Reverse-Engineering an FAA-Certified HF COMM Control Unit for Honeywell
How AEROMAOZ became the preferred supplier of the HF COMM control unit for Boeing commercial aircraft.
Overview
The HF COMM control unit is a line replacement unit (LRU) installed inside Boeing commercial aircraft. It gives flight crews control over the aircraft’s high-frequency communication system through an illuminated panel, a display screen, push buttons, and rotary selection knobs, all managed by embedded software.
The product is manufactured for Honeywell, which supplies it to Boeing as the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and to the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) market. AEROMAOZ is now Honeywell’s preferred supplier for this unit, having replaced an incumbent that had held the contract for over fifteen years.
The Challenge
For over fifteen years, Honeywell had sourced the LRU from a different supplier. Honeywell needed a new manufacturing partner to better support its supply chain requirements. However, there was a complication: there were no drawings, specifications, or design documentation for the unit.
Honeywell’s representatives arrived with only the physical control unit itself. Everything AEROMAOZ needed to know about the product’s form, function, and internal design had to be derived from the unit on hand.
Reverse Engineering and Certification
Over approximately a year and a half, AEROMAOZ’s engineering team carried out a full reverse engineering of the control unit, disassembling and analyzing its illuminated panel, display, push buttons, rotary knobs, and software integration to reconstruct a complete Form-Function-Fit document.
Reconstructing the hardware was only part of the task. To ensure the unit is approved for flight, AEROMAOZ carried out the qualification testing required to secure approval from the CAAI, Israel’s civil aviation authority, before submitting the file through the CAAI to the FAA.
One month after the qualification testing was complete, the FAA approval came through. The full path, from reverse engineering the original unit to receiving FAA certification, was completed within eighteen months. The product is DAL C compliant.
The Result
AEROMAOZ has now manufactured the HF COMM control unit as Honeywell’s preferred supplier for the past three years. The program stands as a demonstration of AEROMAOZ’s combined engineering and manufacturing capabilities, spanning mechanical and electrical design of illuminated panels and displays, integration of electromechanical controls and software, culminating with the qualification and certification work needed to bring an aviation LRU from a bare physical sample to FAA-approved production.
“This project captures what AEROMAOZ does best: taking on a problem that looks unsolvable on paper and solving it with professional engineering and substantial commitment, from reverse engineering through FAA certification, in eighteen months.”
Ilan Wilf, CEO, AEROMAOZ