Lockheed Martin selects Collins Aerospace seating and computer platforms

Collins will supply the DEFIANT X helicopter with armored seats for pilot and co-pilot, cabin crew and troops. Each Collins seating product will be lightweight, ergonomically designed for comfort and rigorously tested to meet or exceed the Army’s stringent crashworthiness requirements.

Cynthia Muklevicz, Vice President of Business Development for Interiors at Collins Aerospace, commented: “Collins’ rotary-wing military seating solutions offer a generational advancement over current technology in use today that we expect to significantly reduce operator fatigue and improve mission effectiveness and success.”

In addition to seating, Collins will also supply its Perigon computer for DEFIANT X. With a modular open systems approach and the ability to provide 20 times the processing power of Collins’ existing flight control computers, Perigon will enable future flight control and vehicle management capabilities for next-generation aircraft.

“Perigon’s enhanced processing power will allow it to integrate numerous DEFIANT X functions, including flight control, utility management, prognostic health and advanced flight modes such as autonomy,” said Kim Kinsley, Vice President and General Manager, Environmental and Airframe Control Systems for Collins Aerospace. “By using a single computer to support a multitude of functions, Perigon will help reduce the number of computers onboard the aircraft thus reducing weight, volume and power consumption across the platform while enabling enhanced performance.”

PerigonTM first aviation solution to use Intel Atom x6400E processor

Meanwhile, Collins Aerospace’s PerigonTM computer will be the first certified aviation solution to use the Intel Atom x6400E processor. The advanced processor will underpin Perigon’s ability to support customers’ next-gen flight control and vehicle management needs across a broad range of commercial and defence platforms.

To bring advanced capabilities like single pilot and autonomous operations to life, future aircraft will require an order of magnitude increase in onboard computing power. Supported by Intel’s Atom x6400E, Perigon will deliver 20 times the processing power of Collins’ existing flight control computers and allow customers to load a variety of complex software applications, including fly-by-wire and autonomous flight control.

Henry Brooks, President, Power & Controls for Collins Aerospace, said: “This powerful combination of cutting-edge technologies will provide customers with a unique, next-gen solution to enable new performance capacity in future commercial and defense platforms.”