Aurora fiber optic cable splicing qualified for Boeing commercial aircraft

For the first time ever, fiber optic fusion splicing and cable restorations have been formally qualified for use on Boeing production airplanes. The Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have formally qualified Aurora Optics' MiniMod fusion splicing kit and cable restorations for splicing ruggedized simplex fiber optic cables on aircraft, both for production and for repair.

Years of development, testing, and documentation, from 2012 to 2017, went into this achievement. Following a formal Qualification Test Plan, Aurora fusion spliced Boeing fiber optic cables and tested the spliced/restorations for insertion loss, return loss, and resistance to thermal shock, temperature life (accelerated aging), humidity, freezing water, immersion in eleven aggressive aviation fluids, vibration, mechanical shock, tension, and altitude immersion. Aurora routinely demonstrated mean cable splice losses under 0.05 dB, an order of magnitude better than Boeing's requirement. And fusion splices, functionally equivalent to uncut fiber, are incredibly stable under environmental stresses. In all tests the Aurora spliced/cable restorations typically varied in loss by no more than 0.05 dB, again an order of magnitude better than spec. FAA representatives validated key milestones in the process.

Aurora's fusion splicing and cable restoration process has now been released in the latest revision of the Boeing 787 Standard Wiring Practices Manual (SWPM). In addition, the splice and cable restoration technology has been qualified on the 767 and KC-46 and is being considered for the 747 and 777 aircraft.

Aurora Optics has been creating innovative fiber optic solutions to the most difficult challenges since 1986.