October 21, 2024 | International, Aerospace
France eyes aircraft carrier, frigate order in 2025 spending plan
The French government has proposed to lift the 2025 defense budget to €50.54 billion (US$55 billion) from €47.23 billion this year.
September 5, 2018 | International, Aerospace
BAE Systems draws on motorsport experience to revolutionise cockpit development
Nick Brown, London
Key Points
- Williams has built a transformable cockpit structure to help BAE Systems experiment with training approaches and assess new cockpit technologies
- The cockpit tool is part of a holistic approach BAE Systems is taking to improve products and training solutions, using team-based lessons from motorsport
BAE Systems is completing integration work on a new cockpit simulator, which it plans to use as a “sandpit for innovation”, chief technologist Julia Sutcliffe told Jane's .
The cockpit structure was designed and built by Williams Advanced Engineering using skills and methodologies honed by the Williams Formula 1 team. According to Williams' technical director, Paul McNamara, the design was influenced by the modularity of construction and heavily metricated human factors teamwork that is required for fast pit stops.
This modularity will enable engineers to reconfigure the physical cockpit layout, controls, and components to replicate legacy aircraft such as the Hawk and Typhoon, swiftly tailor them for a range of pilot builds, and to experiment with innovative layouts and systems that might feed into the new Tempest future fighter programme, using live feedback from aircrew and engineers.
Rather than being used in a traditional aircrew training simulator role, Sutcliffe explained that the new cockpit is designed to be an experimental “workhorse” to support BAE Systems' technology development and product roadmaps for a range of technologies and platforms.
She added that “we wanted the ability to experiment with layouts that we can quickly reconfigure – front and back – without having to duck underneath [the cockpit installation] and reconnect wires and all sorts of stuff.”
Stuart Olden, business development manager at Williams, told Jane's that this was underpinned by motorsport experience, with the company's whole-system design approach “enabling the maintainers and the operators of the simulator to gain access quickly to particular components to swap in, swap out, and change elements around”.
On the same subject
-
-
May 5, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Le délégué général pour l’armement, Joël Barre, favorable à une convergence entre le Système de Combat Aérien du Futur (SCAF) et le programme Tempest
Rappelant que « les systèmes de combat (et) les systèmes d'armes sont de plus en plus complexes, de plus en plus chers, de plus en plus lourds et difficiles à développer », et la nécessité de construire l'Europe de la défense, le délégué général pour l'armement, Joël Barre, s'est exprimé en faveur d'une convergence des programmes SCAF (Espagne, France, Allemagne) et Tempest (Italie, Royaume-Uni, Suède). « Nous sommes (pour) l'un et l'autre en phase de conception. Je pense dans les années qui viennent que les choses pourront évoluer (...) De notre côté, la porte est ouverte. C'est-à-dire que si nous pouvons un jour rapprocher les deux projets d'avions de combat qui existent à l'échelle européenne, ce serait quand même une bonne chose pour tous", a indiqué Joël Barre qui s'exprimait le 3 mai sur le plateau de BFM Business. En outre, il espère une conclusion de l'accord étatique concernant le SCAF « dans les jours qui viennent ». L'Usine Nouvelle et BFM Business, 3 mai
-
August 21, 2024 | International, C4ISR
BAE Systems to upgrade flight control computers for F-15EX and F/A-18E/F fighters
The FCCs feature common core electronics that support the quad-redundant FBW flight control systems providing the safety, reliability, robustness, and performance needed for the missions of these advanced platforms.