Fiber-optics Technology For Aircraft Applications

Optic fiber technology has found increased applications with passage of time. The optic
fiber technology offers numerous advantages over conventional technologies. The Fly-by-Wire
technology brought about a revolution to flight control systems in an aircraft. Optic fiber
technology is seen as the next generation in flight control systems. The Optic fiber technology
in aerospace industry was first practically implemented in an airship. The fiber optics has added
a new dimension to aircraft control systems in the form of Fly-By-Light (FBL) control system.
Despite of all the features like light weight, compact size and exceptionally wide bandwidth,
favorable for aviation design, practical application of technology in aviation has been
constrained. To boost the fly-by-light concept, Fly-By-Light Systems Hardware (FLASH) program
was launched by various agencies in aerospace industry. It is expected to pave the way for
effective implementation of the FBL in a flying machine using Neural Network Technology. For
exploitation of advantages of FBL concept, achieving cost effective solutions and formulating
standards for the technology are vital. This paper reviews the architecture of conventional &
fly-by-wire aircraft control systems and analyzes the advantages of fly-by-light over the systems
in vogue.
1) Fly-By-Wire (FBW) Control System
Fly-By-Wire (FBW) is a system that replaced 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 (hence the term fly-by-wire), and flight control
computers determine how to move the actuators at each control surface to provide the
ordered response. The FBW system also allows automatic signals sent by the aircraft's
computers to perform functions without the pilot's input, as in systems that
automatically help stabilize the aircraft. The whole control system in FBW acts as a
closed feedback loop.
Advanced digital Fly-by-Wire flight control systems can improve flight safety, aircraft
performance and integrate interrelated functions such as fire control and navigation.
These advanced flight control systems give relaxed static stability of fixed wing aircraft
and pilot work load reduction with enhanced precision. Thus Fly-by-Wire systems take
airborne electronics out of the non-flight critical category and place them squarely into
flight critical applications. New nonconductive aircraft structural materials, more
sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) equipment and nuclear resistance
specifications all impose major environmental threats on the aircraft electronic control
systems at the very time reliance on the systems is greater than ever. The digital flight
control system must maintain safe and reliable operation of the aircraft while operating
in hostile lightning and nuclear environments externally and radar and ECM
environments internally. Paths of lightning current flow and intensity levels vary for
every aircraft configuration and are not easily defined. More powerful and sophisticated
radars and ECMs emit EMI environments which threaten reliable electronic system
operation.
2) Fly-By-Light (FBL) Control System
Fly-By-Light (FBL) relies on similar system followed by FBW except that all the sensors
are optical rather than electronic or electrical. In this type of control system, input
command signals are sent to the actuators through the medium of optical-fiber lines.
The feedback from the control surfaces and other systems is routed in a similar way. The
computer then provides data for movement of the aircraft control surfaces through
these cables. Its benefits include immunity to EMI and HIRF, large data bandwidth, light
weight which require less maintenance, more resistant to electromagnetic impulses
than conventional FBW systems. FBL technology does not employ wires and is naturally
resistant to electromagnetic interference, providing the same flight control capabilities
as fly-by-wire systems without the necessity for shielding.

3) COMPARISON BETWEEN FBL & FBW

FBW system works on a digital data bus for the transmission of mechanical movements
from pilot‟s joystick to the mechanical actuators located near the control surface in the
form of electronic signals using suitable transducers. It eliminates considerable number
of components of mechanical system like control rods, push pull system, to reduce the
weight. This weight elimination is used to increase the redundancy level of FBW. It
reduces the weight approximately 10% that of a copper wire. The concept of FBL uses
optic fiber cables for the transmission of mechanical movements from pilot‟s joystick to
the mechanical actuators near the control surface in the form of monochromatic light
signals using suitable transducers. It eliminates the amplification units, filter circuits,
modulator units etc, which have high redundancy levels in the FBW. FBL is more reliable
and has less degradations of signal through optic fiber cable. The loss of the optical fiber
is 0.3dB/km where it is 5dB/km for copper wire, FBL is more reliable and redundancy is
higher than FBW. Since the system has high reliability the maintenance cost is lesse

4) Requirement of FLASH Program

Most process intensive activities require high data rate communication. That means the
systems require a high bandwidth, interference-free physical medium. Fiber optics could
meet that need. We now have small, powerful computers and sensors which could be
distributed around an aircraft to form very powerful, reliable systems for vehicle
management and data processing. The FLASH program is aimed at developing the low
cost, reliable cables, connectors, splices, backplanes, manufacturing and installation
 methods, test methods, support equipment, and training systems needed to form a true
optical cable plant for transport aircraft, tactical aircraft and helicopters. Unfortunately,
the present state of the art in fiber optic technology produces hardware which is too
difficult and unreliable to use. That led to a dilemma which has proven difficult to break.
Fiber optics has been flown on aircraft before; but, because of the difficulty of working
with it, and the unreliability of early systems, the users usually disconnected it in
disgust. Similarly, the developers of advanced vehicle management systems and
advanced avionics have had difficulty getting their systems on aircraft because aircraft
appear to get along now without the advanced systems (despite needs for future
reduced costs and improved performance), and nobody wants to deal with the
difficulties of the fiber optics interconnects that will come with such systems. That is the
reason for which the Fly-by-Light Advanced System Hardware (FLASH) program required
to be lunched.

5) CONCLUSION
With the development of aircraft flight control system engineering, aircraft control
system reliability is increasing. Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 are operating with fully
automated Fly-By-Wire control system. The Fly-By-Light system is still in the research
phase due to the limitations in technological developments and standardization issues.
As the FBL offers numerous advantages over FBW system to meet the flight control
needs of future aircraft, it has a potential to be the future technology for aircraft flight
control systems. It has the potential to align with the other high speed data transmission
systems combined with high capacity flight processors to implement control
advancements and fault monitoring. This system will just not only improve the reliability
but also effectively use artificial intelligence for self-repairing and fulfill other objectives.
There is a need to develop FBL system to be commercially viable for implementation on
the future commercial and military aircraft.