More economical avionics development-is there a better way?

Today's avionics projects are regulated by many rules in an effort to increase safety. As technology marches forward, civil aviation typically lags a step behind to assure that full consideration is given to safety critical aspects of the new technology. Other industries, including those regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are often more progressive in adopting such technology. Unfortunately, there are no official guidelines for using and transferring the knowledge already being employed in other industries to the aviation industry. In some cases, the civil aviation industry misses opportunities by not adopting commercial best practices from other industry sectors. Broadening our horizon to take advantage of work done by other industry sectors could be a major step in economically keeping up with new technology. This paper provides a overview of software and system development standards and approval practices from a variety of industry sectors for the purposes of highlighting alternative approaches.