FLASH Fly-By-Light Flight Control Systems Development and Demonstrations

The Fly-By-Light Advanced Systems Hardware (FLASH) program is developing Fly-By-Light (FBL) and Power-By-Wire (PBW) technologies for military and commercial aircraft. The flight control system portion of FLASH focuses on the integration of fiber optic sensors, optic data buses, actuators (PBW, smart, rotary thin wing) and optic cable plant components for centralized and distributed flight control architectures. Laboratory demonstrations will show applicability to widebody commercial transport and military tactical aircraft. This paper summarizes the requirements, objectives, key technologies and demonstration configurations of each of three FLASH flight control system developments.