The Airbus A320 family consists of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus.

The family includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, and the ACJ business jet. Final assembly of the family in Europe takes place in Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany. Since 2009, a plant in Tianjin in the People's Republic of China has also started producing aircraft for Chinese airlines. In June 2012, Airbus announced plans to begin building the 319, 320, and 321 variants in Mobile, Alabama.[4] The aircraft family can accommodate up to 220 passengers and has a range of 3,100 to 12,000 km (1,700 to 6,500 nmi), depending on model. On 1 December 2010, Airbus officially launched the new generation of the A320 family with the A320neo "New Engine Option".[5] The new generation offers a choice of the CFM International LEAP-X or Pratt & Whitney PW1000G, combined with airframe improvements and the addition of winglets, named Sharklets by Airbus. The aircraft will deliver fuel savings of up to 15%. Virgin America will be the launch customer for the aircraft in spring of 2016. As of 31 December 2011, a total of 1,196 A320neo family aircraft have been ordered by 21 airlines making it the fastest ever selling commercial aircraft.

A320 enhanced
A320 Enhanced (or A320E) is the working title for a series of improvements to the A320 family. The improvements include engine improvements, aerodynamic refinements, such as adding large curved winglets (Sharklets), weight savings, and a new cabin.[69] In 2006, Airbus tested three styles of winglet intended to counteract the wings induced drag and wingtip vortices more effectively than the previous wingtip fence. The first design type to be tested was developed by Airbus and was based on work done by the AWIATOR programme. The second type of winglet incorporated a more blended design and was designed by Winglet Technology LLC, a company based in Wichita, Kansas. Two aircraft were used in the flight test evaluation campaign the prototype A320, which have been retained by Airbus for testing, and a new build aircraft which was fitted with both types of winglets before it was delivered to JetBlue Airways. Despite the anticipated efficiency gains and development work, Airbus announced that the new winglets will not be offered to customers, claiming that the weight of the modifications required would negate any aerodynamic benefits.[70] Instead, on 17 December 2008, Airbus announced it was to begin flight testing an existing blended winglet design developed by Aviation Partners as part of an A320 modernisation programme using the prototype A320.[71]

Virgin America Airbus A320 economy class Enhanced Cabin with lightemitting diode (LED) lighting On 15 November 2009, Airbus announced future additions of Sharklets[72] to A320s commencing in 2012 with launch customer Air New Zealand.[73] These Airbus winglets, which are 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) tall and weigh 200 kilograms (440 lb),[74] would reduce fuel burn by 3.5% and offer increases in payload of 500 kilograms (1,100 lb), or range by 100 nautical miles (190 km) at the original payload.[75] This corresponds to an annual CO2 reduction of around 700 tonnes per aircraft,[72] saving operators US$220,000 per aircraft per year.[76] The Sharklets are to be manufactured and distributed by Korean Airlines Aerospace Div.[77] The cabin was fitted to more than 600 aircraft (as of March 2009) since 2007. Airbus claims it offers better luggage storage and a quieter cabin, packaged with a more modern look and feel. Additionally, improved cabin efficiency by a new galley concept, reduced weight, improved ergonomics and food hygiene and recycling requirements.[78] LED ambience lighting is optionally available. Anytime LEDs are used for the Passenger Service Unit (PSU)[79] and passengers can get information with touchscreen displays.[80] Older A320 series aircraft can be updated. New Engine Option Main article: Airbus A320neo family Airbus is working on offering a new engine for the A320 known as the new engine option (neo).[82][83][84] The choice for new engines include the CFM International LEAP-X and the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G.[82] Though the new engines will burn 16% less fuel, the actual fuel gain on an A320 installation will be slightly less, since 12% is typically lost upon installation on an existing aircraft. This means an additional range of 950 km (510 nmi), or 2 t (4,400 lb) of extra payload.[85] The A320neo will also include some modifications to the wing, mainly the installation of blended winglets called "Sharklets". Airbus' CEO said to be "comfortable" with the projections of 20% lower maintenance cost for the Pratt & Whitney's PW1000G family, compared with today's engines.[82] Airbus is targeting 2016 for the first delivery and plans to deliver 4,000 A320neo over 15 years. Virgin America became the launch customer with a firm order of 30 A320neo aircraft as a part of a 60 aircraft order on 17 January 2011.[87] In January 2011 IndiGo reached a tentative agreement with Airbus to order 150 A320neo aircraft along with 30 more A320s.[88][89] At the 2011 Paris Air Show, Airbus announced firm orders from GECAS,

