Propulsion

There are three basic types of flight vehicle-propulsion systems: piston engines (or reciprocating engines), turbine engines (true-jet, turboprop, and turboshaft engines), and rocket engines (see airplane: Propulsion systems; rocket). At the low end of the performance spectrum are reciprocating engines. Although during World War II and the early postwar period the industry developed units having as many as 18 cylinders and capable of generating 2,000 kilowatts (about 2,700 horsepower), modern units have typically two to six cylinders and provide between 30 and 400 kilowatts (40 and 540 horsepower). More powerful turboprop engines were also produced in the past, but current needs require performance only in the range of 300–400 kilowatts (400–540 horsepower). The largest range in performance exists among turbofan jet power plants—a factor close to 50 between the least and most powerful. At the top are engines with thrusts in the range of 160–400 kilonewtons (36,000–90,000 pounds), used on long-haul jet aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and 777 and Airbus A330. Such engines make up roughly 20 percent of the total aircraft cost.

Three large aerospace engine manufacturers have product lines that range from small turboprop power plants to the highest-thrust turbofans: General Electric Aircraft Engines and Pratt & Whitney (a subsidiary of United Technologies) in the United States and Rolls-Royce in Britain. A number of smaller firms produce small-to-medium-size turbofans, as well as turboprop and turboshaft engines. Examples are SNECMA and Turboméca in France; the DaimlerChrysler subsidiary MTU Aero Engines in Germany; Volvo Flygmotor in Sweden; FiatAvio in Italy; Aero Engine Corporation in Japan; Williams International, Rolls-Royce Allison, Textron Lycoming, and Honeywell in the United States; and Pratt & Whitney Canada. Notable manufacturers from the former Soviet Union are Klimov, Kuznetsov, Aviadvigatel, and Saturn.

Rocket engines are used as power plants for guided missiles and space launch vehicles and for maneuvering and maintaining the position of spacecraft. Because of the requirement for long storage, the great majority of missiles are powered by solid-fuel systems. Such systems are disadvantageous in that their thrust per quantity of fuel consumed is relatively low and that, once ignited, they cannot be turned off. Consequently, most space launch vehicles requiring control and multiple starts employ liquid-propellant systems as main engines for the primary stages but use large solid-fuel rockets as boost-stage auxiliaries for additional thrust in the initial phase of launch. Among American companies engaged in the production of rocket motors are Boeing’s subsidiary Rocketdyne, Thiokol, Kaiser Marquardt, and Aerojet General. In Europe, SEP, a division of SNECMA, predominates. Russian systems are produced by Energomash and Kuznetsov.

Initially only low-thrust liquid-fuel systems were used for spacecraft onboard propulsion. Beginning in the 1990s, small, simple electric propulsion systems, or ion engines, have been used as well. Ion engines give a positive electric charge to atoms or molecules and then accelerate the resulting ions to high speed to produce thrust. Boeing Satellite Systems (formerly part of Hughes Electronics) makes the Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS) for its own satellites and NASA spacecraft. In Europe suppliers include EADS and the Dutch company Fokker Space.

Avionics

Avionics includes all instruments, sensors, and electronic equipment and the electrical systems that link them to each other and to aerospace vehicle-control systems. It encompasses the functional equipment for guidance, navigation, and communications. A modern airline transport can contain more than 1,000 sensors and “black boxes.” The latter are metal or plastic housings in which electronic and electrical components are grouped to perform specific functions. (They differ from flight recorders, also dubbed black boxes, which record the performance and condition of an aircraft in flight.) For advanced military aircraft, avionics represents as much as 35 percent of the total cost; when radar and other electronic and electro-optic system adjuncts are included, the value can exceed 50 percent. For some spacecraft, the equivalent equipment can reach 70 percent of the cost. Leading manufacturers of avionics systems include Rockwell Collins, Honeywell, and Litton in the United States and Thales Avionics in France.

Other secondary systems

Modern aerospace vehicles may have dozens of separate subsystems other than propulsion and avionics. The number of individual product items is too lengthy for even a catalog listing, but a sampling of important products illustrates the breadth of the secondary product line.

