Since the transition more than a generation ago from mechanical flight controls to fly-by-wire systems that use computers to control many aspects of flight, avionics engineers have sought to harness the power of electronics to make air travel safer and more efficient.
This division developed the twin-engine F-111 fighter-bomber (deployed in 1967), the world's first production variable-wing aircraft, and the compact, lightweight F-16 (deployed in 1979), which featured fly-by-wire (electronic rather than mechanical) flight controls.
In fly-by-wire aircraft — in which the crew's control is through a computer rather than a direct mechanical link to flight control surfaces — one manufacturer, Airbus, interposes computer logic between the human and the machine.
This research activity, carried out in cooperation with Umbra Group Aerospace, was focused on the design of an Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) adopted for testing innovative linear electro-mechanical actuators for flight control surfaces.
Differential inflation of subcutaneous air sacs along the wing membrane could have altered the mechanical properties (e.g., relative stiffness) of flight control surfaces in large-bodied pterodactyloids (Fig. 3d).
They are, from left, Daniel Wiegand, CEO; Matthias Meiner, head of flight control; Sebastian Born, head of mechanical engineering; and Patrick Nathen, head of calculation & design.
Autonomous flight was enabled by installing a flight control computer with a micro-electro-mechanical gyroscope and accelerometers, along with a micro video camera and an ultralight wireless communication system inside the fuselage.
Unlike the YF-17, which had hydromechanical controls serving as a backup to the FBW, General Dynamics took the innovative step of eliminating mechanical linkages between the control stick and rudder pedals, and the flight control surfaces.
The flight control strategy is successfully verified during flight tests.
The whole flight control system is integrated with the outer loop flight altitude control.
