Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH
Fairchild Dornier has requested proposals from avionics suppliers for a fly-by-wire flight control system (FCS) for the 70 seat 728JETand other future members of its proposed regional jet family.
According to Earl Robinson, senior vice-president for product development at Fairchild Dornier, a range of solutions , with and without mechanical back-up, is being examined. A decision is expected to be taken in May, he adds.
Robinson says that while the software would be a more compact package than those used on the Airbus and Boeing airliner ranges, the 728JET system should offer "most of the same functions" of such systems, including flight envelope protection. The company plans not to adopt the sidestick controls used on the Airbus range, preferring the yoke system adopted by Boeing on the 777.
Fairchild Dornier declines to reveal which companies have been asked to bid, but programme sources say that proposals are coming in from a teaming of Sextant Avionique and Parker Aerospace (already linked on the Bombardier Global Express flight controls), German systems company Liebherr Aerotechnik, the UK's Lucas Aerospace and GEC.
Cost remains a crucial issue, but Robinson insists that an advanced FCS need not take the aircraft above its $20 million target price.
Interest in fly-by-wire systems is coming from potential launch customers, including Crossair and Lufthansa CityLine, which together are looking at a potential firm order for 120 aircraft, including the shrunk, 55 seat 528JET and the stretched, 90 seat 928JET.
If Fairchild Dornier does have trouble meeting its price with an advanced digital FCS, then one compromise solution, understood to be under discussion, is a simple system with no envelope protection, which could either be an upgradable digital unit or an analogue system.
Source: Flight International
