Combination of

aviation and electronics

Avionics system or Avionics sub-system dependent on
electronics
Avionics industry- a major multi-billion dollar industry world
wide
Avionics equipment on a modern military or civil aircraft\
account for around

30%ofthetotalcostoftheaircraft
40%inthecaseofamaritimepatrol/anti-submarineaircraft(orhelicopter)
Over75%ofthetotalcostinthecaseofanairborneearlywarningaircraft

To enable the flight crew to carry out the aircraft

mission safely and efficiently

Mission is carrying passengers to their destination
(Civil Airliner)
Intercepting a hostile aircraft, attacking a ground
target, reconnaissance or maritime patrol
(Military Aircraft)

To meet the mission requirements with the

minimum flight crew (namely the first pilot and the
second pilot)
Economic benefits like
Saving of crew salaries
Expenses and training costs
Reduction in weigh-more passengers or longer
range on less fuel

IN THE MILITARY CASE

A single seat fighter or strike (attack) aircraft

is lighter

Costs less than an equivalent two seat version

Elimination of the second crew member

(navigator/observer/crew member)

Reduction in training costs

OTHER VERY IMPORTANT DRIVERS FOR

AVIONICS SYSTEMS ARE
Increased safety
Air traffic control requirements
All weather operation
Reduction in fuel consumption
Improved aircraft performance and control
and handling and reduction in maintenance costs

*Inthemilitarycase,theavionicssystemsarealsobeing
drivenbyacontinuingincreaseinthethreatsposedbythe
defensiveandoffensivecapabilitiesofpotentialaggressors

AIRPLANE PARTS

Aircraft Motion
Pitching

Elevator

Aircraft Motion
Rolling

Aileron

Aircraft Motion
Yawing

Rudder

COCKPIT DISPLAY Provides

Visual presentation of Information & Data
from A/c sensors and systems
PROVIDE THE PILOT WITH
Primary flight information

Navigation information
Engine data
Airframe data
Warning information

MILITARY PILOT ALSO HAS WIDE

ARRAY OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
VIEW SUCH AS
Infra-red imaging sensors

Radar

Tactical mission data

Weapon aiming

Threat warning

Head Up Display (HUD)

Helmet Mounted Display (HMD)

Forward Looking InfraRed (FLIR) video picture

through HUD

Head position sensor

Night Vision Goggles (NVG) - HMD

HMDs & Virtual cockpit

Colored Head Down Display (HDD)

Multi-Function Display (MFD) with Multi -Function

Keys (MFK)

HELMET MOUNTED DISPLAY

Avionics

HMDfunctionsasaHUDontheHelmet
Providethedisplayfornight/poorvisibility
viewingsystem

HUD SCHEMATIC

COMBINER
OUTSIDE
SCENE

GLASS

Parallel rays of
Outside scene + Display
PILOTS EYES

COLLIMATING
LENS

MIRROR

CRT
MAGNIFYING
LENS

MULTI-FUNCTION DISPLAYS

Avionics

Providetheprimaryflightdisplaysof
height,airspeed,machnumber,etc.
Providenavigationdisplays

MFD

NIGHT VISION GOGGLES

Night-visiongogglesareelectronic
widgetsthatallowyoutoseethingsat
nightwhenitistoodarktoseethings
withjustyoureyesalone.

How do Night-Vision Goggles work?

* Our eyes need a certain amount of light to

see by.
* Night-vision goggles amplify the existing
light many times over.
* This allows you to see in conditions way too
dark to see with just your eyes.

* The photo cathode converts light to an electric

current, the micro channel plate amplifies it, and
the phosphor screen converts it back to light.

NEW LOW COST NVG

HIGH RESOLUTION NVG

MILITARY NVG

SURVEILLANCE PHOTO TAKEN

WITHOUT NIGHT VISION SCOPE

SURVEILLANCE PHOTO TAKEN WITH

NIGHT VISION SCOPE

Night Vision Binoculars

WHAT IS NAVIGATION

NAVIGATION IS KNOWING,

WHERE YOU ARE?

WHERE YOU WANT TO GO?

