The AIRBUS approach to the simulation of aircraft avionics and systems

摘要

Airbus, as an avionics manufacturer, decided in the late 1990s, to produce simulation packages for the electronic flight control systems of the A320 and A330/A340 family of aircraft. The intention was to reduce the cost of flight simulators by eliminating the need for the use of the aircraft avionics boxes, but in a manner that would not require the flight control laws and logics to be distributed outside the company, whilst retaining the fidelity of the original aircraft control laws. It was also thought that the availability of such packages might enable lower level training devices, as well as engineering development tools, to be produced with complete implementations of the electronic flight control system. This paper presents the approach that was taken to develop the flight control packages starting from the formal specifications used in the design office. In particular, the way in which the development procedure responds to the need to ensure accurate reproduction of the functional operation of the aircraft electronic flight control system is discussed. The paper also mentions the uses to which the packages are put both inside and outside Airbus. The development of other simulation packages, both for avionics simulation and other aircraft systems is also discussed, together with possible future trends.