Toulouse, France. HENSOLDT has strengthened its long-standing collaboration with Airbus by winning a new contract to supply a Functional Integration Bench (FIB) based on its ALYSA® solution. The contract is part of Airbus’ ZEROe project, which aims to develop demonstrators of hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035.
The integration bench supplied by the French subsidiary of the HENSOLDT Group will play a key role in validating the control and monitoring system for the hydrogen engine to be used on the Airbus A380 testbed aircraft. This system is essential for guaranteeing the performance and safety of hydrogen-powered engines, a key technology for decarbonising air transport.
Designed at the HENSOLDT Nexeya France site in Toulouse, this test bench will incorporate the ALYSA® real-time software core and various acquisition cards for connection to the prototype ECUs. Designed to support the integration and validation of critical systems, the ALYSA® functional and modular test and simulation solution will be used from the design phase onwards by the Airbus design office to test and validate the various items of equipment that will make up the control and monitoring system, thereby enabling technical risks to be reduced from the earliest stages of the project thanks to an advanced simulation environment.
In this way, the integration bench will gradually be enriched by real hardware elements, replacing the simulated models, and will play a crucial role in the laboratory tests prior to the first flight of the test aircraft. The final objective is to provide Airbus with the results needed to obtain a ‘flight permit’ for the hydrogen demonstrator.
Designed to support the integration and validation of critical systems in a variety of sectors, including aeronautics, rail and defence, ALYSA® enables equipment to be tested and validated throughout its entire life cycle.
“This project represents a new stage in the fruitful collaboration between Airbus and HENSOLDT in France, which has lasted for more than 30 years. With more than fifty integration benches already in service at Airbus, this latest success confirms the expertise of HENSOLDT Nexeya France and the strategic importance of its ALYSA® software in tomorrow’s aeronautical innovations,” says Aliette Quint, President of HENSOLDT Nexeya France.
The integration bench is scheduled for delivery to the Airbus site at Saint-Martin-du-Touch in 2025.
