AVIONICS.qxp_Finance 20/07/2021 12:51 Page 1
AVIONICS
Avionics 101: Breaking Open Avionics’ Complexity Ken Elliott continues his Avionics 101 series by delving into the avionics
categories, associated activities, and the systems themselves…
here are five core categories of avionics: Communication, Navigation, Surveillance, Interactive, and Cabin. When contemplating these categories remember that avionics are integrated and connect internally with the airframe and engines; with other aircraft operating in the vicinity; and with air traffic control. Furthermore, the cabin occupants and the flight crew remain in contact with flight departments, corporations and others, in real time, during a trip. Note that some cabin systems, such as Satcom, are shared by the cockpit, so there will often be a blurring between the five categories.
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Establishing the Avionics Activities
The above five categories have different avionics activities taking place within them. The central activities are as follows:
Communication • •
Voice Data Comm
102 Vol 25 Issue 8 2021 AVBUYER MAGAZINE
As time moves on, so do the methods, technology and infrastructure of the airspace system. The activities of avionics will continue to change and develop. Communication used to be voice-only, but that is fast transitioning to digital voice or data comm. Communication used to be only aircraft-to-aircraft and aircraft-to-ground, but satellites have subsequently been launched allowing for satcom.
Navigation • •
Airport En route
The same goes for Navigation, where different satellites enable predictable flight tracks to be flown, worldwide. The use of satellite GPS navigation reduces reliance on ground infrastructure. Originally, pilots navigated using combinations and variations of ADF, VOR, VLF/Omega, LORAN, DME, and INS (see Table B for Acronyms). Now satellite-based GPS has been embraced, effectively only DME and INS are still widely used, while www.AVBUYER.com
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