PPRuNe Forums

PPRuNe Forums (https://www.pprune.org/)
-   Tech Log (https://www.pprune.org/tech-log-15/)
-   -   Technical Alternatives for Pitot Tubes? (https://www.pprune.org/tech-log/376881-technical-alternatives-pitot-tubes.html)

Hyperveloce 23rd June 2009 16:55

Estimating the aerodynamical efficiency of the control surfaces
 
Hi there
There are multiple projects of airborne laser anemometers, some are used by Airbus on a plane to study the turbulences in the wake of its airliners, so, provided it can be certified for commercial usage and proven reliable, maybe a different technology like laser velocimetry can be goog for the overall navigation chain of airliners.
Speaking about the anemometry, I have a question for those who knows in flight mechanics/control and navigation: if the autopilot has the slightest doubt about the reliability of the airspeed measurements or AoA, would it be possible for the autopilot to add to the normal law/orders, very small predefined orders on the control surfaces (the goal is not to induce an upset) to see how they translate into load factors (linear/rotational accelerations via the IRUs) and estimate in another way via a numerical model of the flight mechanics of the aircraft, these suspicious air parameters (airspeed, AoA,...) ?
Jeff

Graybeard 23rd June 2009 18:24

Quote:
Originally Posted by Graybeard http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...s/viewpost.gif
Why is it only Airbus receiving attention for multiple pitot problems?
-------

Mad Flt Scientist:
"In industry terms, it isn't "only Airbus"."

"EASA Safety Information Bulletin 2009-17, issued June 09, contains "recommendations" to operators regarding unreliable airspeed procedures and the applicability is:

Quote:
"All aeroplanes operating in commercial air transport."
-----
Now obviously the more general media are concentrating on AB because that's the simple story. And to be honest, would it really help matters if the press started harping on "it could happen to Boeing too, or Douglas, or ..."? There's enough unnecessary anguish already."
--------

The generic safety memo aside, I guess I should be more blunt: Is there a history of Boeing or McDouglas multiple pitot icing problems?

GB

Turbavykas 23rd June 2009 19:54

Cars use MAF sensor. It measures amount of the air getting into the engine and probably this is the speed of the air. They are cheap and uses different methods. My Toyota Supra 1988 has an optic one. I think there are dozens of other ways to measure air speed without mechanical devices.

falconer1 23rd June 2009 20:01

pleeeease..
 
we need no alternatives to pitot tubes..

just well heated ones..

ampclamp 24th June 2009 12:08

falconer 1
 
the voice of reason. Could not agree more.

Its not airbus its a vendor and airline issue.

alex_ledin 24th June 2009 17:47

Would a database-driven approach do?
 
I've lurked on this forum for years, but for the first time I think that I might have a valuable idea to contribute. (I'm just a PPL, but as this conversation is more about engineering than pilotage...)

In regards to the idea posited by bob.arctor and commented on by Mad (Flt) Scientist - if I understand it correctly - to take a model-based approach to determine airspeed, I have this to suggest. Instead of building a complete flight model, or using a new sensor technology (eg. covering the skin of the aircraft with piezoelectric devices), why not just create an database with prior good data?

Presuming that you've had at least a few minutes of reliable indication off of a pitot source, you now have some reasonable data on aircraft performance. Put another way, on any given flight, you know what airspeeds have resulted with recent combinations of AoA, power, vertical speed, and temperature. That should be sufficient to backdrive at least an approximate aircraft mass. If you wanted to get fancy you could incorporate flight control positions as well, but I'm primarily thinking about level, unaccelerated flight.

If airspeed data then become unreliable due to any factor - sensor failure, icing, impact damage, whatever - you should already have a reasonably close estimation of present aircraft mass (perhaps supplemented with data from a fuel totalizer) and, if I'm not mistaken, should then be able to calculate airspeed given present AoA, power, vertical speed, and temperature. This system should also make it possible to resolve disagreement between multiple pitot / static systems.

If each airframe had a onboard database of prior combinations of the same types of data, then it should be possible to deal with the failure of one sensor, whether it was an AoA vane, pitot tube / static port, thermometer, or whatnot. This strikes me as something that would be quite valuable for pilots, especially because it would eliminate a lot of guesswork as to what sensor or system was providing bad data. It such a system was incorporated into flight logic, it might have prevented recent upsets due to sensor or software failures. (And no, I'm not just referring to AF447, I'm also thinking of the Malaysia Airlines 777 upset over Perth in 2005.)