WHAT IS THE SPEED AT WHICH YOU ARE

TRAVELLING?

HOW MUCH FUEL IS LEFT?

Two way communication between the ground

bases and the aircraft or between aircraft
Communication radio suite on modern aircraft is
a very comprehensive one and covers several
operating frequency bands
Long range - HF radios operating in the band
2-30 Mhz
Near to medium range (civil aircraft) by VHF
radios operating in the band 30-100 Mhz
Contd..

Contd..

VHF and UHF are line of sight propagation

systems
Equipment is usually at duplex level of
redundancy
VHF radios are generally by triplex level on a
modern airliner
SATCOM systems in many modern aircraft
and provide very reliable world wide
communication

Essential for the crew to interact with

the avionics systems
KEY BOARDS
TOUCH PANELS
DIRECT VOICE INPUT (DVI) CONTROL
EXPLOITS - SPEECH RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY

TOUCH SCREENS

TWO AREAS
AUTO STABILISATION (or stability augmentation) systems
Needed for most swept wing jet a/c
Lightly damped short period oscillatory motion
FBW FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEMS
Enables a lighter, higher performance aircraft designed
with relaxed stability
Good consistent handling which is sensibly constant
over a wide flight envelope and range of load conditions

Continuous automatic stabilization of the aircraft by

computer control of the control surfaces
Auto pilot integration
Care free maneuvering characteristics
Ability to integrate additional controls automatically
such as
Leading edge slats/flaps and trailing edge
flaps to generate additional lift
Variable wing sweep
Thrust vector control nozzles and engine thrust

Elimination of mechanical controls runs - friction,

backslash
Small control stick
Ability to exploit aerodynamically unstable configuration
Aerodynamics versus stealth - the concept of reducing
the radar cross section
Very high integrity, a failure survival system

Air Data Systems

Accurate information on the air data quantities

Altitude
Calibrated airspeed
Vertical speed
True airspeed
Mach number
Air stream incidence angle (angle of attack)
Total air temperature

AIRDATAINSTRUMENTS
Air data system senses total pressure
and static pressure, to measure speed,
altitudeandverticalspeed

EARTHSATMOSPHERE
Troposphere:Thelowestlayerinwhichconventional
typesofaircraftareflown
Tropopause:TheboundaryheightofTroposhere
Stratosphere:Thenextlayer
Stratopause:TheboundaryheightofStratosphere
Chemosphere
OzonosphereGreaterheights
Ionosphere
Exosphere

Atmosphericpressure
Theatmosphereisheldincontactwiththeearths
surface by the force of gravity, which produces a
pressure within the atmosphere - Atmospheric
Pressure
Gravitational effects decrease with increasing
distancesfromtheearthscentre
Atmospheric pressure decreases steadily with
increaseofheightabovetheearthssurface.
The steady fall in atmospheric pressure has a
dominating effect on the density of air, which
changes in direct proportion to changes of
pressure.

AtmosphericTemperature
Another important factor affecting the atmosphere
istemperature.
The air in contact with the earth is heated by
conduction and radiation, hence its density
decreasesastheairstartsrising
Thepressuredropallowstheairtoexpandandthis
in turn causes a fall in temperature from a known
sea-level
The temperature falls steadily with increasing
heightuptothetropopause,andtherateatwhichit
fallsistermedthelapserate.

Pressure,Temperatureand
DensityVariations

STANDARDATMOSPHERE
Standardatmosphere,isoneinwhichthevaluesof
pressure,temperatureanddensityatdifferentaltitudes
areassumedtobeconstant.
Theyarebasedonestablishedmeteorologicaland
physicalobservations,theoriesandmeasurement.
Theassumptionsare
PressureatMSLis14.7psi,1013.25mbor29.921Hg
TemperatureatMSLis15C(59F)
Temperaturedecreasesby1.98Cforevery1000fttill36090
ftabovewhichitremainsat56.5C.

