AgustaWestland
Wind River Helps Deliver Futuristic Aircraft in Record Time
Avionics technology incubator designs, builds, and tests innovative, all-electric, unmanned aircraft in six months
Video: AgustaWestland chooses VxWorks 653 for Project Zero
“Working with Wind River enabled us to develop Project Zero in record time with a revolutionary approach by leveraging market-leading technology.”
—Dr. James Wang, Vice President of Research and Technology, AgustaWestland
THE OBJECTIVE
AgustaWestland wanted to deliver an innovative, futuristic aircraft in record time. Looking at establishing the next breakthrough in the vertical flight arena, the company turned to designing an all-electric rotorcraft in just six months. Project Zero is an unmanned, all-electric tilt rotor aircraft that hovers like a helicopter and converts to a fixed-wing aircraft in forward flight. The project offers a look into the future of advanced rotorcraft and is the result of close design and manufacturing collaborations with other Finmeccanica companies, including Selex ES, a Wind River® customer.
HOW WIND RIVER HELPED
AgustaWestland selected Wind River VxWorks® 653 Platform for its high performance and reliability, as well as to minimize program risks and ensure successful program completion. The industry-leading VxWorks 653 Platform delivers the stringent integrated modular avionics (IMA) foundation aerospace and defense companies need to address the safety and security requirements of mission-critical applications, as well as the portability and reusability requirements of noncritical applications.
THE RESULTS
The project team used the High-Integrity Flight Control Computer (Hi-FCC) platform developed by Selex ES, based on a Freescale (now NXP) Power Architecture® processor and VxWorks 653 Platform. This allowed the design team to use a mature, efficient platform combined with a high-quality software stack, with great support from both companies. It also helped reduce overall development and deployment time.
