Proactive open system architecture design concepts for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor

The V-22 Osprey tiltrotor is in low rate initial production with an avionics architecture designed in the late 1980's using state-of-the-art military designs. Even before full rate production begins, the aircraft has faced vendor hardware and software obsolescence issues compounded by rapidly growing interest in satisfying new requirements such as FAA DO-178B certification. This paper describes how open system architecture design concepts used by other military aircraft, such as the F-15, F/A-18, and other military transports, maximizing off-the-shelf technology can be applied to the V-22 Osprey to consolidate avionics, mitigate obsolescence, reduce life cycle cost and support growth requirements. The approach presented focuses on the mission processing, display processing, and sensor processing subsystems and shows potential space, weight, cost, and power reductions with minimal deviation from any current aircraft requirements. Technology and standards for placing all three subsystems into a single unit are examined to determine the feasibility of the open systems approach. Being proactive today by applying open system concepts to the V-22 Osprey will allow future development of affordable new mission variants with reduced total ownership cost.