Contents

6.1 Ice, rain, and fire protection system................................................................................................1

6.2 Hydraulic system.............................................................................................................................3
Pneumatic systems (Vacuum pressure system).................................................................................4
Potable water system........................................................................................................................5
6.3 Fuel system......................................................................................................................................6
Landing gear......................................................................................................................................6
6.4 Aircraft Maintenance – overhaul, repair, inspection.......................................................................8

6.1 Ice, rain, and fire protection system

● Icing and de-icing
1. De-icing fluids: Propylene glycol is less toxic than ethylene glycol.
▪ ethylene glycol has LOUT (lower operational use temperature)
2. Methods of De-icing: infrared heating – done in a hanger
3. Urea mixture is an economical de-icing mixture used primarily for de-icing
airport pavements.
4. Viscous fluid is used for anti-icing the aircraft. It creates the protective layer
around the aircraft

5. A de-icing fluid fail when it can no longer absorb the containment. In such
case fluid becomes contaminant itself.

6. All anti-ice fluid provides the limited protection.

● Aircraft Fire protection system

1. Zones where they are placed

▪ Engines and auxiliary power unit (APU)

▪ Cargo and baggage compartments

▪ Lavatories on transport aircraft

▪ Electronic bays

▪ Wheel wells

▪ Bleed air ducts

2. Method of fire detection

▪ Rate-of-temperature-rise detectors

▪ Radiation sensing detectors

▪ Smoke detectors

▪ Carbon monoxide detectors

 ▪ Combustible mixture detectors

▪ Optical detectors

▪ Observation of crew or passengers

▪ Overheat detectors
3. Classes of fire:

▪ Class A —fires involving ordinary combustible materials, such as

wood, cloth, paper, rubber, and plastics.
▪ Class B—fires involving flammable liquids, petroleum oils, greases,
tars, oil-based paints, lacquers, solvents, alcohols, and flammable
gases.
▪ Class C—fires involving energized electrical equipment in which the
use of an extinguishing media that is electrically non-conductive is
important.
▪ Class D—fires involving combustible metals, such as magnesium,
titanium, zirconium, sodium, lithium, and potassium.
4. ARFF - Aircraft rescue fire fighting
5. FDU Fire detection unit will alert the engine fire
6. The APU automatically shuts down and discharges a fire bottle when a fire is
detected on the ground.
7. Avionics bay - they have fire detection but does not have fire protection

● Smoke detector

1. Types used are

▪ Light refraction - contains a photoelectric cell that detects light

refracted by smoke particles.

Ionization. - The system generates an alarm signal by detecting the change in ion density
due to smoke in the cabin
6.2 Hydraulic system
Different components and working principle (oil under pressure is used for the power
transmission)

● It is used for higher output power condition

● Components – it includes actuators, feed lines, accumulator, pump etc
○ Reservoir - Commercial transport aircraft have pressurized reservoirs and
most of them use bleed air to do this.
■ Non Pressurized reservoirs use quantity transmitters to gauge fluid
quantity in the system
○ Hydraulic pumps - Hand pumps, engine‐driven pumps, electrically driven
pumps, and air driven (bleed air).
■ Most modern power‐driven pumps are variable‐delivery,
compensator‐controlled type
○ Hydraulic cylinder - to convert hydraulic power into linear mechanical
force. Types single-acting, double-acting, ram cylinder, telescopic and spring
return
■ Single-acting cylinders convert the compressed air energy into
mechanical energy in the form of linear movement in one direction
only.
■ Piston is the part in the cylinder that is used to create the pressure
difference and in case of single-acting cylinder it is pressed by the
spring to the cylinder center.
○ hydraulic piston
○ Control valve - it directs the flow of fluid, regulates the pressure, and
controls volume. Types pressure, directional and volume control
■ Throttle valve -They restrict the flow of the compressed air in the
flow direction.
○ Pressure relief valve: to release the oil back to the tank, when the pressure
increases beyond the pre-set value.
○ Flow control valve: rate of flow of oil.
○ Directional control valve: controls the direction of the flow of oil
○ Check valve is a one-way valve that lets air into the reservoir of a
compressor, but does not let it out as the name indicates it allows air to enter
as it has one entrance.
■ simple‐type and orifice‐type
○ lifting arm
● It is based on Pascal's law
● Hydraulic fluid (is oil): mineral (red colour), polyalphaolefin, phosphate ester-
used in transport category
● Large transport category aircraft hydraulic systems produce around 3000 to 5000
psi of pressure
● The micron element is designed to prevent passage of solids greater than 5 microns
in size.
● An accumulator is a steel sphere divided into two chambers by a rubber diaphragm.
○ The function is to dampen pressure * A surges, to aid or supplement the
power pump
○ to supplement the power pump output during high demand
 ● Power pack: have all hydraulic power components located in one unit. Power packs
are driven by either engine gearbox or electric motor
● Application: Rudder control, landing gear, breaks, flight control and transmission,
rocket motor movement

● Actuators (produces the work): linear – called cylinder and rotary- motor are two
types of actuator used in hydraulic system

Pneumatic systems (Vacuum pressure system)

● Pneumatic systems (low output power conditon) are the systems that control the
process where the motion is in air and can support linear, reciprocating, and rotary
motion.
● Pneumatic subsystems are used for low power or pressure requirements.
● Application: Instruments, landing gear, flaps, air conditioning, windows, doors and
more
● In light aircraft: Suction pressure gauze is used
● Vacuum systems components:
○ Air Pumps- usually engine driven
■ Wet air pumps use engine oil to lubricate pump internally
■ Dry air pumps - more common –have graphite vanes inside pump
casing - self-lubricate as pump rotates
○ Vacuum regulator -
○ Inlet Air Filter - Prevent contamination, remove air particle
○ Overboard vent line
○ Gauges
■ Attitude Indicator
■ Heading Indicator
○ System indicator
■ Suction Gauge
■ Gyro flag
■ Annunciator light
● Failure causes
○ contamination
○ A loose fitting or damaged hoses
○ Worn out, misused, or incorrectly routed hoses
○ Abrupt engine deceleration
○ Sudden engine stoppage
● Pneumatic systems usually do not exceed 1hp while controlling the flow of air.