FromtheMSLvaluesallothercorrespondingvalues
havebeencalculatedandpresentedandtermedthe
International Standard Atmosphere(ISA)

BasicAirDataSystem
The system consists of a pitot-static probe,
the three primary air data instruments
(Airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical
speed indicator) and pipelines and drains
interconnected.
Sensing of the total or pitot pressure (p t),
andofthestaticpressure(ps)iseffectedby
the probe which is suitably located in the
airstreamandtransmitsthesepressuretothe
sensingelementswithintheindicators.

The pressure transmission

displacementscorrespondingto:

produces

(a) AirspeedDifferencebetweenptandps
(b) AltitudeDirectlytops
(c) VerticalspeedDifferencebetweenpsanda
case pressure pc produced by a calibrated
meteringunit.

 The complexity of an air data system

dependsprimarilyuponthetypeandsizeof
aircraft, the number of locations at which
primary air data are to be displayed, the
typeofinstrumentinstalled,andthenumber
ofothersystemsrequiringairdatainputs.
Probes:
Probes may be either of the combined pitotstatictubetypeorofthesinglepitottubetype

BASICAIRDATASYSTEM

PROBES

PITOT STATIC PROBE

POSITIONERROR
POSITION ERROR: the amount by which the local static pressure
at a given point in the flow differs from the free stream static
pressure.
AsaresultofPE,airspeedindicatorandaltimeterdeveloperrorsin
theirindicationswhereasverticalspeedindicatorremainunaffected
PEerrorsareminimizedby
Aerodynamicallycompensatedprobes
Correctiondeviceswithinseparatetransducerorcentralairdata
computers

SQUARELAWCOMPENSATION
Airspeedindicatorsmeasuredifferentialpressure,
whichvarieswithsquareofairspeed
Theresponsecharacteristicsinrelationtospeed
becomesnon-linear.
Thismakesdifficulttoreadlowendofspeedrange
Toobtainlinearity,controllingeitherthecapsule
characteristicsorthedimensioningofthecoupling
elementconveyingcapsuledeflectiontothepointeris
necessary
Onesuchmethodistuningspringcompensation

SQUARELAWCOMPENSATION
contd.,

AIRSPEEDTERMINOLOGY

Machmeter
Machnumber=

v
a

Wherevaircraftsspeed
aspeedofsound

Since the speed of sound depends on atmospheric

pressureanddensityandalsowithaltitude,thissuggeststhat
for an aircraft to operate within speed limits commensurate
with structural safety, a different speed would have to be
maintainedforeachaltitude.

This obviously is not a practical solution and so it is

thereforenecessarytohaveameansofcommonbasewhich
isthemachnumber.
The instrument which measures this is called
Machmeter.

Q-CODEFORALTIMETER
SETTING
QFE:settingthebarometricpressureprevailingatan
airporttomakethealtimeterreadzeroonlandingat
andtakingofffromthatairport.
QNH:settingthebarometricpressuretomakethe
altimeterreadairportelevationabovesealevelon
landingandtakeoff.
SAS:BarometriccountersaresettoISAvalues
Altitude
Elevation
Height

Altitude,ElevationandHeight

VERICALSPEEDINDICATOR

VERICALSPEEDINDICATOR(CONTD.,)

VERICALSPEEDINDICATOR(CONTD.,)

VERTICALSPEEDINDICATOR
(CONTD.,)

CONSTRUCTIONOFVERTICAL
SPEEDINDICATOR

INSTANTANEOUSVERTICAL
SPEEDINDICATOR

INSTANTANEOUSVERTICAL
SPEEDINDICATOR(CONTD.,)

AIR TEMPERATURE SENSING

STATICAIRTEMPERATURE:Measurementby
directmeansisnotpossibleinallaircraft,because
ofadiabaticcompressionofairresultingfrom
increasesinairspeed
RAMRISE:increaseintemperaturehigherthan
SAT,duetoboundarylayerbehaviorandfriction
effects
TotalAirTemperatureisthussensed
SAT=TATRamRise

MACHWARNINGSYSTEM

Attitude and heading information are essential

for a/c mission
Autopilot
Navigation system
Weapon aiming
INERTIAL SENSORS
Gyros - mechanical - electromechanical - RLG-FOG
Accelerometer
AHRS

Strap Down
Gimbaled systems

Gyroscopes
ThenamegyroscopefromtheGreekwords
Gyrosmeansrotation
Scopeinmeansto view

Aliteraltranslationisthustoview
rotationwhichisagooddescriptionofthe
functionoftheinstrument

 Thespinningrotortypeofgyroscopeuses
thefundamentalcharacteristicsofthe
angularmomentumoftherotortoresist
changingitsdirectiontoeitherprovidea
spatialreferenceortomeasuretherateof
angularrotation.

(b)Precession
Thisbehavior,wheretheapplicationofa
torqueaboutanaxisorthogonaltothespin
axiscausestherotortorotateaboutathird
axiswhichismutuallyorthogonaltoboth
theappliedtorqueaxisandthespinaxisis
calledprecession.

GYROSCOPICPRECESSION(I)

GYROSCOPICPRECESSION(II)

REFERENCESESTABLISHEDBYGYROSCOPES

 Inaircrafts,gyroscopesestablishtworeferencedatums:oneforthe
pitch and roll attitude changes and the other for the detection of
changesabouttheverticalaxis(ie)adirectionalreference.
Thepitch,rollanddirectionalattitudeofanaircraftaredetermined
by its displacement w.r.t each appropriate gyroscopes. For this
reason, therefore, the gyroscopes are referred to as displacement
type.
Eachhasthreedegreesoffreedomandconsequently,threemutual
axes, but for the purpose of attitude sensing, the spin axis is
discounted since no useful attitude reference is provided when
displacementstakeplaceaboutthespinaxisalone.
Thusinthepracticalcase,thetwotypesofgyroscopesarefurther
classifiedastwoaxisdisplacementgyroscopes.gyroscopes.reason

ACCURATE NAVIGATION INFORMATION

Aircraft's position, ground speed, track angle (direction
of motion of the aircraft relative to true north)

NEED FOR ACCURATE NAVIGATION

Effective operation of any a/c
Automatic because of speed
Density of air traffic on major air routes to fly in a
specified corridor defined by ATC authorities-3D-4D
(time) - high accuracy NAV is essential & forms part of
FMS

Contd..
For military operation - to enable the a/c to fly low &
take advantage of terrain screening from enemy radar
Use of weapon - released from several Kms away from
target also requires an accurate knowledge of the a/c
position in order to indicate the mid course inertial
guidance of the missile.
DR systems
Position fixing systems

 Navigationisthedeterminationofthe
positionandvelocityofamovingvehicle.
Navigationwhereyouare
Guidancewheretogo(Steering)
Controlhowtogo

Navigation
Artofdirecting themovementsofacraftfromone
pointtoanotheralongadesiredpath.

In early days, Compass, Chronometer and

sextantwerenotavailable.
Navigations were accomplished by the
knowledgeofthemovementofthesunandthe
starsandthewinds

NavigationContd
Bythesixteenthcentury,thecompass,the
clockandcrudechartsoftheknownworld
wereavailabletothenavigator.
Magellan,circumnavigatedtheglobewiththe
aidoftheseinstruments.
By18thcentury,thechronometer,avery
accurateclock,wasproduced.(Navigator
determinedhislongitudebytransittimeof
heavenlybodies)

NavigationContd
Twentieth century, electronic entered the
field.Timesignalswerebroadcastbywhich
thechronometerswerecorrected.
Directionfindersandothernavigationalaids
weredevelopedtomakeafixusingentirely
electronicaids

NavigationContd
The three components of position and the three
components of velocity make up a six component
state vector that fully describes the translational
motionofthevehicle.
When the state vector is measured and calculated on
board,theprocessisnavigation.
Whenitiscalculatedoutsidethevehicle,theprocess
iscalledsurveillanceorpositionlocation.

