Avionics News January 2022 - 19

W
eight. Space. Sophistication. This triad
had to evolve significantly before avionics
makers could start marketable research and
development into the challenges of offering glass-cockpit
technology to helicopters. Like virtually all aircraft, weight
and space are challenges for rotorcraft and become more
challenging to designers as the ships get smaller and
lighter.
Many light helicopters barely sport an instrument panel
with pedestal designs favoring a clear transparency to
maximize the pilot's view of the world outside - with
a particular emphasis on the view of the ground as the
helicopter maneuvers for landing and departing in spots
where fixed-wing ships fear to land.
Only the largest helicopters provided panel space that
would accommodate the depth and weight of cathode
ray tube instrument displays. And CRTs are, well, so last
century that it's a challenge to find even small ones in
today's liquid-crystal-display-dominated cockpits.
Graphic instruments came a little later to those
rotorcraft. But that problem largely disappeared with the
near-universal shift to liquid-crystal-based flight displays.
Several factors played into this shift - with LCD's
shallower depth a leading factor.
That transition also helps ease two other challenges
inherent to CRT displays: weight and power consumption.
Less weight also helps helicopters meet the Federal
Aviation Administration's stringent vibration-tolerance
rules on certificating helicopters.
Again, about those advantages and benefits with
integrated avionics flight decks:
* Weight - the LCD displays dominant today weigh
a fraction of the CRT-based packages that preceded
LCDs.
* Power - similarly, those CRTs consumed massive
amounts of electricity compared to the lower power
needs of solid-state LCD displays.
Longevity - arguably, using a CRT display makes
the user the No. 1 enemy of the CRT's lifespan. The
phosphate coatings on the inside of those picture
tubes that are CRTs burn in and start to fade with
time - until the tube burns out.
LCD displays don't suffer with the same problems.
* Vibration tolerance - vibration is an enemy of
sensitive electronics, and in no other part of
*
Avidyne
While not a major player in EFIS panels since the
innovative Release 9 EFIS package, Avidyne's product line
includes the IFD-series of GPS navigators and a new flight
management system for pedestal installation. Avidyne's
IFD-series navigators offer features useful in dealing with
inclement weather and instrument-approach conditions.
First of note is the dual input technology in the IFDs -
touchscreen technology with knobs and buttons, providing
greater control accuracy and confidence when touchscreen
isn't an option, such as during inclement weather and
turbulence.
Avidyne's Synthetic Vision, integrated into all IFD
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avionics news * january 2022 19
aviation is vibration prone as helicopters.
* Space - as digital electronics helped shrink the
size of avionics systems, the thinner depth of LCD
screens was a welcome benefit to engineers and
designers in their efforts to field their advances in
new aircraft and the new avionics stacks that started
appearing more than 20 years ago.
Avionics started moving to digital from analog in
the mid-1980s, first appearing in Boeing Commercial
Airplanes' 757 and 767. As CRTs and monochrome at that.
Jump ahead almost 50 years and liquid-crystal displays
dominate everything from light-sport aircraft to the longestrange
business jets. They also appear in helicopters in
increasing numbers. It's just normal avionics evolution at
work.
Today, electronic flight instrument systems dominate
new-plane panels, and in increasing numbers can be found
in helicopters. These integrated avionics packages bring
to helicopters all the same benefits fixed-wing aircraft
enjoy such as improved safety tools, enhanced situational
awareness, improved tools for avoiding controlled flight
into terrain, and traffic avoidance.
The graphic nature of the safety tools, such as synthetic
vision, makes them easy to understand and use. Little
wonder that variations on these packages populate ever
more panels, as they appear in new-production aircraft from
business-turbine machines to light-sport aircraft. Consider
these options as new-production equipment or as systems
available for retrofit.
Avionics News January 2022

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