The report includes both military and commercial aircraft including fighter aircraft, transport aircraft, UAVs and commercial aircraft. Analysts estimates the total fiber optic market for these two markets at $306 million in 2009, growing to $775 million in 2015. This increase in total market is due to a number of factors including greater acceptance of this new technology driven by the rapid acceptance and developments in the telecommunications field. Other factors include the need to reduce size and weight, the need for higher bandwidth, and the opening of the UAV market. Despite the desire to use more fiber in aircraft, specific military and aerospace requirements present major barriers. These include the unavailability of COTS, lack of hardened components for the military and aerospace environment, available test and maintenance procedures and the availability of low cost, easy to use test and measurement equipment.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Introduction

    Approach

    E.0 Executive Summary

    1.0 History of Fiber Optics in Avionics for Military and Commercial Aircraft

    2.0 Advantages of Fiber Optics on Existing Copper Media and Trends in Aircraft Construction

    3.0 Current Fiber Optics in Aircraft

    4.0 Potential weight savings using fiber optics in aircraft

    5.0 Special Characteristics of Aircraft Wiring

    6.0 Market for Fiber Optics in Aircraft

    7.0 Military and Commercial Systems that Have Fiber Optic Data Links Installed

    8.0 Fiber Optics in Commercial Aircraft

    9.0 Forecasts of Military and Commercial Aircraft and Fiber Optics Markets

        9.1 Introduction

        9.2 Fighter aircraft

            9.2.1 Fiber optics market in fighter aircraft

            9.2.2 Major purchases of fiber optics for fighter aircraft

            9.2.3 Fiber-optic components for fighter aircraft

        9.3 Military transports

            9.3.1 Fiber optics in military transports

        9.4 Commercial aircraft

            9.4.1 Fiber optics in commercial aircraft

        9.5 Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

            9.5.1 Fiber optics UAV market

        9.6 Summary of the market for fiber optics in avionics

    10.0 Military Avionics R&D Programs

        10.1 DARPA

        10.2 Air Force

        10.3 Navy SBIR Programs

        10.4 WDM-LAN

    11.0 Fiber Used in Military and Aerospace Applications

        11.1 Multimode Fibers (MMF)

        11.2 Single-mode Fibers (SMF)

        11.3 Plastic Optical Fibers (POF)

    12.0 Bandwidth Requirements

    13.0 Space Avionics

    14.0 Fiber-optic Sensors

    15.0 Contacts

        15,1 Government Avionics and Aerospace Fiber Optics Contacts

        15,2 Military and Aerospace Fiber Optics OEM Systems Contractors

        15,3 Fiber Optics Avionics Component Suppliers

        15,4 Military and Aerospace Contractors and Subsystems Suppliers

        15,5 Commercial Aircraft Carrier Contacts

        15,6 Major Contacts in Military Contract Research Organizations

        15,7 Military and Commercial Avionics Fiber Optics Standards Bodies

        15,8 Fiber Optics Aerospace Training Organizations

        15.9 Universities

LIST OF FIGURES

    Comparison of Copper and Different Fiber Optic for Aircraft Wiring
    Example of Aircraft Fiber-optic Data Link
    Markets for fiber optics in aircraft and aerospace vehicles
    Total Fiber Optics Market in Military and Commercial Avionics
    (in millions $)
    - Total Fiber Optics Market in Commercial Avionics (in millions $)
    Production Units
    Fiber Optics Market (in millions $)
    Fiber Optics Test and Measurement Market (in millions $)
    List of Aircraft with Fiber Optics
    Estimated fighter aircraft production (units)
    Etimated fighters value of productions ($ billions)
    Market value estimate for fiber optics elements in fighters ($ millions)
    Market share of fiber optics elements in fighters
    Fiber-optic components used in fighter aircraft
    Estimate of military transport aircraft productions (units)
    Estimate of military transport aircraft productions ($ billions)
    Estimated market value of fiber-optic elements in military transports
    Fiber optics market by military aircraft supplier (%)
    Fiber-optic elements market share for military transports (%)
    Market estimate for commercial aircraft productions (units)
    Market estimate for productions value for commercial aircraft
    ($ billions)
    Estimated market for fiber optics in commercial aircraft ($ millions)
    Market share of commercial aircraft fiber optics suppliers (%)
    Fiber optics market share by element (%)
    Major UAV manufacturers market share (%)
    UAV market share by region
    UAV market share for major vendors (%)
    UAV production (units)
    UAV production ($ millions)
    Fiber components distribution
    Market for fiber elements in UAVs
    Market estimate for fiber optics in avionics applications