The SAE 2013 AeroTech Congress and Exhibition in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, brought together an international community to discuss both design and total life-cycle sustainment. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) boards and components
continue to bring technological achievements in the form of advanced flight systems, heads-up displays, sensors that track aircraft usage to identify the best time for repairs, and controllers that can manage the varying speeds between engine fan blades and turbines. As we have already witnessed in many industries, COTS boards have a long future in aerospace and brings with it both benefits and costs.

In a heavily regulated industry, it isn’t unusual for extensive design and certification to take years. Because it is projected that the total number of people flying commercially in the United States will increase to 1.2 billion by 2032, it is critical that the airplanes be airworthy at all times. Unfortunately, EOL occurs, often before an embedded systems program begins production, resulting in both increasing costs and efforts related to end-of-life solutions.

We were pleased to see that, even at a conference focused on acknowledging the strides in aviation innovation, there was space made to discuss how innovation can be supported beyond any COTS end-of-life events.

The GDCA Team