A company that supplies high-tech, fault-resistant databus components for the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 has launched a research project aimed at bringing low-cost fly-by-wire flight control systems to light general aviation airplanes.
Austrian data communications firm TTTech plans to use specialized hardware to develop flight control systems that will be based on standards widely used in the aerospace industry today for testing UAVs. Launched in partnership with an Austrian university and funding from an Austrian national aerospace research program, the project will center on development of a time-triggered protocol (TTP) card that will be the brains of an inexpensive fly-by-wire control system.
The UAV segment is seen as a fertile market for such a system as makers of unmanned aircraft seek to incorporate highly accurate commercial off-the-shelf components into their designs. But eventually the project, dubbed Captain (COTS Airborne PMC Card for Time-triggered Aerospace Interfaces and Networks), could serve as the basis for a safe, reliable fly-by-wire control system in light GA airplanes.
“The developments that come out of the Captain project will simplify and accelerate the deployment of TTP-based systems in aerospace applications,” said Reinhard Maier, Captain project manager and an aerospace engineer at TTTech.
More In Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
