Boots – shoes – and leggings
Patent
1988-08-12
1990-06-26
Chin, Gary
Boots, shoes, and leggings
73 65, G01M 112
Patent
active
049377540
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a process and a system for determining the longitudinal position of the centre of gravity of an aircraft provided with an adjustable horizontal stabilizer, as well as to an application to the monitoring of said centre of gravity near the focus of the aircraft.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Wide body aircraft, such as for example the AIRBUS A 310-300, are already known, which possess an adjustable horizontal stabilizer in which, in order to increase the radius of action, an additional fuel tank has been disposed. Generally, in such aircraft, the centre of gravity is located in front of the point of application of the lift (focus) and the stabilizer lift is in fact a downwardly directed negative lift. As a result, the lift of the wing unit must be increased by as much, which involves an additional drag. In order to improve the performances of the aircraft by reducing the drag, it is necessary to move the centre of gravity back as much as possible. In fact, the more the centre of gravity is moved back, the less the moment exerted by the stabilizer negative lift with respect to the centre of gravity and therefore the less the additional lift and drag.
In these aircraft, the additional fuel tank of the adjustable horizontal stabilizer is thus in connection with the principal fuel tank arranged in the wing unit and a system for transferring fuel, incorporating regulator, between said additional and principal tanks is provided. Consequently, the quantity of fuel contained in the additional tank may be regulated so that the centre of gravity of the aircraft is longitudinally as far back as possible, whilst remaining within a range in which the aircraft is manually pilotable. If, for any reason, the system ensuring regulation deviated, the centering of the aircraft might become If the centre of gravity is moved too much to the rear, the aircraft would become unstable, and, the aircraft would become difficult to pilot due to the excessive demands on the pilots.
Said regulator thus controls the transfer of the fuel from the principal front tank towards the additional rear tank, or vice versa, so as to reduce the static margin, by placing and maintaining the centre of gravity of the aircraft as far to the rear as possible, whilst keeping a margin vis-a-vis the point where the aircraft is no longer pilotable. In practice, it is desirable to maintain the centre of gravity near the focus, and sometimes between the focus and the point of manoeuvring, which lies to the rear of said focus and which is defined as the point where the elevator has an infinite efficiency on the load factor of the aircraft.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is a reliable and precise process for determining the longitudinal position of the centre of gravity of an aircraft near the focus and, more particularly, a monitoring system completely independent of the fuel regulating system, allowing a detection of breakdowns which could not be seen by the monitorings of said regulation system, whilst making it possible to multiply the probabilities of breakdown detection and thus to ensure overall security.
To that end, according to the invention, the process for determining the longitudinal position of the centre of gravity of an aircraft provided with an adjustable horizontal stabilizer, is noteworthy in that, at a point of flight for which said aircraft is in equilibrium with its elevator in aerodynamic extension of said adjustable horizontal stabilizer and when said centre of gravity lies near the focus of said aircraft, said position of the centre of gravity is calculated from:
the position of the focus of said aircraft;
the measurement of the deflection of said adjustable horizontal stabilizer;
a first function of the speed of the aircraft engines and of the Mach number, this first function being representative of the value of deflection of said adjustable horizontal stabilizer, in the case of said centre of gravity being located at the focus of said aircraft; a
REFERENCES:
patent: 3584503 (1971-06-01), Senour
patent: 3701279 (1972-10-01), Harris et al.
patent: 4110605 (1978-08-01), Miller
patent: 4545019 (1985-10-01), Glover
patent: 4622639 (1986-11-01), Adelson et al.
patent: 4639872 (1987-01-01), McHale et al.
Buisson Dominique
Moline Augustin
Aerospatiale - Societe Nationale Industrielle
Chin Gary
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