In June of this year, the ARINC 629 digital communication system began
supporting revenue service as the primary means of digital communicat
ion on the 777, Boeing's first fly-by-wire aircraft. This achievement
comes as a result of almost two decades of development effort at Boein
g and its suppliers. Increasing demands for information exchange betwe
en aircraft systems necessitated development of high-speed, high-relia
bility communication data buses. Development costs for such systems ar
e extensive, and reuse in future airplane designs is highly desirable.
ARINC 629, a working example of such a data bus development program,
has the capability to support applications beyond the 777 with extensi
ve benefits to be gained in development, integration and certification
costs. This paper begins with a brief working description of the ARIN
C 629 digital communication system, touching on both current mode and
fiber-optic implementations. It further describes the architecture uti
lized on the 777 and the validation effort required to support certifi
cation of a new data bus and new airplane systems architecture. Perfor
mance experience during the 777 flight test program and a brief in-ser
vice history are discussed and, finally, efforts in several fiber-opti
c in-service evaluation programs are presented.