Flight Testing and Certification

Marinvent Corporation offers a turn-key systems certification flight test service. The company has achieved numerous first-time Canadian and FAA certifications for systems including:

• Autopilot modifications
• Electronic Flight Instrument Systems (EFIS)
• Flight Management Systems (FMS)
• Approach-certified GPS installations
• Multi-function displays
• Terrain and Traffic Warning Systems (EGPWS and TCAS I/II)

These certifications have been achieved with the following resources:

• Two unique research aircraft with a dedicated support mission simulator
• A Transport Canada Designated Airworthiness Representative (DAR) test pilot
• Test engineers with leading-edge experience in airborne systems and software certification

Marinvent-derived STCs cover aircraft ranging from the Piper Cheyenne and Piaggio Avanti light turboprops to the Eurocopter and Boeing 747 Classic. Honeywell Aerospace has entrusted Marinvent with the certification of its ground-breaking EPIC CDS/R cockpit retrofit for the Piaggio Avanti. Similarly, Marinvent recently certified the ACSS T2CAS Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning and TCAS2 System for the Piaggio Avanti. Marinvent has exclusive marketing rights for both of these systems, through its partner T-G Aviation of Hamilton, Ontario.

Marinvent can participate at any level of your certification program to streamline your planning, flight testing, certification activities, or human factors research. Supplementing our own expertise are close working relationships with industry leaders including: ACSS, Garmin Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace, Jeppesen Sanderson, NASA, Rockwell Collins, and Universal Avionics.

Test Aircraft and Simulator

Marinvent's airborne test-beds were developed specifically for human factors and systems certification. Over twenty person-years of planning and testing have resulted in aircraft with unparalleled capabilities in these fields. The aircraft also incorporate a unique "come as you are" data collection capability which allows crew members to interact with the aircraft's data acquisition systems using laptop computers.< This allows each test team member to leave the aircraft with a tailored data set for post-processing without requiring specialized applications or hardware

NASA Synthetic Vision Testing

Marinvent Corporation was selected by Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc. to plan and conduct all of its general aviation NASA Synthetic Vision flight testing. Over a hundred hours and 500 test points have been flown in two separate programs yielding a wealth of human-factors data. The photos and video below give some impression of these cutting edge activities.

Download a video of "extreme" Synthetic Vision testing. (requires DivX)

Cheyenne "Quick-Change" Cockpit

Marinvent's Piper Cheyenne incorporates a unique co-pilots' instrument panel which is pre-configured with all available data interfaces. This allows very rapid reconfiguration between radically different cockpit layouts. Each layout is certified upon initial installation, and thereafter may be reinstalled in the field with only a logbook entry and functional check. This unique capability allowed Marinvent to conduct NASA Synthetic Vision System (SVS) testing using different aircraft configurations between morning and afternoon flights. The aircraft was operated under a normal category certificate of airworthiness throughout these trials owing to this design feature. The photos below show the versatility of the Cheyenne's quick-change cockpit.

SVS configuration	FMS configuration

Other features of the Cheyenne test-bed include:

• A glass cockpit with 8 LCD displays and state-of-the-art avionics.
• A distributed data architecture supporting eight ARINC 429 channels, and a back-up serial interface
• Five test stations with 115v and 14v smoothed power provisions
• Dual digital air data and AHRS systems
• Multi-channel digital cockpit audio and video with overlaid aircraft state information
• A 10.5" high Dzus rack in the center instrumentation panel for test equipment
• Four levels of test-system electrical protection

Download a paper (PDF) presented at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) describing the unique attributes of the Cheyenne airborne test-bed.