Wind River Technology powers Airbus helicopters’ system

VxWorks 653 powers the multi-function display, flight management and control systems, as well as the auto pilot of the 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 gen of our helicopters’ avionics, we turned to Wind River for its unmatched experience in this area,” said Christian Franot, Head of Helionix Programme, 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, 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 programmes 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 programmes, both manned and unmanned, around the globe. These include Airbus and Boeing commercial and military aircraft such as the Airbus A400M and Boeing 787.