Scandinavian Airlines System, TransAsia Airways, LAN Airlines and GoAir[90] along with major orders from Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo for 150 aircraft[91] and Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia for 200 A320neo, the largest commercial aviation order at the time.[92] In total the A320neo received a combined 667 commitments worth US$60.9 billion.[93] American Airlines ordered 130 A320neo on 20 July 2011, which would cause the airline to cease having an all-Boeing fleet. By the end of 2011, Airbus had received 1,196 firm orders for the A320neo family making it the fastest selling commercial aircraft in history.[6]

DESIGN
The Airbus A320 family are narrow-body (single-aisle) aircraft with a retractable tricycle landing gear and are powered by two wing pylon-mounted turbofan engines.

Airframe
The Airbus A320 family are low-wing cantilever monoplanes with a conventional tail unit with a single vertical stabilizer and rudder. Wing swept back at 25 degrees, optimised for maximum operating Mach number 0.82, [47] built by British Aerospace (BAe). Compared to other airliners of the same class, the A320 features a wider single-aisle cabin of 155.5 inches (3.95 m) outside diameter, compared to 148 inches (3.8 m) of the Boeing 737 and 131.6 inches (3.34 m) of the Boeing 717, and larger overhead bins. In addition, the aircraft has a cargo hold equipped with large doors to assist in expedient loading and unloading of goods.[citation needed] The Airbus A320 is the first narrow body airliner to use a significant amount of the structure made from composite material. Its tail assembly made almost entirely of such material by CASA,[94] who also builds the elevators, main landing gear doors, and rear fuselage parts.[94]

Flight deck and avionics

The Airbus A320 family was the first commercial airliner to feature a full glass cockpit and digital fly-by-wire flight control system. The only analogue instruments are the RMI (backup ADI on earlier models, replaced by digital ISIS on later models) and brake pressure indicator. The A320 was the first civil airliner to include a full digital fly-by-wire flight control system. Its design also included a full glass cockpit rather than the hybrid versions found in previous airliners. Digital head-up displays are available.[95] The A320's flight deck is equipped with Electronic Flight Instrument System

(EFIS) with side-stick controllers. At the time of the aircraft's introduction, the behaviour of the fly-by-wire system (equipped with full flight envelope protection) was a new experience for many pilots. The A320 features an Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor (ECAM) which gives the flight crew information about all the systems of the aircraft. With the exception of the very earliest A320s, most can be upgraded to the latest avionics standards, keeping the aircraft advanced even after two decades in service.[citation needed] Early A320 planes used the Intel 80186 and Motorola 68010,[96] in 1988 Intel 80286 family CPUs. The flight management computer contained six CPUs, running in three logical pairs, with 2.5 megabytes of memory.[97] Newer[when?] Airbus feature LCD (liquid crystal display) units in the flight deck of its A318, A319, A320, and A321 flight decks instead of the original CRT (cathode ray tube) displays. These include the main displays and the backup artificial horizon, which was an analogue display prior to this. LCDs weigh less and produce less heat than CRT displays.[citation needed]

ENGINES
Three suppliers provide turbofan engines for the A320 series: CFM International with their CFM56, International Aero Engines, offering the V2500 and Pratt & Whitney whose PW6000 engines are only available for the A318 variant.[98]

FLY BY WIRE SYSTEM Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires (hence the fly-by-wire term), and flight control computers determine how to move the actuators at each control surface to provide the ordered response. The fly-bywire system also allows automatic signals sent by the aircraft's computers to perform functions without the pilot's input, as in systems that automatically help stabilize the aircraft.[1] Development Mechanical and hydro-mechanical flight control systems are relatively heavy and require careful routing of flight control cables through the aircraft by systems of pulleys, cranks, tension cables and hydraulic pipes. Both systems often require redundant backup to deal with failures, which increases weight. Both have limited ability to compensate for changing aerodynamic

