Glossary

This glossary is intended to be of assistance to readers of other documents provided in the references and sources of material in this Handbook. The Glossary contains, therefore, many more entries than the abbreviations, units, and terms used in this book. It will not be complete, terms change and new terms emerge. The Internet is a good place to find many terms, abbreviations, and acronyms in general use.

3D

three dimensional

4D

four dimensional

AAA

anti-aircraft artillery (triple A)

A&AE

Aircraft & Armament Evaluation (Squadron, Boscombe Down) see A&AEE

A&AEE

Aircraft & Armament Experimental Establishment

A4A

Airlines for America

AADL

architecture analysis and design language

ABL

airborne laser

ABS

automatic braking system

AC

airworthiness circular - document offering advice on specific aircraft operations

AC

alternating current

ACA

Agile Combat Aircraft

ACARS

aircraft communications and reporting system

ACARS

ARINC communications and reporting system

ACE

actuator control electronics

ACFD

advanced civil flight deck

ACK

receiver acknowledge

ACM

air cycle machine

ACM

air driven motor pump

ACO

ant colony optimisation

ACP

audio control panel

ACS

active control system

ACT

active control technology

A-D

analogue to digital

Ada

a high order software language

ADC

air data computer

ADC

analogue to digital conversion/converter

ADCN

Aircraft Data Communication Network

ADD

airstream direction detector

ADF

automatic direction finding

ADI

attitude direction indicator

ADIRS

air data and inertial reference system

ADIRU

air data and inertial reference unit (B777)

ADM

air data module

ADMC

actuator drive and monitoring computer

ADN

Avionics Data Network

ADP

air driven pump

ADR

accident data recorder

ADS-A

automatic dependent surveillance - address

ADS-B

automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast

ADU

actuator drive unit

ADV

Air Defence Variant (of Panavia Tornado)

AE

acoustic emission

AESA

active electronically scanned array

AEU

antenna electronic unit

AEW

airborne early warning

AEW&C

airborne early warning and control

AFCS

automatic flight control system

AFDC

autopilot flight director computer

AFDS

autopilot flight director system

AFDX

avionics full-duplex switched Ethernet

AGARD

advisory group for aerospace and development

AGC

automatic gain control

AH

ampere hour

AH

artificial horizon

AHARS

attitude and heading reference system

AI

airborne interception

AI

artificial intelligence

AICS

air intake control system

AIFF

advanced IFF

AIMS

aircraft information management system (B777)

AIT

Aeritalia

Al

aluminium

ALARM

air launched anti-radar missile

ALARP

as low as reasonably practical

ALF

ambient lighting facility

AlGaAs

aluminium gallium arsenide

ALT

barometric altitude

ALU

arithmetic logic unit

AM

amplitude modulation

AMAD

airframe mounted accessory gearbox

AMCC

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation

AMECS

advanced military engine control system

AMLCD

active matrix liquid crystal displays

AMP

air driven motor pump, avionics modification programme

AMRAAM

advanced medium range air to air missile

AMSU

aircraft motion sensor unit

ANO

air navigation order

ANP

actual navigation performance

AoA

angle of attack

AOC

Airline Operational Centre

AOR-E

Azores Oceanic Region - East

AOR-W

Azores Oceanic Region - West

AP

autopilot

APEX

application executive

APGS

auxiliary power generation system

API

application programming interface

APSCU

air supply and pressure control unit

APU

auxiliary power unit

ARI

Air Radio Installation

ARINC 400 series

ARINC specifications providing a design foundation for avionic equipment

ARINC 404

early ARINC standard relating to the packaging of avionic equipment

ARINC 429

widely used civil aviation data bus standard

ARINC 500 Series

ARINC specifications relating to the design of analogue avionic equipment

ARINC 578

ARINC standard relating to the design of VHF omni-range (VOR)

ARINC 579

ARINC standard relating to the design of instrument landing system (ILS)

ARINC 600

later ARINC standard relating to the packaging of avionic equipment

ARINC 600 Series

ARINC specifications relating to enabling technologies for avionic equipment

ARINC 629

ARINC standard relating to a 2?Mbit/s digital data bus

ARINC 664

ARINC standard relating to aircraft full multiplex (AFDX) digital data bus

ARINC 700 Series

ARINC specifications relating to the design of digital avionic equipment

ARINC 708

ARINC Standard relating to the design of weather radar

ARINC 755

ARINC standard relating to the design of multi-mode receivers (MMR)

ARINC

Air Radio Inc.

ARM

anti-radar missile, anti-radiation missile

ARP

aerospace recommended practice (SAE)

ASCB

avionics standard communications bus (Honeywell)

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASE

aircraft survivability equipment

ASI

aircraft station interface, airspeed indicator

ASIC

application specific integrated circuit

ASPCU

air supply and pressure control unit

ASR

air sea rescue

ASR

anonymous subscriber messaging

ASRAAM

advanced short range air to air missile

AST

air staff target

AST

asynchronous transfer mode

ASTOR

airborne stand-off radar

ASUW

anti-surface unit warfare

ASW

anti-submarine warfare

ATA

advanced tactical aircraft

ATA

Air Transport Association

ATC

air traffic control

A to D

analogue to digital

ATE

automatic test equipment

ATF

advanced tactical fighter

ATF

altitude test facility

ATI

air transport indicator

ATM

air targeting mode

ATM

air transport management, air traffic management

ATN

Aeronautical Telecommunications Network

ATR

Air Transport Radio (LRU form factor or box size)

ATS

air traffic services

ATSU

air traffic service unit - Airbus unit to support FANS

AWACS

airborne warning and command system

AWG

American wire gauge

Az

azimuth

BAC

British Aircraft Corporation

BAe

British Aerospace (now BAE Systems)

BAG

bandwidth allocation group

BAT

battery

BC

bus controller

BCAR

British Civil Airworthiness Requirement

BCD

binary coded decimal

BFL

balanced field length

BFoV

binocular field of view

BGAN

broadcast global area network

BIT

built in test

BIU

bus interface unit

BLC

battery line contactors

BMS

business management system

BP

binary programming

BPCU

brake power control unit

bps

bits per second

BRNAV

basic area navigation in RNP

BSCU

brake system control unit

BTB

bus tie breakers

BTC

bus tie contactor

BTMU

brake temperature monitoring unit

BVR

beyond visual range

BWB

blended wing body

C band

C band (3.90-6.20?GHz)

C++

a programming language

C3, C3

command, control, and communications

CA

course acquisition - GPS operational mode

CAA

Civil Airworthiness Authority

CAD

computer aided design

CAE

computer aided engineering

CAIV

cost as an independent variable

CAMU

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