Fly-by-wire

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The Airbus A320 family was the first commercial

airliner to feature a full glass cockpit and digital fly-
by-wire flight control system. The only analogue
instruments were the RMI, brake pressure
indicator, standby altimeter and artificial horizon,
the latter two being replaced by a digital integrated
standby instrument system in later production
models.

Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that

replaces the conventional manual flight
controls 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 ordered response. It can use
mechanical flight control backup
systems (like the Boeing 777) or use fully
fly-by-wire controls.[1]
Improved fully fly-by-wire systems
interpret the pilot's control inputs as a
desired outcome and calculate the
control surface positions required to
achieve that outcome; this results in
various combinations of rudder, elevator,
aileron, flaps and engine controls in
different situations using a closed
feedback loop. The pilot may not be fully
aware of all the control outputs acting to
effect the outcome, only that the aircraft
is reacting as expected. The fly-by-wire
computers act to stabilise the aircraft
and adjust the flying characteristics
without the pilot's involvement and to
prevent the pilot operating outside of the
aircraft's safe performance
envelope.[2][3]

Rationale
Mechanical and hydro-mechanical flight
control systems are relatively heavy and
require careful routing of flight control
cables through the aircraft by systems of
pulleys, cranks, tension cables and
hydraulic pipes. Both systems often
require redundant backup to deal with
failures, which increases weight. Both
have limited ability to compensate for
changing aerodynamic conditions.
Dangerous characteristics such as
stalling, spinning and pilot-induced
oscillation (PIO), which depend mainly
on the stability and structure of the
aircraft concerned rather than the control
system itself, are depending on pilot's
action.

The term "fly-by-wire" implies a purely

electrically signaled control system. It is
used in the general sense of computer-
configured controls, where a computer
system is interposed between the
operator and the final control actuators
or surfaces. This modifies the manual
inputs of the pilot in accordance with
control parameters.[2]
Side-sticks or conventional flight control
yokes can be used to fly FBW aircraft.[4]

Weight saving ...

A FBW aircraft can be lighter than a

similar design with conventional controls.
This is partly due to the lower overall
weight of the system components and
partly because the natural stability of the
aircraft can be relaxed, slightly for a
transport aircraft, and more for a
maneuverable fighter, which means that
the stability surfaces that are part of the
aircraft structure can therefore be made
smaller. These include the vertical and
horizontal stabilizers (fin and tailplane)
that are (normally) at the rear of the
fuselage. If these structures can be
reduced in size, airframe weight is
reduced. The advantages of FBW
controls were first exploited by the
military and then in the commercial
airline market. The Airbus series of
airliners used full-authority FBW controls
beginning with their A320 series, see
A320 flight control (though some limited
FBW functions existed on A310).[5]
Boeing followed with their 777 and later
designs.

Basic operation
Closed-loop feedback control ...

Simple feedback loop

A pilot commands the flight control

computer to make the aircraft perform a
certain action, such as pitch the aircraft
up, or roll to one side, by moving the
control column or sidestick. The flight
control computer then calculates what
control surface movements will cause
the plane to perform that action and
issues those commands to the electronic
controllers for each surface.[1] The
controllers at each surface receive these
commands and then move actuators
attached to the control surface until it
has moved to where the flight control
computer commanded it to. The
controllers measure the position of the
flight control surface with sensors such
as LVDTs.[6]

Automatic stability systems ...

Fly-by-wire control systems allow

aircraft computers to perform tasks
without pilot input. Automatic stability
systems operate in this way. Gyroscopes
fitted with sensors are mounted in an
aircraft to sense rotation on the pitch, roll
and yaw axes. Any movement (from
straight and level flight for example)
results in signals to the computer, which
can automatically move control
actuators to stabilize the aircraft.[3]

Safety and redundancy

While traditional mechanical or hydraulic
control systems usually fail gradually, the
loss of all flight control computers
immediately renders the aircraft
uncontrollable. For this reason, most fly-
by-wire systems incorporate either
redundant computers (triplex,
quadruplex etc.), some kind of
mechanical or hydraulic backup or a
combination of both. A "mixed" control
system with mechanical backup
feedbacks any rudder elevation directly
to the pilot and therefore makes closed
loop (feedback) systems senseless.[1]

Aircraft systems may be quadruplexed

(four independent channels) to prevent
loss of signals in the case of failure of
one or even two channels. High
performance aircraft that have fly-by-
wire controls (also called CCVs or
Control-Configured Vehicles) may be
deliberately designed to have low or
even negative stability in some flight
regimes – rapid-reacting CCV controls
can electronically stabilize the lack of
natural stability.[3]

Pre-flight safety checks of a fly-by-wire

system are often performed using built-
in test equipment (BITE). A number of
control movement steps can be
automatically performed, reducing
workload of the pilot or groundcrew and
speeding up flight-checks.