NavigationContd
Handlingofvehicleiscalledguidance
Morespecifically:
conningforships
flightcontrolforAircraft
attitudecontrolforspacecraft

Fourmethodsofnavigation
1.Navigationbypilotage
2.Celestialorastronomicalnavigation
3.Navigationbydeadreckoning
4.Radionavigation
5.Satelitenavigation

Self contained and independent of external systems

DR navigation systems used in aircraft are
Air data/heading reference system - lower accuracy
Doppler/heading reference systems - widely used
in helicopters
Inertial Navigation systems - most accurate and
widely used systems
Doppler/Inertial navigation system - combination

InertialNavigation
Disadvantages
Position/velocityinformationdegradewithtime
(1-2NM/hour).
Equipmentisexpensive($250,000/system)-older
systems had relatively high failure rates and were
expensivetomaintain
newer systems are much more reliable but still
expensivetorepair
Initial alignment is necessary - not much of a
disadvantageforcommercialairlineoperations
(12-20minutes)

InertialNavigationGyroscopes

Tokeeptheplatformlevelwemustbeableto:

Senseplatformrotationand

Correctforit

Todothiswemountgyroscopesonthestable
platformandinstallsmallmotorsateachofthe
gimbal
pivots.

Thegyroscopessenseplatformrotationinanyofthe
threeaxesandthensendacorrectionsignaltothe
pivotmotorswhichthenrotatestherelevantgimbal
to
maintaintheplatformatthecorrectattitude

InertialNavigationAlignment
BeforetheINScannavigateitmustdotwothings:
Orienttheplatformperpendiculartothegravityvector
DeterminethedirectionofTrueNorth
Alsoitmustbegiven:
InitialPosition:InputbythePilot(ornavigation
computer)
Velocity:Thisisalwayszeroforcommercialsystems

InertialNavigationAccelerometers
Requirements:
highdynamicrange(10-4gto10g)
lowcrosscoupling
goodlinearity
littleornoasymmetry
ExactingrequirementsdictatetheuseofForceRebalancetypeofdevices

InertialNavigationAccelerometers
Types:
Pendulum
floating
flexurepivot
VibratingStringorBeam
MEMS(microelectromechanicalsystems)

POSITION FIXING SYSTEMS

Range and bearing (R/) radio navigation aids
VOR/DME
TACAN- Accuracy of 1-2 miles

HYPERBOLIC RADIO NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

LORAN C - positional accuracy of around 150 m
8 LORAN C chains comprising 34 ground station
transmitters
OMEGA - accuracy around 2 NM -VLF at 10 khz
using 8 ground stations

GPS - most important & accurate position fixing

navigation System
Used by a/c, ships & land vehicles
Eqpt is passive & requires only a receiver
Accuracy
C/A code - 100 m
P- code 16m - position, 0.1 m/s - velocity

APPROACH GUIDANCE TO THE

AIRFIELD/AIRPORT ILS, MLS
A full navigation suite on an aircraft include
INS, GPS, VOR/DME, ILS, MLS
Many of these systems are at duplex level and
some may be at triplex level

Radar systems
Infrared sensor systems
All weather, night time operation
Transform the operational capability of
the aircraft

Weather radar
Installed in all civil airliners & in many general
aviation aircraft
To detect water droplets and provide warning of
storms, cloud turbulence and severe precipitationaircraft can alter course and avoid such turbulent
conditions
It should be noted that in severe turbulence,
the violence of the vertical gusts can subject the
aircraft structure to very high loads and stresses
These radars can also generally operate in
ground mapping and terrain avoidance modes.

Modern fighter aircraft generally

Have a ground attack role as well as the prime
interception role and carry very sophisticated multimode radars
In the airborne interception mode, the radar, must
be able to detect aircraft upto 100 miles away and
track while scanning and keeping tabs on several
aircraft simultaneously (typically at least 12 aircraft)
The radar must also have a 'look down' capability
and be able to track low flying aircraft below it.
In the ground attack or mapping mode, the radar
system is able to generate a map type display from the
radar returns from the ground, enabling specific
terrain features to be identified for position fixing and
target acquisition.

