RTCA DO-254, “Design Assurance Guidance For Airborne Electronic Hardware”, is a standard that used for certification of avionic systems. Recent version of the RTCA DO-254 is published in 2000. RTCA DO-254 contains design lifecycle requirements for avionic systems and provides guidance for reliable design of aircraft electronic hardware in terms of airworthiness.
According to RTCA DO-254 standard, all avionic hardware systems shall be classified in terms of Design Assurance Level (DAL) and this classification shall be made upon considering the results of regarding avionic hardware system’s failure: DAL-E classification means “No safety effect” on aircraft whereas DAL-A, which is highest critical level, means “Catastrophy” in the condition of regarding hardware’s failure.
As the level of DAL increas (From DAL-E to DAL-A), the number of objectives for the design and lifecycle of the hardware increases as well. However, it must be considered that RTCA DO-254 does not promise the system safety alone. In order to reach expected safety means for airworthiness, additional specifications and standards can be used too. Also the DAL level for the hardware systems depends on aircraft type, same hardware can have higher DAL level on another aircraft.
After the pre-supposition of DAL level, planning and design & development process for the regarding hardware shall be realized. In parallel to the design process, realization of verification & validation process is highly recommended.
RTCA DO-254 is commonly well-accepted standard among aviation authorities. The purpose of the document is providing the guidance for the documentation and lifecycle track of new hardware designs and development processes.
As the part of planning process, the fundamental documents below must be prepared by the hardware manufacturer company:
- Plan for Hardware Aspects of Certification (PHAC)
- System Requirements Document (SRD)
- Hardware Design Plan (HDP)
- Hardware Verification and Validation Plan (HVVP)
- Hardware Requirements Document (HRD)
- Hardware Design Data (HDD)
- Hardware Configuration Management Plan (HCMP)
- Hardware Accomplishment Summary (HAS)
RTCA DO-254 includes high-level requirements for documentation of the hardware’s certification process. RTCA DO-254 does not specify the design specifications of regarding hardware, it specifies the required efforts for the design reliability objectives. RTCA DO-254 makes easier the design rationales and verification processes for both system and sub-systems, it can be accepted that DO-254 is effective about reporting of problems and track of design / verification / validation processes.
RTCA DO-254 is a standard that aimed to be used for international aviation communities. In order to make usage of DO-254 standard easier, references to the national / local regulations and procedures in the standard document are minimized as far as possible.
During the certification process, all design and verification steps that indicated on plan documents must be fulfilled. Hereby, the required documents and results of specified tests must be presented to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification representatives or FAA / EASA approved local aviation authority representatives.These aviation authories provide certification for civil aviation projects around the world.
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