Core capabilities

Systems and Safety

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Engineering that stands up to scrutiny

Stirling Dynamics’ Systems and Safety capability group covers the engineering, design and hazard assessment of complex systems across their full development lifecycle from first requirements through validation, verification and entry into service.

Full lifecycle coverage

engineering support from first requirements validation, through verification and entry into service, not just a single stage of the programme.

Grounded in ARP4754 and ARP4761

the same recognised framework applied consistently across aerospace and marine work.

Flexible engagement

work with us as a standalone consultancy, an embedded extension of your own team, or for discrete reviews of requirements, test plans, test reports and safety assessments.

Structured, standards-led safety analysis

FHA, FTA, CCA, CMA and PSSA/SSA methods applied at aircraft/platform, system and equipment level, producing evidence that stands up to independent scrutiny.

Genuine independence between design and sign-off

our Systems and Safety engineers are structurally separate from the Compliance and Certification team with formal certification authority.

Deep aerospace expertise, growing marine capability

strong eVTOL experience alongside expanding submarine systems and equipment-level safety expertise.

Our Team

From requirement to evidence

Getting a system right means understanding it at every level, from the requirement that first defines it, through to the evidence that proves it behaves safely once built. That’s the work of our Systems and Safety team: a dedicated capability group focused on the engineering, design and safety assessment of complex systems – kept structurally distinct from the team with formal authority to certify the finished product as airworthy.

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We work to a V-model development approach, moving down through aircraft, system and item requirements identification, into item design, before progressing back up through item, system and aircraft verification. Each level on the way down has a corresponding safety analysis:

Aircraft FHA, Preliminary Aircraft Safety Assessment and Aircraft Common Cause Analysis at the top
System Functional Hazard Analysis, Preliminary System Assessment and System Common Cause Analysis in the middle
System Fault-Tree Analysis, System Common Mode Analysis and System FMEA/FMES closer to the base (alongside the software and hardware development processes themselves).

Requirements are allocated downward, from aircraft to system to item, and validated at each stage before detailed design work begins.

Once the item is designed, verification and integration work climbs back up the same structure:

item verification and integration
system verification and integration
aircraft verification

Each stage confirms that what’s been built actually meets the requirements. It’s an iterative structure, not a one-way process. So programmes loop back through any stage as many times as the evidence demands – rather than treating requirements, validation, design and verification as a single pass through the lifecycle.

Certification

Full lifecycle, properly certified

Our hazard and safety analysis work runs across aircraft/platform, system and equipment levels – each building on the one below. At aircraft level, that means Functional Hazard Analysis, Aircraft Safety Assessment and Aircraft Common Cause Analysis. At system level, we apply System FHA, Preliminary System Safety Assessment, System Common Cause Analysis and System Fault Tree Analysis, alongside System Common Mode Analysis and finally the System Safety Assessment (SSA). Equipment- and component-level work mirrors the same structure. This is hardware- and systems-focused analysis, built to produce evidence that stands up to independent scrutiny – not a checklist exercise completed to satisfy a milestone.

Two aerospace recommended practices underpin almost everything this team does: ARP4754 covering the aircraft and system development process, and ARP4761 covering the aerospace safety assessment process specifically.

Our systems safety expertise extends fully into the defence marine domain, where submarine programmes demand rigorous compliance with UK MOD standards. We are well versed in Def Stan 00-56, the core safety management standard covering hazard identification, risk assessment, ALARP justification and the development of robust safety cases across the full system lifecycle.

Where safety-related software, firmware or programmable electronics such as FPGAs are involved, our engineers work to Def Stan 00-55, ensuring design integrity and safety assurance are built into every programmable element from the outset.

Beyond these core standards, our submarine systems engineering follows ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 lifecycle processes, and we draw on our broader safety-critical experience across the ARP4754A and IEC 61508 environments, where relevant to complex defence systems. We also understand the wider context of MOD safety policy and duty holder regulations.

This breadth gives our clients confidence that Stirling Dynamics can navigate the full framework underpinning safety assurance on UK submarine programmes – not just the software and systems layer in isolation.

Our systems and safety capability is available as a standalone consultancy, delivering assessments in their own right. Or it can be embedded within a larger aerospace or marine programme as your systems and safety function. Some engagements are narrower still: reviewing a test plan, checking a test report or working through a set of requirements before they progress further. However you need us involved, the underlying capability and rigour stay the same.

It’s worth being clear about scope too, since systems and safety work is often assumed to mean safety cases alone. It doesn’t. Our involvement spans requirements management, design reviews and configuration management – as well as safety analysis across the entire lifecycle from concept through to entry into service and subsequent modifications.

Our Systems and Safety team designs, assesses and builds the evidence base for a system’s safety. The formal authority to certify that system airworthy sits with a separate part of our business, our Compliance and Certification team, an independent EASA 21J Design Organisation with Compliance Verification Engineers authorised to approve and certify designs, airworthiness and safety for flight.

View our Compliance and Certification page

Keeping these functions structurally separate means the engineers who design and assess a system are never the same people signing it off, which is precisely the kind of independence that a rigorous certification process requires.

Independence

Aerospace-led, with submarine systems experience

Most of our systems and safety work sits in aerospace, including a growing share of eVTOL programmes. Alongside that, we support submarine-related systems and equipment-level safety work in the marine domain, an area of the business that continues to grow. This is systems- and equipment-level analysis, rather than whole-platform safety assessment.

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Capability Leads - Who you will be working with

Leigh Henson

Systems and Safety, Technical Manager

The Systems & Safety team consists of systems engineers and systems safety engineers with a wide variety of experience in the aerospace (civil and military) and marine (defence) industries. The team’s expertise covers the full design lifecycle, and our skills are used to support our customers’, and our own, product developments from concept, through qualification and certification and into service. We work at all levels (from platform/vehicle to system to equipment) and are experienced in R&D, new product development as well as modifications to existing vehicles, systems and equipment.

Bring Us Your Systems And Safety Challenges

Whatever stage your programme is at, and however you need us involved, get in touch and let’s talk through where systems engineering and safety assessment meet your specific requirements.

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Industries we support

Aerospace

Space

Pilot Controls & Simulators

Marine

Aviation

Our Services

Core Capabilities