Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division, a pioneer in the development of COTS-based modular solutions for DO-254 / DO-178 (with available certification artifacts up to DAL A for a wide variety of applications) safety certifiable systems, has debuted a broad new family of rugged avionics computers pre-integrated with safety certifiable OpenVPX™ modules.

The new SPIRIT Safety Certifiable System family features an extensive range of field-proven rugged chassis (2-6 3U OpenVPX slots) pre-integrated with safety certifiable modules, including single board computers (SBC), graphics controllers, and avionics input / output (I/O) cards. Performance options include Power Architecture®, ARM®, or Intel® based SBCs, AMD® graphics, and the full range of Avionics I/O interfaces. These ITAR-free systems are designed to be compliant with Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™) software and ease and speed the deployment of critical airborne applications worldwide.

In addition, Curtiss-Wright is collaborating with leading avionics solutions providers to deliver fully configured, application-specific variants of SPIRIT systems. These innovative solutions are ideal for save precious programme time, reduce cost and mitigate integration risk for critical applications such as mission computers, UAV ground stations, DVE systems, flight control computers, and display computers on manned and unmanned fixed wing and rotary aircraft.

The first announced member of the SPIRIT system family is the SPIRIT Centrion™ Safety Certifiable Mission Computer System, a fully integrated Situational Awareness system that features DO-178C/ED-12C safety certifiable digital mapping, tactical information and Synthetic Vision System (SVS) applications running on a DO- 254/ED-80 safety certifiable mission computer.

Developed in collaboration with HENSOLDT, the SPIRIT Centrion is housed in a rugged ARINC 600 enclosure with re-usable OpenVPX building blocks, including Curtiss-Wright’s VPX3-150 and VPX3-1258 SBCs, VPX3-718 Graphics and VPX3-611 I/O Card. It also features the Core Avionics and Industrial (CoreAVI) OpenGL SC 1.0.1 graphics library suite for the discrete AMD Embedded RadeonTM high-performance GPU for 4k video output. Software support includes Wind River® VxWorks® 653 RTOS.

“Our new SPIRIT family of pre-qualified avionics computers, the industry’s most comprehensive and flexible solutions for architecting mission-critical airborne applications, will help meet the increasing demand we’re seeing for cost-effective, reliable avionics solutions that support DO-254 and DO-178C safety-certifiability,” said Lynn Bamford, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Defense Solutions division.

“Unlike ‘one-size-fits-all’ alternatives, our wide range of field-proven rugged chassis gives system integrators the flexibility they need to architect their unique airborne mission computer solution. What’s more, our already extensive safety certifiable product line will continue to grow as we add new modular building blocks to the SPIRIT family of systems and increase our collaboration with leading avionics software providers.”

Curtiss-Wright’s rugged SBCs, avionics I/O, and graphics modules are designed for use in size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) constrained aerospace and defence systems. Use of these safety certifiable cards can greatly speed the deployment and certification of critical manned and unmanned airborne Safety-Certifiable systems.

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