AERO&SPACE USA, McLean, VA assists aerospace manufacturers in delivering products that show an acceptable means of complying with applicable safety regulations to certification authorities. Of special interest to the satellite navigation community is the Architecture Means design technique and quantitive Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). Potential reductions in development assurance levels specified for hardware and software are achievable, simplifying the safety critical portion of the system. Certification approval authority of AEOR&SPACE USA staff engineers - FAA designated engineering representatives (DERs) - include Systems, Equipment and Software up to and including Level A for catastrophic failure condition classification. Safety analyses has been completed on major all-electric aircraft and ground systems including commercial jet transport and Special Category I(SCAT-1) Precision Approach.

AERO&SPACE USA has participated in the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) development since August 1995, supporting the Safety Architecture design analysis and RTCA/DO-178B software certification. Major WAAS accomplishments include the Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA), baselining of the project Fault Tree, the delivery of the CDRL item Preliminary Hazard List, the Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) and the Safety Requirements/Criteria Analysis (SR/CA) in accordance with MIL-STD-882C.

AERO&SPACE USA is also under contract to Lockheed Martin as the lead for system safety assessment for the Japanese Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS) and RTCA/DO-178B software certification. Safety tasks include the PHA, the SR/CA, the Safety Assessment Report(SAR), the Hazard Tracking Data Base (HTDB) and the Sub-System Hazard Analysis (SSHA) in accordance with MIL-STD-882C.

AERO&SPACE USA has performed Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA) and Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) on civil airborne, ground segment and spaceborne flight control, navigation, landing and safety critical systems and equipment.

AERO&SPACE USA has successfully implemented the System Architecture Safety Assessment technique to justify and derive software safety levels and obtain development assurance level reductions through analysis of the technical and logical features of the System Architecture design. In part, this technique discovers error sources associated with the failure of functions implemented in software, their mitigations and failure effects early in the system technical baseline phase by the introduction and consideration of software errors in the FTA.

Invoking the authority of industry standard recommended established practices, ARP 4754/ARP 4761, the safety assessment technique exploits the insertion of logical and technical components in the "Safety Architecture". In addition to traditional redundant identical channels, these components include architecture isolation, independence, dissimilarity, partitioning and so on. The Preliminary System Safety Assessment (PSSA) Data Package shows those design features that minimize the impact of failure effects of system functions before they are manifested as National Airspace System (NSA) hazards. Thus, potential reductions in development assurance levels specified for hardware and software can be achieved, along with an intensification of the resources focused on the simplified safety critical portion of the system - where it is most effective. This in turn leads to decreasing cost, complexity and risk inherent in system acquisition.

This Safety Data Package provides the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA) and Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), early in the system technical baseline phase, at the Architecture level.

AERO&SPACE USA has greater than 20 years of experience in enhancing aerospace safety, reliability and survivability, including aircraft navigation and landing systems. Accomplishments include significant contributions to the Commercial Conestoga Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) team - to obtain the launch license from FAA Office Of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) and NASA safety certification - and to the Space Shuttle redesign and safety recertification team (following Challenger). Representative: Arun K. Murthi, President and CEO.

AERO&SPACE USA is active in industry-government aviation safety committees and is a corporate level member of the Institute Of Navigation (ION), the Small Aircraft Manufacturer's Association (SAMA) and the FAA advisory group headquartered in Washington DC known as the Requirements and Technical Concepts For Aviation (RTCA), formerly the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics.