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Thales' TopDeck Avionics
Thales is showing here a cockpit mockup demonstration of its new TopDeck avionics system that is adapting technology originally developed for the Airbus family of aircraft for use on civil and military rotorcraft.
TopDeck technology is one type of avionics being evaluated as a possible upgrade to the Royal Navy's Merlin (EH-101), which just entered service in 1998, according to Thales officials. The upgrade possibilities are being considered as part of the United Kingdom's Merlin "Capability Sustainment Plus" program now in an assessment phase. The program aims to sustain the capability of the in-service Merlin Mk1 aircraft through to its out-of-service date.
The generic TopDeck cockpit being shown here at the Thales Stand B4 in Hall 3 includes 10 x 8 in. high-resolution liquid crystal displays with XGA standard resolution (1024 x 768 pixels). The four displays are mounted in a landscape configuration (horizontally rather than vertically).
TopDeck is an integrated modular avionics system relying on modules that can be plugged into a cabinet. For example, one module is for digital mapping and another is for 3-D graphics.
The demonstrator is showing some presentations from the Agusta A109 cockpit developed by Thales even though that one uses 6 x 8 in. LCD displays. A 3-D digital terrain database provides topographic views of terrain over which the helicopter is flying or tactical mission maps shown with both horizontal and vertical views of the terrain ahead.
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