Avilution Shows The Aviation World What 'Next-Gen' Can REALLY Look Like!
When ANN first saw the Avilution concept in real-life, we took a few moments to let the idea sink in... and when it did... wow. Not a little 'wow' -- BIG WOW.
Avilution challenged the industry and asked, simply, have YOU noticed that just a few hundred dollars invested in a tablet gives us more situational awareness than an entire avionics system? Have you ever felt like some technologies just haven't kept up with the rapidly evolving world around them?
Avilution has not only noticed long before the rest of us - but is doing something about it. Imagine avionics -- avionics that make your life simpler rather than more complicated. Even better; imagine that when things go wrong, your avionics not only detects bad information but corrects it automatically (yeah... we weren't kidding about the 'revolution' part).
Now imagine avionics that never become obsolete, that are constantly improving, and that give YOU a choice of vendors. That's the avionics system Avilution is creating -- so you won't have to imagine it much longer.
Yeah... color us intrigued... and we're not the only ones.
Today, you can go to the store, buy a computer from one vendor, a printer from another, and software from yet another -- and STILL feel confident that they will all work together. THIS is the vision for avionics that Avilution is building. Specifically, Avilution's eXtensible Flight System (XFS) is avionics software designed to run on flight worthy computers from multiple vendors and is capable of interfacing to sensors, servos and other avionics devices that already exist in the marketplace or are developed in the future.
XFS networks displays, buttons, sensors, servos, autopilots and more, allowing those elements to share data. This availability of data allows XFS to use relationships that exist between different types of data to simplify the pilot's workload and provide improved safety by automatically detecting failed sensors and bad data and replacing that data with the best estimate possible. Imagine it as doing your instrument scan hundreds of times a second. For example, if your pitot tube was blocked and the sensor read zero knots, XFS will estimate your airspeed from other data such as angle of attack, approximate weight and G force to provide you something more accurate than zero!
In addition to the dramatically different technology basis of XFS, Avilution is taking a dramatic turn on its model for taking XFS to market. Instead of selling hardware, Avilution plans to sell XFS as a software license - and as a first for a complete avionics and aircraft system - provide full source code and testing data suites (when available and as appropriate) so that the XFS customer can use whichever engineering resources they choose to modify, extend and enhance the product going forward. By providing source code and test suite availability, XFS will be future proof, no longer requiring wholesale replacements. If a computer becomes out of data, the existing apps can be run on newer hardware. If a sensor suite is no longer being produced, XFS can be extended to support a new data source without the apps knowing that the data source has changed. In short, as long as it is economically feasible for someone to continue supporting an airframe, the intellectual property will be
available to allow such sustained development to continue and to make sure that aircraft do not become grounded just because some hardware they depend upon has become obsolete.
Avilution, LLC is based in Huntsville, Alabama and was founded by Mark Spencer, a software developer and pilot with a background primarily in telecommunications. Avilution is creating new technologies for Pilots and were the original authors of the AviationMaps application.
Did You Know? COOL Facts About Avilution!
- Avilution is designing a system leading to aviavionics that never become obsolete, that are constantly improving, and that give YOU a choice of vendors.
- Avilution allows your avionics not only detects bad information but corrects it automatically.
- Avilution's XFS is avionics software designed to run on flight worthy computers from multiple vendors and is capable of interfacing to sensors, servos and other avionics devices that already exist in the marketplace or are developed in the future.
- XFS networks displays, buttons, sensors, servos, autopilots and more, allowing those elements to share data.
- XFS uses relationships that exist between different types of data to simplify the pilot’s workload.
- XSF improves safety by automatically detecting failed sensors and bad data and replacing that data with the best estimate possible.
- As an example, if your pitot tube was blocked and the sensor read zero knots, XFS will estimate your airspeed from other data such as angle of attack, approximate weight and G force to provide you something more accurate than zero.
- A couple hundred dollars invested in a tablet can give you more situational awareness than an entire avionics system.
- As a home builder or aircraft manufacturer, you can design your flight system according to your needs and “own” the end user experience and systems just as much as as you do the aerodynamics.
- With XFS powering displays, reading from sensors, enabling communications, aiding in navigation, and interacting with the flight system, pilots are able to select the best hardware for their needs, whether they need to focus on performance or price.
Read About Avilution in The News!
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.15.24)
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