Systems & Electronics, Inc.(SEI) proposes to conduct a trade-off and engineering analysis for the employment of Super Capacitors and other energy sources for independent power supply for flight recorders(data acquistion systems),cockpit voice recorders and other avionics systems requiring stand-by power for short periods of time from 200 milliseconds to 20 minutes. This trade-off analysis will employ all cost for the independent power supply, logistic cost for spares and the maintenance costs. For this research program . SEI is trageting avionics systems requiring 10 to 20 watts for a period of 20 minutes. As part of Phase I, SEI will demonstrate an independent power supply which will power on of SEI's existing products such as the crash data/voice recorder. This demonstration unit will be a prototype and not a flight qualified unit. This proposed research program has a great deal of military and commercial applications such as flight recorders, emergency beacon locators, essential communication, exit light stripes in commercial a/c, etc. The FAA may require an independent power source on all commercial flight data and voice recorders in the near future on commercial aircraft. This independent power supply may have an application for electronic fuel controls for aircraft engines. This investigation will be conducted in five tasks and require a period of performance of nine months, all technical effort will be completed within six months and the last three months will be employed to prepare for Phase II of the proposal effort. Immeadiate application of this applied research would be for military and commercial aircraft requiring a stand-by power supply for their cockpit voice recorders (CVR) as suggested by the National Transportation Safety issued recommendations A-G9-16 and A-99-17 calling for revisions to the Federal Aviation Administration Regulations requirements for cockpit voice recorders. These are critical systems integral to the transportation, medical and manufacturing industries application which would use the results of this investigation.
Keywords: Back-Up Power, Super Capacitors, Avionics, Cockpit Voice Recorders, Critical Systems, Aviation