Volume 10, Number 2 • March/April 2002 • Small Business/SBIR

SBIR Technology Optimizes Aircraft Power Control

The GENOA/Progressive Failure Analysis Software System can be used to simulate and predict aging and failure in all sorts of structural materials, including high-tech alloys and ceramics used in airplanes, cars, engines and bridges. Artwork courtesy of Glenn Research Center.

Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation of Manassas, Virginia has developed a Single-Lever Power Control (SLPC) that allows a pilot or autopilot to control the propulsion systems of general aviation or unmanned air vehicles (UAV) via a single lever or a single power command using a Full-Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) with optimal propeller/ engine control.

Generally, the pilot controls the power plants of general aviation and lightweight aircraft through various levers. It is the pilot’s responsibility to select speed settings for the propeller through a direct throttle setting on the engine in order to obtain a desired flight condition. Therefore, the selected operating conditions can be far from those ideal for best performance and are sometimes far from the conditions necessary for safe operation. The SLPC is a single-lever flight controller in the form of a single command from the pilot to the entire power plant system, which enables the power plant control unit to select optimum performance for any desired flight condition. The pilot is now free to concentrate on navigation and the control of the aerodynamic surfaces, if not under the control of the autopilot.

Aurora developed and flight-tested the SLPC FADEC system in general aviation aircraft. These tests show fuel consumption improvement of more than 20 percent. The FADEC-controlled engines operated for more than 500 hours in test cells and in flight. This technology was being used in NASA’s Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiment (AGATE) for integrated flight tests with all-digital cockpit technology components. Q

For more information, contact Tom Clancy at Aurora Flight Sciences, 703/369-3633, tom_clancy@hiflight.com. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits