The ABC's of Fly-by-Wire
In the first few decades of flight, aircraft were controlled through direct force - moving control sticks and rudder pedals linked to cables and pushrods that pivoted control surfaces on the wings and tails. As engine power and speeds increased, more force was needed and hydraulically-boosted controls emerged. In the early 60's, NASA engineers began work on an electrical Fly-by-Wire (FBW) control system which would provide aircraft engineers with more flexibility in aircraft design and architecture, especially in the placement of control surfaces.
 Fly-by-Wire systems matured rapidly, and in 1976 General Dynamics took the bold step of eliminating backup hydromechanical controls from the design of its FBW F-16 Fighting Falcon - making it the first high-performance aircraft to rely completely on electrical wires to relay flight commands instead of the usual cables and linkage controls. F-16 pilots apply hand pressure to a side stick controller which sends electrical signals to actuators of flight control surfaces such as ailerons and rudder. Avionics systems, including navigation, radar, instrument-based landing systems, warning systems, fuel consumption gauges and so on, also rely on this same electrical interconnect cabling which passes through sealed bulkhead fixtures, and into and out of the jet's internal fuel tanks. The F-16's Fly-by-Wire control system has evolved over the years from a four channel analog system to the quadraplex digital FBW system used in today's F-16/C and D designs. But regardless of the nature of the data signal, a specially fabricated fuel cell cable assembly is relied upon to house and protect the copper conductors as they intersect the F-16's internal fuel tanks. The overmolded cable assembly consists of custom bulk multiconductor cable, circular Mil-Spec multi-contact connectors, machined aluminum molding adapters, bulkhead feed through connectors, various breakout support plates and reinforcing members, and a fluorlastomeric (Viton®) cable jacketing. |
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