The Airbus A380 is a revolutionary aircraft, with innovations ranging from highly visible, like the double deck configuration that gives it unprecedented capacity, to those beneath the skin, like the information system developed by Sagem Défense Sécurité. We talked to Philippe Lemasson, head of the aircraft information systems department at Sagem Défense Sécurité.

What is Sagem Défense Sécurité’s role on the Airbus A380?

We supply various flight control equipment for Airbus’s new super-jumbo. But above all, we designed and produced the aircraft’s information system, which is a major innovation on a commercial airliner. We already had long-standing experience with data processing on commercial airplanes, but the network we designed for this one is a major step forward: it’s a platform comparable to a large corporate intranet, which allows the various onboard computers to communicate with each other in total security. The network is partially open, so that the aircraft manufacturer and operators can install their own software, whether for the flight and ground crews (maintenance software, maps, online documentation, performance calculations, etc.), or for the passengers (in-flight entertainment, etc.) New software can be added throughout the life of the aircraft, without affecting the core avionics, and therefore without having to re-certify the aircraft.

Did the development of the A380 information system entail any special problems?

Well, we had to successfully “marry” the avionics to an information system connected to cabin equipment which evolves at a much faster pace, kind of like your desktop PC. Setting up this network also involved very stringent security restrictions, including failsafe protection because of its location near the avionics. At the same time, we had to ensure this level of security without disturbing overall operation, which was a real challenge. We rose to the challenge by calling on our cross-disciplinary expertise in all areas concerned, namely avionics, information systems and network security.

What are the next steps in this program?

System development started at the end of 2002 and will be completed at the end of 2006. The contract with Airbus was signed very late because we had to wait for the exact specifications of all the subassemblies to be frozen, since they would be communicating with each other. We designed the system architecture in 2003, then started development in December of that year. Today, we’re starting the hardware validation phase, and next we will work on ensuring software maturity prior to the aircraft entering service. After that, we’ll be providing product support of course.