Analysis Traceability: Critical Requirement for FAA Certification
As part of the FAA certification process for aircraft airworthiness, applicants must demonstrate traceability of reliability, maintainability and safety analyses from aircraft safety requirements. This process typically includes an integrated analysis procedure which allows both forward and reverse traceability of documentation and results.
"Eclipse Aviation is using ITEM ToolKit™ to perform reliability, safety, and maintainability analyses for all systems of the Eclipse 500 aircraft", states Derek Pike Lead Reliability Engineer. Derek continues, "The ability to easily migrate from one analysis to the next, within an integrated structure, is essential for managing the analyses of complex systems on a modern jet aircraft. The linked files within a project provide the analysis traceability essential for FAA certification".
The logical analysis progression of failure modes, hazards, maintainability, spares and sequential events is supported within the ITEM ToolKit™ framework. Derek explains, "The FMECA module is being used to capture failure modes of the equipments, and to roll failure effects up to the system and aircraft levels. Faultree Module is used to perform FTA for each hazard of each system. The ability to link FTA events to failure modes at any level within the FMECA provides an automatic update of hazard probability as the designs mature and failure rate predictions change. System FMECA files are transferred to MainTain™ so that maintenance tasks can be identified for each equipment failure mode. SpareCost™ is used to model the optimum spares provisioning for the aircraft fleet. Markov chain analysis is being used within engineering to perform sequential event analysis, such as the probability of total loss of data on multi-drop aircraft buss networks with reversionary paths".
Since 1999 ITEM Software has met the needs of Eclipse Aviation with software tools, unique software requirements and on-site ITEM ToolKit™ training. Derek closed by saying, "ITEM Software has been consistently responsive to our needs in terms of training, technical support, and the development of improved tools to meet the ever increasing challenge of analyzing technical complexity ".
About Eclipse Aviation
Eclipse Aviation is in the business of designing, certifying and producing modern, affordable jet aircraft that will revolutionize the transportation market. The company is applying advanced electronics systems, manufacturing and business practices to produce aircraft that cost less than a quarter of today's small jet aircraft, will be significantly safer and easier to operate than those of today, and have the lowest cost of ownership ever achieved in a jet aircraft.
The goal of Eclipse is to bring the word "personal" into aviation, making it possible for commercial air passengers to move directly between cities on a quick, affordable and convenient basis. It will also allow pilot owners to enter the world of jet-powered aviation. Contact Eclipse at www.eclipseaviation.com.
About ITEM Software
We were established in 1986 with the mission of becoming a leading, global vendor of software tools for risk assessment applications with a focus on reliability, availability, maintainability and safety.
Today our solutions are widely used throughout the world by major companies and government agencies in sectors like defense, aerospace, electronics, telecommunication, energy, medical and transportation.
We pride ourselves for our exceptional customer loyalty, which is a direct result of our total commitment to product quality and outstanding customer support. We service our clients from our regional offices in California, Maryland and the United Kingdom, and our affiliates in Asia, Australia and South America.
