Aircraft flight surface control system

• US 20030127569A1
• Filed: 11/06/2002
• Published: 07/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Goodrich Actuation Systems Limited (Goodrich Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Goodrich Actuation Systems Limited (Goodrich Ltd.)
• Inventors: Coleman, David, McLoughlin, Adam John, Tucker, David Roy, Bacon, Peter William
• Granted Patent: US 6,860,452 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 244/195
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 13/505 having duplication or stand-by provisions
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0077 using redundant signals or controls

Abstract

A distributed control system is provided where the controllers are split into two dissimilar groups and flight control responsibility is further allocated within each group such that one entire group plus one further controller can fail without compromising the pilot'"'"'s ability to fly the aircraft.

Claims

1. A flight surface control system for an aircraft, the control system comprising first and second groups of controllers arranged such that in the event of failure of the entirety of one of the groups of controllers and the failure of a further controller the remaining operative controllers control sufficient ones of the flight surfaces to provide continued safe flight and landing.

2. A flight control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in whith the first group consists of three controllers and the second group consists of three controllers.

3. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which the aircraft has left and right elevators and a trimmable horizontal stabiliser, and a pair of functioning controllers in any one of the groups of controllers is able to control pitch of the aircraft via the left hand side and right hand side elevators, or via one elevator and the trimmable horizontal stabiliser.

4. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which the aircraft has an aileron and at least one spoiler pair, and in which any working pair of controllers are able to control roll via the left hand side and right hand side ailerons or via one aileron and a spoiler pair.

5. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which following the failure of one group of controllers and one further controller, the remaining operative controllers are able to provide at least pitch and roll control.

6. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which the first group of controllers are dissimilar to the second group of controllers so that they do not have a common mode failure path.

7. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which the aircraft has a left inboard aileron actuator, a left outboard aileron actuator, a right inboard aileron actuator and a right outboard aileron actuator, and wherein no more than one aileron actuator is driven from any one controller.

8. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 7, in which the task of driving the aileron actuators is equally distributed between the first and second groups of controllers.

9. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 7, in which the aircraft has multifunction spoiler pairs which can be used to augment or replace functionality of the ailerons, and control of at least some of the multifunction spoiler pairs is performed by a controller not involved in control of the ailerons.

10. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 2, wherein the aircraft has a left inboard elevator actuator, a left outboard elevator actuator, a right inboard elevator actuator and a right outboard elevator actuator, as wherein no more than one actuator is driven from any single controller.

11. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 10, in which control of the trimmable horizontal stabiliser is distributed amongst controllers not engaged in control of the elevators.

12. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which the aircraft has three controllers A1, A2 and A3 in a first group of controllers, and the flight controllers have functions distributed between them such that:

13. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 12, in which controller A2 further controls a multifunction spoiler pair.

14. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 12, in which the aircraft has three controllers B1, B2 and B3 in the second group of controllers arranged such that:

15. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which each controller receives power from at least two electrical supplies.

16. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which each controller has two power supplies, three controllers are provided in a group and three power supplies are provided, wherein the connections to the power supplies are permuted so that no two controllers in a group receive power from the same two supplies.

17. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, wherein controllers in the second group whose functions are similar or equivalent to a controller in the first group have a different combination of power supply connections.

18. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which there are at least three hydraulic systems for supplying pressurised fluid to hydraulic actuators for the control surfaces and wherein at least one of the following conditions is satisfied:

a) for a rudder having three actuators each actuator is on a different supply,

b) for a flight surface having two actuators, the actuators are on different supplies,

c) for pairs of flight surfaces on opposing sides of the aircraft, the flight surfaces receive hydraulic fluid from different supplies or different pairs of supplies.

19. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, in which where a control surface is moved by two or more actuators, the controllers implement a force fight reduction algorithm.

20. A flight surface control system for an aircraft as claimed in claim 1, further including analogue controllers for providing control of sufficient flight surfaces to provide continued safe flight and landing in the event of failure of all the digital controllers.

21. An aircraft including a flight surface control system as claimed in claim 1.