Standards take flight

Commercial aerospace specifications continue to gain ground as aircraft get more electric.

Aerospace and military applications were key drivers during the computer industry's early days, but these days aircraft designers are struggling to keep up with commercial products instead of pushing technology forward. The industry is adopting standard architectures to address today's needs and set the stage for future advances.

The adoption of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies has been discussed for years. But it's occurring slowly, as might be expected in a complex field where product lifetimes are often measured in decades.