ABSTRACT

The general objective of the flight control laws integrated in a fly-by-wire system is to improve the natural flying qualities of the aircraft, in particular in the fields of stability, control and flight domain protections. In a fly-by-wire system, the computers can easily process the anemometric and inertial information as well as any information describing the aircraft state. Aircraft control through these objectives significantly reduces the crew workload: the fly-by-wire system acts as the inner loop of an auto-pilot system, while the pilot represents the outer loop in charge of objective management. The term fly-by-wire has been adopted to describe the use of electrical rather than mechanical signalling of the pilot's commands to the flying control actuators. The Airbus aircraft fly-by-wire systems use the informations of three 'air data and inertial reference units' (ADIRUs) as well as specific accelerometers and rate gyros.