Esterline CMC Electronics is using ANSYS solutions to quickly and easily develop next-generation primary flight display systems for aircraft – reducing the time and costs required for certification while speeding time to market.

Pilots rely on primary flight display systems for such vital aircraft information as air speed and altitude. CMC had been using a legacy tool that lacked the functionality to ensure compliance with DO-178B, a standard that determines whether the software will perform reliably in an airborne environment. Now, by leveraging ANSYS® SCADE Display®, CMC is reducing total development time and costs while migrating legacy flight display code onto a more modern technology platform. 

SCADE Display is a powerful and versatile graphics design and development environment for embedded human machine interfaces. The ANSYS solution represents a new generation of graphics software development tools, spanning prototyping, display design, simulation, verification and validation, and certified code generation supporting multiple safety standards.

"One of the key aspects of our work with ANSYS is the ability to validate the design early in a project, which increases the level of confidence in the product and allows us to obtain early buy-in on key features or tradeoffs," said Marc Bouliane, CMC's product director, Integrated Avionics Platform 7000. "To do this, we're using SCADE to present the display application to internal stakeholders, customers and pilots in a PC-based environment."

"Primary flight displays are absolutely critical to aircraft safety," said Eric Bantegnie, ANSYS vice president for systems. "ANSYS has a proven track record of working with leaders in this space to help them meet the strict industry standards. At the same time, these customers are realizing significant cost savings while getting their verified products to market faster."