Low-cost Avionics

Traditional spinning wheel mechanical gyroscopes in aircraft were great in their day, but they were big, heavy, expensive and, like all things that spin on bearings, they needed routine maintenance. Not the sort of device you want in your aeroplane unless you have no alternative.  Well, now there is an alternative - Silicon Sensing's CRS range of single-axis solid state angular rate sensors.  These tiny gyros are made from micro-machined silicon and have no moving parts.  By using the coriolis force effect, the CRS gyros can accurately detect the smallest change in angular motion.

CRS05 has been selected by manufacturers of commercial avionic instruments for small aircraft because of its performance, reliability and low cost.  Typical applications include AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference Systems), artificial horizons and autopilots.  Low bias drift and excellent scale factor performance characteristics make it the gyro of choice for such applications.

The availability of such high quality, yet affordable, gyros from Silicon Sensing has enabled small and large aircraft instrument companies to grow their business significantly over the last two to three years.  Take TruTrak for example.  TruTrak is a small privately owned company in Springdale, Arkansas, manufacturing their own range of instruments and autopilots for experimental aircraft. "Silicon Sensing's CRS gyros have helped transform TruTrak business from the realm of 'hobbyist' to manufacturing over 200 instruments per month, inside three years.  CRS05 is an amazing little gyro." -  Co-founder of TruTrak, Chuck Bilbe.  And some of the bigger companies in the aviation sector such as Garmin have selected CRS sensors.