Ladies and gentlemen, the brains of the A380:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/957790/L/
(Do we have to convince Airbus to Switch?
)
Some interesting info, a lot of technical stuff:
* In pressurized areas cables are made of aluminum.
* The A380 uses 5 interconnected computer network domains, each using some kind of Fast Ethernet (ADFX): Flight Control, Cockpit, Fuel and LG, Energy and Cabin
* Even the sidesticks are connected to the Flight Control and Guidance Computer by ADFX.
* A hardware based firewall prevents access from the Cabin domain to the avionics domain. All domains feature software based firewalls. But data from the Avionic domain is fed to into the Cabin domain.
* Engine thrust is set by specifying the percentage of thrust relative to maximum thrust (called ACUTE: Airbus Cockpit Universal Thrust Emulator).
* EFB are fed by USB-sticks or CD-ROM. In the future they will be fed over wireless LAN.
* Pitch changes are done by specifying the desired g-load. Even in direct law certain g-load limits cannot be overridden.
* Power supply is running on 115V AC, with a variable frequency from 400 to 800 Hz.
* P_avionics = 16 kW, P_galley = 240 kW, P_ife = 60 kW, P_cabinlighting = 15 kW
* The control surfaces can be driven by electric motors only. A complete loss of hydraulics becomes therefore surviveable.
* Airbus is considering the use of fuelcells to supply power to the control surfaces in the case of a RAT (75 KW) malfunction.
* Passenger seats come with a universal 100 W power supply (110 V AC) compatible to all kind of the plugs used in the homes around the world.
* The Thales IFE uses Gigabit-Ethernet to every seat with a storage capacity of 6 TByte. The Seat Electronic boxes run on PowerPC-CPU.
* Wireless networking in the cabin is realized by so called leaky lines running through the cabin, with holes above each seat.
* Passenger reading lights are realized by LED.
It really does sound more like a bloody computer than an aircraft. I wonder if they'll move to Intel next year as well?
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/957790/L/
(Do we have to convince Airbus to Switch?
)Some interesting info, a lot of technical stuff:
* In pressurized areas cables are made of aluminum.
* The A380 uses 5 interconnected computer network domains, each using some kind of Fast Ethernet (ADFX): Flight Control, Cockpit, Fuel and LG, Energy and Cabin
* Even the sidesticks are connected to the Flight Control and Guidance Computer by ADFX.
* A hardware based firewall prevents access from the Cabin domain to the avionics domain. All domains feature software based firewalls. But data from the Avionic domain is fed to into the Cabin domain.
* Engine thrust is set by specifying the percentage of thrust relative to maximum thrust (called ACUTE: Airbus Cockpit Universal Thrust Emulator).
* EFB are fed by USB-sticks or CD-ROM. In the future they will be fed over wireless LAN.
* Pitch changes are done by specifying the desired g-load. Even in direct law certain g-load limits cannot be overridden.
* Power supply is running on 115V AC, with a variable frequency from 400 to 800 Hz.
* P_avionics = 16 kW, P_galley = 240 kW, P_ife = 60 kW, P_cabinlighting = 15 kW
* The control surfaces can be driven by electric motors only. A complete loss of hydraulics becomes therefore surviveable.
* Airbus is considering the use of fuelcells to supply power to the control surfaces in the case of a RAT (75 KW) malfunction.
* Passenger seats come with a universal 100 W power supply (110 V AC) compatible to all kind of the plugs used in the homes around the world.
* The Thales IFE uses Gigabit-Ethernet to every seat with a storage capacity of 6 TByte. The Seat Electronic boxes run on PowerPC-CPU.
* Wireless networking in the cabin is realized by so called leaky lines running through the cabin, with holes above each seat.
* Passenger reading lights are realized by LED.
It really does sound more like a bloody computer than an aircraft. I wonder if they'll move to Intel next year as well?
