MD 900 ELECTRONIC DESIGN APPROACH

During the development of a new aircraft, major concerns of the company or companies involved are in meeting customer needs, quality of the design, and cost/schedule of the development. In the case of commercial aircraft, developmental cost and timely market entrance are important factors in the profitability of the product. Fulfilling the customer needs with a quality product is essential to success in the competitive marketplace. An electronic design process, when used efficiently, can be a big step in meeting the goals necessary for the success of the product. Integration of the electronic design process into the typical developmental stages of product design can be difficult, but when done successfully will show tremendous results. This was done by McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems during the development of the MD 900 (Figure 1).