Obviously, for a system such as I've described to be useful, a single sensor failure should not make two variables unknown. For example, you'd want vertical speed to come from a gyroscopic source, not from the static system, since static port blockage could simultaneously render both airspeed and vertical speed unreliable.

Also, it's worth noting that I'm not sure how good the temporal resolution of this sort of system would be, but I'm reasonably certain that it would be good enough to avoid overspeed / stall during cruise and to maintain Va on approach. If its response were made fast enough it might also be able to take care of cruise gust load alleviation.

Perhaps someone's already implemented such as system? Thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Alex

Hyperveloce 24th June 2009 18:09


Originally Posted by falconer1 (Post 5016573)
we need no alternatives to pitot tubes..

just well heated ones..

Ok, but it's been nearly two decades that the EASA has been issuing airworthiness directives to replace Pitots by Pitots: the problem is still here and seemingly worsening, more and more frequent. If it was just about augmenting the efficiency of the heaters of the Pitot probes, why hasn't it been done in two decades ? When the responsible of the EASA is being asked why the last Pitot replacement was not mandatory, he suggests that there is no point to replace Pitots by other Pitots which will not offer any improvement over the previous ones. And even after Air Caraibe or the AF447, the Pitot replacement is not mandatory (even given the suspected consequences of a loss of the flight assistances and alternate law 1 or 2). About responsabilities: when air transport companies ask their aircraft manufacturers about more resilient Pitot probes, the manufacturer answers that their probes are up to the specifications and even beyond. They don't improve their products in that direction since they are already compliant to the spec. : isn't it the responsability of the regulatory bodies (EASA, BEA,...) ?
When an inconsistancy is detected on air references (a doubt arises), what about testing the authority of control surfaces as previously suggested ? It does not require any new instrument (or the instrument is the entire airframe)
Jeff

falconer1 24th June 2009 18:36

well Hyperveloce,
 
first, for better or for worse, EASA did not exist two decades ago..it is a fairly recent "invention"..but that's besides the point..

1) The way I understood it, and worldwide the media has not reported correctly on that, it was in fact operators like Air France and others who confronted the manufacturers and demanded a "better" probe for the A330 / A340 family..

the probe upgrade for the A320 was not originally done for the same reasons as was deemed necessary by the operators for the A330/340 family..

so obviously the manufacturers seem to have told the operators that they don't believe the A320 probe upgrade would help with the A330 situations..

(that's why it obviously was not classified mandatory, but sort of optional, like in "nice to have" but not that necessary..)

at least that's the way I understand it from our industry media reports..

2) specs......well you can design a no nonsense old fashioned probe that is glowing like a frying pan, and it would fulfill those specs probably to the point..only problem, as a manufacturer, what do you want to charge for that?? it does not cost that much and the OEMs would not pay that much..

then again, if you design a super - duper space shuttle type probe, that has all kinds of technology in there, it may not be a common sense product, but it would still be up to specs... and guess what, for what that probe is sold for and for what the OEMs are ready to pay for it, you probably could buy a real nice 4 seater private airplane...we are talking big bucks here..

a product with "value added".. so to say...

3) regs.. well I am of the old fashioned variety in that I DO NOT believe that more regs and more mandatory stuff actually will improve a product, nor will it ultimately improve safety..

so maybe I'm wrong, but once you start to make some wild high tech thing out of a pretty basic pitot tube, well, it WILL fail more often, simply because more failure modes are designed into it..

look at an old 737 probe, or from whatever 60's or 70's era plane and look at the new stufff

times are a 'changin..

the only thing that still is fairly predictable and has not changed for a long while, guess a couple of million years by now, ( contrary to what all the climate change folks want you to believe ) IS the weather..

so maybe we should revert back to old "cheap" probes for the same old "expensive" weather..

Hyperveloce 24th June 2009 20:30


Originally Posted by falconer1 (Post 5018745)
first, for better or for worse, EASA did not exist two decades ago..it is a fairly recent "invention"..but that's besides the point....

