Avionics
Avionics Explained
The term avionics has been tossed around in college and business settings for decades, since the 1970s actually, but not everyone understands the wide span of topics that avionics covers. In essence, all aircraft are designed around a computerized system that helps with every portion of a flight. These electronic devices tell a pilot about fuel levels, engine temperatures, radar scans, altitudes, and much more. The fancy term for the electronic components within a helicopter, plane, space shuttle, missile, or satellite is avionics.
Aircraft avionics are the electrical systems and parts found within a cockpit. While a pilot is directly responsible for handling a plane's flight, he or she relies heavily on the instrument panels (avionics) surrounding him or her. Aircraft avionics can tell the altitude, alert a pilot to potential issues, and more. For this very reason, the displays, another form of avionics, are incredibly important. The displays are the computerized or electronic devices within the cockpit that offer pilots important information about their status. Displays can include the flight route software and headings. Similarly, the Navigation systems are important to knowing where an aircraft is at any given moment in relation to key points on the surface of the earth and in relation to altitude.
Communications avionics go back to the beginning of air flights, though the term avionics would come much later. Ground control and pilots remain in touch via the communications system. Without this system, there could be tremendous casualties if a pilot had no way of knowing where to land without hitting another plane. Going hand in hand with the communications systems are the avionics that alert pilots to potential collision problems. These radar devices can alert pilots to smaller aircraft in the air that might pose an immediate danger, including missiles and satellites.
Weather forecasting systems are important to predicting where storms might be prevalent or to extreme conditions that could cause flight problems. Pilots can use these radars to avoid thunderstorms by either dropping or gaining altitude.
Finally, we've all heard of automatic piloting systems. The computerized flight program takes over for pilots who need to step away from the controls for a short time, such as for a bathroom break. While automatic pilots cannot land a plane, they can keep a plane level in good conditions.