Aircraft secondary systems are reflected in an extensive industrial infrastructure, with products falling largely into four categories: (1) structural and mechanical, (2) propulsion and power-related, (3) environmental control, and (4) communications and navigation. The first category encompasses aerodynamic controls and actuators (mechanical or fly-by-wire systems), doors, engine nacelles and pylon fairings, control surfaces, and takeoff-and-landing-gear systems (including nosewheel steering, brakes, shock absorbers, and tires). The second category covers propellers, thrust reversers, fuel tanks and fuel-management systems, engine starters, auxiliary power units, air-driven generators, and electrical systems. The third category includes pressurization and air-conditioning equipment, ice-detection and anti-icing systems, electronic flight-instrumentation systems, engine-indication and crew-alerting systems, conventional cockpit instruments, and autopilots and flight directors. The fourth category encompasses communication systems, navigation equipment (including radio, optical, electronic, and inertial-reference systems; instrument-landing systems; receivers for satellite-based global positioning systems; traffic-alert and collision-avoidance systems; and heads-up displays), and cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Commercial aircraft add galleys and toilets, onboard entertainment and announcement systems, emergency slides and rafts, and other equipment for passenger comfort and safety. Special subsystems in military aircraft include ejection seats and separable cabins, multimode radar, armament, stores stations for external weapons, electronic countermeasure systems for confusing enemy defenses, arrester hooks for aircraft carrier landings, braking parachutes, identification friend or foe (IFF) systems, and photographic, infrared imaging, and other sensory devices for intelligence gathering together with onboard intelligence-processing equipment.

Secondary products for missiles and space launch vehicles include the many sensors and control mechanisms associated with their guidance and target-acquisition functions, small rocket motors, and weapons elements (in the case of missiles). For both missiles and launch vehicles, however, avionics related to navigation and control represent the highest-value elements.

Examples of spacecraft secondary products are power sources—such as solar panels, batteries, and fuel cells—and photographic, radar, infrared, and other types of sensory devices for military intelligence gathering and for civil use including meteorology and remote sensing of the Earth. Additionally, for crewed spacecraft there are special-purpose radars for docking in space or landings; environmental-control systems; cabin instrumentation and displays; space suits; and galleys, water dispensers, and waste-management systems designed for operation under microgravity conditions.

Many of the companies involved make lines of aerospace products that are variants of their products for other industries. An example is Goodyear Tire & Rubber, which supplies tires for aircraft as well as land vehicles. Other secondary-product companies were at one time producers of primary systems such as engines. Examples are the French firm Messier-Dowty (a subsidiary of SNECMA) and the American firm Goodrich, both of which were small-engine manufacturers before becoming major suppliers of landing gear.

Tertiary systems

One major group of ground-based support products comprises simulation devices—systems used for training aircraft and spacecraft crews and for research-and-development processes. The simulators built in the largest quantities are chiefly for civil transport aircraft and military fighters and are used to train pilots for operating specific aircraft and handling emergency situations (see flight simulator). Two basic classes exist: full flight simulators (FFSs) and flight training devices (FTDs). FFSs are complex machines that consist of a cockpit, motion system, and visual system controlled by high-speed computers. Some models provide such realism that pilots can make the transition to a new model of aircraft solely by simulator training, a process called zero-flight-time conversion. The much simpler FTDs, also known as part-task simulators, are used for training crew members on specific aspects of flight operations—for example, the use of communications equipment. The market for airliner flight simulators is essentially served by the Canadian firm CAE Inc.; Thales Training & Simulation Ltd., a subsidiary of the French company Thales Group; and the American firm FlightSafety International. The same companies produce military simulators.

Another major group of tertiary aerospace products are ground radars and antennas with their associated data-processing systems. This equipment is employed for air traffic control, detection and tracking of potentially hostile flight vehicles, remote command of missile guidance, interception guidance of air-defense aircraft, and tracking of spacecraft. Air traffic control systems are produced by firms such as IBM, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin in the United States and GE Ferranti and Thales ATM in Europe. Harris Corporation and Raytheon, among others, contribute ground-based radar and data-processing equipment. A third important group of tertiary products comprises automatic checkout equipment for complex aircraft, space vehicles, and missiles.