Mentor Graphics, Aeroconseil partner to support DO-254 in China

WILSONVILLE, USA: Mentor Graphics Corp. and Aeroconseil, an established aeronautical services company, are combining forces to offer their complementary DO-254 solutions and services to the Chinese aviation market.

China is quickly emerging as a key player in the worldwide aerospace development domain, and likely to see great benefit from the streamlined process for DO-254 compliance provided by Mentor and Aeroconseil.

RTCA/DO-254 “Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware” is a standard that is currently being enforced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Chinese Airworthiness Authority of Certification (CAAC) and other worldwide aviation certification agencies.

The purpose of DO-254 is to ensure the safety of in-flight hardware. Compliance to DO-254 can be very costly. Keys to reducing this cost include proper knowledge and preparation, frequent communication with certification authorities, thorough planning, and choosing the right industry partners for consulting services and design automation tools."

“Mentor has been investing heavily in understanding and meeting the needs of the DO-254 market for the last several years,” said Michelle Lange, Mentor Graphics DO-254 Program Manager.

“Our industry involvement has enabled us to not only educate our customers but to tailor our solutions to the specific needs of DO-254 compliance. No other EDA vendor offers the breadth of solutions or the targeted features that Mentor can. We are pleased to see our efforts resulting in improved design efficiencies and program cost savings for so many companies.”

“We have been collaborating about DO-254 for many years in Europe, inside the DO-254 User Group and also for common customers,” said Lionel Burgaud, Aeroconseil Certification Business Development Manager.

“In this context, no point tool has a real added value if not inserted into development and verification strategies and processes that the customer must define and present to certification authorities. So far, Mentor is the only tool vendor company who addresses DO-254 as a global challenge. We are proud to be the DO-254 experts they recommend in China where we see many companies looking for good solutions and expertise for process improvement.”

“Aeroconseil experts recently helped us improve our processes to make them compliant with DO-254 objectives. Some of our activities required by DO-254 are performed using the Mentor tools, so we have practical experience with the added value that this partnership represents for a customer,” said Mrs. Tian Lirong, Professor at ACTRI (Aeronautics Computing Technique Research Institute).

“It is also good to have Aeroconseil training AcconSys engineers on DO-254, which will give customers like us the opportunity to have first class support for tool usage in our future DO-254 projects.”

AcconSys, Mentor Graphics’ Chinese distributor for over seven years, is leading the local effort to supply companies with solutions that aid with DO-254 compliance. “Over the last year, we have seen a number of companies struggling with questions of DO-254 compliance,” said Frank Xiao, Technical Director of AcconSys. “We are pleased that we can now offer our customers a broader solution that includes not only the industry’s best tools for DO-254 projects, but also the expert training and services of Aeroconseil.”

Mentor, Aeroconseil, and AcconSys are launching a series of DO-254-focused events in the fall, including training, seminars, and workshops.