ALTEN India took full hardware-and-software ownership of a flight-safety-critical Crash Detection Unit, delivered to DO-254 Level A and DO-178C DAL A.

A European developer of an electrically powered, vertical take-off and landing personal air vehicle partnered with ALTEN India to design, develop and certify a Crash Detection Unit (CDU) — a flight-safety-critical line replaceable unit (LRU) responsible for identifying emergency landing scenarios and isolating the aircraft’s Energy Storage System.

Challenge:

• Safety-Critical From Day One: The CDU sits directly in the aircraft’s safety chain, so both hardware and embedded software needed certification at the highest assurance levels — DO-254 Level A and DO-178C DAL A.
• Fragmented Ownership Risk: Splitting hardware, software and certification across multiple vendors would have multiplied coordination risk on an aggressive eVTOL program schedule.
• Power Resilience Under Failure: The unit had to keep signalling flight and ground crew even after the aircraft’s primary power was lost.
• Dual-Channel Reliability: The system needed physical and electrical channel isolation to guarantee redundancy through a survivable emergency landing.

The ALTEN India Approach

• Design & Development: Designed a dual-channel LRU hosting acceleration/shock sensing, signal-interpretation electronics, and a CAN-based communication gateway to the aircraft’s avionics, including a 10-minute, 0.5 W holdup power path for emergency-isolation indication.
• Software & Algorithm: Developed the crash-detection algorithm and executed complete DO-178C DAL A verification & validation of the embedded software.
• Certification & Qualification: Ran hardware qualification to DO-254 Level A and AMC 20-152A, alongside DO-160G environmental and DO-326A cybersecurity certification, in parallel with development.
• Production Support: Carried certification liaison end-to-end and supported build and delivery of the initial production run.

Value Delivered

• Delivered a single-vendor hardware + software + certification package, removing the coordination overhead of managing separate suppliers for each discipline.
• Met a 24-month development-to-certified-production schedule for a first-of-its-kind eVTOL safety system.
• Supported production and delivery of the initial unit run, with the design ready to scale to full volume.