Avionics standards and cybersecurity highlighted Aviation Electronics Europe

Blog

April 27, 2016

Alex Wilson

Wind River

As an Advisory Board Member for the Aviation Electronics Europe show it is always a fun time when the show finally arrives -- seeing the results of our committee's work and preparation. Pre-registration for the event was up this year and we put together an exciting program. The exhibit floor was also well represented by the avionics industry.

This year we had changed the format slightly and added some workshop sessions alongside the main conference, so it was interesting to see how that worked – more on this later.

While, two keynotes pulled out at the last minute, but Mark Holmes (Avionics Magazine) and Christian Schleifer (EUROCAE) stepped up and provided an excellent introduction to the avionics industry and how standards work, which was well received. Sven Kutschera of Lufthansa also added an airline perspective to this, which was an interesting view. One question during the keynote session that stood apart was: "why are there no other airlines represented here other than Lufthansa?" The answer, it appears is that Lufthansa is the only airline actively participating in standards work with EUROCAE. This is the opposite of the U.S. where many airlines join in the standards development process, according to EUROCAE.

Avionics workshops

Back to the workshops – I gave a presentation in one on “Security and the E-enabled Aircraft”, which was well attended, although this did clash with the main conference cyber security theme. Which was a shame. However, generally speaking the workshops seemed to be well attended, although I think some more theme or organization next year will help attendees better pick which workshops they will attend.

As chair of the final session on "Innovation in Avionics," it was also a good sign that most of the audience stayed late for the last sessions of the day, were we had excellent presentations from TTTech, GE Aviation, Honeywell, and Rockwell Collins, covering AS6802, wireless networks, and autonomous systems. Wireless and autonomous are important areas that need to be addressed regarding standards development and acceptance as they become integral parts of the commercial aviation world.

I guess the question on autonomous is always – would you fly on a plane without a pilot??