1.2 DAR major/minor modications

In order to minimize the staff required for certification of minor modifications, Transport Canada has delegated approval authority to some engineering personnel in certain large organizations (such as Air Canada, Canadair). These people are called design approval representatives (DAR). If there is any doubt whether a particular modification is minor or major, the regional headquarters makes the decision

16.1.3 System/subsystem Requirements (-ilities)

a) Capability - must meet customers requirements b) Availability i) Reliability - MTBF (mean time between failures) ii) Maintainability - MTTR (mean time to repair) iii) Accessibility - equipment with lowest MTBF or which are heavy and/or delicate should be readily accessible. bad examples: INU installation in Challenger, comm transceiver in F4 iv) Testability - to aid in troubleshooting v) Repairability - no unique or difficult manufacturing processes c) Maintenance (3 levels) i) Level 1 - replace unit ii) Level 2 - replace individual modules in unit iii) Level 3 - lowest level (e.g. repair circuit boards)

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d) Spares policy - how many spares to have on hand? -depends on cost, MTBF and MTTR - throw away? e) Affordability i) Cost/Benefit -Benets - direct routing - access to restricted airspace - lower landing limits f) Certificability - is the installation certifiable? i) TSO (Technical Standard Order) - if the equipment has a TSO approval, certification is easier ii) Failure Modes and Effects Analysis iii) Standards Agencies a) -ARINC -owned principally by scheduled airlines - produces documents called Equipment Characteristics which represent a consensus of the participants of the form t and function of various types of avionics equipment e.g. ARINC 404 Air Transport Racking

ARINC 429 ARINC 629 Digital Data Busses b) -RTCA - Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics An association of aeronautical organizations (government and industry) Among other things produces Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for avionics equipment MOPS usually are used as the basis for TSOs (Technical Standards Orders) which are the FAAs ofcial specications for equipment Examples of RTCA Documents are as follows: a) -DO 198 - minimum operational performance standards for airborne VOR receiving equipment b) -DO 160 - Environmental Considerations and Test Procedures for Airborne Equipment c) -FAA FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation) The following parts of the FAR apply to avionics systems certication. Part 21 Certication Procedures for Products and Parts Part 23 Airworthiness Standards: Normal, Utility and Acrobatic Category Aircraft

ELEC4504 Avionics Systems Part 25 Airworthiness Standards: Normal, Transport Category Aircraft Part 27 Airworthiness Standards: Transport Category Rotorcraft

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Note: Major avionics systems are certied individually under an aircraft type certication program

16.1.4 TSO
The TSO Authorization is an FAA design and production approval issued to a manufacturer of a part which has been found to meet a specific TSO A TSO specifies (usually by reference to an RTCA MOP) the operational performance requirements for the equipment and, in addition, the environmental conditions under which the equipment must perform. The environmental conditions and test procedures are given in RTCA document DOC 160C. Some of the tests required by DO 160C are: i) Temperature/Altitude ii) Vibration iii) Shock iv) Variations in electrical power v) Sand and Dust vi) Electromagnetic Compatibility a) - Radiated Emissions b) - Conducted Emissions c) - Radiated Susceptibility d) - Conducted Susceptibility

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16.1.5 Problems with coordinating air and ground specications

Sometimes airborne systems are designed based on assumptions about the ground signals they are expected to use e.g. Localizer False Capture Problem As was mentioned in the chapter on Controls, most autopilots have a capture mode which automatically starts to track a VOR, ILS localizer or glide path signal when the aircraft gets within the linear guidance range of these facilities. The linear guidance range is the zone in which the navigation receiver provides a linear relationship between the track error and the error voltage provided to the instrumentation. The autopilot captures the localizer, for example, when the error voltage is decreasing, and is less than a given value. This assumes that the localizer (or glide path) produces an ideal error signal e.g.

ERROR VOLTAGE (V)

TRACK ERROR (degrees)

Note that the output voltage saturates. Unfortuantely the real error signal is more like that shown below and different receivers use different algoReceiver A Receiver B

Capture Level

rithms to calculate the error signal. One type of receiver when used with a particular model of ILS localizer, calculated the error signal as shown in the diagram above (Receiver B).

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This caused the autopilot to capture the localizer and start to turn towards the runway. After a few moments, the error signal would begin to increase again and the autopilot got lost. Fortunately, the reported incidents occurred in VFR conditions and the pilots were able to recover

16.1.6 Aircraft Modication

The following is a list of considerations which should be taken into account when additional avionics equipment is installed in an aircraft. If the installation is a major one determine if a supplementary type certificate has been issued for this equipment in this aircraft. i) TSO? is the equipment to be installed TSOd? ii) Power Consumption Load Analysis for various phases of ight - line voltage variations - ground running - APU or ground power? - engine failure iii) Antenna Locations Possible Problems -shadowing -special requirements (e.g.some GPS requires preamplier) Tools Available - mathematical modelling (OK for high and low frequencies) a) EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) As described above in the TSO section, some EMC is partially covered by equipment design. however, this does not guarantee that the equipment will not interfere with other equipment or be interfered with.

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One problem with EMC testing is that it is done under ideal conditions and can cover only a portion of the situations which might occur in an actual aircraft. One problem which is especially difcult is measuring electromagnetic radiation in enclosed spaces since the size and shape of the enclosure (fuselage or rack) can inuence the pattern of radiation greatly (resonances etc.) Another issue that box level EMC testing does not address is the effect of intentional signals such as those on digital data lines or transmitter antenna cables. thus the designer must be aware of the types of signals on all of the wires and cables leading to and from the equipment. usually wiring is bundled together in cable runs and this provides the opportunity for interference between signal paths (cross talk) thus consideration should be given to isolating potential problem lines from those which might be susceptible. b) EMI Test Plan for new installations The installation of new equipment requires the design and execution of an EMI Test Plan. This test plan should include the all equipment to be checked and the means of determining whether interference is present. Typically a system (such as the ILS) is operated with and without the new system being active. The ILS receiver would be operated with a test signal being radiated from a signal generator/antenna combination at close (about 15 ft.) range. Another test might be to listen out on the VHF receiver over several frequencies. A knowledge of the design of the new equipment would provide guidance as to which frequencies to monitor. c) Physical -location - length of power cables (wire size) - length of antenna cables (signal loss)

d) Documentation (Configuration Control) Documentation includes all of the wiring drawings, structural drawings (racks etc.), the EMI test plan and report and the amendments to the pilots manual. Once the modication has been approved the installation can not be modied unless a new approval is obtained.