Real Time GNU/Linux Tests Aircraft Engine

Linux Pipeline | News | Linux Used In Jet Engine Testing
RealTime baby!

The trend to adopt real-time versions of embedded Linux got a boost last week, when aircraft engine builder Pratt & Whitney revealed that it used a Linux-based software kernel to test its new F135 engine, which will power the U.S. military's Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

Following an announcement of the engine's first test run to full afterburner power last Monday (Feb. 2), Pratt & Whitney engineers said Linux, long considered ill-suited to real-time applications, played a key role in highly deterministic, real-time tests. They said that a Linux-based product known as RTLinuxPro served in the development and testing of software for the engine's full-authority digital electronic control, as well as handling "facility control" of test stands at the company's West Palm Beach, Fla., engine plant.