While large aircraft and engine development advances at a relatively slow pace, avionics technology progresses much faster and can quickly drive advances in safety and operational performance. Many of the world's leading aircraft electronics suppliers are demonstrating the fruits of extensive R&D investments at this week's Singapore Airshow, with a strong emphasis on reducing pilot workload in the flight deck and allowing airlines to decarbonize by flying more efficiently.
Adam Evanschwartz, who leads the avionics business unit product strategy at Collins Aerospace, outlined a half dozen “technology frontiers” on which the company is working, calling them building blocks for future aircraft and flight deck solutions. "The first building block—'perception sensing'—involves sensors that in the future will help the pilot and the aircraft make sense of what’s going on in the outside world," he explained to AIN. "That could include image recognition so the aircraft can detect and avoid non-cooperative traffic. Vision-based landing systems will supplement the information that pilots get from enhanced flight vision systems and head-up displays, including millimeter-wave sensors, and use all that information to ease the pilot’s workload, for example, by automatically warning that something is blocking the runway."
Collins sees research leading to automatic landing capabilities during normal operations, not just on CAT III-qualified runways but at any airport with an ordinary CAT I ILS. While autoland capability is useful for emergencies and the system could help in the event of pilot incapacitation, Evanschwartz stressed that normal operations are the primary focus for this work.
Tackling GNSS Jamming and Spoofing Threats
Resilient navigation is another important building block, addressing issues with GNSS jamming and spoofing, as well as 5G cellular interference with radar altimeters. “It’s important to be able to handle such disruptions without adding workload and training,” he said.
The work includes simplifying upgrades to the Collins GLU 2100 multimode receiver so it is field upgradeable without removal or rewiring, designing GNSS receivers that can identify abnormal signals and compensate for them or notifying the crew that the navigation source is invalid. One simple mitigation involves the use of multiple GNSS networks in case one is compromised.
Collins has demonstrated its pilot support system, which uses flight deck sensors to capture objective data on pilot alertness. “This is a big frontier in all the segments we service,” Evanschwartz said. “It starts with the concept of a fatigue risk-management system (FRMS) and the view that this is important to have in place, but heavily reliant on subjective reports by individuals to assess their fatigue state.”
He explained that a need exists for more objective data on crew alertness so operators and flight crews can make better decisions about stage lengths, crew pairings, or even whether it’s safe to fly a repositioning flight after a long charter leg. Flight deck sensors would be similar to those found in high-end cars, which offer a way to detect and classify drowsiness and alertness.
Sensor-based systems could also feed information to a FRMS although it would need to be de-identified. However useful information such as location and the time of day when fatigue happens could help drive risk mitigation. “If the system can detect and classify drowsiness, it can also detect sleep or incapacitation if the eyes are closed," he explained. "If you have a pilot support system in one of those uncommon but not unheard-of events where both flight and flight crew members fall asleep, there's an additional layer of safety, to alert and wake them up.”
Evanschwartz said he expects to see pilot support system products—useful not only for single-pilot jets but also for controlled rest-in-seat operations—reach the market around 2025. “It’s better to arrive at a mechanism to support safe rest and enable pilots to be alert at the end of a flight, he said, than to ignore the problem. “Worse yet from a safety perspective is uncontrolled rest without a plan," he explained. “We’re looking to address all of those and relieve pressure on the aviation safety system caused by pilot fatigue.”
Collins is working on advanced sensor systems that either replace antiquated systems such as air data computers relying on pneumatic pressure inputs and dissimilar inputs that provide another layer of redundancy. Instead of relying on pilots to detect when an input is bad, the system evaluates the quality of the dissimilar inputs and chooses the best.
Letting the Avionics Do the Work
The communications building block is looking at full-time inflight connectivity for the avionics. The idea is to reduce crew workload by letting the avionics do the work. For example, instead of making the pilot input a new frequency, the avionics could handle that as a push-to-load function into the FMS. Collins also is working on natural language processing, speech-to-text, and vice-versa for routine communications with controllers.
Finally, Collins is tackling task automation in the cockpit with simple measures to reduce pilot workload. Using extensive sensing capability, which modern aircraft have already built-in, the avionics could verify checklist items. If the checklist says to switch on the landing light, for example, it could poll the sensors and confirm that the landing light is on and show the item as complete.
