Last week, the giant Ukrainian aircraft An-225 Mriya found itself in the spotlight of foreign media and social networks. Users actively discussed its first commercial flight, on which the aircraft set off on May 10.
By the weekend, on May 15, Mriya had landed in Australia. The management of Australia's Perth Airport turned the event into a real show. The airport even set up special viewing areas for spectators who wanted to see the world's largest aircraft. RBC-Ukraine looked into what aviation software is capable of and who develops it in Ukraine.
What makes the An-225 special is not only its size, capacity and ability to fly long distances. The aircraft can only be flown by pilots of Antonov Airlines, a division of the state enterprise Antonov, which built Mriya.
The An-225 is a one-of-a-kind aircraft, and it was designed back in the 1980s.
The equipment and software on board differ from those used in modern aircraft. However, as the press service of the Antonov state enterprise told RBC-Ukraine, they comply with current international standards, which allows Mriya to fly to any country in the world. "Software is used on all modern aircraft today. Moreover, it is constantly upgraded in line with international standards and regulations," the Antonov press service said in a statement.
The state enterprise buys electronics and software for its aircraft from global manufacturers. For example, Siemens technologies are used in the production of the An-178, and in April this year Antonov signed a $17.7 million contract with the US company Honeywell International Inc. to supply avionics for the first An-132D aircraft.
Windows for an airplane
Modern aircraft are fitted with a huge number of sensors that analyze the aircraft's condition and position, the terrain map, weather conditions — in fact, everything the developer has envisaged. As Anton Marrero, member of the Supervisory Board of the IT consortium Intecracy Group, explains, aircraft effectively have an "electronic brain" responsible for 80–85% of their functions. For example, calculating and controlling the course, running the engines, choosing the optimal wing angle and much more, including takeoff and landing.
Softengi, a member of Intecracy Group, developed realistic high-definition imagery for the Boeing 747-8 passenger airliner and the Boeing Freighters cargo series. According to Marrero, the price of such development depends on the project itself. For example, his company recently developed software for an unmanned aerial vehicle control system for $400,000. But another task, even a similar one, may cost ten times as much. It all depends on the details.
Aircraft software developers are usually contractors to the companies that build airplanes and helicopters. That is, the manufacturer issues a technical specification, and the developer implements it.
But there are other examples too. Dassault, which makes the Mirage, Rafale and Falcon aircraft, is known as an IT company engaged in 3D modeling and aviation software development. Depending on the project, Dassault may bring in outside contractors or act as a contractor itself for other aircraft manufacturers, such as Boeing. When developing software, the company also works with other world-leading IT companies, such as IBM.
Besides Softengi, several other companies in Ukraine write software for Boeing, but they do not advertise it. Luxoft, which has a development office in Ukraine, speaks openly about its cooperation with Boeing. However, its Ukrainian division writes software for cars, while development for Boeing is carried out from Russia.
"It is safe to say that a modern aircraft is the result of collaboration between many companies located all over the world. And this is the right approach," Marrero believes.
Flights as real as life
Software in aviation is used not only on board aircraft. Airports, airfields, air traffic control centers, aviation security — the industry has a whole range of areas, and each of them needs its own software. Ukrainians have succeeded here too. For example, the Kyiv-based company MPS Development makes software for training pilots and engineers. These are so-called helicopter and airplane flight simulators.
Full-size cockpits are mounted on motion platforms together with spherical screens. In such cockpits, the air situation during takeoff, landing and flight is recreated as accurately as possible. The system makes it possible to practice abnormal and emergency situations that could never be tested in real conditions without putting the pilot's life at risk. The same goes for weather conditions. "All of this can be simulated so that pilots behave more responsibly in bad weather, in the event of a malfunction or in other non-standard situations, and thus avoid disasters," says Vitaliy Baranovsky, CEO of MPS Development.
The company makes equally realistic simulators for air traffic control centers — the screen fully reproduces the airspace and simulates the movement of aircraft.
What is more, the company has developed a flight control center for unmanned vehicles. These are automated operator workstations from which operators can assign tasks to unmanned aerial vehicles, assess the current situation and make adjustments.
The cobbler's children still have no shoes
For now, Ukrainian-made aviation software is in greater demand abroad than at home. "We once even showed our product to Arseniy Yatsenyuk. He was very surprised to learn that it was not used in Ukraine and even instructed officials to 'look into the matter'. They nodded, wrote something down and disappeared," says an employee of one of the Ukrainian companies developing aviation software.
As Valentyn Shtefan, business development manager at MPS Development, adds, airlines operating in Ukraine usually send their pilots abroad for training, where good simulators are available. Paradoxically, these are often simulators written in Ukraine.
Ukraine has a wealth of engineering talent as well as technical and aviation experts. It has strong universities, such as the Kharkiv Aviation Institute and the National Aviation University. "We have many highly qualified specialists in such a complex industry as aviation. We can offer the global community not only high-quality development but also high-quality expertise," says Baranovsky.
As Marrero adds, Ukrainian engineers can not only carry out tasks but also draw up technical specifications and make proposals on how a particular component should work. Developers from Asian countries, by contrast, mostly just write code without thinking about what the end result will be. Price and speed of delivery are also among the "advantages" of working with Ukrainians.
At the same time, Marrero notes that Ukrainian developers are not exactly welcomed with open arms on the global IT market. "To win an order for a good project, you need either to be part of an international group or to work with partners in Western markets," he says. Working directly is difficult because our country is still little known, and there is no promotion at the state level, unlike, say, Poland, which actively promotes itself as an IT nation.