Fly-by-wire

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The Airbus A320 family was the first commercial airliner to feature a full glass cockpit and digital fly-by-wire
flight control system. The only analogue instruments were the RMI, brake pressure indicator, standby
altimeter and artificial horizon, the latter two being replaced by a digital integrated standby instrument
system in later production models.

Fly-by-wire (FBW) 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 computersdetermine how to move the actuators at each control surface to
provide the ordered response. It can use mechanical flight control backup systems
(like the Boeing 777) or use fully fly-by-wire controls.[1]
Improved fully fly-by-wire systems interpret the pilot's control inputs as a desired
outcome and calculate the control surface positions required to achieve that
outcome; this results in various combinations of rudder, elevator, aileron, flaps and
engine controls in different situations using a closed feedback loop. The pilot may
not be fully aware of all the control outputs acting to effect the outcome, only that the
aircraft is reacting as expected. The fly-by-wire computers act to stabilise the aircraft
and adjust the flying characteristics without the pilot's involvement and to prevent the
pilot operating outside of the aircraft's safe performance envelope.[2][3]
Contents

 1Rationale
o 1.1Weight saving
 2Basic operation
o 2.1Closed-loop feedback control
o 2.2Automatic stability systems
 3Safety and redundancy
  4History
 5Analog systems
 6Digital systems
o 6.1Legislation
o 6.2Redundancy
o 6.3Efficiency of flight
o 6.4Airbus/Boeing
o 6.5Applications
 7Engine digital control
 8Further developments
o 8.1Fly-by-optics
o 8.2Power-by-wire
o 8.3Fly-by-wireless
o 8.4Intelligent flight control system
 9See also
 10Note
 11References
 12External links

Rationale[edit]
Mechanical and hydro-mechanical flight control systems are relatively heavy and
require careful routing of flight control cables through the aircraft by systems of
pulleys, cranks, tension cables and hydraulic pipes. Both systems often require
redundant backup to deal with failures, which increases weight. Both have limited
ability to compensate for changing aerodynamic conditions. Dangerous
characteristics such as stalling, spinning and pilot-induced oscillation (PIO), which
depend mainly on the stability and structure of the aircraft concerned rather than the
control system itself, are dependent on pilot's action. [citation needed]
The term "fly-by-wire" implies a purely electrically signaled control system. It is used
in the general sense of computer-configured controls, where a computer system is
interposed between the operator and the final control actuators or surfaces. This
modifies the manual inputs of the pilot in accordance with control parameters. [2]
Side-sticks or conventional flight control yokes can be used to fly FBW aircraft.[4]
Weight saving[edit]
A FBW aircraft can be lighter than a similar design with conventional controls. This is
partly due to the lower overall weight of the system components and partly because
the natural stability of the aircraft can be relaxed, slightly for a transport aircraft, and
more for a maneuverable fighter, which means that the stability surfaces that are part
of the aircraft structure can therefore be made smaller. These include the vertical
and horizontal stabilizers (fin and tailplane) that are (normally) at the rear of
the fuselage. If these structures can be reduced in size, airframe weight is reduced.
The advantages of FBW controls were first exploited by the military and then in the
commercial airline market. The Airbus series of airliners used full-authority FBW
controls beginning with their A320 series, see A320 flight control (though some
limited FBW functions existed on A310).[5] Boeing followed with their 777 and later
designs.[citation needed]
Basic operation[edit]
Closed-loop feedback control[edit]

Simple feedback loop

A pilot commands the flight control computer to make the aircraft perform a certain
action, such as pitch the aircraft up, or roll to one side, by moving the control column
or sidestick. The flight control computer then calculates what control surface
movements will cause the plane to perform that action and issues those commands
to the electronic controllers for each surface. [1] The controllers at each surface
receive these commands and then move actuators attached to the control surface
until it has moved to where the flight control computer commanded it to. The
controllers measure the position of the flight control surface with sensors such
as LVDTs.[6]
Automatic stability systems[edit]
Fly-by-wire control systems allow aircraft computers to perform tasks without pilot
input. Automatic stability systems operate in this way. Gyroscopes fitted
with sensors are mounted in an aircraft to sense rotation on the pitch, roll and yaw
axes. Any movement (from straight and level flight for example) results in signals to
the computer, which can automatically move control actuators to stabilize the
aircraft.[3]

