A VFW 614 twinjet equipped with a newly developed fly-by-wire-system, the electronic flight control system (EFCS), has flown for the first time, from Bremen Airport in Germany. The system has been in development at DaimlerChrysler Aerospace Airbus' (Dasa Airbus) Bremen division since 1995. Flight tests will take place for the next six months.
Although not responsible for systems development within the Airbus consortium, the company says its workshare is aimed at demonstrating its abilities in this sector - an area now dominated by the French Airbus sector. The EFCS could find an application on future Airbus aircraft, but there are no plans to incorporate the technology on aircraft on the drawing board, including the A3XX.
The most important difference between current fly-by-wire-systems and the EFCS is in its structure. The coupling of the on-board computers in a certain hierarchy is replaced by three independently operating computers known as the primary flight module, direct line module and input-output module.
If one of the three computers fails, the other two are able to maintain its primary functions so that the aircraft remains controllable. Dasa Airbus says that one of the most significant advantages of such a structure is that functional faults remain restrained to the segment in which they appeared, as opposed to spreading through the system. The three computers being tested use different hardware and programming languages.
The new flight control system is designed to cost one third less than current technology. Dasa Airbus claims weight has also been reduced and says the system could be ready for commercial use in about two years.
Source: Flight International
