Digital Avionics Handbook

About the Author

Cary R. Spitzer (deceased) earned degrees from Virginia Tech and George Washington University. After serving in the US Air Force, he joined the NASA Langley Research Center, where his work contributed to the first satellite-guided automatic landing of a passenger transport aircraft as well as the B-757 ARIES flight research platform. In 1993, he founded AvioniCon, Inc., an international avionics consulting firm. Active in the RTCA, AIAA, and IEEE, Cary received the Airline Avionics Institute Chairman’s Special Volare Award, AIAA 1994 Digital Avionics Award, and IEEE Centennial Medal and Millennium Medal. He held two US patents, published more than 40 papers, and authored several books on avionics.

Uma and Thomas Ferrell are cofounders of Ferrell and Associates Consulting, Inc., a certification and software safety consultancy serving the aerospace industry. They have over 50 years of combined experience in training, project management and recovery, certification project support, and related research, and are frequently sought out to help with new and novel technologies and methods where traditional certification approaches break down. Uma earned degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Bangalore University. She has held senior technical positions at Reliable Software Technologies, The MITRE Corporation, General Sciences Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation. She has also contributed to the engineering of large-scale, mission-critical scientific information systems for NASA, NOAA, and the FAA. Thomas earned degrees from Northern Illinois University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and George Mason University. He has held senior technical positions at Science Application International Corporation, Iridium LLC, and the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. Additionally, he has served as a private sector advisor to the FAA at ICAO and in various leadership capacities for a number of RTCA committees. Uma and Thomas have collaborated together on numerous industry efforts, aviation engineering courses, jointly authored papers and conference tutorials, and the FAA’s Service History Handbook (DOT/FAA/AR-01/116).