True, but the BEA and other regulatory bodies did exist:
_______________________
AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE
released by DIRECTION GENERALE DE L’AVIATION CIVILE

Translation of ‘Consigne de Navigabilité’ ref. : 91-227-021(B) R1
In case of any difficulty, reference should be made to the French original issue.

AIRBUS INDUSTRIE
A320 aircraft
Pitot tubes

The present Airworthiness Directive applies to AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A320 aircraft, MSN 002 to 122, 124 to 179, 183 to 194, 196 to 228, 230 to 245 and 247 to 255 included without AIRBUS INDUSTRIE Service Bulletin A320-34-1024 R3.
In order to prevent wrong speed indication - one or several speed indications lower than the real aircraft speed - due to water accumulation in flexible hoses betweeen pitot tubes and air data modules (ADM), the following measure is rendered mandatory on the effective date of this Airworthiness Directive :

accomplish AIRBUS INDUSTRIE Service Bulletin A320-34-1024 R3 at first opportunity or before
January 31, 1992 at the latest.
Ref. : AIRBUS INDUSTRIE Service Bulletin A320-34-1024 R3
EFFECTIVE DATE : JANUARY, 03 1992
_________________
And I don't have the means to make a more comprehensive search in the BEA archives.


the only thing that still is fairly predictable and has not changed for a long while, guess a couple of million years by now, ( contrary to what all the climate change folks want you to believe ) IS the weather..

so maybe we should revert back to old "cheap" probes for the same old "expensive" weather..
Well, I don't want to debate about the climate change and about the GIEC, but a pilot (now being a specialist of aeronautics consulted by most of the French TV) mentionned the effect of climate change at high altitudes to try to explain why the frequency of Pitot problems seem to increase. I am not a met specialist, but Pitot problems have been here for long and it is not only about Airbus.

But maybe prevention/maintenance can also help: between two flights in the airports, are there systematic inspections of the pitot drain hole and of the static pressure lines ? (drainage of water/humidity/moisture in the pressure lines)
Jeff

bob.arctor 24th June 2009 21:38

Synthesized IAS
 
* Sorry for going on about this :bored: *

Here follows some more on the 'synthesized IAS'. The software could work much like in face recognition, assuming that every [relative speed level vs altitude] make its own distinct pattern.

The noise could possibly be attenuated by incorporating broad audio spectrum analysis in addition to the accelerometer and piezo-electric readings from points within the main carrying structure.

About cost, the computing could possibly be done on an affordable modern server, and the software could be open sourced.

Mac OS X and Linux are solid operative systems and not prone to crash / output BSOD's.

The system structure could be made to accept multiple failures and still output reasonable data.


THAT is what causes the bending.
I meant the full motion of the wing, not just the vertical.

falconer1 24th June 2009 21:53

well Hyperveloce,
 
sorry, but you are proving my point, maybe without wanting to..

the story about the A-320 probes seems to have been about water drainage..

(stuff that could affect the pitots when flying in heavy rain for instance in an approach situation..)

The problems that Air France and Air Caraibes for instance have had with the A-330 /340 probes seems to have been during "dynamic convective" situations at high altitude...and that does not seem to be related to the water accumulation as such in the probes but seems more related to sudden freezing of the probes by super cooled droplets..so seems to be related to the heating elements..

That's the reason, according to what I have heard, that Airbus themselves had been skeptical whether the updated A-320 probe would solve the A330/340 issues..

and in regards to any reports that may correlate the high altitude freezing issues with any "new" climate we may experience..

well, I would be very careful with these theories..

the simple reason may well be that we have a lot more long range flights today which cross well known convective zones on a regular basis, and therefore we may see a significant increase of such incidents / accidents..

and like some others here in the radar threads maybe rightfully suspect, that we may not be as conservative in regards to heavy weather avoidance as in earlier times, maybe because some new high tech stuff in the cockpits, while being an enormous improvement in many regards, on the other hand may lead to a false sense of safety at times..

and may have changed in ever so subtle ways our threat perceptions..

bob.arctor 24th June 2009 23:28

... as this is the Pitot Tubes Alternatives thread ;)

One very good place to put piezo-electric sensors for the 'IAS Synthesizer' would be at the engine mounts.

This [synthesized] reading could be thought of foremost as complementary to the conventional old-school and normally reliable pitot tube-based meter.

falconer1 25th June 2009 21:45

well, Bob..
 