● Takes air from atmosphere –Air compressor – compress it – pass though valve and
pipe – pneumatic system

● Advantage – run continuously for long period of time, produces dust free

● Disadvantage – requirement of lubricator to minimize the friction, use of silencers,

low viscosity

● Pneumatic system are fast in operation where as hydraulic system are slow.

● Series circuit (components are connected in series called lumped components) work
on both hydraulic and pneumatic actuators.
 ● Hydraulic and pneumatic are similar in functionalities and complexities but
pneumatic are preferred over hydraulic, as pneumatic systems are cleaner

Potable water system

 Located under the cabin floor
 Potable water is stored in a tank of 200 litres in an A320
 The airplane has 2 drain masts: forward mast drain and aft mast drain
6.3 Fuel system
● Specific energy level are most important criteria for the fuel selection

● Jet fuel are known as aviation fuel (Avgas)

1. Kerosene based fuel: It has a higher flash point than gasoline based.
2. Gasoline based fuel:
3. It contain the sulphur of 1000 ppm
● Jet fuel : they are used in commercial aircraft
1. Jet-A fuel is a mixture of pure kerosene and ignites at temperatures at or
above 49 °C. This category of fuel is used in modern commercial airliners.
2. Jet-B fuel- 30% kerosene by volume. The remaining 70% is gasoline, freezing
point of -60°C
3. Flash point is 38°C.
● JP fuel : they are used by the military aircraft
1. JP-4 similar to Jet B
2. JP-8 is a kerosene based fuel, similar to jet A-1
● Tetraethyl lead (TEL): it is blended with aviation gasoline to use as fuel for aircraft.
The blended increase the efficiency
● Fuel tank - main fuel tank is placed near the inboard section of the wing
1. bladder tank – made of thick rubber bag (self –sealing)
▪ rubber bladder are used to store fuel using in the wing section

▪ will deteriorate on time but are easy to replace than metal tank

▪ Tent to deform over time which cause the trap of water, sediments etc.
2. Integral tank (wet wing -it refers to an aircraft wing structure that is sealed
and is used as a fuel tank) and
▪ commonly found in large aircraft

▪ they reduce the weight of the aircraft by utilizing the space with in the
aircraft
3. Discrete tank
4. External tank: conformal fuel tank- they used in military aircraft
▪ they are mounted externally in the end of the wing tip

▪ tip tank can acts like a winglets (aerodynamic advantage)

▪ underwing tank
5. Drop tanks are used by combat aircraft, which need to discard them after use
for performance reasons
● Few single-engine aircraft use capacitive probes in the fuel tanks.
 1. Fuel control valve is referred to as the fuel selector. (function- fuel shut off
valve)
2. For performance calculations, airliner manufacturers use a density of jet fuel
around 0.8 kg/l.
3. Underwing fuelling is exclusively used for jet fuel. It is also called single
point refueling or pressure refueling and is not dependent on gravity. It is
mostly used on larger aircraft.
4. Fuel is pumped into the vehicle at a pressure of about 275 kilopascals via
high pressure hose
Landing gear
Types

 Tail draggers – 2 main gears located ahead of CG + one auxiliary wheel at the tail.
This is inherent unstable due to this it is no more used in general aviation.
 Single main – 1 main landing gear + 1 trigger wheel
 Bicycle – 2 main + 2 small out trigger wheel, it requires flat attitude for operation
 Tricycle – 2 main landing gear aft of CG + 1 auxiliary when ahead of CG (opposite of
tail dragger)
 Quadricycle – 4 landing gear. It also requires flat altitude for take-off and landing
 Multi-buggy – more than 4 wheels and support impact on heavy load
 Overturn angle = should not be more than 63 degree

Shock absorber

 Solid spring shock absorber is heavier than the other types

o There is some lateral deflection
 Oleo type shock absorber is widely used shock absorber
o Diameter of oleo (d) = 0.04*(length of oleo)0.5
o D = piston diameter + 0.3* piston diameter
 Stroke of absorber is the required deflection of the shock absorbing system.
o Required stroke= vertical or sink speed
o Stroke = (diameter/2) – rolling radius
 Load factor (N) = average load/ weight during landing
6.4 Aircraft Maintenance – overhaul, repair, inspection
● A- check = performed at the apron (gate)

● B-check = is done in hanger, 150 man hour, time 1 to 3 days

● C-check=is done in hanger or indoor facility, 6000 man hour, 2 week time

● D-check- most expensive check of aircraft. Done every 5 to 6 years. Takes almost 8
weeks to complete. It requires 40000 man hours
● C and D check are the heavier check are performed at MRO

● CRS (certificate of release to service) = maintenance release

● Pre-flight inspection by pilot

● Line maintenance: (Routine maintenance)

o Carried out while an airplane is parked at the gate (apron). It takes 45
minutes
o during this aircraft is refuelled and critical instrumentation check is done
o they are normally done by the pilots
● Base/major maintenance
o There are 6 check (c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6)
o 8 weeks to complete

● CAMP (continuous airworthiness maintenance program) includes both routine and

detailed inspections.