Flight control systems

Mechanical
Mechanical or manually operated flight control systems are the most basic method of
controlling an aircraft. They were used in early aircraft and are currently used in small
aircraft where the aerodynamic forces are not excessive. Very early aircraft, such as
the Wright Flyer I, Blriot XI and Fokker Eindecker used a system of wing warping
where no conventionally hinged control surfaces were used on the wing, and
sometimes not even for pitch control as on the Wright Flyer I and original versions of
the 1909 Etrich Taube, which only had a hinged/pivoting rudder in addition to the
warping-operated pitch and roll controls. A manual flight control system uses a
collection of mechanical parts such as pushrods, tension cables, pulleys,
counterweights, and sometimes chains to transmit the forces applied to the cockpit
controls directly to the control surfaces. Turnbuckles are often used to adjust control
cable tension. The Cessna Skyhawk is a typical example of an aircraft that uses this
type of system. Gust locks are often used on parked aircraft with mechanical systems
to protect the control surfaces and linkages from damage from wind. Some aircraft
have gust locks fitted as part of the control system.
Increases in the control surface area required by large aircraft or higher loads caused
by high airspeeds in small aircraft lead to a large increase in the forces needed to
move them, consequently complicated mechanical gearing arrangements were
developed to extract maximum mechanical advantage in order to reduce the forces
required from the pilots. This arrangement can be found on bigger or higher
performance propeller aircraft such as the Fokker 50.
Some mechanical flight control systems use servo tabs that provide aerodynamic
assistance. Servo tabs are small surfaces hinged to the control surfaces. The flight
control mechanisms move these tabs, aerodynamic forces in turn move, or assist the
movement of the control surfaces reducing the amount of mechanical forces needed.
This arrangement was used in early piston-engined transport aircraft and in early jet
transports. The Boeing 737 incorporates a system, whereby in the unlikely event of
total hydraulic system failure, it automatically and seamlessly reverts to being
controlled via servo-tab.
Hydro-mechanical
The complexity and weight of mechanical flight control systems increase considerably
with the size and performance of the aircraft. Hydraulically powered control surfaces
help to overcome these limitations. With hydraulic flight control systems, the aircraft's
size and performance are limited by economics rather than a pilot's muscular strength.
At first, only-partially boosted systems were used in which the pilot could still feel some
of the aerodynamic loads on the control surfaces (feedback).
A hydro-mechanical flight control system has two parts:

The mechanical circuit, which links the cockpit controls with the hydraulic circuits. Like
the mechanical flight control system, it consists of rods, cables, pulleys, and sometimes
chains.
The hydraulic circuit, which has hydraulic pumps, reservoirs, filters, pipes, valves and
actuators. The actuators are powered by the hydraulic pressure generated by the
pumps in the hydraulic circuit. The actuators convert hydraulic pressure into control
surface movements. The electro-hydraulic servo valves control the movement of the
actuators.
The pilot's movement of a control causes the mechanical circuit to open the matching
servo valve in the hydraulic circuit. The hydraulic circuit powers the actuators which
then move the control surfaces. As the actuator moves, the servo valve is closed by a
mechanical feedback linkage - one that stops movement of the control surface at the
desired position.
This arrangement was found in the older-designed jet transports and in some highperformance aircraft. Examples include the Antonov An-225 and the Lockheed SR-71.
Artificial feel devices
With purely mechanical flight control systems, the aerodynamic forces on the control
surfaces are transmitted through the mechanisms and are felt directly by the pilot,
allowing tactile feedback of airspeed. With hydromechanical flight control systems,
however, the load on the surfaces cannot be felt and there is a risk of overstressing the
aircraft through excessive control surface movement. To overcome this problem,
artificial feel systems can be used. For example, for the controls of the RAF's Avro
Vulcan jet bomber and the RCAF's Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow supersonic interceptor
(both 1950s-era designs), the required force feedback was achieved by a spring
device.[9] The fulcrum of this device was moved in proportion to the square of the air
speed (for the elevators) to give increased resistance at higher speeds. For the
controls of the American Vought F-8 Crusader and the LTV A-7 Corsair II warplanes, a
'bob-weight' was used in the pitch axis of the control stick, giving force feedback that
was proportional to the airplane's normal acceleration.
Stick shaker
A stick shaker is a device (available in some hydraulic aircraft) that is attached to the
control column, which shakes the control column when the aircraft is about to stall. Also
in some aircraft like the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 there is/was a back-up electrical
power supply that the pilot can turn on to re-activate the stick shaker in case the
hydraulic connection to the stick shaker is lost.
Fly-by-wire control systems
A fly-by-wire (FBW) system replaces manual flight control of an aircraft with an
electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic
signals transmitted by wires (hence the fly-by-wire term), and flight control computers
determine how to move the actuators at each control surface to provide the expected
response. Commands from the computers are also input without the pilot's knowledge

to stabilize the aircraft and perform other tasks. Electronics for aircraft flight control
systems are part of the field known as avionics.
Fly-by-optics, also known as fly-by-light, is a further development using fiber optic
cables.
Research
Several technology research and development efforts exist to integrate the functions of
flight control systems such as ailerons, elevators, elevons, flaps, and flaperons into
wings to perform the aerodynamic purpose with the advantages of less: mass, cost,
drag, inertia (for faster, stronger control response), complexity (mechanically simpler,
fewer moving parts or surfaces, less maintenance), and radar cross section for stealth.
These may be used in many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and 6th generation
fighter aircraft. Two promising approaches are flexible wings, and fluidics.
Flexible wings
In flexible wings, much or all of a wing surface can change shape in flight to deflect air
flow much like an ornithopter. Adaptive compliant wings are a military and commercial
effort. The X-53 Active Aeroelastic Wing was a US Air Force, NASA, and Boeing effort.
Fluidics
In fluidics, forces in vehicles occur via circulation control, in which larger more complex
mechanical parts are replaced by smaller simpler fluidic systems (slots which emit air
flows) where larger forces in fluids are diverted by smaller jets or flows of fluid
intermittently, to change the direction of vehicles.[13][14] In this use, fluidics promises
lower mass, costs (up to 50% less), and very low inertia and response times, and
simplicity. This was demonstrated in the Demon UAV, which flew for the first time, in the
UK, in September 2010.