Application of commercial off-the-shelf technologies to aerospace gas turbine engine control

Increasingly within gas turbine engine control, there is competitive pressure to provide more and more sophisticated controls, while at the same time reducing costs. Considerable work has been performed at the Sheffield University Control and Systems Engineering Centre analysing current full-authority digital engine controller (FADEC) technology and assessing the potential exploitation of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies to reduce cost, size and weight. As a result of many consultations with aerospace, automotive and process control system suppliers, a number of key enabling technologies have been identified: (a) increasing miniaturisation using multichip modules (MCMs); (b) the use of COTS databases from automotive applications; the use of non-MIL-SPEC components and high-temperature electronics; and smart actuators and sensors. This paper provides a review of the technologies and approaches being taken in Europe and America, highlighting the fact that, in order to get further reductions in cost, size and weight, and to provide immunity to obsolescence, a change in the FADEC architecture will be needed.