It works and it's affordable: low cost distributed aircraft control systems

In 1986 it was anticipated that fly-by-light and fiber optic based aircraft sensors and data transfer would be in full scale production in a few years. However, by 1997 this widely acclaimed vision has yet to be realized. This paper considers what has transpired during this time and discusses why this technology has not yet fulfilled its vision. Additionally, current efforts to use commercial off the shelf(COTS) hardware to reduce costs and standardize systems are described.