A further extension of the concept involves using the checklist as a control input, by letting it not only confirm that an item is completed but also effecting the change.
Another example is using digital radars, which optimize the view of weather, to stay on all the time and automatically warn pilots of hazards. “That could be further automated to propose reroutes or flight plan changes or enter heading mode,” he said.
The Aperture visual data management system brought to market last year by Elbit subsidiary Universal Avionics (UA) got approval in February 2023 and uses multiple video inputs to deliver improved imagery on flight deck displays. Aperture processes eight video streams and can output them to four independent users in a way the company says enhances safety and improves decision-making for flight crews.
Delivering More Visual Data to the Flight Deck
With near-zero latency, Aperture meets design assurance level A, the highest level of integrity in commercial aviation, according to Universal. Ongoing development is expected to add more video/sensor channels, low-latency video aggregation and manipulation, and generation of synthetic imagery. Eventually, it plans to use the capabilities to provide augmented-reality solutions, which could include “visual positioning, obstacle detection, taxi guidance, and traffic awareness to dramatically improve their situational awareness in high-workload environments.”
Also receiving FAA's TSO approval last year, UA’s Connected FMS powers its Connectivity Ecosystem, which allows the secure sharing of information from the company’s flight management system (FMS), and two applications now offer services using Connected FMS.
FlightPartner enables “weather-driven smart flight planning, two-way flight plan exchanges in-flight and on the ground, and seamless interaction with third-party applications,” according to Universal. The app includes a georeferenced moving map with charts and weather information, vertical profile weather depiction, airport data and terminal procedures, and tools and utilities such as a notes function and checklists.
For postflight analysis, FlightPartner connects to UA’s FlightReview app, which automatically collects FMS and aircraft data for delivery of safety and performance insights.
The Connected FMS also speeds database updates and optimizes flight time, fuel planning, and flight data reporting. UA plans to add more features to its Connectivity Ecosystem and FlightPartner and FlightReview apps, including ADS-B In and data-link weather for all phases of flight; weight-and-balance, takeoff and landing, and engine-out performance entries; and flight data monitoring analytics and real-time event reporting.
Garmin has been incrementally adding helpful new features, not only to its integrated avionics systems but to individual products, and many of the features come under the company’s Autonomi umbrella. Garmin created Autonomi after its family of flight control assistance products came about, and since then it has added more capabilities. They include electronic stability and protection (ESP) in autopilots, emergency descent mode for business jets, Autoland for single-pilot airplanes, Smart Rudder Bias to help with engine failure in multiengine airplanes, and Smart Glide to guide airplanes automatically to a suitable airport in case of engine failure.
Enabling Emergency Descent Mode to Bring Pilots Home
“ESP could activate emergency descent mode, which could turn into activating Autoland,” said Dan Lind, senior director, of aviation sales and marketing. ESP itself evolved from its introduction in Cirrus SR single-engine airplanes in 2008, adding overspeed, underspeed, and coupled go-around capability. “It expanded into its own little suite of technology that’s enhanced safety overall.”
“There hasn’t been an inflight loss-of-control accident in Cirruses equipped with ESP,” said Phil Straub, Garmin executive v-p and managing director for aviation. “A lot of people came back to their loved ones because of this.”
In terms of pilot interfaces, Garmin endeavors to keep the way pilots interact with its avionics consistent and familiar. From the smallest to largest aircraft equipped with Garmin avionics, “the iconology carries through,” Straub said. “Those things matter; there are so many airline and corporate and military pilots who got their first exposure through Garmin.”
Essentially, with Garmin avionics, the FMS is buried inside the avionics and there is no complex control/display unit with arcane commands to memorize. “What if you want to change a fly-by waypoint to fly-over,” Straub asked. “Do you remember the slash notation on the FMS? You have to drill into your brain to remember how to do that."
Andrew Barker, v-p of integrated avionics at Honeywell Aerospace, is spending a lot of time thinking about how avionics can help pilots fly safer as he oversees the development of the company’s next avionics platform, Anthem. “There's so much intelligence that we could capitalize on,” he said, but typically avionics design continues to incorporate traditional ways of pilot interaction. “[As] the physical controls get less, as the autonomy and intelligence in the avionics proves itself, then pilots become more comfortable relying on the avionics. So that [pilot interface], it changes pretty significantly, you create smarter and more capable avionics systems.”
