Aircraft Avionics Parts Sourcing

Aircraft Avionics Parts

Avionics refers to the electronic systems onboard all aircraft, satellites, and spacecraft. Avionics systems includes the autopilot, navigation and communication systems, the display and management of those systems, and all of the systems mounted on aircraft to perform various functions. The word avionics is a portmanteau of aviation and electronics. Avionics can be broken down into several categories.

Communications

Communications encompasses all the systems that allow the crew of the aircraft to communicate to other aircraft, air traffic control on the ground, and to the passengers. For air-to-ground communications, this means VHF radios, or in the case of trans-oceanic flights, HF radio or satellite communication. 

Navigation

Air navigation is the determination of position and direction on or above the Earth’s surface. Before the advent of modern navigation systems, pilots had to plot their course on paper maps to determine their location. Now, satellite-based systems like GPS navigation systems and ground-based radio systems allow for continuous and automatic updates.

Flight-Control Systems

Commercial aircraft are equipped with flight-control systems that are designed to reduce pilot error and workload, especially during landing and takeoff. While the first autopilot systems were simply used to control heading and altitude, modern examples can adjust thrust and flight control surfaces. In helicopters, auto-stabilization systems play an important role in maintaining a level heading. The invention of fly-by-wire systems and electronically actuated flight surfaces rather than hydraulics has expanded this category.

Weather Systems

Weather radar and lightning detectors are critical for aircraft flying at night or in inclement weather, where pilots cannot see the weather ahead by eye. In-plane weather avionics are particularly popular in Africa, India, and other developing countries where ground support is not as common.

Collision Avoidance Systems

Most large aircraft use traffic alert and collision avoidance systems that can detect the presence of nearby aircraft and provide help in avoiding a mid-air collision. Ground-proximity warning systems and terrain awareness warning systems are used to are used to prevent crashing into the ground.

Fuel System

Fuel quantity indication systems (FQIS) monitor the amount of fuel the aircraft is carrying. Using sensors like capacitance tubes and temperature sensors, the FQIS computer can calculate how much fuel the aircraft has onboard.

Monitoring

As aircraft have grown more complex, so have the instruments and displays providing information to the flight crew. “Glass” cockpits that utilize computer monitors rather than gauges and analog displays are used to consolidate and simplify information to reduce pilot workload. 

Flight Recorders

Commercial aircraft carry data recorders that store flight information and audio from the aircraft’s cockpit.