Overview
Doors from passenger aircrafts are opened and closed manually. Normally, the cabin crew engages in unlocking, opening and closing of the doors. Opening aircraft doors requires a certain physical strength because of the design of contemporary aircrafts.
In a joint project of German system and equipment companies, the basics and
approaches for utilizing a new type of supervision and controls of electrically
powered aircraft doors were developed. Safety, availability, reliability as
well as a simpler handling, maintenance and emergency opening were factors to
consider. The project covered the definition, specification and implementation
of necessary modules for the integration of a door at Eurocopter.
In a first step, the basic processes when opening and closing a door were analyzed. The door system´s elements were consequently identified and ascribed certain tasks. The interfaces for door kinematics and actuators were defined. The interfaces for power supply and emergency power supply were worked on. The processes of door controls were defined. The overall concept had to be revised steadily during the project. The concept with the three actuators
- Swivel actuator
- Dearest actuator
- Flight lock actuator
were implemented in the end.
Funding
Results
The comprehensive examination of active sensors serves as a basis for future system enhancements and optimizations of electric door systems. Valuable basics for the development of electric door systems for airliners were obtained via examinations and simulations. This way, certain approaches could also be excluded, which would have led to major time and cost risks during development. The funded project “Controller with sensor technology development for use at electrically driven airplane doors of the next generation airplanes” enabled Diehl to position itself well on the market for civil transport aircrafts and serve successfully as a supplier for the “doors and slides management system” of the A380. The promising implementation of the technology will also enable tapping new markets in the area electric door controls.
Findings of the study are published in detail by a final report (German only) which is available online via https://www.tib.eu/suchen/?id=198&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bquery%5D=&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bauthor%5D=&tx_tibsearch_search%5Btitle%5D=&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bnumber%5D=20K0002B&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bsearchspace%5D=tn&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bsrt%5D=rk&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bcnt%5D=20&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bst%5D=ex