One very good place to put piezo-electric sensors for the 'IAS Synthesizer' would be at the engine mounts.

This [synthesized] reading could be thought of foremost as complementary to the conventional old-school and normally reliable pitot tube-based meter.
grand idea, how about if we'd also couple it to the N1 indicator or EPR then subtract the ITT and put it into relation to the pressure altitude corrected by the "freezing point" of supercooled water droplets, if present, and divide it by the mean aerodynamic cord of fan blades and finally subtract the thickness of the windshields..and then

the EAS could determined with a poll in the cockpit taking into the equation the tilt of the engine mounts and the age difference between PF and PNF..

man, how about we stay with straight ( don't even mind if they're bent) PITOT TUBES..nice hole up front and a short circuit built into them that draws MEGAAMPS for a real nice hot temp at the hole..??!!

just my two cents..;)

bob.arctor 26th June 2009 04:13

@alex_ledin

What you have described, calculating with tedencies could certainly purposefully be incorporated in the IAS Synthesizer :ok:

@falconer1


The concept of an IAS Synthesizer apparently sounds far fetched to you.

I'm quite sure that such a device can be built, although maybe not exactly the way I have described it (The story about the car Homer Simpson designed for one of the Big 3 comes to mind). Some uni could possibly make it work.

About the new weather, flying trough strong turbulence in an airplane today can well be likened with traveling in a speeding bus on a very neglected dirt road, with no suspension and all tires blown.

If the cockpit, cabin and baggage compartment together were made floating in relation to the airframe (as with electronic F1 car suspension technology), the general safety and comfort could be way much better.

bob.arctor 28th June 2009 14:18

Code:

THAT is what causes the bending.
About the vertical motion / wing oscillation, analyzing vertical accelerometer data over the wings alone should give an IAS reading as air speed and air density are two main parameters affecting the wave damping.

Surely the analysis would be complex in turbulence conditions but then there'd be all the other data.

Graybeard 28th June 2009 18:25

Goes to show there are a lot of complicated ways to measure airspeed.

GB

Mike-Bracknell 28th June 2009 22:01

Just my 2p:

Alex_ledin - Like the idea of a database-driven approach, but it's maybe susceptible to other inputs giving false readings and exacerbating the feeling of a loss of control of your senses (no pun intended).

bob.arctor - Linux and MacOS don't crash?? Don't make me laugh!

"Laser" anemometers - good idea for a backup that works in a totally different way - shouldn't be too expensive to mass-produce either? Also, if you have a problem with finding particles that far up, create your own! Just stick a smoke generator a few feet in front if necessary.

And now on to my off-the-wall idea for measurement:

Sensors in each jet engine in the compressor stage, measuring the amount of air resistance occurring at the fan blades.

Not sure how sensitive it might be (or rather how insensitive the jet engine is for a given state of fuel entry), but it's one place to try?

VnV2178B 29th June 2009 08:40

Mike,
most engines have their own pressure and temperature sensors in the intakes already - but I guess they are pitot/statics too!.

The A380 has all the engines reporting their parameters to the central system which then sends information back to the other engines as well as the airframe values.

More use might be made of all this data, but certification of any computer system on an aircraft is not like releasing it to normal users. It takes much time and effort to be sure that it is as safe as possible (ALARP) and will not interfere with the safe conduct of the flight.

Mac-OS and Linux would struggle to conform, specialist OSs are needed for safety.

VnV

alex_ledin 29th June 2009 22:26

The real question: flying with 1 type of sensor inop.
 
Mike-Bracknell: I agree that you'd have to do input checking, but even this would probably have positive safety consequences. For example, if the pitot gets plugged and your airspeed goes from M.80 to M.27 in less than a second, you know that something's gone wrong, and it's overwhelmingly likely to be related to the pitot / static system if there's little or no recorded vertical acceleration. (Again, this presupposes that you're getting VS from a gyro or accelerometer and not your static source!) I don't know quite what you mean about loss of control of the senses: are you concerned that pilots would lose the ability to determine which systems had failed?

