July 14, 2010
Parker Aerospace, a global leader in the design, manufacture, and servicing of hydraulic, fuel, flight control, fluid conveyance, and engine components and systems for aerospace markets, has chosen TTTech, the leading supplier of dependable networking solutions based on time-triggered technology, to provide an integrated communication solution based on TTP (Time-Triggered Protocol) for Parker’s new generic fly-by-wire actuation platforms. Initial applications of this platform will be on the Bombardier CSeries and Embraer Legacy 450/500 aircraft programs.
TTP is an open industry standard and promoted within SAE as "AS6003 TTP Communciation Protocol". It offers higher bandwidth compared to CAN, MIL STD-1553 and ARINC 429 and provides significant advantages in terms of reliability, modularity, lower weight, certification, reduced cost and faster time to market for aerospace systems.
As announced by Bombardier and Parker on July 18, 2008, Parker has been selected as the exclusive supplier of fly-by-wire flight control systems for all new Bombardier aircraft programs requiring this technology for a period of ten years.
"We are committed to building the best digital fly-by-wire platform in the industry and have selected the most advanced, yet mature solution available to provide increased reliability, reduced development cycle, and an overall improved value proposition,” states Parker Aerospace Control Systems Division Vice President and General Manager, Mark Seidel. “Parker’s fly-by-wire flight control system distributed architecture necessitates the need of a deterministic, highly reliable and high-bandwidth databus for interconnecting all the electronics elements as the backbone of the flight control system. The TTP databus from TTTech offers all the necessary ingredients of such a databus and includes the adaptability and portability features allowing for the use of common electronics elements on multiple platforms.”
Modular embedded computing platforms based on TTP offer the same set of benefits as Integrated Modular Avionics, but in a completely distributed system. They help to reduce the design and system integration effort, costs for upgrades, incremental modernization and obsolescence management. With TTP, modular certification and system reuse on different aircraft platforms is supported. Through the reuse of TTTech’s proven solutions in the aerospace industry, Parker will benefit from substantial risk and cost reduction as well as faster time-to-market.
The TTP-based communication platform is a mature DO-254/DO-178B Level A solution for design of critical embedded systems. It consists of a set of controllers, a physical layer, design/verification tools, embedded middleware components, and production testing equipment to cover all program lifecycle needs.
"TTP is designed for reusable, highly modular data communication platforms for the most demanding applications - such as fly-by-wire - in the aerospace industry. We are looking forward to supporting Parker and its customer and partners in the development of its advanced generic fly-by-wire platforms for several new aircraft programs", states Georg Kopetz Managing Director, TTTech Computertechnik AG.
