A leading aerospace company with a long history of commercial and defense aircraft and engine development has established itself as a global Tier 1 supplier. Supporting a host of large, international programs, they have been collaborating with Curtiss-Wright for a number of years due to the flexibility in our approach to program management and product development, the support provided both for legacy and new products, and the track record of dependability and reliability of the in-region support.
Recently they contacted Curtiss-Wright to take part in a competitive bid for a graphics display computer for a space-constrained jet trainer aircraft. The limited onboard space meant that there was no room to support a fan-cooled system, nor was there a desire to support the logistics required for an inherently limited-life fan on a hard-working jet trainer aircraft.
This presented a passive cooling challenge as well as a custom ARINC-818 video interface for the system to be interoperable with existing aircraft systems. Also, because the flight trials were already scheduled, the project required meeting tight deadlines. Typical of most programs, an economical solution was required in terms of both the recurring and non-recurring (NRE) costs; trading off NRE for a more bespoke but significantly lower cost solution was required because the system was going to be deployed across a fleet of at least 60 aircraft.
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