bob.arctor: A synthetic IAS / TAS system would require a purpose-built real-time OS that was far more reliable and rigorously tested than a general purpose operating system like Linux or most versions of BSD, including the Mac OS. Thankfully, such RTOSes already exist. Additionally, if a synthetic IAS system were to be implemented, it would have to function with the limited computational resources that are available on an aircraft. That's why I suggest that using a database with known-good data would be a better approach than some sort of real-time modeling. Any system that requires heavy analysis (say, finite element analysis) is almost certainly inappropriate for in-flight use, at least right now. I can imagine that in ten or twenty years we'll have the computational horsepower to alter airfoils in-flight to achieve whatever results are desired. :)

Given recent rumor and information about similar problems with A330s at TAM, NWA, Qantas, and Air Caraibes, it's tempting to focus on pitot/static system-specific problems. I would suggest that the bigger issue is how to keep a computer-controlled aircraft flying safely with persistent bad data from all of the sensors of a single type. Since we cannot reasonably build aircraft with three different designs of pitot tube (for example) from three different vendors, we have to prevent an unanticipated design flaw in that one pitot tube design from delivering fatally bad data. There’s no reason for that bad data to cause a loss of control, never mind a bunch of bent metal and lost lives. This goes for all sensor subsystems: accelerometers, AoA vanes, engine performance monitors (FADECs), etc., and not just pitot / static systems.

Cheers,
Alex

Mike-Bracknell 29th June 2009 23:27


I don't know quite what you mean about loss of control of the senses: are you concerned that pilots would lose the ability to determine which systems had failed?
Got it in one...well almost - I was also including the computers, as with more than one failed component you would deviate from the known failure for one axis of the plotted database, thus leaving your computers scrabbling for knowledge of which system had failed and where exactly it was supposed to be in this database.

Trend analysis would have to be a feature of the database I think, and I also think you do computational power a disservice as nowadays there's a hell of a lot of number-crunching can be done with a lowly PC processor. Certainly enough to give a *rough* estimate of flight parameters i'd assume.

I do think there's mileage in trying to apply modern techniques as backups to firstly augment (and then maybe replace) the systems that have done well up to now on aircraft though. Having watched Wimbledon tonight, and seen how well Hawkeye does nowadays with line call predictions purely from camera data, there's an example of something that wouldn't have been possible 20 years ago, but works well enough now that the line judges are almost redundant.

bob.arctor 30th June 2009 08:15

IAS Synthesizer
 

Goes to show there are a lot of complicated ways to measure airspeed.
Using a couple of vertical accelerometer sensors connected over WIFI to an iPod running dedicated low frequency audio software could be sufficient to give a decent reading (calculated with the static pressure). The reading should be more detailed by also using horizontal accelerometer data from the wing tips.

A good high school project perhaps.


specialist OSs are needed for safety.
And that would often times mean [hands on] by some version of Windows or Vista (referring to various EFIS devices here), right ;)

VnV2178B 30th June 2009 11:22

Bob.a,

by specialist I mean something like Integrity from Greenhills or LynxOs (OK the latter is sort of based on Unix/Linux) but certainly a certified to 178b system (hence my moniker)

VnV

bob.arctor 30th June 2009 11:36

...alright, foremost I meant an IAS synthesizer well could be using Apple hardware :)

VnV2178B 30th June 2009 12:46

Ok, but at the core of that hardware these days is still some Intel chip.

VnV

MPGiles 1st July 2009 03:19

Master of the aUniverse
 
Very intersting stuff about Airspeed. Two questions How is speed calculted on the stealth aircraft which I presume don't have poles sticking into the breeze and what exactly are the failures in the Airspeed sytems in the AirBi?
The way it is phrased leads to me wondering if it was not actually icing but some other unknown failure:ok:

Mad (Flt) Scientist 1st July 2009 06:12

Stealth AC in general have flush mounted sensors, AFAIK.

Those on the B-2, handled incorrectly with regard to the anti-ice system, caused the loss of the B-2 in Guam (?) IIRC so those systems are by no means foolproof either.,

Towhee 1st July 2009 07:11



January 9, 2004
The End of the Tube?

UK engineers are developing a new generation of air-speed sensors that use the latest laser technology to improve on traditional methods. Jon Excell explains.

The pace of technological change - from passenger jets to helicopters - has been staggering over the past 100 years, yet there are still a few critical components that have remained unchanged.

One is the Pitot tube - a simple mechanical device at the heart of the speedometer on most modern aircraft - designed almost 300 years ago by French inventor Henri Pitot, to measure fluid velocity. The basic instrument consists of two coaxial tubes: an interior tube that is open to the flow, and an exterior tube open at 90 degrees to the flow. By measuring the difference between these two pressures the flow rate of the fluid can be calculated.


