Wind River Technology Powers Airbus Helicopters’ Integrated Modular Avionics System

HIGHLIGHTS

• VxWorks 653 Platform serves as a key technology in the Airbus Integrated Modular Avionics helicopter implementation.
• Developed with the Wind River COTS platform, Airbus Helicopters' Helionix avionics system provides unprecedented levels of performance and safety.
• VxWorks 653 Platform is used in over 350 programs by more than 200 customers on over 75 aircraft and supported by 24 partners. 

Wind River®, a global leader in delivering software for the Internet of Things (IoT), has announced that Airbus Helicopters, a division of Airbus Group, is utilizing Wind River VxWorks® 653 Platform for its new Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) system, Helionix.

Helionix represents the latest technological evolution from the European helicopter manufacturer offering an unrivaled pilot assistance and intuitive human machine interface. The new avionics system, which includes the certified H175 and H145 civilian rotorcrafts, significantly improves helicopter management, and with its IMA approach provides unprecedented levels of performance and safety. VxWorks 653 powers the multi-function display, flight management and control systems, as well as the auto pilot of the new aircrafts. In addition, it provides resource management and partitioning capabilities that allow multiple independent applications of different safety criticality levels to run on a single target platform.

"As we sought to create the next generation of our helicopters' avionics, we turned to Wind River for its unmatched experience in this area," said Christian Franot, Head of Helionix Program at Airbus Helicopters. "Already validated in other IMA systems, Wind River safety critical technology offers the reliability, flexibility and configurability required for an implementation meeting stringent safety demands. Wind River also delivered end-to-end expertise, from the system design to the certification process, enabling a smooth development cycle."

"For more than three decades, Wind River has been a trusted advisor in the development of safety and mission-critical products; our longstanding relationship with Airbus Helicopters dates back more than a decade to when VxWorks was selected for the design of their previous generation helicopters," said Dinyar Dastoor, general manager of operating systems at Wind River.  "We are extremely pleased that our technology has enabled the development of yet another revolutionary avionics project, with Helionix being Airbus Helicopters' first IMA implementation."

A part of the Wind River product portfolio for trusted systems, VxWorks 653 is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platform for delivering safety-critical, IMA applications. Used in over 350 programs by more than 200 customers on over 75 aircraft, and supported by 24 partners, it serves as a key technology in a wide range of commercial, space, safety and mission-critical programs, both manned and unmanned, around the globe. These include Airbus and Boeing commercial and military aircraft such as the Airbus A400M and Boeing 787.