By Paul Parkinson
I was pleased to read in today's news (Aerospace Testing International) that the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) has completed more flight testing milestones, including extended testing of its refueling systems.
The A330 MRTT is an interesting design, as it has a centreline refueling boom and two underwing refueling pods, and although these perform similar functions, the electronic systems have quite different operating environments, which is reflected in their system architecture. The refueling boom runs VxWorks 653 on an Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) platform, whereas the underwing refueling pods run VxWorks Cert on a federated avionics architecture in the harsh under wing environment, which can experience extremes of temperature. This is an excellent case of how a hybrid architecture can be used to achieve diverse mission requirements.
Recent Comments