Safety and redundancy[edit]

While traditional mechanical or hydraulic control systems usually fail gradually, the
loss of all flight control computers immediately renders the aircraft uncontrollable.
For this reason, most fly-by-wire systems incorporate either redundant computers
(triplex, quadruplex etc.), some kind of mechanical or hydraulic backup or a
combination of both. A "mixed" control system with mechanical backup feedbacks
any rudder elevation directly to the pilot and therefore makes closed loop (feedback)
systems senseless.[1]
Aircraft systems may be quadruplexed (four independent channels) to prevent loss
of signals in the case of failure of one or even two channels. High performance
aircraft that have fly-by-wire controls (also called CCVs or Control-Configured
Vehicles) may be deliberately designed to have low or even negative stability in
some flight regimes – rapid-reacting CCV controls can electronically stabilize the
lack of natural stability.[3]
Pre-flight safety checks of a fly-by-wire system are often performed using built-in test
equipment (BITE). A number of control movement steps can be automatically
performed, reducing workload of the pilot or groundcrew and speeding up flight-
checks.[citation needed]
Some aircraft, the Panavia Tornado for example, retain a very basic hydro-
mechanical backup system for limited flight control capability on losing electrical
power; in the case of the Tornado this allows rudimentary control of
the stabilators only for pitch and roll axis movements.[7]

History[edit]

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, first non-experimental aircraft flown with a fly-by-wire control system

F-8C Crusader digital fly-by-wire testbed

Servo-electrically operated control surfaces were first tested in the 1930s on the
Soviet Tupolev ANT-20.[8] Long runs of mechanical and hydraulic connections were
replaced with wires and electric servos.
The first pure electronic fly-by-wire aircraft with no mechanical or hydraulic backup
was the Apollo Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), first flown in 1968.[9]
The first non-experimental aircraft that was designed and flown (in 1958) with a fly-
by-wire flight control system was the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow,[10][11] a feat not
repeated with a production aircraft (though the Arrow was cancelled with five built)
until Concorde in 1969, which became the first fly-by-wire airliner. This system also
included solid-state components and system redundancy, was designed to be
integrated with a computerised navigation and automatic search and track radar,
was flyable from ground control with data uplink and downlink, and provided artificial
feel (feedback) to the pilot.[11]
In the UK the two seater Avro 707C was flown with a Fairey system with mechanical
backup[12] in the early to mid-60s. The program was curtailed when the air-frame ran
out of flight time.[13]
In 1972, the first digital fly-by-wire fixed-wing aircraft without a mechanical
backup[14] to take to the air was an F-8 Crusader, which had been modified
electronically by NASA of the United States as a test aircraft; the F-8 used the Apollo
guidance, navigation and control hardware.[15]
This was preceded in 1964 by the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) which
pioneered fly-by-wire flight with no mechanical backup. [16] Control was through a
digital computer with three analog redundant channels. In the USSR, the Sukhoi T-
4 also flew. At about the same time in the United Kingdom a trainer variant of the
British Hawker Hunterfighter was modified at the British Royal Aircraft
Establishment with fly-by-wire flight controls[13] for the right-seat pilot.
The Airbus A320 began service in 1988 as the first airliner with digital fly-by-wire
controls.[17]

Analog systems[edit]
All "fly-by-wire" flight control systems eliminate the complexity, the fragility and the
weight of the mechanical circuit of the hydromechanical or electromechanical flight
control systems — each being replaced with electronic circuits. The control
mechanisms in the cockpit now operate signal transducers, which in turn generate
the appropriate electronic commands. These are next processed by an electronic
controller—either an analog one, or (more modernly) a digital one. Aircraft
and spacecraft autopilots are now part of the electronic controller.[citation needed]
The hydraulic circuits are similar except that mechanical servo valves are replaced
with electrically controlled servo valves, operated by the electronic controller. This is
the simplest and earliest configuration of an analog fly-by-wire flight control system.
In this configuration, the flight control systems must simulate "feel". The electronic
controller controls electrical feel devices that provide the appropriate "feel" forces on
the manual controls. This was used in Concorde, the first production fly-by-wire
airliner.[a]

