Design and Development of Aircraft Systems, 3rd Edition

Chapter 10Aircraft System Examples

10.1 Introduction

The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of a specific system to allow the reader to better understand and assimilate the content of the foregoing chapters by placing system issues within an overall context.

A useful example to illustrate the interaction of several systems is to examine the inter‐relationship of the systems on a modern civil aircraft. A civil aircraft is an interesting and perhaps almost unique subject as many of the systems are required to meet high levels of integrity in order that the aircraft can successfully complete a flight. At the same time these same systems have to perform safely and reliably in adverse environments of low or high temperature and often under conditions of high vibration. The need for the aircraft to meet performance goals places additional constraints on weight and volume, therefore these issues have to balanced and satisfied so that the aircraft can perform its mission both safely and economically.

Three major systems that contribute to aircraft operation are shown in Figure 10.1. The aircraft structure comprising the wings fuselage and empennage provides the lift and control surfaces, and the passenger cabin. The aircraft systems comprising propulsion system, flight control, fuel, hydraulic and environmental control systems provide the means of flying the aircraft. The avionics systems represent the ‘brains’ of the aircraft, providing navigation, communications, ...