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ECOA is an active software architecture research programme conducted by the French Republic and United Kingdom. It is one product of the recent Defence and Security Co-operation Treaty signed between the two nations. This paper provides an overview of the programme goals and progress as well as an introduction to the technology being developed and comparison to related initiatives. The goal of the ECOA programme is to define an open software architecture that enables collaborative development of mission system software. The ECOA programme is needed to reduce development and lifecycle costs of future military air programmes. For this reason the programme has a specific focus on combat-air mission systems but the underlying technology is general purpose, applying to multiple military and civil domains. At present, the programme has defined a concept, delivered a set of initial technical standards and produced a joint demonstrator to validate the technology developed.

SCONES (Stress CONcentration Expert System) software is used to predict stress concentrations. When dimensions and loads are modified it instantaneously updates the display, making the system easy to use. SCONES contains validated and extended data from various sources, including complex interacting features which augments SCONES role. However, the natural progression is to extend the research to the interaction of processes including, for example, surface processes like anodising. These process interactions will dovetail into, and enhance features within the strain life factors. This paper will describe new work which will extend current knowledge in feature interactions and strain life factors and will improve SCONES versatility.

Determination of the so-called stress concentration factor (Kt) is essential for the correct design of components subject to fatigue-inducing loading. The paper introduces methods and software for stress concentration analysis and techniques for structural design optimization based on the redistribution of material to balance stress concentration efforts.

It is generally accepted that the development of hardware and software for safety critical systems follow their own lifecycles as defined by standards such as RTCA DO254 and RTCA DO178C. What is less clear is what should be done to ensure the system safety objectives are met when the software is installed in the electronic hardware. This paper seeks to discuss the activities that may be undertaken do demonstrate not only that the integration of the software and hardware “work” together, but they do so in a manner that meets the safety objectives in line with the guidelines described in SAE ARP4754A. According to ARP4754A, hardware and software are different “items” developed according to their own requirements and standards, when two or more items are brought together, they are a system, which may be part of a larger system. Therefore system level considerations need to be applied from the beginning of the development program addressing the system safety and certification activities.