Digital systems[edit]

The NASA F-8 Crusader with its fly-by-wire system in green and Apollo guidance computer

A digital fly-by-wire flight control system can be extended from its analog
counterpart. Digital signal processing can receive and interpret input from multiple
sensors simultaneously (such as the altimeters and the pitot tubes) and adjust the
controls in real time. The computers sense position and force inputs from pilot
controls and aircraft sensors. They then solve differential equationsrelated to the
aircraft's equations of motion to determine the appropriate command signals for the
flight controls to execute the intentions of the pilot. [19]
The programming of the digital computers enable flight envelope protection. These
protections are tailored to an aircraft's handling characteristics to stay within
aerodynamic and structural limitations of the aircraft. For example, the computer in
flight envelope protection mode can try to prevent the aircraft from being handled
dangerously by preventing pilots from exceeding preset limits on the aircraft's flight-
control envelope, such as those that prevent stalls and spins, and which limit
airspeeds and g forces on the airplane. Software can also be included that stabilize
the flight-control inputs to avoid pilot-induced oscillations.[20]
Since the flight-control computers continuously feedback the environment, pilot's
workloads can be reduced.[20] This also enables military aircraft with relaxed stability.
The primary benefit for such aircraft is more maneuverability during combat and
training flights, and the so-called "carefree handling" because stalling, spinning and
other undesirable performances are prevented automatically by the computers.
Digital flight control systems enable inherently unstable combat aircraft, such as
the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit flying wing to
fly in usable and safe manners.[19]
Legislation[edit]
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States has adopted
the RTCA/DO-178C, titled "Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and
Equipment Certification", as the certification standard for aviation software.
Any safety-critical component in a digital fly-by-wire system including applications of
the laws of aeronautics and computer operating systems will need to be certified to
DO-178C Level A or B, depending on the class of aircraft, which is applicable for
preventing potential catastrophic failures.[21]
Nevertheless, the top concern for computerized, digital, fly-by-wire systems is
reliability, even more so than for analog electronic control systems. This is because
the digital computers that are running software are often the only control path
between the pilot and aircraft's flight control surfaces. If the computer software
crashes for any reason, the pilot may be unable to control an aircraft. Hence virtually
all fly-by-wire flight control systems are either triply or quadruply redundant in their
computers and electronics. These have three or four flight-control computers
operating in parallel and three or four separate data busesconnecting them with each
control surface.[citation needed]
Redundancy[edit]
The multiple redundant flight control computers continuously monitor each other's
output. If one computer begins to give aberrant results for any reason, potentially
including software or hardware failures or flawed input data, then the combined
system is designed to exclude the results from that computer in deciding the
appropriate actions for the flight controls. Depending on specific system details there
may be the potential to reboot an aberrant flight control computer, or to reincorporate
its inputs if they return to agreement. Complex logic exists to deal with multiple
failures, which may prompt the system to revert to simpler back-up modes. [19][20]
In addition, most of the early digital fly-by-wire aircraft also had an analog electrical,
mechanical, or hydraulic back-up flight control system. The Space Shuttle has, in
addition to its redundant set of four digital computers running its primary flight-control
software, a fifth back-up computer running a separately developed, reduced-function,
software flight-control system – one that can be commanded to take over in the
event that a fault ever affects all of the computers in the other four. This back-up
system serves to reduce the risk of total flight-control-system failure ever happening
because of a general-purpose flight software fault that has escaped notice in the
other four computers.[1][19]
Efficiency of flight[edit]
For airliners, flight-control redundancy improves their safety, but fly-by-wire control
systems, which are physically lighter and have lower maintenance demands than
conventional controls also improve economy, both in terms of cost of ownership and
for in-flight economy. In certain designs with limited relaxed stability in the pitch axis,
for example the Boeing 777, the flight control system may allow the aircraft to fly at a
more aerodynamically efficient angle of attack than a conventionally stable design.
Modern airliners also commonly feature computerized Full-Authority Digital Engine
Control systems (FADECs) that control their jet engines, air inlets, fuel storage and
distribution system, in a similar fashion to the way that FBW controls the flight control
surfaces. This allows the engine output to be continually varied for the most efficient
usage possible.[citation needed]
The second generation Embraer E-Jet family gained a 1.5% efficiency improvement
over the first generation from the fly-by-wire system, which enabled a reduction from
280 ft.² to 250 ft.² for the horizontal stabilizer on the E190/195 variants.[22]
Airbus/Boeing[edit]
Main article: Flight control modes
Airbus and Boeing differ in their approaches to implementing fly-by-wire systems in
commercial aircraft. Since the Airbus A320, Airbus flight-envelope control systems
always retain ultimate flight control when flying under normal law and will not permit
the pilots to violate aircraft performance limits unless they choose to fly under
alternate law.[23] This strategy has been continued on subsequent Airbus airliners. [24]
[25]
 However, in the event of multiple failures of redundant computers, the A320 does
have a mechanical back-up system for its pitch trim and its rudder, the Airbus
A340 has a purely electrical (not electronic) back-up rudder control system and
beginning with the A380, all flight-control systems have back-up systems that are
purely electrical through the use of a "three-axis Backup Control Module" (BCM). [26]
Boeing airliners, such as the Boeing 777, allow the pilots to completely override the
computerised flight-control system, permitting the aircraft to be flown outside of its
usual flight-control envelope.
Applications[edit]
Airbus trialed fly-by-wire on an A300as shown in 1986, then produced the A320.

