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The TechnologicalEvolution of Inertial Reference Systems
Charles McClary, Navigation Staff Engineer
Honeywell Inc. Air Transport Systems
ABSTRACT
The laser gyro based Inertial Reference System (IRS) has become the
standard for transport aircraft since introduced on the Boeing 767/757
in September 1982. Integration of the air data function, first
introduced into production on the Airbus A.320 in 1988, produced the
Air Data Inertial Reference Systems (ADIRS). Honeywell has
evolved the technology through a series of innovations that have led
the industry:
1982-HG 1050 10 MCU IRS
0 1988 - HG 1150 10 MCU ADIRS
e 199I-Advanced ARINC 704 4 MCU IRS/ADIRS
1995-HG 2060 Fault-Tolerant ADIRU
This paper is a description of characteristics and performance of each
of these IRS/ADIRS as examples of the technology evolution and
projects this evolution to arrive at the probable configuration of
inertial systems of the future. In addition, the benefits to the user
community in terms of performance, reliability and operating costs
are reviewed.
10 MCU IRS - HG1050
The Honeywell HG1050 10 MCU IRS has evolved through continual
improvement to provide unsurpassed reliability and navigation
performance for commercial air transport IRS (See Table 1) [I].
These advances have been made possible by the increased use of
micro electronics and improved manufacturingprocesses.
Table 1 - 10 MCU IRS Technology Evolution
Ring Laser Gyro
The Honeywell Ring Laser Gyro (RLG) has been the major
contributor to reliability and performance. RLG development at
Honeywell began over 30 years ago. Math models have been
developed to optimize each of the major components. The block and
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cavity have been designed for stability and low loss. The gas mixture
and pressure have been optimized for high gain. The cathode has
been designed for long life. The path length control and mirror
characteristics have been designed for stability and long life. The
result of the optimized RLG design is accuracy, stability and
producibility with high design margins, high yields and low cost.
Continuous process improvement has been applied throughout the
production of over 60,000 Honeywell RLGs. Automation and high
volume process control have been applied to provide improved
cleanliness and repeatability. The combinationof optimized design
and continual process improvements have resulted in the most
accurate, most reliable, and longest life RLG available today. The
Honeywell 10 MCU IRS has gained wide acceptance on air transport
aircraft and has provided unsurpassed reliability (See Table 2).
Table 2 - 10 MCU IRU/ADIRU Reliability
Boeing 73717471757n67 (1) I 27 1,247 21,048
Boeing 747-400 (1) 5 98 47,742
Airbus A300-600/A310 (2) 8 131 20,778
Airbus A320 (2) 13 259 26,834
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 (2) 20 I 1 127 179,678
Notes:
(1) 36 month average
(2) 12 month average
ADVANCED ARINC 704 - 4 MCU IRSlADIRS
Customer expectations for smaller size and reduced weight resulted in
the developmentof the Honeywell Advanced ARINC 701 4 MCU
IRS. The 4 MCU IRS has lower power for reduced demand for
cooling air, fewer parts for increased reliability and enhanced BITE
and fault storage for improved operability. This IRS was first
certified in October 1991.
In general, an IRS consists of the main unit, the Inertial Reference
Unit (IRU), and separate asplay and mode control units. An ADIRS,
with integrated air data functions, consists of the main unit, the Air
Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU), remote Air Data Modules
(ADMs) to sense pitot and static pressure, and display and mode
control units. An aircraft installation requires either two or three
IRU/ADIRU depending upon the functional availabilityrequirement.
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The key to the 4 MCU IRU (See Figure I) is the Honeywell GG1320 sensors and Total Air Temper&ure (TAT) sensors (Set: Figure 2). In
RLG. Development of this sensor began in 1985, based on the highly this configuration, the FT/ADlRU provides fail-operational/fail-
successful GG1342 design, which is standard on all Honeywell 10 operationaVfai1-safeperformance and the SAARU provides 100%
MCU IRU applications. The design team took advantage of several monitored, fail-safe performance.
process and technology changes to scale down the larger;GG1342,
while still maintaining navigation performance well within 2 NMPH. Table 3 - 4 MCU IRS/ADIR!i Certifications
-Current
-. --
Aircraft Cortifield Coinlllguration
Fundamentalto the design is the ovemding ground rule to BAe 10011 October 1991 IRS
keep the block suspension and laser cavity as simple possible, -
Fokker 100 November 1991 IRS
which has a payback in long term reliability and stability. For Citation \/I1 June 1992 IRS
example, we have chosen to retain the GG1342 dither design because Falcon 50 July 1992 IRS
it is simple, reliable and contributesdirectly to the long life of the Falcon 9130 November 1992 IRS
Citation 111 December 1992 IRS
gyro, rather than complicatethe block with an alternate design Gulfstream IV January 1993 IRS
approach. Over 8,000 GG1320 gyros have been delivered to BAe 146 April 1993 IRS
commercial and military customers in more than 7 years of Canadair CL601 June 19!3:3 IRS
production. AVRO R.1 June 1993 IRS
Airbus A:330 October 1993 AD1R
Dornier DO328 October 1993 IRS
Airbus A340 June 1994 AD1 RS
Airbus A321 March 1994 AD1RS
Douglas MD90 November 1994 IRS
Falcon 2000 -
Fall 19!34 IRS
Fokker 710 -
Fall 19!34 IRS
-Airbus
-. A:320 March - 1995
--- --
AD1RS
-Planned
-.- ---
Aircraft
Gu1fstrea.mV October 1996
Airbus A:319 1996
Ciation I( 1997
Global Express 1997 IRS
Boeing 737-700 -
1997

