Optarion OptaLoad
Aircraft load managementThe challenge
As things currently exist, each A/C platform and weapon system has a load management solution of its own. This also requires a large number of applications and workstations, and great expense and effort must be devoted to eliminating hardware and software obsolescence.
Due to a lack of airworthiness-approved solutions, load management is often conducted using non-approved applications or with Excel worksheets. As a consequence, load masters are often personally liable.
Still, administrators tasked with defining aircraft configurations need to start with a clean A/C from which to instantiate load items and store aircraft configurations in their database. Load masters can then refer to these previously created configurations to set up mission-specific load scenarios.
Our solution
Meet OptaLoad – a stand-alone application based on OptaMission’s Weight & Balance. Its wealth of features includes necessary pre-flight calculation of load and trim, as well as shear and bending sheets, as a function of aircraft configuration and loading.
As the OptaLoad module is platform-independent due to virtualisation, changes in computer platforms are easy to carry out. It simplifies the handling of obsolescence by unifying the load-management solution across all A/C.
It is available as a stand-alone solution for any OS platform and can be integrated with the OptaMission module and the OptaLog module – for interaction with workflows and data sets relevant to flight planning and for alignment with the A/C configuration respectively.
Features and benefits
Features
- The OptaLoad module is available as a stand-alone weight and balance solution as well as an application for integration into a ground-station suite.
- Lightweight solution with cross-service capability for fixed and rotary-wing A/Cs
- Easy A/C load calculation via drag and drop
- Preparation of B-Form and transfer to relevant systems
- Allows upload of weight and balance data for onboard systems
- Lashing calculation
- Certified in accordance with RTCA-DO278A
Benefits
- Load items can be interactively defined and placed on aircraft layouts
- Calculates different weight values, e.g. basic weight, zero-fuel weight, take-off weight
- Aircraft configurations can be written to aircraft data media for automatic set-up of aircraft with the planned configuration
- Display of the centre of gravity enables the load master to compare the current configuration with aircraft limits
- Development following RTCA DO-278A eliminates the requirement for manual inspection and/or verification of the output
- Reduces load masters’ workloads
Product family
OPTARION mission systems and software solutions are designed for the end-to-end support of military aircraft operations with the goal of ensuring seamless, timely data flows to minimise the workload of all functions involved in all phases of the mission.
When producing these systems, HENSOLDT is responsible for the entire product life-cycle, from the design, development and production via integration and support during operation right through to training and all other aspects
of in-service support for the Bundeswehr.
