Architecture Tradeoffs with Fluidic Backup Flight Controls

This paper summarizes flight control system architecture variations for a conventional tactical aircraft employing electronic fly-by-wire primary controls with fluidic backup controls. The study includes a comparative architecture study of the anticipated catastrophic failure rates, mission abort rates, and equipment reliability. Fluidic technology is selected as a backup flight control since the fluidic components are insensitive to the threats to the primary system.