Viability of Rust for Avionics Software Development -- Current status and way forward

The trend towards more software functionality in less time is also true for avionics software. New development tools are needed to meet this trend, including the programming language. Rust provides language features such as extended memory safety and concurrency that are desired in avionics software. However, it must compete with an established software development ecosystem around C/C++. We propose requirements that a new programming language should meet to justify the effort of adoption in the aerospace industry and evaluate the current state of Rust accordingly. As part of the evaluation, we provide an example of how to add support for a new target to the Rust compiler for the RTEMS operating system used in the aerospace industry. Overall, Rust looks like a promising candidate for avionics software development and offers a gradual path of adoption, including qualification to aerospace standards.