MEMS is a new technology, and it is not mature enough to be used in a cockpit.
It suffers from long term reliability problems due to wear and friction. Until
it is mass manufactured, it won't be cheap either. But it is an attractive
alternative to mechanical gyros. However, it must first prove itself in
consumer electronics and automobiles. Perhaps then it can be envisaged for
aircraft use.
There are other proven alternatives, such as fiber-optic and laser gyros. But
they are all very expensive systems.
"hedley brown" <hedley@hedleybrown.flyer.co.uk> wrote:
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I quote New Scientist: tiny chip-sized micro-electromechanical systems include
gyroscopes, tilt sensors and accellerometers which can be bought off the shelf
and plugged in , made in a similar way to silicon chips so they're cheap. Now
why do I have to have a bloody great suction pump and a tonnage of whirling
dervishes in my dashboard just to get the same information? I could now
surely put my flight simulator software to good use and have an image on my
palm-top in the cockpit just like the one on my play-screen, which , with
input from the Garmin, is topographically correct and visually corresponds to
the attitude, speed, etc of the aircraft. All for a few bob. What's wrong with
the world - the technology exists and is cheap and we haven't got it.
Woe!.....h
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