The term 'house keeping' management has been used

to cover the automation of the background tasks which
are essential for the aircraft's safe and efficient operation
Such tasks include
Fuel management. The embraces fuel flow and fuel
quantity measurement and control of fuel transfer
from the appropriate fuel tanks to minimize changes
in the aircraft trim
Electrical power supply system management

Cabin/cockpit pressurization systems

Environmental control system
Warning systems
Maintenance and monitoring systems. These
comprise monitoring and recording systems which are
integrated into an on-board maintenance computer
system. This provides the information to enable speedy
diagnosis and rectification of equipment and system
failures by pin-pointing faulty units and providing all the
information, such as part numbers etc., for replacement
units down to module level in some cases

Control and the efficient management and monitoring

of the engines
Electronic equipment involved in a modern jet
engine is very considerable
It forms an integral part of the engine and is
essential for its operation

Contd..

Engine control electronics is physically mounted

on the engine FADEC
Automatically controls the flow of fuel and respond
to throttle command
Control system ensures the engine limits in terms of
temperatures, engine speeds and accelerations are not
exceed and the engine respond in an optimum manner
to the throttle command
Full authority in terms of the control it can exercise
on the engine and a high integrity failure survival
control system is essential
A FADEC engine control system is thus similar in
many ways to a FBW flight control system

FADEC
FADEC worksbyreceivingmultipleinputvariablesofthe
current flight condition including air density, throttle lever
position, engine temperatures, engine pressures and many
otherparameters.
The inputs are received by the EEC and analyzed up to 70
times per second. Engine operating parameters such as fuel
flow,statorvaneposition,bleedvalveposition,andothersare
computedfromthisdataandappliedasappropriate.
FADECalsocontrolsenginestartingandrestarting.
The FADEC's basic purpose is to provide optimum engine
efficiencyforagivenflightcondition.

Safety
With the operation of the engines so heavily relying
onautomation,safetyisagreatconcern.
Redundancyisprovidedintheformoftwoormore,
separateidenticaldigitalchannels.
Each channel may provide all engine functions
withoutrestriction.
FADECalsomonitorsavarietyofanalog,digitaland
discrete data coming from the engine subsystems and
related aircraft systems, providing for fault tolerant
enginecontrol.

FADECnotonlyprovidesforefficientengineoperation,
it also allows the manufacturer to program engine
limitations and receive engine health and maintenance
reports.

For example, to avoid exceeding a certain engine

temperature, the FADEC can be programmed to
automatically take the necessary measures without pilot
intervention.

Other very important

systems include:

engine

avionic

Engine health monitoring systems which measure,

process and record a very wide range of parameters
associated with the performance and health of the
engines
Give early warning of engine performance
deterioration, excessive wear, fatigue damage, high
vibration levels, excessive temperature levels etc

Advantages

Betterfuelefficiency

Automaticengineprotectionagainstout-of-tolerance
operations

SaferasthemultiplechannelFADECcomputerprovides
redundancyincaseoffailure

Care-freeenginehandling,withguaranteedthrustsettings

Ability to use single engine type for wide thrust
requirementsbyjustreprogrammingtheFADECs

Bettersystemsintegrationwithengineandaircraft
systems
Canprovideenginelong-termhealthmonitoringand
diagnostics

Reduces the number of parameters to be monitored by

flight crews

Due to the high number of parameters monitored, the

FADEC makes possible "Fault Tolerant Systems"
(where a system can
operate within required
reliability and safety limitation with
certain fault
configurations)

Can support automatic aircraft and engine emergency

responses(e.g.incaseofaircraftstall,enginesincrease
thrust automatically).

Disadvantages

Fullauthoritydigitalenginecontrolshavenoformof
manual override available, placing full authority over
the
operatingparametersoftheengineinthehandsof thecomputer.If
atotalFADECfailureoccurs,the engine fails.Intheeventofa
total FADEC failure, pilots have no way of manuallycontrolling
theenginesforarestart,orto
otherwisecontroltheengine.
Aswithanysinglepointof failure,theriskcanbemitigatedwith
redundantFADECs.

Highsystemcomplexitycomparedtohydromechanical,
analogueormanualcontrolsystems

Highsystemdevelopmentandvalidationeffortduetothe
complexity

LCA
SUKOI