ABSTRACT
This chapter provides general guidance for original equipment design and for upgrading existing aircraft batteries. The battery is an essential component of almost all aircraft electrical systems. Batteries are used to start engines and auxiliary power units, to provide emergency backup power for essential avionics equipment, to assure no-break power for navigation units and fly-by-wire computers, and to provide ground power capability for maintenance and preflight checkouts. Determining the most suitable battery type and size for a given aircraft type requires detailed knowledge of the application requirements (load profile, duty cycle, environmental factors, and physical constraints) and the characteristics of available batteries (performance capabilities, charging requirements, life expectancy, and cost of ownership). Batteries operate by converting chemical energy into electrical energy through electrochemical discharge reactions. Batteries are composed of one or more cells, each containing a positive electrode, a negative electrode, a separator, and an electrolyte.
