Avionics News June 2013 - 23

Advertisers Index
Accord Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

and power management up front and in
the main cabin, where in-flight entertainment, airborne-office and satellite-connected systems continue to grow.
Within the Eclipse 550’s Avio integrated systems-management architecture, the
Avio Processing Center, or APC, electronically controls the distribution of electrical
power among four individual power busses; in turn, electrical loads are distributed
among each bus to ECBs housed in five
electronic circuit breaker units.
With the flexibility of the digital-management approach, safety critical systems and components have dual power
sources. Control and management of this
entire system is through a dedicated cockpit flight displays synoptic page. Eclipse
logically grouped ECBs, and their central
location dramatically eases identification
and control.
LSA maker World Aircraft Company
tapped Vertical Power for its VP-X electronic circuit breaker system to simplify
wiring and manage electrical power and
functions, such as lights, trim and flaps for
its models.
The VP-X integrates tightly with the
Dynon SkyView EFIS employed on most
of World’s designs. This allows pilots to
monitor the status of individual electrical
devices while monitoring and managing
the entire electrical system directly from
the EFIS screen.
According to Eric Giles, president of
World Aircraft Company, his company selected the VP-X for all its EFIS-equipped
models aircraft as a modern alternative to
the standard of thermo-mechanical circuit
breakers and its complicated wiring. The
electronic-management approach allows
the design of a cleaner panel and a far
simpler wiring job than the conventional
approach allows.
Using Vertical Power’s VP-X also
gives World Aircraft Company the latitude to offer multiple panel configurations without designing a different,
complicated wiring harness for each
configuration. The company installs the
required electronic modules and wiring

on a shelf behind the instrument panel
onto which the VP-X and the pre-built,
complete electrical system can be moved
from fabrication in the avionics shop before installation of the completed shelf in
the airplane.
The result is a simpler layout and efficient electrical system easily accessible from the cabin seats. Plus, with the
VP-X as the hub for the power system,
the entire shelf can be removed in minutes for modification or repair, according
to the company.
A Glimpse into the Future?
While Vertical Power’s system isn’t
approved for use in certificated aircraft,
Eclipse’s integrated version is – a Part 23
design returning to prime time.
According to Vertical Power staff at
this year’s Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-In
& Expo in Lakeland, Fla., they would be
interested in taking that step if they could
find the support from an aircraft original
equipment manufacturer or other financial
supporter.
In the meantime, the existence of certified variations for larger aircraft points
to a future when someone will step up
with an approved ECB package for Part
23 aircraft.
That step forward could help planemakers produce planes with power-management technology as modern as the
components they put in the panels – save
weight and complexity, gain reliability
and maintenance simplicity.
The maintenance community would
find yet another change that helps simplify
the lives of its technicians.
And those old breakers wouldn’t necessarily be eliminated completely – but
would be limited to major roles, such as
master switching… at least for a while.
How soon this becomes widely available to the mass of general aviation aircraft is difficult to predict. But the inevitability appears apparent as, once again,
experimental aviation on one side and jet
aviation on the other set the stage for filling the technological gap in between. q

Aero Air. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Aero Standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Aeroflex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Aero-Mach Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Aerospace Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Aircell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Aircraft Electronics Association. . . . . . . 95
Astronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Avionics Specialist Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
AVweb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Becker Avionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Cal Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Cobham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Dallas Avionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC
Device Technologies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 95
EDMO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC
EMTEQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Express Calibration Services . . . . . . . . 94
Flight Display Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Flying Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Garmin International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Georgetown Instrument Services . . . . . 79
Global Jet Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
GlobalParts.aero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Greenwich/DAC International . . . . . . . . 43
ICG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Lone Mountain Aviation. . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
L-3 Avionics Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Malibu Aerospace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Mid-Continent Instruments & Avionics. . . 5, 67
Millennium International . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Nason Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Northeast Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Pacific Southwest Instruments . . . . . . IBC
ProCal Laboratories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Sandia Aerospace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Sun Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
TangoWare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Tech-Aid Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
TGH Aviation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Tri-Star Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Universal Avionics Systems Corp. . . . . 41
Velocity Aerospace-Ft. Lauderdale . . . . 85

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Avionics News June 2013

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