I attended a EMC Technical Seminar last month in Seattle. Dave Walen, FAA gave a great presentation on DO-160. Since so many of our customers use DO-160 as a test guideline for aircraft equipment, I thought I’d share my notes (at least the ones I can make out):
RTCA DO-160 will go to Rev G around December 2010. No major changes, but Rev G will have a User Guide that shares tribal knowledge for each of the 26 sections in RTCA DO-160. Check out the FAA Advisory Circular AC-21-16F at www.faa.gov for information on the different revision levels of RTCA-DO-160.
Did you know?
- The DO-160 test specification is a STANDARD for demonstrating procedures/conditions for aircraft equipment. It is not an APPROVAL to install equipment on aircraft. Approvals fall under FAA. FAA encourages use of DO-160. Boeing, Airbus, etc… tend to have their own standards/requirements.
- Section 23 Lightning Direct Effects: Lightning strikes an aircraft once every 3000 hours in today’s world.
- DO-160 is actually a consensus agreement on procedures and test conditions. Everyone on the RTCA committee must agree. No wonder revisions take 3-4 years!
Cascade TEK performs DO-160 testing such as altitude, crash safety, temperature variation, vibration, waterproofness, sand and dust, salt fog, icing and fluids susceptibility.
Tags: salt fog, sand and dust, temperature and humidity testing, vibration testing