Some aircraft, the Panavia Tornado for

example, retain a very basic hydro-
mechanical backup system for limited
flight control capability on losing
electrical power; in the case of the
Tornado this allows rudimentary control
of the stabilators only for pitch and roll
axis movements.[7]

History

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, first non-

experimental aircraft flown with a fly-by-wire
control system
F-8C Crusader digital fly-by-wire testbed

Servo-electrically operated control

surfaces were first tested in the 1930s on
the Soviet Tupolev ANT-20.[8] Long runs
of mechanical and hydraulic connections
were replaced with wires and electric
servos.

The first pure electronic fly-by-wire

aircraft with no mechanical or hydraulic
backup was the Apollo Lunar Landing
Training Vehicle (LLTV), first flown in
1968.[9]

The first non-experimental aircraft that

was designed and flown (in 1958) with a
fly-by-wire flight control system was the
Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow,[10][11] a feat
not repeated with a production aircraft
until Concorde in 1969. This system also
included solid-state components and
system redundancy, was designed to be
integrated with a computerised
navigation and automatic search and
track radar, was flyable from ground
control with data uplink and downlink,
and provided artificial feel (feedback) to
the pilot.[11]

In the UK the two seater Avro 707B was

flown with a Fairey system with
mechanical backup[12] in the early to
mid-60s. The program was curtailed
when the air-frame ran out of flight
time.[13]

In 1972, the first digital fly-by-wire fixed-

wing aircraft without a mechanical
backup[14] to take to the air was an F-8
Crusader, which had been modified
electronically by NASA of the United
States as a test aircraft; the F-8 used the
Apollo 11 guidance, navigation and
control hardware.[15]

This was preceded in 1964 by the LLRV

which pioneered fly-by-wire flight with
no mechanical backup.[16] Control was
through a digital computer with three
analog redundant channels. In the USSR,
the Sukhoi T-4 also flew. At about the
same time in the United Kingdom a
trainer variant of the British Hawker
Hunter fighter was modified at the British
Royal Aircraft Establishment with fly-by-
wire flight controls[13] for the right-seat
pilot.
Analog systems
All "fly-by-wire" flight control systems
eliminate the complexity, the fragility and
the weight of the mechanical circuit of
the hydromechanical or
electromechanical flight control systems
— each being replaced with electronic
circuits. The control mechanisms in the
cockpit now operate signal transducers,
which in turn generate the appropriate
electronic commands. These are next
processed by an electronic controller—
either an analog one, or (more modernly)
a digital one. Aircraft and spacecraft
autopilots are now part of the electronic
controller.

The hydraulic circuits are similar except

that mechanical servo valves are
replaced with electrically controlled
servo valves, operated by the electronic
controller. This is the simplest and
earliest configuration of an analog fly-
by-wire flight control system. In this
configuration, the flight control systems
must simulate "feel". The electronic
controller controls electrical feel devices
that provide the appropriate "feel" forces
on the manual controls. This was used in
Concorde, the first production fly-by-
wire airliner.[17]

In more sophisticated versions, analog

computers replaced the electronic
controller. The canceled 1950s Canadian
supersonic interceptor, the Avro Canada
CF-105 Arrow, employed this type of
system. Analog computers also allowed
some customization of flight control
characteristics, including relaxed
stability. This was exploited by the early
versions of F-16, giving it impressive
maneuverability.

Digital systems
The NASA F-8 Crusader with its fly-by-wire
system in green and Apollo guidance computer

A digital fly-by-wire flight control system

can be extended from its analog
counterpart. Digital signal processing
can receive and interpret input from
multiple sensors simultaneously (such as
the altimeters and the pitot tubes) and
adjust the controls in real time. The
computers sense position and force
inputs from pilot controls and aircraft
sensors. They then solve differential
equations related to the aircraft's
equations of motion to determine the
appropriate command signals for the
flight controls to execute the intentions of
the pilot.[18]

The programming of the digital

computers enable flight envelope
protection. These protections are tailored
to an aircraft's handling characteristics to
stay within aerodynamic and structural
limitations of the aircraft. For example,
the computer in flight envelope
protection mode can try to prevent the
aircraft from being handled dangerously
by preventing pilots from exceeding
preset limits on the aircraft's flight-
control envelope, such as those that
prevent stalls and spins, and which limit
airspeeds and g forces on the airplane.
Software can also be included that
stabilize the flight-control inputs to avoid
pilot-induced oscillations.[19]

Since the flight-control computers

continuously feedback the environment,
pilot's workloads can be reduced.[19]
Also, it is now possible to fly military
aircraft that have relaxed stability. The
primary benefit for such aircraft is more
maneuverability during combat and
training flights, and the so-called
"carefree handling" because stalling,
spinning and other undesirable
performances are prevented
automatically by the computers. Digital
flight control systems enable inherently
unstable combat aircraft, such as the
Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and the
Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit flying wing
to fly in usable and safe manners.[18]

Legislation ...

The Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA) of the United States has adopted
the RTCA/DO-178C, titled "Software
Considerations in Airborne Systems and
Equipment Certification", as the
certification standard for aviation
software. Any safety-critical component
in a digital fly-by-wire system including
applications of the laws of aeronautics
and computer operating systems will
need to be certified to DO-178C Level A
or B, depending on the class of aircraft,
which is applicable for preventing
potential catastrophic failures.[20]

Nevertheless, the top concern for

computerized, digital, fly-by-wire
systems is reliability, even more so than
for analog electronic control systems.
This is because the digital computers
that are running software are often the
only control path between the pilot and
aircraft's flight control surfaces. If the
computer software crashes for any
reason, the pilot may be unable to
control an aircraft. Hence virtually all fly-
by-wire flight control systems are either
triply or quadruply redundant in their
computers and electronics. These have
three or four flight-control computers
operating in parallel and three or four
separate data buses connecting them
with each control surface.
Redundancy ...

The multiple redundant flight control

computers continuously monitor each
other's output. If one computer begins to
give aberrant results for any reason,
potentially including software or
hardware failures or flawed input data,
then the combined system is designed to
exclude the results from that computer in
deciding the appropriate actions for the
flight controls. Depending on specific
system details there may be the potential
to reboot an aberrant flight control
computer, or to reincorporate its inputs if
they return to agreement. Complex logic
exists to deal with multiple failures, which
may prompt the system to revert to
simpler back-up modes.[18][19]

In addition, most of the early digital fly-

by-wire aircraft also had an analog
electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic back-
up flight control system. The Space
Shuttle has, in addition to its redundant
set of four digital computers running its
primary flight-control software, a fifth
back-up computer running a separately
developed, reduced-function, software
flight-control system – one that can be
commanded to take over in the event
that a fault ever affects all of the
computers in the other four. This back-
up system serves to reduce the risk of
total flight-control-system failure ever
happening because of a general-
purpose flight software fault that has
escaped notice in the other four
computers.[1][18]

Efficiency of flight ...

For airliners, flight-control redundancy

improves their safety, but fly-by-wire
control systems, which are physically
lighter and have lower maintenance
demands than conventional controls also
improve economy, both in terms of cost
of ownership and for in-flight economy.
In certain designs with limited relaxed
stability in the pitch axis, for example the
Boeing 777, the flight control system may
allow the aircraft to fly at a more
aerodynamically efficient angle of attack
than a conventionally stable design.
Modern airliners also commonly feature
computerized Full-Authority Digital
Engine Control systems (FADECs) that
control their jet engines, air inlets, fuel
storage and distribution system, in a
similar fashion to the way that FBW
controls the flight control surfaces. This
allows the engine output to be
continually varied for the most efficient
usage possible.

The second generation Embraer E-Jet

family gained a 1.5% efficiency
improvement over the first generation
from the fly-by-wire system, which
enabled a reduction from 280 ft.² to
250 ft.² for the horizontal stabilizer on
the E190/195 variants.[21]

Airbus/Boeing ...

Airbus and Boeing differ in their

approaches to implementing fly-by-wire
systems in commercial aircraft. Since the
Airbus A320, Airbus flight-envelope
control systems always retain ultimate
flight control when flying under normal
law and will not permit the pilots to
violate aircraft performance limits unless
they choose to fly under alternate law.[22]
This strategy has been continued on
subsequent Airbus airliners.[23][24]
However, in the event of multiple failures
of redundant computers, the A320 does
have a mechanical back-up system for
its pitch trim and its rudder, the Airbus
A340 has a purely electrical (not
electronic) back-up rudder control
system and beginning with the A380, all
flight-control systems have back-up
systems that are purely electrical through
the use of a "three-axis Backup Control
Module" (BCM).[25]

Boeing airliners, such as the Boeing 777,

allow the pilots to completely override
the computerised flight-control system,
permitting the aircraft to be flown outside
of its usual flight-control envelope if they
decide that it is necessary.

Applications ...
Airbus trialed fly-by-wire on an A300 as shown in
1986, then produced the A320.

The General Dynamics F-16 was the

first production aircraft to use fly-by-
wire controls.
The Space Shuttle orbiter has an all-
digital fly-by-wire control system. This
system was first exercised (as the only
flight control system) during the glider
unpowered-flight "Approach and
Landing Tests" that began on the
Space Shuttle Enterprise during 1977.
Launched into production during 1984,
the Airbus Industries Airbus A320
became the first airliner to fly with an
 all-digital fly-by-wire control
system.[26]
During 2005, the Dassault Falcon 7X
became the first business jet with fly-
by-wire controls.[27]
A fully digital fly-by-wire without a
closed feedback loop was integrated
2002 in the first generation Embraer E-
Jet family. By closing the loop
(feedback), the second generation
Embraer E-Jet family gained a 1.5%
efficiency improvement in 2016.[21]

Engine digital control

The advent of FADEC (Full Authority
Digital Engine Control) engines permits
operation of the flight control systems
and autothrottles for the engines to be
fully integrated. On modern military
aircraft other systems such as
autostabilization, navigation, radar and
weapons system are all integrated with
the flight control systems. FADEC allows
maximum performance to be extracted
from the aircraft without fear of engine
misoperation, aircraft damage or high
pilot workloads.

