Barco's latest glass cockpit solutions successful during the flight test campaign of the new PC-21 training aircraft
KORTRIJK, BELGIUM, 7 March 2005 – Barco’s latest glass cockpit solutions have scored a high mark both on the maiden flight and during the flight test campaign of the new PC-21 training aircraft. Pilatus Aircraft, Stans, Switzerland, the manufacturer of the new PC-21, is very positive about the performance of Barco's state-of-the-art avionics displays and the extended support during the hardware and software development phase. The maiden flight, which was successfully performed last year, is an important milestone in the collaboration between Barco and Pilatus Aircraft. Furthermore, Pilatus has recently received the type certification of the PC-21, from the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation. This certification opens the way for series production of the PC-21 training aircraft.
The high-tech PC-21 training aircraft has been designed for basic, advanced and fighter lead-in training. It is a single engine, low wing monoplane with a stepped tandem cockpit that is optimized for several purposes, including aircraft handling, tactical navigation training and mission and system management.Barco managed the complete development process of the PC-21’s cockpit visualization. Pilatus Aircraft especially valued the company’s flexibility to meet the customer’s most stringent hardware and software requirements. “During our flight-test campaign, Pilatus found it of utmost importance to be able to fine-tune the Man-Machine Interfaces of the displays. Barco has exceeded all our expectations in that respect, enabling us to meet a very stringent schedule”, commented Mr. Ulrich Gehling, PC-21 program manager at Pilatus.
The PC-21 aircraft performing the flight test campaign were equipped with six 6-by-8-inch displays. Making their debut on a PC-21 aircraft, Barco’s new display versions with XGA resolution were used as Primary Flight and Navigation Display. The displays have also been qualified to meet the highest market standards, even beyond the required PC-21 environment, including TSO qualification by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Barco also integrated the dedicated software into its Primary Flight Displays and Navigation Displays. The software has been designed to be very easily adaptable to many different aircraft configurations through simple configuration files and program pins. Barco was able to provide high flexibility in the development process, also thanks to a robust and automated software development process relying on tools such as the Virtual Avionics Prototyping System (VAPS) Qualified Code Generator (QCG). This tool allows for the reliable generation of complex, dynamic graphical user interfaces, certifiable to the highest criticality level of RTCA-DO-178B.
About Barco
Barco, an international company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, provides visualization and display solutions for professional markets. Barco designs and develops solutions for large screen visualization, display solutions for life-critical applications, and systems for visual inspection. Barco is active worldwide and has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco is quoted on Euronext Brussels and is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company (Euronext: BAR; Reuters: BARBt.BR; Bloomberg: BAR BB).
