Thales has released images of its I-Deck cockpit prototyping and simulation platform that it is using to develop the flightdeck for the Airbus A350.
Thales was selected in January over Honeywell and Rockwell Collins to supply the A350's six identical 15in (38cm) rectangular screens and the keyboard cursor control unit flight management system interface.
The company says that I-Deck has been used to fine-tune the different aspects of the cockpit configuration: "It allows us and future pilots to test rapidly new configurations and display systems within the cockpit."
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© ThalesFor more images of Thales' I-Deck see the A350 XWB image gallery on AirSpace |
Developed in Bordeaux, the I-Deck became operational during 2007 and is now located in Toulouse. Thales aims to exhibit the I-Deck at the Farnborough air show in July.
"It is currently configured for the A350, but could be configured for other aircraft," says Thales.
The I-Deck simulator’s window styles are based on the A400M, and are used to give persons using the platform an impression of a cockpit ambience, says Thales. It emphasises that the platform is “not meant to be a prototype or a replica of the A350 cockpit”, so should not be used as an indicator of Airbus’s latest thinking on the XWB’s window glazing arrangement.
While current impressions of the A350 show it with a dramatic four-panel cockpit window arrangement, Airbus is known to have to adopted a six-window arrangement similar in look to the A380 as it has refined the A350’s design. The definitive glazing arrangement is expected to be released when the A350’s design definition is finalised in October.
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© Thales |
Thales says the I-Deck demonstrator is designed "to make the environment as real as possible to be able to validate certain functions within the cockpit, for instance the evolution towards the use of the large displays, the optimisation of information and improved situational awareness."
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Source: Flight International
