An Integrated Design Approach for Advanced Flight Control Systems with Multifunctional Flight Control Devices

Flight Control Systems (FCS) of today’s commercial transport aircraft consist of highly optimized and mainly mono-functional flight control surfaces. The knowledge-based configurations and architectures are often limited to small and local improvements under high effort. Various research studies show the potential of functional enhancement of the FCS to increase the aircraft efficiency or performance. Consequently, the transition from a knowledge-based to a functional-driven design is recommended. The objective of this contribution is to enable an integrated design of advanced FCS with multifunctional flight control devices. This integrated design approach considers new technologies and concepts for innovative and advanced FCS in early aircraft design phases. Finally, a brief case study of a concept aircraft with advanced FCS is conducted and the preliminary results are presented.     «

Flight Control Systems (FCS) of today’s commercial transport aircraft consist of highly optimized and mainly mono-functional flight control surfaces. The knowledge-based configurations and architectures are often limited to small and local improvements under high effort. Various research studies show the potential of functional enhancement of the FCS to increase the aircraft efficiency or performance. Consequently, the transition from a knowledge-based to a functional-driven design is recommende...     »