But the tube's lack of accuracy at low speeds and poor aerodynamic performance has led some in the aerospace industry to question its validity in the 21st century.

When mounted on an aircraft, the central passage in the tube points in the direction of travel. Meanwhile, a number of openings in the outside wall of the main tube lead to a second set of smaller passageways. These two sets of tubes are typically connected to either side of a pressure transducer attached to the base of the unit. The transducer measures the difference in atmospheric pressure in the two groups of tubes, and this pressure difference can be used to calculate the aircraft's speed.

While the tube is accurate at high speeds, its ability to resolve differences in pressure at low speeds is limited which compromises its performance.
An additional problem is that on fixed wing aircraft its profile significantly increases the amount of drag and therefore has an impact on fuel efficiency.

With these problems in mind, engineers at BAE systems Advanced Technology Centre have launched The Laser Air Speed Sensor Instrument programme (LASSI) a two and half year project aimed at developing air speed sensors that are both accurate at all speeds and won't contribute towards drag.

With the programme still in its infancy, LASSI project leader Leslie Laycock would not go into technical details. He did however reveal that the system will use a compact, short-pulse UV laser and a fibreoptic system. By firing the laser into the atmosphere, the nature of the light reflected from air molecules will change according to speed. This variation is measured by LASSI and used to calculate airspeed.

Laycock said that while engineers have been aware of the Pitot tube's drawbacks for some time, there hasn't really been a viable alternative. Engineers have looked at using lasers before, but they've been too bulky. Laycock claimed that it is largely due to cutting edge work in the UK on compact high-power lasers that laser-based systems are finally becoming viable.

Although LASSI has yet to yield any solid test data, Laycock said that initial estimations indicate that over the operating life of a long- haul plane, significant fuel savings could be achieved by replacing the Pitot tube with something that's flush to the airframe.

Clearly, the manufacture and installation of a system that requires compact lasers and fibreoptic cables will initially be more expensive than the Pitot tube. Laycock is confident however, that LASSI's ultimate benefits will far outweigh the initial cost. Laycock's team is also looking into the application of the technology in other areas. It could, for instance, be used to model airflow around buildings.

There's still a long way to go and at the end of the project Laycock hopes to be able to unveil a demonstrator that will be deployed either on an aircraft, or in a wind tunnel to both prove the principle and show just how small the system could be. If all goes smoothly, he said that the system could be appearing on planes in about five years.
from: The Engineer


also:



May 13, 2003
Can MEMS point the way ahead?

Honeywell says micro electromechanical systems could lead breakthrough in sensor and weapon guidance technology

by Graham Warwick

Honeywell is pursuing development of micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) as a "potentially disruptive" technology in aircraft avionics and weapon guidance. The company is already developing an attitude and heading reference system (AHARS) and standby display for commercial aviation applications using MEMS sensors.


MEMS combine micron-scale electrical and mechanical features on the surface of a silicon chip, and are batch-produced using integrated-circuit fabrication techniques. "MEMS is an enabling technology across Honeywell," says Eric Doremus, vice-president precision sensors and components. Applications range from biomedical sensors to aerospace devices including attitude and pressure sensors and inertial measurement units.


Doremus says MEMS offer significant reductions in cost, size, weight, volume and power over conventional sensors. The company is already producing air-data systems using MEMS precision pressure sensors. The next step is a flush-orifice air data system, now in development, which uses distributed pressure sensors to eliminate the pitot probe, he says. The first developmental MEMS-based inertial measurement units have been delivered to customers.

Honeywell is applying MEMS gyros to inertial systems small and robust enough to guide gun-launched projectiles. In the longer term, the technology promises to provide navigation-grade performance, allowing MEMS gyros and accelerometers to replace ring-laser and fibre-optic gyros in aircraft inertial systems. Doremus expects the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's inertial navigator to be a MEMS-based device just 50cm3 (3in3) in size, compared with the F-16's 7,900cm3 laser-gyro unit.
Honeywell's MEMS-based AHARS is scheduled for introduction in 2004-5. GPS aiding will reduce errors, to provide an attitude accuracy of better than 0.1deg., says Doremus.

