Rockwell Collins Avionics and Pilot Control Systems Make First Flight on 787

Rockwell Collins announced that its avionics and pilot control systems contributed to the first flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane on Tuesday, December 15.

"We congratulate Boeing and all who've worked to make this historic day possible," said Kelly Ortberg, executive VP and COO for Commercial Systems at Rockwell Collins. "I'm particularly proud of the Rockwell Collins team for delivering on our commitments for the 787 Dreamliner."

Rockwell Collins serves as the systems supplier for the Boeing 787 flight deck display system, crew alerting system, pilot controls, communication and surveillance systems, and the core network cabinet. Rockwell Collins also provides the common data network for the airplane's Common Core System.

Rockwell Collins' provides the following systems for the Boeing 787 airplane:

- An integrated display system featuring five 15.1-inch diagonal LCD displays, as well as dual LCD head-up displays (HUD). The Rockwell Collins Head-up Guidance System (HGSTM) provides display capabilities available in the air transport market, including primary flight, navigation and complete crew alerting functionality. The system utilizes cursor control devices and a multi-function key pad for data entry and retrieval.

- Rockwell Collins' newly developed Integrated Surveillance System (ISS) including the company's MultiScan Hazard Detection System, traffic alert and collision avoidance, Mode S surveillance, and terrain awareness and warning capabilities.

- The Core Network, offered as standard on the 787, which plays a role in Boeing's objective to 'e-enable' the entire aircraft. Utilizing commercial open standard computing servers and networks, the Core Network hosts a range of third-party applications and manages onboard information flow to improve airline operational efficiency.

- The Common Data Network (CDN), which advances Rockwell Collins' leadership as a supplier of networking technologies. As a key component of the 787 Common Core System, the CDN is a high integrity, bi-directional fiber optic and copper network that uses ARINC 664 protocols and standards to manage the information flow between the aircraft's onboard systems. Based on commercial Ethernet technology adapted to the avionics environment, the integrity and deterministic characteristics of Rockwell Collins' CDN allows systems integrators to utilize this network for systems requiring a high level of data criticality. The CDN offers significant improvements over current generation data buses including expanded connectivity, higher data rates and significant reductions in aircraft weight when compared with point to point topologies.

During the development and design process, Rockwell Collins has served on Boeing's 787 Partner Council and has employees working onsite at Boeing participating in day-to-day program design, integration and production activities.

Rockwell Collins is a developer and supplier of communication and aviation electronic solutions for both commercial and government applications.

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