Extending a Flight Management Computer for Simulation and Flight Experiments

Abstract

In modern transport aircraft, the flight management computer (FMC) has evolved from a flight planning aid to an important hub for pilot information and origin-to-destination optimization of flight performance. Current trends indicate increasing roles of the FMC in aviation safety, aviation security, increasing airport capacity, and improving environmental impact from aircraft. Related research conducted at the Langley Research Center (LaRC) often requires functional extension of a modern, full-featured FMC. Ideally, transport simulations would include an FMC simulation that could be tailored and extended for experiments. However, due to the complexity of a modern FMC, a large investment (millions of dollars over several years) and scarce domain knowledge are needed to create such a simulation for transport aircraft. As an intermediate alternative, the Flight Research Services Directorate (FRSD) at LaRC created a set of reusable software products to extend flight management functionality upstream of a Boeing-757 FMC, transparently simulating or sharing its operator interfaces. The paper details the design of these products and highlights their use on NASA projects. Acronyms 1U= One Unit ("unit" is a standard unit of height for electronic system racks.)

Simulation and Design of Control and Display Unit for Full Flight Simulator

“…At present, the full flight simulator CDU is divided into the following categories: the real aircraft's CDU, which has high stability and low failure rate, is used on the full flight simulator, but the cost is high, and maintenance is inconvenient; NASA Langley research Center developed simulation CDU as the representative of the simulation system, which had user-friendly keyboard and matrix wiring diagrams technology, but the CDU was difficult to achieve simulation [4]; Rockwell Collins used modular software development methodology to study a CDU Simulation System, which could be cut [5]; Furthermore, the CDU had virtualization keyboard and interface with VAPS technology, although it had the full function, however, the pilots felt unreal [6]. Therefore, CDU is simulated and designed, which has important significance.…”

Modelling and Simulation of High Fidelity CDU for Flight Simulator Based on Object-Oriented and Hardware-in-Loop Technique

“…In order to improve the flight training effect, based on socketed microprocessor card and RAM-based memory card, Rockwell-Collins develops a scalable CDU hardware simulation system according to modularized software development method [5].Whereas, NASA Langley research center investigates humanistic keyboard, matric wiring diagram and reliability of simulation software on the basis of Motorola microprocessor. But all these methods have the common disadvatages, namely, complexity and high cost [6].…”