Air Transport Propulsion Improvement Opportunities with Advanced Controls

Experience with contemporary controls for commercial air transport propulsion has uncovered several areas where improvement is desirable. At the same time, advanced electronics show promise when applied in several of these areas. This creates many opportunities to improve air transport propulsion. The question then is: “Which controls improvements should be made first to yield the largest operational and economic benefits?”

In advance of detailed analyses, a dozen airlines were surveyed to determine their answer to this question. Based on this survey, an initial set of propulsion control system requirements was derived. These requirements are tomorrow's opportunities for the propulsion controls industry.