Unfortunately, the aerospace industry is not compatible with that
plan. To gain approval for installing a new piece of hardware/software
in a commercial airplane requires an exhaustive certification process
(do a google search on DO178B certification). For software, this
means requirement and design documents, gazillions of test cases,
code coverage analysis, etc... for every line of code including the
libraries and tools. This certification process is often 10 times
the effort of writing the software. Obviously, this creates an
incentive to keep the software as lean as possible (i.e. no bloated
OO tool-kits). It is interesting to note that a few embedded
software companies make there living selling very expensive
pre-certified operating systems exactly because it is such a pain
in the *ss to go through the certification process.
It is also why MS software will have a hard time finding its way onto
flight critical systems. You first of all would need access to the
source code, the time and money to put it through the certification
process (ouch), and the ability to make changes to the code base
when components fail certification. This is why Linux is much more
popular for many embedded applications. The source code is available
without expensive license fees, and the modular unix-like design
makes it easier to trim down to the bare minimums.
I'm currently working on an embedded computer system for planes
like the 777 (google on Boeing EFB). Unlike earlier fixed function
instruments, this unit is designed to have new applications loaded on
it over time. Of course any flight critical apps still need to go
through certification, and this would preclude a purely MS Windows
solution. The answer was to design a Linux/Windows hybrid; basically
two computers on one board with the Linux side acting as the firewall
between Windows and the airplane. Flight critical apps (like anything
that shows a moving map) are required to run on the Linux side. It
is actually a rather unique design.
http://www.aviationtoday.com/cgi/av/show_mag.cgi?pub=av&mon=0903&file=0903efb.htm
Cheers!