FT/ADIRU Architecture

The FIYADIRU intemal haraware architectureis deegned to isolate

hardware failures to one module, called Fault Containment Module
(FCM), in a set of redundant modules. The set being called a Fault
Containment Area (FCA) (Sa: Figure 3).

Physical and electrical separation is used between FCMs to provide

isolation so that 110 single event or component failure can cause failure
of more than one FCM (See Figure 4). Note that each FCA contains
Figure 1 - 4 MCU IRU one more FCM bhan that required for complete fail-opxational
performance, defiined to be lolllo monitored operation after the fwst
failure.

The 4 MCU IRU has been expanded to the ADIRU cordigurationby

the addition of air data computationsin the IRU and remote air data
modules for pressure sensing. In these two configurations,the 4
MCU IRU/ADIRU bas been applied to a wide range of ,aircraft(See
Table 3).

FT/ADIRS - HG 2060

The Fault-Tolerant Air Data Inertial Reference System (FUADIRS)

architectureis the most advanced air data referencdinertial reference
in commercial production today [2]. The system is based on skew
redundant inertial sensor concepts and fault tolerant electronics and
processing. The FUADIRS consists of the primary unit the Fault-
Tolerant Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (lT/ADIRU) and the
Secondary Air Data Attitude Reference Unit (SAARU) along with the
associated remote Air Data Modules(ADMs),Angle of Attack (AOA)
Figure 4 - FUADIRU Physicdl Layout

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ARINC 629
DATA
BUSES

Figure 2 - FUADIRS Architecture

ARlNC 629 Busses

/Gyro FCA

Electronlcs

6 FCM

Accelerometer FCA / \+28 VDC

15 VDC
DClDC

_I I I ,

6 FCM
3 FCM
i
FCA - Fault Containment Area
FCM - Fault Containment Module

Figure 3 - FT/ADIRU Internal Architecture

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Operating Cost Study

Thus on a typical commercial aircraft the FT/ADIRU can dispatch
with a failure in each FCA. This feature provides a type of fault
tolerance called deferred maintenanceso that the airline can schedule
the FWADIRU maintenancerather than perform immediate
replacement that would likely cause a flight delay or flight
cancellation.
FT/ADIRU Bene@
The FWADIRU provides unique architecturalfeatures with inherent
benefits.
The hexad, skew redundant sensor architectureprovides the
functional equivalent of four(4) conventional sensor triads (12
gyros and 12 accelerometers)using only six (6) gyos and six (6)
accelerometers(See Figure 5).
The fault-tolerantelectronics architectureprovider; fail-
operationaVfai1-operationaVfai1-safeperformance with a
minimum of electronics.
Sensor and electronics fault detection, isolation and
reconfigurationprovides complete redundancy management;user
systems require no fault detection, isolation or signal selection.
In order 1.0 study the cost bertefits to airlines of the FT ADIRU, a
model airline with the ~followimgcharacteristicswas 'constructed.
36 wide txniy airplane fleet
25 line statmns on 3 conlinent3 worldwide
4000 flight hours per year per rurplane
20 year fleei life
2,880,000 total arcraft hours in 20 years
333 flight hour interval (30 days) average defened
FT/ADIRU maintenance
The equipment compared is for a typical wide body primary
installation of 3 Xnertiad Reference Units (IRUs) and 2 Digital Air
Data Coinputera (DADCs). The improved primary system consist of
the FTIPDIRU and 6 .Air Data Modules (ADMs). For the study,
historical data was used as much as possible to assign Mean-Time-
Between-Failure(MTBF) andl Mean-Time-Between-Removal
(MTF3R)i for the various Line Replaceable Units (LIUJs)
The most significant driver for reduced equipment ri:lated airline
operating costs 'IS the deferred maintenance provided by the fault
tolerance of the FUADIRU. First, since the FWADIRU can dispatch
with faults, costs due to dispa.tch delays and cancellations are reduced
to one-sixth the costs of a conventional system. Second, the spares
and spares inventory costs are reduced to less than one-half,because a
central spares location can ble used rather than dispming a much
larger number of spares at linie stations (See Figure 6).

