In fact, the names used in describing the motion about an airplane’s three axes were originally nautical terms. The airplane’s motion about its longitudinal axis resembles the roll of a ship from side to side. The axis, which passes vertically through the center of gravity, is the vertical axis. The axis, which extends crosswise from wingtip to wingtip, is the lateral axis. The axis, which extends lengthwise through the fuselage from the nose to the tail, is the longitudinal axis. At the point where all three axes intersect, each is at a 90° angle to the other two. The axes of an airplane can be considered as imaginary axles around which the airplane turns, much like the axle around which a wheel rotates. Whenever an airplane changes its flight attitude or position in flight, it rotates about one or more of three axes, which are imaginary lines that pass through the airplane’s center of gravity. These systems have a significant portion of the functionality of the big airliners, for 10% of the price.Flight controls: How an airplane is controlled. Its bigger brother the Garmin G1000 is on board of the Cessna Citation Mustang. On the other end of the scale, a full suite of modern avionics for smaller GA airplanes such as Garmin G500 can be obtained for USD 20,000. For the simulators, flightworthy computers are not necessary and the software is usually rehosted onto standard PCs.Ī package of avionics, input devices, rehosted software plus licenses would make up 10 - 15% of the sales price of a Level D device, which depending on the type is between 10 - 20 million USD - so all in all between 1 and 3 million USD. The avionics of modern civil airliners are used in Level D simulators as well. At the same time digital devices are getting cheaper.Ī lot of the cost of the avionics are for reliability consequences: making the computers rugged and able to withstand turbulence and hard landings, making them redundant so that there are no single points of catastrophic failure etc. Dial-type gauges require watchmaker skills to repair, and skilled people are getting fewer. The cost of maintaining conventional cockpits has soared. The airlines want the advanced technology, despite its higher initial price, because of the lower life-cycle and replacement costs it offers. Kind of like replacing a good digital watch, compared to repairing an expensive mechanical watch. While expensive, on the long run they're cheaper. Moving on to the military side to confirm that 30-40%-as of 2009 the weapons systems of a single Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet cost some USD 35 million, 44% of the flyaway cost (cost of the aircraft production). For comparison, the engines on the 777 account for 20%. The cheapest 777 is listed at USD 283.4 million. 1īoeing promises up-to-date prices (including profit) on their website. Introduction to Avionics Systems, 2002, p. This figure for the avionics content is more like 40% in the case of a maritime patrol/anti-submarine aircraft (or helicopter) and can be over 75% of the total cost in the case of an airborne early warning aircraft such as an AWACS. The avionics industry is now a major multi-billion dollar industry world-wide and the avionics equipment on a modern military or civil aircraft can account for around 30% of the total cost of the aircraft.
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