Fly-by-wire system - Community Server

Avitop.com Forums

Fly-by-wire system
Questions about the F-16

Thread Starter: Anonymous
Started: 04-28-1999 10:48 PM
Replies: 3

Community Server :: Forums » Military Aviation » Questions about the F-16 » Fly-by-wire system

Anonymous is not online. Last active: 7/17/2007 7:51:33 PM

Anonymous

Top 10 Posts

Joined on 08-18-2002
Posts 1,543

Fly-by-wire system

*** Posted by Tiger ***
Can you tell me how this works?

The Anonymous account was just used to import messages from our old Forum. Anonymous posts are no longer an option ;)

Anonymous

Top 10 Posts

Joined on 08-18-2002
Posts 1,543

Re:Fly-by-wire system

*** Posted by RUN ***
The force you apply to the stick is transfered into electrical signals which are then processed in a flight control computer. The computer takes everything into consideration (speed, AOA, altitude etc.) and then sends electrical signals to the hydraulic actuaters which then moves the ruddersurfaces. Fx. if we fire the canon a little rudder is applied.
RUN

[Can you tell me how this works?]

The Anonymous account was just used to import messages from our old Forum. Anonymous posts are no longer an option ;)

Anonymous

Top 10 Posts

Joined on 08-18-2002
Posts 1,543

Re:Fly-by-wire system

*** Posted by Rapier ***
[Can you tell me how this works?]

Hi Tiger,

I will tell you what I know. Modern jet's use the fly-by-wire system for many reasons, it has a number of advantages. Firstly remember the old planes with levers to control the surfaces, well as planes got faster you needed a stronger arm. Imagine going at Mach 1.5 and pulling back on the stick, you would need to do it with both hands. It's all controlled by a number of relitively powerful computers, I think the F-16 has 4 or 5 but I may be wrong, basically the computers keep the plane stable in the air. If you took these computers off an F16 the plane would do some strange things because the F-16 was designed to be unstable. These computers monitor the stick inputs from the pilot and give the pilot the reponse he/she need's. The computers send this data to the hydrollic actuators and the necessary changes are made to the control surfaces. It's a simple idea which had many problems at first with the computers and other things, but you can find out more info by looking a aircraft crashes on the net. Also an important note to make is that the components used in a fly-by-wire system have to sustain a high amount of G, heat, cold and other variables for obvious reasons, but the computers all help each other out so if one fails the other is able to take over as though nothing happened.

Rapier

The Anonymous account was just used to import messages from our old Forum. Anonymous posts are no longer an option ;)

Anonymous

Top 10 Posts

Joined on 08-18-2002
Posts 1,543

Re:Fly-by-wire system

*** Posted by RUN ***
[Can you tell me how this works?

Hi Tiger,

I will tell you what I know. Modern jet's use the fly-by-wire system for many reasons, it has a number of advantages. Firstly remember the old planes with levers to control the surfaces, well as planes got faster you needed a stronger arm. Imagine going at Mach 1.5 and pulling back on the stick, you would need to do it with both hands.
snip
Rapier]

Just to add a little. You don't need a fly by wire system to get rid of the stick forces. As far as I know most of the jets that have been made, if not all, have had rudders that were moved by hydraulic actuators. So the only stick force to overcome is moving the push - pull rods or wires that controlled the actuators.
In an aircraft without hydraulic actuators you can also reduce a lot of the stick forces by the way you design rudders. Some airplanes also use a little "trimflap" to get rid of the stickforces.

RUN

The Anonymous account was just used to import messages from our old Forum. Anonymous posts are no longer an option ;)

Page 1 of 1 (4 items)

Community Server :: Forums » Military Aviation » Questions about the F-16 » Fly-by-wire system