Aircraft with a control device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9573678-B2
Application number	US-201213566721-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2012
Priority date	Feb 5, 2010
Publication date	Feb 21, 2017
Grant date	Feb 21, 2017

Abstract

An aircraft with airfoils having a main wing and at least one control flap arranged such to be adjusted relative to the main wing, as well as a high-lift system with at least one regulating flap for adjusting the lift of the airfoils to adjust the state of lift of the aircraft, featuring flow control devices for influencing the fluid flowing over the surface segment; an activating unit; and a lift state specification device connected to the activating unit for adjusting the state of lift of the aircraft.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An aircraft with airfoils that respectively comprises a main wing and at least one control flap that is adjustable relative to the main wing, as well as a high-lift system with at least one regulating flap that is arranged on the main wing and adjustable relative thereto by an actuating unit, wherein a lift of the airfoils and a state of lift of the aircraft are adjustable by adjusting the regulating flap by the actuating unit, featuring:
at least one arrangement of flow control devices that is situated in a surface segment of the main wing or the at least one regulating flap of each airfoil, wherein the surface segment extends in the spanwise direction, and is configured to influence the fluid flow flowing over the surface segment,
the actuating unit configured to actuate the at least one regulating flap,
an activating unit that is functionally connected to and configured to control the actuating unit and the flow control devices in order to adjust the regulating flap and the degree, to which the flow is influenced by the flow control devices,
a specification device that is connected to the activating unit and configured to generate nominal commands for adjusting the state of lift of the aircraft,

wherein the activating unit is configured to generate commands for the actuating unit and the flow control devices based on nominal commands of the specification device, wherein the generated commands are configured to adjust the regulating flap and the degree, to which the flow is influenced by the flow control devices, and thusly adjust the state of lift of the aircraft,
wherein the at least one arrangement of flow control devices situated in a surface segment of the main wing that extends in the spanwise direction and at least one regulating flap of each airfoil additionally features flow condition sensor units for measuring the flow condition on the respective segment,
wherein the activating unit has a control function, which generates commands for the actuating unit and the flow control devices based on nominal commands of the specification device and the flow conditions measured by the flow condition sensor units in order to adjust the degree, to which the flow is influenced by the flow control devices,
wherein the activating unit has a safety function with a monitoring function that compares the values of the sensor signals with nominal values and detects any deviation that exceeds a specified maximum deviation value, and a reconfiguration function that, in case of the detection of such a deviation that exceeds the maximum deviation value, switches over from the operating mode, in which current control signal vectors or control commands for controlling the actuators of the regulating flaps and the flow control devices are generated, to a safety mode, in which only the regulating flaps are actuated in accordance with the respective nominal command in order to adjust a predetermined state of lift of the aircraft.

2. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the activating unit is configured to prioritize and generate amplifying factors for the commands for the actuating unit and for the flow control devices in order to adjust the magnitude of the commands for the actuating unit and the magnitude of the commands for the flow control devices in relation to each other.

3. The aircraft according to claim 2 , wherein the activating unit is designed such that it generates the amplifying factors for the commands for the actuating unit and for the flow control devices in functional dependency of the nominal commands of at least one of the specification device, the sensor signals of the flight status sensor unit and the sensor signals of the flow condition sensor unit.

4. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the specification device is configured as specification device which is functional part of a pilot interface which has an input device and which is configured such that a pilot can manually select input commands with the input device.

5. The aircraft according to claim 4 , wherein the specification device is configured as a lift state specification device which comprises the input device for selecting a value for the lift of the aircraft.

6. The aircraft according to claim 4 , wherein the specification device is configured as a flow state specification device which comprises the input device for selecting a value for the fluid flow flowing over the surface segment, whereby the pilot can specifically select the magnitude of the influence of the fluid flow flowing over the surface segment and in particular the magnitude of values of the current control signal vector for at least one of speed and throughput of fluid being blown out of outlet openings of the flow control devices.

7. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the degree to which the flow is influenced by the flow control devices, is predetermined and the activating unit generates commands for the actuating unit based on this degree and transmits these commands to the actuating unit in order to control said actuating unit and adjust the regulating flap.

8. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the activating unit is configured such that the activating unit generates a current control signal vector comprising commands for controlling the actuating unit of the at least one regulating flap and the flow control devices by a controller model for the aircraft and transmits this control signal vector to the actuating unit and the flow control devices, wherein the activating unit determines the current input signal vector based on the nominal commands of the specification device, the sensor signals of a flight status sensor unit and sensor signals of a flow condition sensor unit.

9. The aircraft according to claim 8 , wherein the function of the activating unit which generates a current control signal vector for controlling the actuating unit of the at least one regulating flap and the flow control devices comprises a matrix operation with a current input signal vector, a factorization matrix comprising factors,
wherein the current control signal vector is generated based on the multiplication of the current input signal vector with the factorization matrix,
wherein the current input signal vector comprises the nominal commands of at least one of the specification device, the sensor signals of the flight status sensor unit and the sensor signals of the flow condition sensor unit.

10. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the activating unit is configured such that the nominal commands for the actuators and the flow control devices are determined based on a characteristic for the lift or for the ratio between the coefficient of drag and the coefficient of lift and generated based on at least one of nominal commands of the specification device and flow conditions measured by flow condition sensor units in order to adjust at least one of the regulating flap and the degree, to which the flow is influenced by the flow control devices.

11. The aircraft according to claim 10 , wherein the specification device features a device for selecting an automatic operating mode, which generates a characteristic for the lift or for the ratio between the coefficient of drag and the coefficient of lift in order to adjust the state of lift of the aircraft.

12. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the specification device features a device for the manual actuation thereof, which generates a value for the lift or for the ratio between the coefficient of drag and the coefficient of lift or an adjustment that corresponds to such a characteristic for adjusting the state of

Assignees

• Gölling Burkhard
• Airbus Operations Gmbh

Inventors

• Gölling Burkhard

Classifications

• Y02T50/166

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B64C21/04

  for blowing · CPC title

• B64C21/08

  adjustable · CPC title

• B64C13/50 Primary

  using electrical energy · CPC title

• B64C13/505 Primary

  having duplication or stand-by provisions · CPC title