When the Wright Brothers made their pioneering flight in 1903, their aircraft was little more than wood and fabric. Yet, they transcended above the thinking of mere mortals and defied gravity. Since then, time has moved on, and so has their magnificent design, making the way for thousands of variations of aircraft specifications, to increase size, speed, safety and accuracy of the controls. And so, as new technologies have become available, they are found a place among the skies, finding the best way to use new ideas to improve air travel in all possible aspects. One of these aspects has been the implantation of electricity in an aircraft. Once you add the spark of electricity, the possibilities to improve the systems increase tenfold, giving power lights, air circulation, on board instruments and computers designed to regulate systems. This also helps to ease the pressure on the pilot and remove any chance of human error. “Fly-by-wire has been installed in aircraft to act as a signaling tool, effectively removing a lot of the pilot’s duties and regulating them under one electronic system.
What is “Fly-by-wire?”
“Fly-by-wire” is an electronic system that does the job of conventional flight controls, taking the manual pilots responsibilities and replacing them with an electronic interface running through specially designed aircraft wire. The pilot’s controls no longer directly determine the planes movements through hydraulics, but instead, send electric signals to the planes onboard computer which then tell the plane how to act. The system also acts without the pilots instructions and will constantly work to stabilize the aircraft. However, upon the first testing of this technology by the Soviets back in the 1930s, they quickly discovered that at such high altitude electronic signals would stop responding.
Why Did They Stop Responding?
Soon after the creation of the plane, engineers found themselves with an unforeseeable problem. The higher the aircraft went, the lower the temperatures became. This problem needed to be overcome quickly, as pilots were finding that their instruments and fuel were freezing up. The problem has been plaguing aviation engineers ever since, but new fuels have been invented, new techniques formulated and safety measures put in place. Such safety measures have included to use of aircraft wire, and so “fly-by-wire” became a real possibility due to special air wire, which has been designed to withstand temperatures of up to -60 and survive strong G-forces. This made a path for the first commercial “fly-by-wire” aircraft, The Concorde, in 1969. Since then, aircraft wire has been used as the standard in every plane with electronic wiring, from fighter jets to passenger airliners.
Interested in using aircraft wire for your system? SASI can help. Contact them online at http://www.sasi-wire.com or call them at 763-422-0301.
