General Overview
Since most avionics manufacturers see software as a way to add value without adding weight, the importance of embedded software in avionic systems is increasing.
Most modern commercial aircraft with auto-pilots use flight computers and so called flight management systems that can fly the aircraft without the pilot's active intervention during certain phases of flight. Also under development or in production are unmanned vehicles: missiles and drones which can take off, cruise and land without airborne pilot intervention.
In many of these systems, failure is unacceptable. The reliability of the software running in airborne vehicles (civil or military) is shown by the fact that most air borne accidents occur due to manual errors.
Read more about this topic: Avionics Software
Famous quotes containing the word general:
“A thing is called by a certain name because it instantiates a certain universal is obviously circular when particularized, but it looks imposing when left in this general form. And it looks imposing in this general form largely because of the inveterate philosophical habit of treating the shadows cast by words and sentences as if they were separately identifiable. Universals, like facts and propositions, are such shadows.”
—David Pears (b. 1921)