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James E. Tomayko "Computers Take Flight: A History of NASA's Pioneering Digital Fly-By-Wire Project"

Relates the process by which digital fly-by-wire was developed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research left in California from 1971 to 1985. Discusses fly-by-wire's contributions to the space shuttle and the process by which the technology was transformed to other agencies and industry.

This book tells the significant story of the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire project, which pioneered an important new technology that paved the way for use of digital flight control on the F-18, F-16, F-117, B-2, F-22, and Boeing 777 as well as other aircraft. It is a story not just of overcoming technical difficulties but of the people who did so and their triumphs.

Review:

In a conventional aircraft, the pilot's commands are transmitted to control surfaces using hydraulic lines or other mechanical links. In a fly-by-wire aircraft, commands are converted to signals that travel over a computer network to somewhere in the vicinity of the control surface, where they are translated back into mechanical action. In effect, the pilot no longer directly controls the aircraft; rather, a computer program takes the pilot's requests into account while controlling the aircraft. This places a huge burden on the designers of the control system: it must not suffer from a general hardware or software failure during flight.

Computers Take Flight is about NASA's effort to build the first completely fly-by-wire airplane. It's not so much a story as a description of a sequence of related events; this doesn't make for particularly compelling reading. However, it's still interesting and even exciting when Tomayko describes some of the things that went wrong during flights (happily, no injuries or major damage occurred during any of the early fly-by-wire tests). Some of the best things about this book are the introduction and conclusion. The introduction is a brief history of flight, including a fascinating description of the Wright brothers' real contribution to aviation: they realized that an airplane does not have to be inherently stable, but rather, the system comprised of the plane and pilot needs to be stable. The conclusion describes the technology transition from NASA, first to the US military and then to commercial airplanes such as the Airbus 320 and Boeing 777.

Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One

The Flight-Control Problem

The Essence of "the Flying Problem"

The Eright Solution

The Return of the Stability Paradigm

The Benefits of Abandoning Inherent Stability

The Concept of Active Control

Active Control in History

Bicycles

The German A-4 Rocket (V-2)

The Avro CF-105 Arrow

The Apollo Lunar Module

Chapter Two

Maturation of the Enabling Technologies

Sensors

The Role of the Computer

Effectors and Actuators

Analog Versus Digital

At NASA Headquarters

Finding the Testbed Airplane

The Split into Phases

Chapter Three

The History of Reliability in Computers

Von Nuemann's Approach to Reliability and Its Impact on Later Designs

Redundancy and Backup: the Apollo Experience

The Reliability Scheme for Phase I of NASA's Digital Fly-by-Wire Project

Draper Laboratory Becomes Directly Involved

Developing the Flight Software

Chapter Four

Installing the Apollo Digital Computer System

The Backup Flight System

System Inputs: Sensors and Flight Controls

The End of the Line: Actuators

Ready to Fly

Chapter Five

KSTART

The Pilot Checklist in the Digital Era

Early Phase I Flights: Expanding the Envelope

Flights with the Side-stick

Pilot Familiarizations

On to Phase II

Chapter Six

The Short-Lived Phase IB

Finding an Airplane

Finding a Computer

AP-101 Woes

Software

The Computer Bypass System and New Actuators

Preparing the F-8 for Flight

Chapter Seven

The First Space Shuttle Support Flights

The Remotely Augmented Vehicle

A Second Round of Shuttle Support

Adaptive Control Laws

Sensor-Analytic-Redundancy Management

REBUS: REsident Back-Up Software

Denouement

Chapter Eight

Technology Transition

The Certification of Commercial Fly-By-Wire Airliners

The F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire Project in the History of Technology

What These Engineers Knew and How They Knew It

The Technological Legacy

The Human Legacy

Appendix: DFBW F-8C Flight Logs

Phase I

Phase II

Glossary

Bibliography

A Note on Sources

Interviews

Printed or Manuscript Sources

About the Author

Index

The NASA History Series

Reference Works, NASA SP-4000

Management Histories, NASA SP-4100

Project Histories, NASA SP-4200

left Histories, NASA SP-4300

General Histories, NASA SP-4400

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