In the mid-1900s, aircraft cockpits lacked electronic instrumentation and display systems. Air transport operations were not demanding enough to necessitate modern technology such as electronic flight display systems. Pilots had to struggle with hundreds of instruments throughout the flight. Those instruments were displayed as gauges across the cockpit while flying at night and poor visibility made it extremely difficult for the pilots.
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Modern aircraft uses a “glass panel” or a “glass cockpit” due to technological advancements. The glass display units often have LCD panels that are 8-inch, 10-inch, or 15-inch in size. The main advantage of a glass cockpit display is that entire information is consolidated efficiently. Glass cockpits contain an Integrated Flight Deck that comprises an electronic display showing the aircraft’s airspeed, altitude, and elevation instruments, as well as the necessary navigation and communication capabilities. Displays and controls for aerial surveillance, aircraft systems, and engine systems may also be found on the flight deck.
Aircraft cockpit display systems improve the human-machine interface by allowing more visual interaction with human gestures. The Global Aircraft Cockpit Display System Market was valued at $1,676.01 million in 2020 and is expected to reach $2,533.39 million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 5.3 percent during the forecast period, according to Statistics MRC.
In this section, we shall discuss the different kinds of display systems that an aircraft is equipped with.
Primary Flight Deck Display (PFD)
Multifunctional Deck Display (MFD)
Engine-Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS)
Primary Flight Deck Display (PFD)
A primary flight display is an important part of an airplane’s flying instruments. It is standard on most commercial aircraft, whether narrow or wide-bodied. It is in the cockpit and serves as a source of data for pilots. It combines data from six-pack gauges such as the flight speed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter, direction indicator, vertical speed indicator, and turning coordinator. Pilots can refer to the major flying displays instead of watching six distinct gauges.
A Boeing 737’s primary flight display
The primary flight display is a critical system because it enhances situational awareness by alerting pilots to unexpected or potentially dangerous conditions, such as low airspeed or a rapid descent rate, by changing the display color or sounding an auditory warning.
Multifunctional Deck Display (MFD)
MFDs are components of the digital era of modern planes and helicopters. An MFD is a compact screen (CRT or LCD) surrounded by several soft keys (configurable buttons) that may be used to present information to the user in a variety of programmable ways. The benefit of an MFD over an analog display is that it takes up less room in the cockpit since data may be given in numerous pages rather than all at once.
Avidyne Corporation Multi-function display EX600
The MFD shows navigation and meteorological data from several systems. It typically shows a customized chart on which the crew may overlay information such as the route plan, weather information, restricted airspace, and aircraft traffic. The MFD may also show the aircraft’s glide radius based on its current position over terrain, winds, aircraft speed, and altitude.
Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting Systems
An Engine-Indicating and Crew-Alerting System (EICAS) is an integrated system used in modern aircraft to allow the crew to view complex information regarding those systems in an easy-to-read format and alert the crew about possible hazardous situations.
Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) | SKYBrary Aviation Safety
EICAS often incorporates instruments for numerous engine parameters such as rotational speed, temperature values including exhaust gas temperature, fuel flow and amount, oil pressure, and so on. Other aircraft systems that EICAS frequently monitors include hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, deicing, environmental, and control surface systems. EICAS has a high level of connection and offers data collecting and routing.
The flight deck display systems are critical for reducing task complexity and improving situational awareness through the display units that show/display flight information and the condition of the aircraft’s integrated systems. These deck display systems reduce the number of electronics instruments in the cockpit and display only the information essential for aircraft operations to the pilot.
eInfochips is a product engineering company with over 25 years of experience in device engineering, digital engineering, quality engineering, and silicon engineering. With extensive aerospace knowledge and end-to-end technical expertise and processes (DO-254, DO-178B, DO-178C, DO-160, and ARP-4754), as well as expertise in aircraft display systems such as head-up/down display, integrated flight deck, EICAS, and EFIS.
eInfochips has successfully worked on multiple integrated flight deck display systems development and platform software verification. We also offer hardware, software, systems, and mechanical engineering services for Avionics.
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Chintan Raval works as Assistant Product and Practice Marketing Manager and focuses on the Semiconductor and Aerospace domain at eInfochips. He holds a PGDM in Marketing and a Master’s degree in VLSI and Embedded Systems. He carries 5+ years of experience in Product Management and GO-TO-Market Strategy experience.