Back-up true-airspeed aiding will provide an attitude accuracy of 1-2deg.. The AHARS will be part of Honeywell's new flat-panel standby display, which will combine the unit with MEMS-based air data sensors and magnetometer. GPS integration and flight-control output will be optional features.

Honeywell has MEMS fabrication facilities in Redmond, Washington, and Plymouth, Minnesota. Both are capable of producing 150mm (6in)-diameter wafers, each containing 700 micro-scale gyros. The Plymouth site is being upgraded to handle 200mm wafers for the production of pressure sensors with 1.5 micron-sized features.


from: Flight International

Obi Offiah 1st July 2009 10:33


Originally Posted by MPGiles
Two questions How is speed calculted on the stealth aircraft which I presume don't have poles sticking into the breeze

Michigan Aerospace:
"Pitot Probe/Static Ports/Alpha Sensors are used on the F-16, F-18, and the F-117. Flush Port Sensors are used on the X-15, Space Shuttle (SEADS Experiment), B-2, and the A-12. A hybrid system (Pitot Probe/Alpha Sensor/Flush Port) is used on the F-22. The B-2 has quad flush port sensors for the quad flight control systems. Flush Port Pressure Sensors are symmetrically placed on the airframe. The pressure measured at each port varies as the airframe maneuvers. Pressure differences between symmetrical ports correspond to changes in angle of attack and sideslip. Pressure data is derived from wind tunnel and flight tests. The B-2 air data system is made up of two gust load alleviation static ports, differential beta static ports, and left and right alpha/static ports. Each port contains its own 1553 terminal, which is tied to the Flight Control Computer (FCC) along with the total temperature (probe measured at engine inlet) and nose gear position. The air data computation routines in the FCC then determine angle of attack, angle of sideslip, static pressure, pressure altitude, mach number, dynamic pressure, and true air speed."

One of the advantages of laser based/optical air data systems, as well as the so called 'smart probes' is that they are very accurate (even down to very low speeds) and don't suffer from the pneumatic lag inherent in contemporary systems. This enables the FCS to have access to the most accurate current data, and aids flight stability.

Because OADS are capable of detecting air molecules in advance of the airframe, this gives the FCS the ability to act partially as a predictor 'crystal ball' system and issue corrective control surface commands before the airframe has encountered a particular body of air. I think this can be viewed as a flight safety as well as a flight comfort benefit. Turbulence detection and wind profiling

Obi

Hyperveloce 1st July 2009 13:04

Hey
MEMS are related to the IRU part. They probably have a potential to cut prices. IRUs and GPS are very complementary to each other: IRUs have a drift tendancy (summing of errors on acceleration increments) while GPS will not drift but will have larger instantaneous errors. They can correct each others. With 3 GPS antennas, the GPS can also estimate the attitude angles, enabling a deeper hybridation with the IRUs. A complete hybridation (we call it sensors hybridation in French but in English, it might be termed as sensor data fusion ?) may be possible with all the air references, including new sensors like laser anemometry (which can remotly sense the 3D airspeed field, hence also mesure angles of incidence, slide, etc...) or a Lidar (new weather radar for improved detection of turbulences/CAT, with doppler/interferometry capabilities).

I may be dreaming, but this full hybridation of IRUs, Air references, Laser Velocimeter or Lidar, barometric/radioaltimetry altitude, and possibly other air reference sensors (cinetic pressure transducers on the airframe or in the compression stages of the engines as suggested by others), implemented via a large extended Kalman model (mainly describing the airframe & flight/fluid mechanics, the sensors and their measures... the underlying physics) would provide an optimal error detection/isolation scheme (nothing to do with constant thresholds in magnitude/duration to detect faults as it is done) and the capability to estimate some failed air parameters via all the others and through the real time monitoring the aerodynamical authority of the airframe (and its control surfaces, via microorders added to the normal orders). This real time aerodynamical authority estimation (through slight modification of the "posture" of the aircraft) coupled with the direct sensing of the air stream and the resulting linear/rotational accelerations provided by the IRUs (and possibly laser/lidar imagery of the air stream) would be close to the proprioceptive sense used in bird flight. This extended Kalman model would "know" that spikes of a few degrees magnitude and of a few milliseconds duration on the AoA or pitch are not a real thing in flight mechanics it has to react to (fault detection & exclusion), all the more if other paramaters remain unchanged (vertical acceleration). It would also know that a CAS drop approaching 200 kts in amplitude in a blink of an eye is not possible if the control surface authority and other parameters remain constant. It would exclude corrupted measures in an optimal manner, relying on measures consistant with each others from an aerodynamical point of view. Otto would be a lot smarter ? :8 This sensor hybridation scheme is used by some military flying vehicles.
Nothing to do with the air reference improvement but in difficult conditions, the reading of the instruments may be a problem according to some pilots: the military have head up displays, why not for the civilians too ?
Jeff

