Air Data Module is a component of the navigation system

Navigation system

A navigation system is a system that aids is navigation. Navigation systems may be entirely on board a vehicle or vessel, or they may be located elsewhere and communicate via radio or other signals with a vehicle or vessel, or they may use a combination of these methods.Navigation systems may be...

 on fly-by-wire

Fly-by-wire

Fly-by-wire is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires , and flight control computers determine how to move the actuators at each control...

 aircraft, such as Airbus A320

Airbus A320

The Airbus A320 family is a family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus Industrie.Airbus was originally a consortium of European aerospace companies, and is now fully owned by EADS. Airbus's name has been Airbus SAS since 2001...

 or later Airbus

Airbus

Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....

. Each unit converts pneumatic (air pressure) information from a Pitot tube

Pitot tube

A pitot tube is a pressure measurement instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity. The pitot tube was invented by the French engineer Henri Pitot Ulo in the early 18th century and was modified to its modern form in the mid-19th century by French scientist Henry Darcy...

 or a static port in to numerical information which is sent on a data bus. This pressure information is received and processed by the Air Data Reference (ADR) component of the Air Data Inertial Reference Unit

Air Data Inertial Reference Unit

An Air Data Inertial Reference Unit is a key component of the integrated Air Data Inertial Reference System , that supplies air data and inertial reference information to the pilots' Electronic Flight Instrument System displays as well as other systems on the aircraft such as the engines,...

 (ADIRU). This processed information is then sent to a display management computer(s) that present information on the cockpit's primary flight display

Primary flight display

A primary flight display or PFD is a modern aircraft instrument dedicated to flight information. Much like multi-function displays, primary flight displays are built around an LCD or CRT display device...

. Airspeed information is also sent to the flight computers and other electronics. Airspeed information is also sent to the autoflight subsystem (.e.g. flight management and guidance system).

Construction

The Air Data Module is a gas pressure sensor which converts mechanical forces created by gas pressure into digital signals that can be carried to the Air Data Reference unit. ADM generally have a maintenance bus and communication bus, and a connector on the housing for a pressurized gas line that is connected to the Pitot tube or static ports. The maintenance bus can be EIA-485 and the communication bus can be ARINC 429

ARINC 429

ARINC 429 is the technical standard for the predominant avionics data bus used on most higher-end commercial and transport aircraft. It defines the physical and electrical interfaces of a two-wire data bus and a data protocol to support an aircraft's avionics local area network.-Messages:ARINC 429...