Avionics manufacturers are constantly innovating and releasing new technology to the market, from Enhanced Vision Systems (EVS) in the cockpit to next generation In-flight Entertainment (IFE) systems and on-board servers in the cabin. But what’s the key to enabling lightning-fast data transfers throughout the aircraft necessary to keep these new technologies functioning? Some wire and cable solutions that support data transfer rates of up to 10 GB per second. Now consider that this is occurring on today’s commercial, military and corporate aircraft at altitudes of more than 30,000 feet, sometimes in remote airspace where bandwidth availability is limited for functions such as passengers connecting to in-flight Wi-Fi systems.
Wire and cables are also becoming ever more critical in the data-centric architecture of modern aircraft. For example, when developing the 787, Boeing lighter weight, more efficient solutions, managing to cut the length of wiring to between 60 and 70 miles — about 25 miles less than the 767. Even those aircraft wire and cables that were placed on 787s when it first entered service will eventually become outdated as Boeing works with suppliers to improve its flagship aircraft. And a lot of general aviation and commercial air transport jets that are still in service today need wire and cable upgrades.
Commercial
Between the 2013 Dubai Airshow and the 2014 Farnborough Airshow, the world’s largest airlines spent nearly $300 billion on new commercial airframes. Following Farnborough, Airbus and Boeing have received more than 1,300 orders combined for commercial aircraft. This trend in demand is expected to continue. Both companies project demand to increase in the future, spurred by increased popularity in passenger travel in the Asia-Pacific market.
With modern aircraft featuring anywhere from 70 to 300 miles of wire on average — the Airbus A380 features an estimated 328 miles while the Boeing 787 features just 60 — that’s enough to keep the wire and cable market lucrative for the next two decades. Even if new production airframe programs continue to look to cut miles of wire in order to reduce weight as fuel efficiency continues to be the focus at the primes.
Military
While defense spending is down in the United States and Europe, there is still a demand in the military market for modernized wire and cable solutions. This is because the top-featured military fighter jets across the globe are F-16 and F-18 fighter jets, many of which were introduced into service in the 1980s and 90s. Rather than the billion-dollar fleet overhauls that commercial airlines are pulling off right now, decision-makers in the military are favoring Service Life Extension Programs (SLEP). While there definitely is still demand for new wire and cable installations for air defense programs, our survey results show the stark contrast between the military and commercial markets. Only 22 percent of respondents say that SLEP programs are the most compelling reason to purchase aircraft wires and/or cables.
There are a number of key trends at work in the military market. We are seeing newer processors, more advanced jam-resistant radar systems and the elimination of stove pipe buttons flight decks for surveillance screens. High definition cockpit displays with synthetic vision are being inserted into both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft for military air defense programs across the globe. Every time a government outsources an avionics overhaul program to a third-party team, it requires extensive re-wiring and the installation of Ethernet cables to handle the data-centric architecture of fourth and fifth generation jets.
In Europe, Habia Cable is one of the leading suppliers of military aerospace wiring to helicopter upgrade programs. The Swedish defense manufacturer claims to have one of the industry’s thinnest single-wall constructed airframe wires with its Flight Guard product line. These wire are approved to U.K. Def Stan 61-12 Part 33 Supplement 001: Wires, Cores and Cables, Electrical Airframe Wires and Cables. Habia’s current focus is on reducing the size of its cables as the “space envelope” gets smaller and smaller, says Stefan Willmann, head of Habia’s manufacturing facility in Norderstedt, Germany. Willman believes today’s military aerospace end users desire thinner cables with thinner materials where “there is room for more cores within the same original envelope.”
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