HARDWARE ANALYSIS PROJECT

Hardware Analysis Project

Hardware Analysis Project

Eclipse 500 cockpit

The Eclipse 500 cockpit has glass cockpit technology and an integrated avionics package. Problems with the original configuration have involved a re-design of the system. The first aircraft have the original system called Avio installed. Later aircraft have the Avio NG system in place of the original Avio. The new avionics package was certified in December 2007 and it was intended at that time that the older Avio-equipped aircraft would be retrofitted to the same standard by the end of 2008(Di Piazza, 2008).

The Eclipse 500 is fitted with an all-glass cockpit with two primary flight displays and one multifunction display, which provide system control and clearly show the flight parameters, engine and system performance data. The multifunction display unit provides control for the fuel, electrical, engines, environmental control, de-icing, lighting and pressurisation systems.It is equipped with embedded backup instrumentation and both the primary flight displays and multifunction display have reversionary modes to allow the transfer of information to the other displays. Avidyne Corp. supplied the displays and software for early production aircraft but, in March 2007, Eclipse Aviation announced that Avidyne would be replaced by a new team of avionics suppliers - including Innovative Solutions & Support (IS&S), Chelton Flight Systems, Garmin International, Honeywell and PS Engineering. The Avio avionics suite is being replaced with the Avio NG suite which received certification in December 2007. Avio NG is being retrofitted to all previously delivered aircraft by the end of 2008.

A glass cockpit is an aircraft cockpit that features electronic instrument displays. Where a traditional cockpit relies on numerous mechanical gauges to display information, a glass cockpit uses several displays driven by flight management systems, that can be adjusted to display flight information as needed. This simplifies aircraft operation and navigation and allows pilots to focus only on the most pertinent information. They are also popular with airline companies as they usually eliminate the need for a flight engineer. In recent years the technology has become widely available in small aircraft. Unlike the previous era of glass cockpits—where designers merely copied the look and feel of conventional electromechanical instruments onto cathode ray tubes—the new displays represent a true departure. They look and behave a lot like other computers, with windows and data that can be manipulated with point-and-click devices. They also add terrain, approach charts, weather, vertical displays, and 3D navigation images(www.eclipsefacts.com).

The improved concepts ...