Curtiss-Wright Selected by Airbus to Provide Flight Test Instrumentation Solution
Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division, a leading supplier of flight test instrumentation (FTI) solutions engineered to succeed announced that it has been selected by Airbus to provide a system solution for use during flight tests of one of the Eurofighter Typhoon instrumented production aircraft (IPA). The Eurofighter Typhoon IPA aircraft are fitted with telemetry instruments to support dedicated flight testing and systems development. Under the contract, Curtiss-Wright will provide Airbus Defence and Space GmbH with data acquisition and encoding units (DAU) designed to capture critical test flight data, including the Axon and KAM-500 DAU product families, and NSW-12GTH Ethernet switch. The Curtiss-Wright FTI technology will collect data from the Eurofighter Typhoon structure, engines, and various systems for use in the aircraft’s development and certification.
About the Axon Product Family
The Axon product family offers low SWaP with the best feature set, data acquisition, and thermal performance on the market. The Axon product family builds on Curtiss-Wright’s heritage as a ‘leading supplier’ of rugged reliable data acquisition for aerospace applications.
Axon’s future-proof design, using a high-speed serial backplane (1 Gbps dedicated link per module) ensures future high data rates are supported. Its low size, weight, and power (SWaP) design enables the hardware to be located in tight spaces and operate reliably without requiring bulky heatsinks. Locating data acquisition closer to the sensors can significantly decrease the installation time and cost of the instrumentation while simultaneously reducing wiring weight. Axon modules can be placed in ultra-miniature Axonite housings and located remotely, separated from the chassis by up to 10 meters. Axonites can also offer significant system cost saving in larger installations by reducing the number of DAUs required in remote locations and thus cutting down on extra chassis, controller, and power supply costs.
The Benefits of Complete DAU System Solutions
Axon systems are easy to integrate and expand. Multiple Axon modules can be integrated into a single Axon chassis. The Axon chassis, Axon user modules, and Axonite remote housing are designed to work with Curtiss-Wright’s TTC nDAU, TTC MnACQ, TTC MnHSD, and KAM-500 DAU family of products, including high-speed cameras, data recorders, and switches. Axon DAUs provide the most powerful and modern solution on the market by combining unprecedented flexibility with outstanding reliability for demanding applications. Axon modules and chassis, now available in 3, 6, 9, and 16-slot configurations, enable FTI engineers to quickly configure and deploy the vast amounts of data acquisition required to support demanding flight tests, missile tests, and space developmental/operation flight instrumentation programs. Axon systems are ideal for use in flight tests, system monitoring, power system upgrades, or life extension programmes.