In the civil field, the integration increases

flight safety and economy. The Airbus
A320 and its fly-by-wire brethren are
protected from dangerous situations
such as low-speed stall or overstressing
by flight envelope protection. As a result,
in such conditions, the flight control
systems commands the engines to
increase thrust without pilot intervention.
In economy cruise modes, the flight
control systems adjust the throttles and
fuel tank selections more precisely than
all but the most skillful pilots. FADEC
reduces rudder drag needed to
compensate for sideways flight from
unbalanced engine thrust. On the
A330/A340 family, fuel is transferred
between the main (wing and center
fuselage) tanks and a fuel tank in the
horizontal stabilizer, to optimize the
aircraft's center of gravity during cruise
flight. The fuel management controls
keep the aircraft's center of gravity
accurately trimmed with fuel weight,
rather than drag-inducing aerodynamic
trims in the elevators.

Further developments

Fly-by-optics ...
Kawasaki P-1

Fly-by-optics is sometimes used instead

of fly-by-wire because it offers a higher
data transfer rate, immunity to
electromagnetic interference and lighter
weight. In most cases, the cables are just
changed from electrical to optical fiber
cables. Sometimes it is referred to as
"fly-by-light" due to its use of fiber
optics. The data generated by the
software and interpreted by the
controller remain the same. Fly-by-light
has the effect of decreasing electro-
magnetic disturbances to sensors in
comparison to more common fly-by-
wire control systems. The Kawasaki P-1
is the first production aircraft in the world
to be equipped with such a flight control
system.[28]

Power-by-wire ...

Having eliminated the mechanical

transmission circuits in fly-by-wire flight
control systems, the next step is to
eliminate the bulky and heavy hydraulic
circuits. The hydraulic circuit is replaced
by an electrical power circuit. The power
circuits power electrical or self-
contained electrohydraulic actuators that
are controlled by the digital flight control
computers. All benefits of digital fly-by-
wire are retained.

The biggest benefits are weight savings,

the possibility of redundant power
circuits and tighter integration between
the aircraft flight control systems and its
avionics systems. The absence of
hydraulics greatly reduces maintenance
costs. This system is used in the
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II and in
Airbus A380 backup flight controls. The
Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 also
incorporate electrically powered backup
flight controls which remain operational
even in the event of a total loss of
hydraulic power.[29]

Fly-by-wireless ...

Wiring adds a considerable amount of

weight to an aircraft; therefore,
researchers are exploring implementing
fly-by-wireless solutions. Fly-by-wireless
systems are very similar to fly-by-wire
systems, however, instead of using a
wired protocol for the physical layer a
wireless protocol is employed.

In addition to reducing weight,

implementing a wireless solution has the
potential to reduce costs throughout an
aircraft's life cycle. For example, many
key failure points associated with wire
and connectors will be eliminated thus
hours spent troubleshooting wires and
connectors will be reduced.
Furthermore, engineering costs could
potentially decrease because less time
would be spent on designing wiring
installations, late changes in an aircraft's
design would be easier to manage,
etc.[30]

Intelligent flight control system ...

A newer flight control system, called
intelligent flight control system (IFCS), is
an extension of modern digital fly-by-
wire flight control systems. The aim is to
intelligently compensate for aircraft
damage and failure during flight, such as
automatically using engine thrust and
other avionics to compensate for severe
failures such as loss of hydraulics, loss of
rudder, loss of ailerons, loss of an
engine, etc. Several demonstrations
were made on a flight simulator where a
Cessna-trained small-aircraft pilot
successfully landed a heavily damaged
full-size concept jet, without prior
experience with large-body jet aircraft.
This development is being spearheaded
by NASA Dryden Flight Research
Center.[31] It is reported that
enhancements are mostly software
upgrades to existing fully computerized
digital fly-by-wire flight control systems.
The Dassault Falcon 7X and Embraer
Legacy 500 business jets have flight
computers that can partially compensate
for engine-out scenarios by adjusting
thrust levels and control inputs, but still
require pilots to respond
appropriately.[32]

See also
 Aircraft flight control system
Air France Flight 296
Drive by wire
Flight control modes (electronic)
MIL-STD-1553, a standard data bus
for fly-by-wire
Relaxed stability

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