Pilots Can Learn to Trust Smarter Avionics
A simple example is the baro setting, which is manual and done by pilots. The only recent automation of that function has been to synchronize the setting across all altimeters in the instrument panel so pilots don’t have to remember to adjust the baro setting on each primary flight display and each backup display.
“Realistically,” he asked, “if my avionics are smart enough, do I need a physical baro control? I can get a baro reading over the radio. My avionics can go, ‘oh, you just got a baro update, do you want to accept it?’ Yes [or] no. Okay. Done.”
The Anthem platform is exploring such concepts, as well as voice control and combinations of touchscreens and physical controls. As Honeywell has done with its Epic avionics platform but to an even greater degree, aircraft manufacturers will be able to tailor Anthem interfaces to their specific needs. It designed Anthem for small to large aircraft in every segment, and so far eVTOL aircraft developers Vertical Aerospace, Lilium, and Supernal have chosen it, and Honeywell expects news of more applications soon.
One huge benefit of all the work being done on AAM flight controls is the adaptation of fly-by-wire systems to smaller vehicles, which will lead to sophisticated controls moving downmarket into light aircraft. “That's the objective of what we did with our compact fly-by-wire,” Barker explained. “Let's open up that envelope and bring the safety and the ability of that fly-by-wire system into general aviation. Our compact fly-by-wire is a huge step in that direction.”
Barker sees avionics evolving so that fly-by-wire flight controls become “the backbone" of the airplane and avionics. "Then you get into that reduced crew and single-pilot and that simplified vehicle operations continuum,” he added.
Thales’s avionics activities concentrate on three main trends, according to Marc Duval-Destin, v-p of strategy, products, and innovation for flight avionics activities: refocusing human resources on their strategic and decision-making added values; increasingly intelligent automation, including AI, to serve humans; and “hyper-developed ground/onboard collaboration thanks to increasingly available, reliable, and cyber-secured connectivity.
Cockpit of the Future is Here and Now
Ten years ago, Thales began working on its “cockpit of the future” concept, which should appear in helicopters by 2027. One of the results of the research is the FlytX large-display system “designed to reduce training, optimize workload, and increase safety” and display “only relevant and necessary information…when needed.” Although touchscreen control sits at the heart of FlytX, airframers can opt to include cursor-control devices and keyboards.
Another tool that Thales has developed is PureFlyt, a connected FMS that is linked to non-avionics systems such as electronic flight bags and operational control centers and that can take advantage of real-time weather information, helping pilots optimize the flight trajectory. "The solution makes it quicker and easier to analyze flight plan revisions, providing the pilot with the best route and simplifying interaction with air traffic control,” according to Duval-Destin. “It will help to ease airport congestion, cut fuel consumption, decrease noise pollution, and reduce pilot workload.” Thales has scheduled service entry of PureFlyt in the Airbus A320, A330, and A350 for the end of 2026.
Although fly-by-wire flight controls have predominately featured in larger aircraft, Thales is pursuing opportunities to apply the technology to smaller aircraft, specifically urban air mobility and electric aircraft. “We are convinced that fly-by-wire is an asset for aircraft safety, performance, and comfort,” he said. In larger aircraft, he added, “by protecting the aircraft from high loads, fly-by-wire…allowed the aircraft designers to reduce the aircraft structural weight, providing for fuel savings and much longer range. It is also an asset for comfort both for pilots and for passengers. We are convinced this trend is irreversible. Could you imagine giving up power steering on your car? It is the same for flight controls except it not only provides comfort but it’s a core element of flight safety.”
Thales has been manufacturing fly-by-wire components, especially flight control computers, for Gulfstream large-cabin jets since the introduction of the G650, with the latest being the G700. The avionics manufacturer’s fly-by-wire controls are installed on more than 12,000 aircraft, including 14 types, many of which are Airbus models.
“These capabilities will allow aircraft manufacturers [to introduce] new functions—and they do—to expand the capabilities and safety of their aircraft" as more aircraft adopt fly-by-wire controls, said Duval-Destin. "For instance, we envisage supporting autopilot, navigation, or some surveillance functions. This was just impossible to do with conventional controls.