 The General Dynamics F-16 was the first production aircraft to use digital

fly-by-wire controls.
 The Space Shuttle orbiter has an all-digital fly-by-wire control system. This
system was first exercised (as the only flight control system) during
the glider unpowered-flight "Approach and Landing Tests" that began on
the Space Shuttle Enterprise during 1977.[citation needed]
 Launched into production during 1984, the Airbus Industries Airbus
A320 became the first airliner to fly with an all-digital fly-by-wire control
system.[27]
 In 2005, the Dassault Falcon 7X became the first business jet with fly-by-
wire controls.[28]
 A fully digital fly-by-wire without a closed feedback loop was integrated
2002 in the first generation Embraer E-Jet family. By closing the loop
(feedback), the second generation Embraer E-Jet family gained a 1.5%
efficiency improvement in 2016.[22]

Engine digital control[edit]

Main article: FADEC
The advent of FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) engines permits
operation of the flight control systems and autothrottles for the engines to be fully
integrated. On modern military aircraft other systems such as autostabilization,
navigation, radar and weapons system are all integrated with the flight control
systems. FADEC allows maximum performance to be extracted from the aircraft
without fear of engine misoperation, aircraft damage or high pilot workloads. [citation needed]
In the civil field, the integration increases flight safety and economy. Airbus fly-by-
wire aircraft are protected from dangerous situations such as low-speed stall or
overstressing by flight envelope protection. As a result, in such conditions, the flight
control systems commands the engines to increase thrust without pilot intervention.
In economy cruise modes, the flight control systems adjust the throttles and fuel tank
selections precisely. FADEC reduces rudder drag needed to compensate for
sideways flight from unbalanced engine thrust. On the A330/A340 family, fuel is
transferred between the main (wing and center fuselage) tanks and a fuel tank in the
horizontal stabilizer, to optimize the aircraft's center of gravity during cruise flight.
The fuel management controls keep the aircraft's center of gravity accurately
trimmed with fuel weight, rather than drag-inducing aerodynamic trims in the
elevators.[citation needed]

Further developments[edit]
Fly-by-optics[edit]