Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) in many sectors of the air transport industry has largely become the assumed way forward for the implementation of future avionics. Progress has already been demonstrated with first generation civil IMA systems such as ELMS and AIMS on the B777. These are quite different implementations, having been optimised for their specific systems domains, and therefore appear to go only some way towards meeting the ultimate goals anticipated by the industry. The promised benefits from the establishment of a suite of standard hardware modules and software interfaces applied commonly across the avionics spectrum, and the expectation of reusing the investment over a number of programmes, appear large and give powerful motivation to fully apply IMA on the next generation of aircraft. However the development and standardisation process still has a long way to go and most of the thrust continues to come from the technical community. There are a number of wider issues and other factors remaining largely undebated but which have important bearing on the extent to which the IMA concept and its promised benefits can be fully realised. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of these issues and to promote discussion within the industry, i.e. on what may be achieved in practice, and the longer-term view.
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