A generic platform for safety-critical applications in General Aviation

Novel fields of applications within General Aviation often have a safety-critical character and require the development of suitable electronic control systems. This paper presents the concept of a generic platform which can be used in a wide range of such applications. From a set of generic components, a fault-tolerant computing core network is realized in a way that - in combination with surrounding core-external redundant sensor and actuator structures - the requirements of a given application regarding safety and functionality are fulfilled. The paper presents the generic platform hardware components with their interplay and explains the architecture of the management layer which organizes data flow within the core network. This management layer is strictly divided into a generic part, which is identical for all platform-based realizations, and into a system-specific part, which depends on the sensor and actuator data flow. By example of a full-authority automatic flight control system for aerial work operation, the practical application of the generic platform is shown.