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Industries

Aviation and Aerospace

Overview | Aviation and Aerospace | Medical | Industrial Controls

Engineering Solutions for Legacy Aircraft Systems

Stilwell Baker Inc. specializes in the development and production of modernized, FAA certified, aircraft avionics and electronic systems for legacy aircraft. With a track record for quick-turn delivery, Stilwell Baker resolves one of the toughest problems facing the aerospace industry today—lack of replacement parts for legacy electronics.

Stilwell Baker designs:

• Aircraft Flight Control Systems and associated avionics, systems and components
• Cockpit displays and avionics/engine control and advisory panels
• Navigation equipment
• Power plant displays and controls
• Mechanical and electro-mechanical devices

 

Download our Aerospace Brochure

 

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Stilwell Baker Avionics Case Study

Sikorsky S-64 Helicopter Automatic Flight Control System Redesign

This aviation customer has over 20 heavy lift Sikorsky S-64 helicopters manufactured over 30 years ago. This helicopter has an automatic flight control system (AFCS) with complex, low reliability electro-mechanical gyro inputs, obsolete electronics, and inconsistent flight performance. Sikorsky no longer supports the AFCS system and used spare parts have been depleted. SBI designed, engineered, and implemented a new autopilot system utilizing modern electronic components, solid-state Air Data Attitude Heading Reference System (ADAHRS) inputs, and reduced electrical components/connections. This resulted in at least 50% increased reliability, 33% reduction in system weight, improved aircraft stability, and readily available parts support.

This was a demanding avionics engineering project, as the schedule required the system to be certified in half of the time any similar project had been certified previously by the FAA. A significant portion of the original system documentation did not exist and many items had to be reverse engineered. The system had to meet DO-160F certification requirements including lighting and High Energy Radio Frequency (HERF) susceptibility, severe environmental and vibration specifications, requiring significant aircraft flight-testing.

The Sikorsky S-64 project required complete engineering system documentation and FAA avionics certification for the completed system design. We completed the project on the aggressive schedule, and the new system successfully passed First Article Acceptance Testing with all polarities, gains, and functions correct on the first pass. The result is a reliable, supportable, autopilot system with significantly improved flight stability and enhanced pilot functionality. Stilwell Baker is ready to assist your company by providing similar engineering, design, manufacturing, testing and FAA certification solutions for your aviation challenges.