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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0369.PDF
which Sfena is responsible is the central ised fault display interface unit, which monitors the aircraft's 80 avionic systems. Although it is primarily a maintenance tool, this unit does ease the pilot's monitoring task, and is activated using one of the two multifunction control display units. If the aircraft is on the ground, the fault is displayed to the technician using the system. In flight, the fault is radioed directly back to base, using an Acars/ Aircom-type airliner datalink. Under the prime contractorship of Cerberus-Guinard, Sfena also manu factures the A320 smoke detection control unit. This receives signals from the vari ous smoke detectors and triggers a warn ing. Other safety-related A320 equipment produced by Sfena includes the wing strain gauges, used to warn pilots of exces sive gloads. Sfena intends to compete with Honey well for the A320's air data/inertial refer ence system. The US company has already been selected, but Sfena is striving for certification of its rival system. An important stage has been reached with the acceptance of its Totem 100 laser-gyro inertial system, designed for future military aircraft. This is now undergoing flight trails on various aircraft. In support of the A320 programme, Sfena has introduced software devel opment facilities which, it says, reduce production time, increase validation safety, and enhance maintenance effi ciency. Principal examples are the Palas configuration control programme to aid software development and management, Overall, Sfena's commercial aviation activities during 1986 increased from 28 per cent to almost 35 per cent of total turnover. Preparation for the Airbus A330 and A340 programmes is already under way. In particular, Sfena hopes to supply the A330/A340 cockpit displays, and is moving rapidly ahead with full-raster "all-TV" displays providing "richer images" than the mixed stroke- written/raster-scanned displays used in the A320. Also under development are liquid-crystal displays. The A330/A340 cockpit is likely to have five large displays arranged side by side, says Sfena. All this electronic hardware does not mean that Sfena has departed entirely from its traditional areas of expertise, however. The gyroscopic artificial horizon which made the company famous is still available, and still required, even in the all-glass cockpit, Sfena notes. The company is also producing auto matic flight control systems for helicop ters and automatic guidance systems for Clockwise from bottom right the spoiler and elevator computer, a close-up of the EPROMs on a plug-in memory module, the inside of the spoiler and elevator computers, and an internal view of the flight augmentation computer—all parts of the Airbus A320 fly-by-wire sytem and the Gala system for automatic code management according to control laws expressed in graphic form. This allows faster debugging and reduces the risk of errors, says Sfena. The first fully fly-by-wire airliner, the A3 20 has two main actuators per control surface, compared with three on current Airbuses, but offers the same safety level. This and other simplifications reduce the number of flight control system units to ten in the A320, compared with 48 in the A310. System cost decreases from around $300,000 in the bigger Airbuses to about $190,000 in the A320, says Sfena. The company, which is 51 per cent owned by Aerospatiale, has fully recovered' from its order slump during the airliner- buying recession which bottomed out in 1984. Sfena's turnover in 1986 showed a considerable improvement over the previous year—almost FFr940 million against some FFr810 million in 1985—an increase of 21 per cent. Commerical aviation sales accounted for a significant proportion of this growth: sales were up 38 per cent to almost FFr485 million. This is mainly attributable to Airbus sales of FFr403 million, represent ing an increase of almost 45 per cent over the previous year. missiles, and claims to have pioneered full digital control with high-integrity soft ware. Other business areas include automatic gunfire scoring systems, rate and acceler ation sensors, electrical actuators for helicopters and missiles, and lasers for industrial and airborne applications. S3 Laser tests airspeed Crouzet has developed a laser anemometerrfor flight tests. An accu racy of 0 • 5kt up to 840kt and 50,000ft is claimed. Flight tests were carried out on a Mirage IIIR from April to September 1987. The operating principle involves transmitting a coherent laser beam of 10-6 micron wavelength through the atmosphere and measuring the Doppler effect on the light back- scattered from particles in the air. The laser meassures airspeed outside the distrubed flowfield. This equipment is designed to be used in flight-test centres for cali bration purposes and for all tests requiring accurate knowledge of the airspeed vector. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 13 February 1988 •in
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