timpara 1st July 2009 15:44

Estimating the aerodynamical efficiency of the control surfaces
 
Re Hyperveloce's idea of using control surfaces as part of a backup aurspeed system: I'd been thinking along similar lines. But a simpler way to calculate airspeed might be to measure the pressure required (in say a hydraulic system) to deflect a control surface (for example, rudder) by a known amount. This backup calculation could be done continuously.

Mad (Flt) Scientist 1st July 2009 16:19

Requires a very good understanding of the hinge moments at small deflections. Not a trivial thing to do, since it also varies with other conditions. Doing something similar (but with known AS in order to estimate control effectiveness for FBW purposes) has been done before.

rubik101 1st July 2009 16:25

Doesn't anyone like my idea of a bendy piece of plastic for airspeed and a lead ball on a piece of string instead a gyro? (or a blob of depleted uranium on a carbon fibre thread if you want expensive)

Hyperveloce 1st July 2009 17:16

the real time estimation of the control surfaces authority would at least require a complete aerodynamical model of the airframe for all the flight enveloppe and control surfaces configurations, and a structural description of its deformations under load factors. This complete aerodynamical/structural model is of course available to the aircraft manufacturer.
Jeff

Mr Optimistic 3rd July 2009 16:29

complex hybrid systems
 
problem with complex hybrid systems is that it would be a bit of a task to elucidate teh myriad failure modes and fault combinations. Sometimes the burden of providing such 'truth' makes the enterprise doubtful

thomas8 4th July 2009 16:51

BUSS ( Back Up Speed System )
 
Airbus designs a new function for A380 & A330, it is called "BUSS", does anyone know this function ?

Mad (Flt) Scientist 4th July 2009 22:01

It's an Angle-of-Attack based display; it basically has a green (target) range of AOA that you are supposed to fly in, with the low and high ends being red "no go" areas representing overspeed (low AOA) or stall (high AOA).

Fairly simple in concept - though of course it requires the AOA sensors be operational, and depending on the nature of the airspeed problem that might be in doubt (ADC hardware failure would be a good case for using BUSS, but something affecting the outside environment, such as extreme icing (SLD) or hail (physical gamage to probes and sensors) could disable BUSS as well as conventional airspeed)

Still, it's a fairly good solution in that it uses existing installed equipment, and has some significant dissimilarities to enhance the chance of it being available.

rgbrock1 14th July 2009 18:31

re: the somewhat snide comments about Mac OS X and Linux.
Yes, both operating systems may, on occasion, crash or even hang. (I'm a systems engineer by profession) But they certainly do so far, far less than
Windoze. And let's not even discuss the security implications. (Windoze being akin to the proverbial swiss cheese as far as security goes.) Nor should we discuss the inherent bugginess of any Windows release.

chase888 15th July 2009 01:05

I will have to take my chances on being shot down, but I simply have not had the time to go back over so many posts.
Just wondering if any consideration has been made on how icicles form?
Water from the pitot drain would I suspect be only just above freezing, so meeting 800k/hour sub zero air on the outside would probably induce a further blockage in the form of a lump of ice externally.
Maybe the pitot needs an external heater also?

Graybeard 15th July 2009 02:11

It might be instructive to compare pitot tubes and heaters certified on Airbus to pitot tubes and heaters on Boeings, Douglas, Lockheed, et al. Multiple pitot icing appears to be unique to Airbus.

GB

Will Fraser 15th July 2009 02:53

Graybeard I know it's generally accepted that the pitots and heaters on Airbus produce Unreliable Airspeed data, can you tell me where that is demonstrated?? With the Ua/s incidents, (NOT accidents, AF is far from known), what is the data derived that implicates this equipment??

Will


All times are GMT. The time now is 12:51.


Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.