eFlight by Collins Connects to Internet and Maybe Later the Passengers Too

A new e-business initiative by Rockwell Collins called "eFlight," designed to augment the capabilities of its Pro Line 21 and Pro Line 21 Continuum avionics suites

"eFlight brings connectivity to the aircraft and flight deck," Phil Barnes, director of advanced technologies, told Show News. "And we are using the Pro Line 21 information management capabilities to do it."

There will eventually be a cabin element to eFlight, specifically a high-speed data capability for Internet use. eFlight has been designed initially as a tool for the flight deck, and will provide the flight crew with position reporting, graphical weather from companies like Universal Weather, systems status, and messaging between flight operations and the flight deck.

Even though Pro Line 21 was designed in the years before the Internet revolution took the world by storm, Barnes said that Rockwell Collins built eFlight capabilities into the hardware so it could be "turned on" once digital technologies progressed sufficiently.

"We put in an Ethernet connection and communication backbone to handle the information flow," said Barnes. "It included a layered system architecture for future applications, (although) we didn't exactly know how they would work. Now we are taking advantage of the latent capabilities of eFlight. Our main thrust is VHS and 64K connectivity through Inmarsat. We eventually expect up to 380K with Inmarsat."

The company says it will take advantage of faster speeds through services such as Globalsat once they become available. "From a commercial standpoint there is a lot of risk association with those systems," cautioned Barnes. "Until the risk is mitigated we won't be bringing that technology to our customer base. We want to focus on capabilities available in 12 to 15 months."

Though eFlight was designed to be used with Pro Line 21, it is not limited to that system. "We can bring pieces of functionality to different airplanes," said Barnes. "You may not get all features, but you could get important parts."

eFlight capabilities will be seen first on CDUs on the Bombardier Continental, scheduled for certification in mid-2002; then on Pro Line 21 Continuum for the aftermarket in early 2003; and finally as Pro Line 21 forward-fit five to six years out.

On the Continental, Rockwell Collins, as the aircraft's avionics system integrator, is responsible for all aspects of the avionics program, from design through certification. Bombardier plans to use five aircraft in the flight test program, each fully equipped with the Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite.

The flight deck layout includes four 12-inch by 10-inch liquid crystal flight displays, consoli-dated control panels and more efficient operation, and integrates a number of advanced technologies, including TCAS II and terrain awareness warning systems as standard equipment. Situational awareness is further enhanced in the avionics suite through options such as turbulence-detection weather radar and 3D flight management system navigation map presentation.

The suite is equipped with the Collins Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System (EICAS). Linkage of EICAS monitoring capabilities to the aircraft's maintenance diagnostic computer permits aircraft systems performance and maintenance data to be sorted, logged and analyzed.

Pro Line 21 was also selected by Raytheon Aircraft for integration into the Hawker 800XP, which has hitherto been a Honeywell platform. It was also certified on the Raytheon Premier 1.

-Barry Rosenberg