Is There Wire In Your Future?

[Brian Abraham]

From Avweb today

Sikorsky Tests Fly-By-Wire Helicopter

Sikorsky last week announced that its upgraded UH-60M Black Hawk, which could become the first fly-by-wire (FBW) helicopter for the U.S. army, has begun flight testing. The digital triple-redundant FBW system involves dual-channel flight control computers and actuators as well as active control sticks. It eliminates mechanical control linkages, saving weight and reducing maintenance requirements, lowering pilot workload and increasing the aircraft's handling qualities, according to Sikorsky. "The UH-60M Upgrade will reduce pilot workload, increase lift, offer better protection and enhance survivability," said Sikorsky president Jeffrey Pino. The entire system is coupled with a Rockwell Collins glass cockpit suite and upgraded engines with full authority digital engine control (FADEC). The first flight took place at West Palm Beach, Fla., and tested forward flight as well as hovers and hover turns over the course of about an hour. The Army hopes to one day operate more than 900 of the new fly-by-wire Black Hawks following first deliveries currently scheduled for late 2010.

[Old Skool]

I wouldn't mind Fly by Wire one bit, as long as they route the cables through the push - pull tubes...:ouch:

[unstable load]

I wouldn't mind Fly by Wire one bit, as long as they route the cables through the push - pull tubes...http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/shiner.gif


AND as long as they don't use Krapton for the wiring.:eek:

[RVDT]

Probably a correct statement as the US Army will probably never buy the NH90! Which of course is already FBW.

BA,

You do live in Australia don't you. A big NH90 Customer?:rolleyes:

[ChopperFAN]

Isnt FBW unsafe in nuclear blast zones due to EMP, where the better is fly by light using fibre optics...?

U never know where your blackhawk will be sent to next :\


Simon

[Graviman]

Interesting spin-off from Sikorsky X2 / Schweizer 333 FBW development program. Being a Moog hydraulic system i imagine the combination of feed forward and feed back control will give a serious handling improvement to the Black Hawk.

[topendtorque]

where the better is fly by light using fibre optics...?

So? at the end of the optic cable is an electric box what is subject to yon EMB's, or,, a little monkey that reads the dots and dashes and works the actuator rods by hand.:{

[Ian Corrigible]

Graviman,

The UH-60MU FBW effort was actually initiated prior to X2 (03), and has more in common with the S-92/CH-148 system. The X2/333 FBW system is a HW/HamStan effort, whereas the UH-60MU version (common with AH-64D Block III) is a BAE/HamStan system, presumably drawing on HEAT.

I/C

[ChopperFAN]

Topendtorque, i was only stating what i have read in aircraft books, where they say that fly by wire development has been overtaken by fly by light for that reason, they were talking about next gen fighters though like the F22 and so.

I was under the impression that FBL was faster, more data can be sent and the FBW was old hat, and why would you use it when you can use FBL

Not starting anything but it makes sence... Wouldnt the develpoment costs be better spent jumping FBW, and heading straight to FBL

Simon

[Brian Abraham]

Personally the wire I preferred was 3/16 inch aviation grade stainless steel. :)

[topendtorque]

Not starting anything but it makes sence... Wouldnt the develpoment costs be better spent jumping FBW, and heading straight to FBL

hmmm, now i think I see the light, no mirrors involved eh what?

[Lt.Fubar]

With the fiber optics, you need additional I/O elements that will convert electric - digital signal, to light, and vice versa. It is not faster, at best the speed is the same, the only difference is lack of interference along the way - that's why optics are used in hi-end music systems.

The FBW system may be easily shielded against EMP, all you have to do is feed flight data to it by fiber optics, and give it's own backup power supply, that will work if the main one get fried. Anyway, the F-16 was designed when nuclear warfare was widely considered, so I believe, those issues were worked out long time ago.

The beauty of FBW in contrary to the push rods in military aplications is - you can do 2 or more wire lines that will weight as much as 1 push rod system. therefore if one line goes out due to combat related demage, you still have the second. You don't have two sets of push rods in helicopters - it goes out, and you're just a passanger.

[ATN]

Fly by wire is already obsolete with the blue tooth/:bored:wifi tec looming on the horizon...:ouch:

ATN

[Old Skool]

So just as i'm getting my head around the fact of FBW, you're telling me WI-FI and bluetooth...'can you hear me now?' 'can you hear me now?'

I think i'll let someone else iron the kinks out of that one, never fly the D(S76) model of anything...

[Lt.Fubar]

It's a joke... it have to be....

You can't do a wireless control system because of limited bandwidth, limited frequency, added weight and power need of T/R units... and the most important - interference - which is the only true cause of going from electrical wires, to optic fibers. At this time, wireless would be like going 3 steps back ;)

[ATN]

It was a joke.

ATN

[Shawn Coyle]

Fly by wire will take a while to get sorted out to the level of reliability of nearly every other system on the helicopter. But the FW world have done it, and we should be looking very seriously at what they've done.
There are a tremendous number of advantages to FBW- better control harmony, better handling, and perhaps best of all- a built-in flight recorder to tell us exactly what happened if there is a crash.

[tottigol]

Some wiring technology history is in order here:

After having dug to a depth of 10 yards last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, California scientists dug to a depth of 20 yards, and shortly after, headlines in the LA Times newspaper read: 'California archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers.'

One-week later, "The Express News,' a local newspaper in Texas reported the following: After digging as deep as 300 feet in corn fields near Austin, Bubba Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Texas had already gone wireless.

[Graviman]

There are a tremendous number of advantages to FBW- better control harmony, better handling, and perhaps best of all- a built-in flight recorder to tell us exactly what happened if there is a crash.

Shawn, how should FBW on the collective supercede torque limiters? Should it interpret actual pilot inputs or apply a feedback force? Should this system be capable of reducing engine (or TR) failure workload by initiating autorotation? Should there be a vert and horizontal airspeed electronic map to keep the aircraft out of VRS?

Many questions, but it would help qualify expectations of FBW advantages...