James E. Tomayko "Computers Take Flight: A History of NASA's Pioneering Digital Fly-By-Wire Project"
United States Government Printing | English | 2000 | ISBN: 0160590531 | 192 pages | PDF | 1 MB
United States Government Printing | English | 2000 | ISBN: 0160590531 | 192 pages | PDF | 1 MB
Relates the process by which digital fly-by-wire was developed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California from 1971 to 1985. Discusses fly-by-wire's contributions to the space shuttle and the process by which the technology was transformed to other agencies and industry.
This book tells the significant story of the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire project, which pioneered an important new technology that paved the way for use of digital flight control on the F-18, F-16, F-117, B-2, F-22, and Boeing 777 as well as other aircraft. It is a story not just of overcoming technical difficulties but of the people who did so and their triumphs.
Review:
In a conventional aircraft, the pilot's commands are transmitted to control surfaces using hydraulic lines or other mechanical links. In a fly-by-wire aircraft, commands are converted to signals that travel over a computer network to somewhere in the vicinity of the control surface, where they are translated back into mechanical action. In effect, the pilot no longer directly controls the aircraft; rather, a computer program takes the pilot's requests into account while controlling the aircraft. This places a huge burden on the designers of the control system: it must not suffer from a general hardware or software failure during flight.
Computers Take Flight is about NASA's effort to build the first completely fly-by-wire airplane. It's not so much a story as a description of a sequence of related events; this doesn't make for particularly compelling reading. However, it's still interesting and even exciting when Tomayko describes some of the things that went wrong during flights (happily, no injuries or major damage occurred during any of the early fly-by-wire tests). Some of the best things about this book are the introduction and conclusion. The introduction is a brief history of flight, including a fascinating description of the Wright brothers' real contribution to aviation: they realized that an airplane does not have to be inherently stable, but rather, the system comprised of the plane and pilot needs to be stable. The conclusion describes the technology transition from NASA, first to the US military and then to commercial airplanes such as the Airbus 320 and Boeing 777.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One
The Flight-Control Problem
The Essence of "the Flying Problem"
The Eright Solution
The Return of the Stability Paradigm
The Benefits of Abandoning Inherent Stability
The Concept of Active Control
Active Control in History
Bicycles
The German A-4 Rocket (V-2)
The Avro CF-105 Arrow
The Apollo Lunar Module
Chapter Two
Maturation of the Enabling Technologies
Sensors
The Role of the Computer
Effectors and Actuators
Analog Versus Digital
At NASA Headquarters
Finding the Testbed Airplane
The Split into Phases
Chapter Three
The History of Reliability in Computers
Von Nuemann's Approach to Reliability and Its Impact on Later Designs
Redundancy and Backup: the Apollo Experience
The Reliability Scheme for Phase I of NASA's Digital Fly-by-Wire Project
Draper Laboratory Becomes Directly Involved
Developing the Flight Software
Chapter Four
Installing the Apollo Digital Computer System
The Backup Flight System
System Inputs: Sensors and Flight Controls
The End of the Line: Actuators
Ready to Fly
Chapter Five
KSTART
The Pilot Checklist in the Digital Era
Early Phase I Flights: Expanding the Envelope
Flights with the Side-stick
Pilot Familiarizations
On to Phase II
Chapter Six
The Short-Lived Phase IB
Finding an Airplane
Finding a Computer
AP-101 Woes
Software
The Computer Bypass System and New Actuators
Preparing the F-8 for Flight
Chapter Seven
The First Space Shuttle Support Flights
The Remotely Augmented Vehicle
A Second Round of Shuttle Support
Adaptive Control Laws
Sensor-Analytic-Redundancy Management
REBUS: REsident Back-Up Software
Denouement
Chapter Eight
Technology Transition
The Certification of Commercial Fly-By-Wire Airliners
The F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire Project in the History of Technology
What These Engineers Knew and How They Knew It
The Technological Legacy
The Human Legacy
Appendix: DFBW F-8C Flight Logs
Phase I
Phase II
Glossary
Bibliography
A Note on Sources
Interviews
Printed or Manuscript Sources
About the Author
Index
The NASA History Series
Reference Works, NASA SP-4000
Management Histories, NASA SP-4100
Project Histories, NASA SP-4200
Center Histories, NASA SP-4300
General Histories, NASA SP-4400
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