8 50%
W
F 40%
4
IC 30%

20%

0% &-.------- 'I--
PRESENT TliCHNOLOGY FAL LT-TOLERANT
SYSTEM TYPE

3 Figure 16 - MaintenanceC0:jlS

Another strong driver for olserating cost reduction is the marked

reduction in relinovals due to the increase in system reliability (See
Figure 7).

700

600
Figure 5 - Inertial Sensor Assembly
500

The features provide unique benefits to airline custon1us. I? 400

B
300
0 Reduced initial cost due to reduced number
of sensors required.
Reduced repair costs due to overall reduced number of parts.
Reduced spares, test equipment and maintenance: training.
Reduced operating costs in the form of reduced tklay,
cancellationand rescheduling costs provided by deferred I IADIRU DADC ADM
IRll
maintenance.
Figure 7 - Removals
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The combined effect of the defemed maintenance of the FUADIRU

and the reduced removals due to increased reliability is to reduce the
airline system maintenance cost to approximatelyone-half of a
conventional system (See Figure 6).

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Laser gyro based inertial reference systems have been continuously

improving since introduction on Boeing 767 in 1982. Improvement
has been on two levels. First, a given design has improved.
Examples are the 10 MCU IRU weight, reduced from 43 pounds to
39 pounds primarily through shrinking electronics and 10 MCU IRU
navigation performance,largely due to improved gyro performance
(See Figure 8). Second, the three generations of inertial reference
systems described in this paper have each been an improvement over
the previous generation. Examples of this improvement are reliability,
weight and operation without cooling air (See Table 4). Note also
that these improvementshave been accomplished while maintaining
performance at required levels (See Figure 8).

Table 4 - Continuous Improvement Figure 9 - GG1320 Gyro

The HG 2050 exploits advances in electronic miniaturizationto

reduce the number of subassembliesto a minimum. This reduces
interconnects and provides a spare card slot for functional growth
(See Figure 10).

The HG 2050 features a reduced parts count for low weight, low
power and increased reliability.

Weight - the Honeywell HG 2050 weighs less than 18 Ib.

Power - because of a conservative power dissipation, the HG2050
can operate without cooling air at an ambient temperature of 40
degrees Celsius for periods up to 18 hours.
Reliability - the mature MlBF is expected to be improved by a
is
767 FokBer 100 factor of 1.2 over previous units.
16

14

12
A340 ~

POWER SUPPLY
$ 06'
08
, I + , I

/ TRANSIENT SUPPRESSION
/ SPARE ISA

0.4

02

1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1888 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

Figure 8 - IRS/ADIRS 95% Navigation Accuracy

THE FUTURE - HG2050 4 MCU IRYADIRS

1 ' SENSOR
IR PROCESSOR
AQR PROCESSOR

The latest in the Honeywell family of IRUlADIRU is the next

generation HG2050 4 MCU IRU. The HG2050 is based on a
GG1320 gyro with integrated gyro electronics; the high voltage power Figure 10 - HG2050 Layout
supply and all gyro control loops are within the gyro case (See Figure
9) 131.

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CONCLUSION

, Technology and architecturaladvances in ring laser gyro,

strapdown, inertial reference systems,through evolutioin,
continue to provide to the airlines increasedbenefits in1
the form of reduced weight, increased system reliability
and reduced operating costs. New inertial system
architectureconcepts provide fault tolerance and deferred
maintenance which in turn provide reduced spares,
reduced spare inventory costs and markedly reduced ccsts
that result from departure delays and cancellations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author wishes to thank James Walborn for providing

the operating cost study portion of this paper.

REFERENCES

P. Fenner and C. McClary, “The 7571767

Inertial Reference System (IRS).” Fourteenill
Joint System Data Exchange for Inertial
Systems, November 1980

M. Sheffels, “A Fault-Tolerant Air Data/Inertial

Reference Unit,” DASC 1992 Conference
Proceedings

J. Killpatrick,“The Dig-gyro TM” presented

at the IEEE Plans Conference, LasVegas,
Nevada, April 1 1- 15, 1994

This paper has not been published

elsewhere, except as noted on the title page,
and it is hereby offered for exclusive
publication except that Honeywell reserves the
right to reproduce and have reproi3uced tlne
material in whole or in part for its own use
and where Honeywell is obligated by contract
for whatever use is required thereunder.

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