Fire protection and recompression systems for a hypobaric research chamber Final report, Jul. - Dec. 1967

Fire detection-extinguishment and automatic rapid recompression systems for hypobaric spacecraft cabin simulator

NASA contributions to fluidic systems: A survey

A state-of-the art review of fluidic technology is presented. It is oriented towards systems applications rather than theory or design. It draws heavily upon work performed or sponsored by NASA in support of the space program and aeronautical research and development (R&D). Applications are emphasized in this survey because it is hoped that the examples described and the criteria presented for evaluating the suitability of fluidics to new applications will be of value to potential users of fluidic systems. This survey of the fluidics industry suggests some of the means whereby a company may use a fluidic system effectively either to manufacture a product or as part of the end product

Set-based approach to passenger aircraft family design

Presented is a method for the design of passenger aircraft families. Existing point-based methods found in the literature employ sequential approaches in which a single design solution is selected early and is then iteratively modified until all requirements are satisfied. The challenge with such approaches is that the design is driven toward a solution that, although promising to the optimizer, may be infeasible due to factors not considered by the models. The proposed method generates multiple solutions at the outset. Then, the infeasible solutions are discarded gradually through constraint satisfaction and set intersection. The method has been evaluated through a notional example of a three-member aircraft family design. The conclusion is that point-based design is still seen as preferable for incremental (conventional) designs based on a wealth of validated empirical methods, whereas the proposed approach, although resource-intensive, is seen as more suited to innovative designs

Automation of Aircraft Engine Fuel Controls Tests: An Industrial Case Study involving PID Control of a Nozzle Emulator

The test of fuel control systems used on civil aircraft engines is performed with a network of distributed and, by design, isolated systems. The co-ordination of these test systems is performed manually by human operators in order to verify the airworthiness of a fuel control system throughout the products’ lifecycle. The main objective of this study is the automation of an existing network of systems for fuel control tests. The aspect of automation that is considered in this paper is the control of the engine nozzle emulator which is critical to determine the airworthiness of repaired fuel control systems. This system is realized using a model following PID controller design approach. The results from simulation studies and a hardware-in-the-loop test are presented. These demonstrate that this PID control structure provides the necessary level of accuracy and robustness for this engineering process

Advanced secondary power system for transport aircraft

A concept for an advanced aircraft power system was identified that uses 20-kHz, 440-V, sin-wave power distribution. This system was integrated with an electrically powered flight control system and with other aircraft systems requiring secondary power. The resulting all-electric secondary power configuration reduced the empty weight of a modern 200-passenger, twin-engine transport by 10 percent and the mission fuel by 9 percent

Automatic assembly design project 1968/69: report of the control and motivation committee

Methods of control for automatic assembly machines are surveyed. The control requirements of the versatile automatic assembly machine are analysed, and the most practical system is specified and designed in detail

Signal noise in pure fluid amplifiers research report no. 1

Signal noise in pure fluid amplifiers, signal function generator, fluid transmission lines, closed loop control, and related instrumentation and equipmen