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This paper presents an overview of a project called “Modelling and Simulation Tools for Systems Integration on Aircraft (MISSION)”. This is a collaborative project being developed under the European Union Clean Sky 2 Program, a public-private partnership bringing together aeronautics industrial leaders and public research organizations based in Europe. The provision of integrated modeling, simulation, and optimization tools to effectively support all stages of aircraft design remains a critical challenge in the Aerospace industry. In particular the high level of system integration that is characteristic of new aircraft designs is dramatically increasing the complexity of both design and verification. Simultaneously, the multi-physics interactions between structural, electrical, thermal, and hydraulic components have become more significant as the systems become increasingly interconnected.

Avionics industry is moving towards fly-by wire aircrafts with less reliance on mechanical systems leading to increase in the complexity of in-flight hardware elements. RTCA/DO-254 and EUROCAE ED-80 plays a vital role in the design assurance of airborne electronic hardware. RTCA/ DO-254 and EUROCAE ED-80 are the industry standards for Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware. The two different agencies FAA and EU regulate and apply this design assurance guidance to the regulatory law in CFR and EASA CS respectively. This paper discusses the need for DO-254 /ED-80 certification in Aerospace industry, the advantages and benefits to the avionics manufacturers. The paper presents the study made on similarities and differences between DO-254/ED-80.

The Environmental Control System (ECS) of an aircraft provides thermal and pressure control of the engine bleed air for comfort of the crew members and passengers onboard. For safe and reliable operation of the ECS under complex operating environments, it is critical to detect and diagnose performance degradations in the system during early phases of fault evolution. One of the critical components of the ECS is the heat exchanger, which ensures proper cooling of the engine bleed air. This paper presents a wavelet-based fouling diagnosis approach for the heat exchanger.

Cloud phase discrimination, coupled with measurements of liquid water content (LWC) and ice water content (IWC) as well as the detection and discrimination of supercooled large droplets (SLD), are of primary importance in aviation safety due to several high-profile incidents over the past two decades. The UTC Aerospace Systems Optical Ice Detector (OID) is a prototype laser sensor intended to discriminate cloud phase, to quantify LWC and IWC, and to detect SLD and differentiate SLD conditions from those of Appendix C. Phase discrimination is achieved through depolarization scattering measurements of a circularly polarized laser beam transmitted into the cloud. Optical extinction measurements indicate the liquid and ice water contents, while the differential backscatter from two distinct probe laser wavelengths implies an effective droplet size. The OID is designed to be flush-mounted with the aircraft skin and to sample the air stream beyond the boundary layer of the aircraft.

Aircraft icing has been a focus of the aviation industry for many years. While regulations existed for the certification of aircraft and engine ice protection systems (IPS), no FAA or EASA regulations pertaining to certification of ice detection systems existed for much of this time. Interim policy on ice detection systems has been issued through the form of AC 20-73A as well as FAA Issue Papers and EASA Certification Review Items to deal mainly with Primary Ice Detection Systems. A few years ago, the FAA released an update to 14 CFR 25.1419 through Amendment 25-129 which provided the framework for the usage of ice detection systems on aircraft. As a result of the ATR-72 crash in Roselawn, Indiana due to Supercooled Large Droplets (SLD) along with the Air France Flight 447 accident and numerous engine flame-outs due to ice crystals, both the FAA and EASA have developed new regulations to address these concerns.