Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Briere
Briere
Dominique BRIERE
EADS AIRBUS SA
Route de Bayonne 316
F- 31059 Toulouse
Tel: +33.5.61.938.882 Fax: +33.5.61.939.410
[email protected]
From the A320 first flight (the first member of the family) on February 1988, more than 20
millions of flight hours aircraft have been cumulated by about 150 airlines operating the 1635
delivered Airbus fly by wire aircraft (reference: end of august 2000). These figures are rapidly
growing, delivery rate being more than 20 aircraft/month for the short/medium range
A319/A320/A321 and more than 6 aircraft/month for the long range A330/A340 family.
So, Airbus fly-by-wire is now a wide family that may be considered as a legitimate reference
for transport aircraft flight control system. Its main characteristics are recalled hereafter:
The following new aircraft are under development and will be soon added to the family, their
first flight being scheduled in 2001 and entry into service in 2002:
A318, the shorter "single aisle". No change on fly-by-wire system definition, except software
adaptation for control law adjustment
A340 500/600: they are derived from the actual A340, but with longer fuselage and larger
wing area in order to extend capacity and range. First structural mode frequencies are
consequently decreased, both on longitudinal and lateral axis, and close to handling qualities
modes. The main following evolutions of fly-by-wire system have been decided in order to
maintain good handling qualities and passenger comfort
•= Control laws are designed to simultaneously control handling quality mode and low
frequency structural mode.
•= On rudder axis, fly-by-wire orders are directly sent to electrically signaled servo-control.
Rudder mechanical control is fully suppressed and an ultimate electrical back up is
added. This last one is strongly segregated from the fly-by-wire computers and aircraft
electrical network
•= Inner auto- pilot loop is located in the fly-by-wire computers to reduce transmission delay
from AP order to servo-control.
•= Electrically powered actuators (EHA) are introduced on the 3 axis, in addition to regular
hydraulically powered servo - control. Airbus has launched a research program on this
new type of electrically powered actuator in the 80's and successfully flight-tested several
prototypes from 1992. This program has been supported by EPICA and ELISA, two
projects funded by the European community.
Compared to conventional servo - control, EHA provides the following main benefits:
- an electrical circuit may be installed in areas not suitable for hydraulic circuits and
may be more segregated from the remaining circuits that the one it replaces.
Survivability to peculiar hazard such as engine burst is consequently improved
- aircraft remains controllable if a common failure mode affect all the hydraulic circuits
- with an electrical circuit, only "downstream" equipment are lost in the case of circuit
rupture
- Aircraft weight, reliability, production cost and maintenance cost are reduced by
removing one hydraulic circuit and all its components (pumps, reservoirs, pipes ,
selectors). This result has being assessed whatever the aircraft size from a 100 seater to
the A380.
•= On A380, pitch damper will be permanently provided, including in ultimate back-up mode
(as already yaw damper on LR family), that allows a more rearwards CG margin. So,
THS may be accordingly sized and less "downwards" lift needed. This gives additional
aircraft weight and drag saving.
To conclude, A380 and A400-M will become now the reference for any future Airbus project.
As shown here above, new and mature technologies have been embodied "step per step" in
the Airbus family in order to cope with new aircraft characteristics, to reduce A/C cost and
weight, to improve passenger comfort and safety while maintaining basic Airbus fly by wire
principle. This progressive and successful " way of progress " has been prepared by
research program such as ELISA and EPICA for EHA and should be maintained in the
future.