3.2 Aircraft Systems and Flight


An aircraft has several different systems that work both individually and together to

help the aircraft do what it is supposed to do. However, sometimes those systems fail

and the aircraft crew has to act accordingly to avoid a bigger issue. Today, I will be

talking about the electrical system. The electrical system of an aircraft is the system

that provides electrical power to different designs such as the aircraft lights, the flaps

and landing gear, and the flight instruments. There are several ways an aircraft’s

electrical system could malfunction, yet, I will be focusing on an alternator failure. An

alternator generates electricity for the entire system through something called the

alternator belt. The alternator is the primary means of powering the electrical system

during normal operations. Some of the ways an alternator can fail are by fluid leaking

into it, short or open circuits, and other dangerous conditions. When the alternator

fails, the ammeter of the aircraft will indicate this failure, when this happens, the

battery of the electrical system will take the place of the alternator and be the only

source of power for the aircraft. This means the aircraft will still run but only for a short

amount of time. Conserving battery power for the landing if this happens, is essential.

To mitigate this issue, the flight plan should be terminated, the alternator should be

checked by switching the circuit breakers on and off or by completely resetting

everything. A lot of the aircraft’s features depend on the alternator working properly,

although the aircraft will still run, lights, flaps, or even flight instruments might have a

hard time working properly. It is crucial to always make sure the alternator is in good

shape and that it will work well throughout the whole aircraft’s flight.



References:
Ezhilarasu, C. M., & Jennions, I. K. (2020). A system-level failure propagation detectability using ANFIS for an         aircraft electrical power system. Applied Sciences, 10(8), 2854. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/app10082854

Wang, Yao. (2020). Reliability Evaluation for Aviation Electric Power System in Consideration of Uncertainty. Energies, (13), 2-22. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/5/1175

Everything You Need to Know About Aircraft Electrical in 1,000 Words | Cessna Owner Organization



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