en.Wedoany.com Reported - Russia's State Research Institute of Aviation Systems (GosNIIAS) has completed an upgrade to its "Electronic Bird" hardware-in-the-loop integration facility, aimed at supporting advanced testing of the MC-21 passenger aircraft's avionics systems.

The upgraded facility adds a new radio frequency system simulator, capable of simulating the operation of aircraft surveillance and navigation equipment prior to actual flight tests. The platform provides an integrated test environment for the validation of avionics solutions, supporting aircraft development and certification activities.

The upgraded system enables engineers to simulate target trajectories, surveillance information, transponder responses, digital data streams, and radio frequency signals. It can reproduce complex operational scenarios including high-density traffic environments, multi-target tracking, and constrained approach and departure profiles.

GosNIIAS is using the facility to develop and evaluate collision avoidance technologies based on the Airborne Collision Avoidance System X (ACAS-X) concept. The institute presented its research methods and experimental architecture for next-generation navigation and surveillance systems at the Fourth International Interdepartmental Scientific and Technical Conference on Space Technology.

The "Electronic Bird" facility is currently also used for testing the domestically produced avionics suite for the MC-21-310 aircraft. GosNIIAS and Yakovlev are conducting ground certification tests using the upgraded system to support the expansion of the aircraft's type certificate.

This upgrade is part of the broader integration and validation efforts for the Russian-configured MC-21-310, which is undergoing certification activities before entering commercial service.