EADS

Experience at EADS on avionics upgrades of the Tornado and Phantom

I worked at EADS during the following periods:

  • Mar 1988 to Dec 1993
  • Sep 1997 to Sep 2004

The division of EADS where I worked was called Military Air Systems, in Ottobrunn near Munich and in Manching. This division is now part of EADS Cassidian.

The first period there I worked on two main projects:

German Phantom F-4 Upgrade

Worked on the upgrade to the avionics; the mission computer, radar (Hughes APG-65), inertial navigation, AMRAAM, CADC, cockpit displays. Was involved with updating the software requirements, software design, programming in C and assembler, testing and bug fixing. This involved working in the avionics test rig with real and simulated avionics equipment. Also gained experience of MIL-1553 bus and associated test equipment such as AIDASS.

3801-German-Air-Force-McDonnell-Douglas-F-4-Phantom-II_PlanespottersNet_243385

Tornado Upgrade

Worked in the department for development of the weapon systems, in particular the HARM (High Speed Anti Radiation) missile. Worked on the routing of messages via “MIL-1553” avionics bus. Performed software requirements, design using a tool called Promod, programming in C, assembler and Ada.

The second period at EADS I worked on the following:

Greek Phantom F-4 Upgrade

I worked on the software requirements, programming and test of the following:

  • Aircraft Radar (“APG-65”)
  • Airborne Laser Designator (Rafael)
  • Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM)
  • Autonomous Free-flight Dispenser System (LFK/AFDS)
  • Inertial Navigation System (INS)
  • Central Air Data Computer (CADC)

The software was developed in Ada83 on Sun/Solaris workstations.

Have experience programming with “Ada-83” and “Ada-95”.

Most of this work was carried out at EADS in Manching.

Also worked in Haifa, Israel at the premises of the main supplier, Elbit Systems.

Greek_Air_Force_Phantom_AUP_2

More Tornado development

I then worked on the Tornado’s Fast Emitter Location System (FELS) and the Solid State Data Recorder.

When working on avionics projects it always involves integration, rig testing, validation to “DO-178”, quality assurance, flight testing and lots of documentation.