conditions. Dangerous characteristics such as stalling, spinning and pilotinduced oscillation (PIO), which depend mainly on the stability and structure of the aircraft concerned rather than the control system itself, can still occur with these systems.[citation needed] The term "fly-by-wire" implies a purely electrically-signaled control system. It is used in the general sense of computer-configured controls, where a computer system is interposed between the operator and the final control actuators or surfaces. This modifies the manual inputs of the pilot in accordance with control parameters.[1] Side-sticks, centre sticks, or conventional flight control yokes can be used to fly FBW aircraft. While the side-stick offers the advantages of being lighter, mechanically simpler, and unobtrusive, The Boeing Company's aerospace engineers decided that the lack of visual feedback (none given by side-sticks) is a significant problem, and so they designed conventional control yokes in the Boeing 777 and the Boeing 787, which entered service on 26 October 2011 with All Nippon Airways. This same approach has been used for the Embraer 170/190 jets. Most Airbus airliners are operated with side-sticks. [citation needed] Basic operation [edit]Command Fly-by wire systems are quite complex, but their operation can be explained in simple terms. When a pilot moves the control column (or sidestick), a signal is sent to a computer (analogous to moving a game controller) the signal is sent through multiple wires (channels) to ensure that the signal reaches the computer. A 'Triplex' is when there are three channels being used. The computer receives the signals, performs a calculation (adds the signal voltages and divides by the number of signals received to find the mean average voltage) and adds another channel. These four 'Quadruplex' signals are then sent to the control surface actuator, and the surface begins to move. Potentiometers in the actuator send a signal back to the computer (usually a negative voltage) reporting the position of the actuator. When the actuator reaches the desired position, the two signals (incoming and outgoing) cancel each other out and the actuator stops moving (completing a feedback loop).[citation needed] [edit]Automatic Stability Systems Fly-by-wire control systems allow aircraft computers to perform tasks without pilot input. Automatic stability systems operate in this way. Gyroscopes fitted with sensors are mounted in an aircraft to sense movement changes in the pitch, roll and yaw axes. Any movement (from straight and level flight for

example) results in signals to the computer, which automatically moves control actuators to stabilize the aircraft.[citation needed] [edit]Safety and redundancy Aircraft systems may be quadruplexed (four independent channels) to prevent loss of signals in the case of failure of one or even two channels. High performance aircraft that have FBW controls (also called CCVs or ControlConfigured Vehicles) may be deliberately designed to have low or even negative stability in some flight regimes, the rapid-reacting CCV controls compensating for the lack of natural stability.[citation needed] Pre-flight safety checks of a fly-by-wire system are often performed using Built-In Test Equipment (BITE). On programming the system, either by the pilot or groundcrew, a number of control movement steps are automatically performed. Any failure will be indicated to the crews.[citation needed] Some aircraft, the Panavia Tornado for example, retain a very basic hydromechanical backup system for limited flight control capability on losing electrical power, in the case of the Tornado this allows rudimentary control of the stabilators only for pitch and roll axis movements.[citation needed] [edit]Weight saving A FBW aircraft can be lighter than a similar design with conventional controls. Partly due to the lower overall weight of the system components; and partly because the natural stability of the aircraft can be relaxed, slightly for a transport aircraft and more for a maneuverable fighter, which means that the stability surfaces that are part of the aircraft structure can therefore be made smaller. These include the vertical and horizontal stabilizers (fin and tailplane) that are (normally) at the rear of the fuselage. If these structures can be reduced in size, airframe weight is reduced. The advantages of FBW controls were first exploited by the military and then in the commercial airline market. The Airbus series of airliners used full-authority FBW controls beginning with their A320 series, see A320 flight control (though some limited FBW functions existed on A310).[2] Boeing followed with their 777 and later designs. Electronic fly-by-wire systems can respond flexibly to changing aerodynamic conditions, by tailoring flight control surface movements so that aircraft response to control inputs is appropriate to flight conditions. Electronic systems require less maintenance, whereas mechanical and hydraulic systems require lubrication, tension adjustments, leak checks, fluid changes, etc. Placing circuitry between pilot and aircraft can enhance safety. For example, the control system can try to prevent a stall, or it can stop the pilot from over stressing the airframe.[citation needed]

The main concern with fly-by-wire systems is reliability. While traditional mechanical or hydraulic control systems usually fail gradually, the loss of all flight control computers could immediately render the aircraft uncontrollable. For this reason, most fly-by-wire systems incorporate either redundant computers (triplex, quadruplex etc.), some kind of mechanical or hydraulic backup or a combination of both. A "mixed" control system such as the latter is not desirable and modern FBW aircraft normally avoid it by having more independent FBW channels, thereby reducing the possibility of overall failure to minuscule levels that are acceptable to the independent regulatory and safety authority responsible for aircraft design, testing and certification before operational service.[citation needed] Analog systems All "fly-by-wire" flight control systems eliminate the complexity, the fragility, and the weight of the mechanical circuit of the hydromechanical or electromechanical flight control systems. Fly-by-wire replace those with electronic circuits. The control mechanisms in the cockpit now operate signal transducers, which in turn generate the appropriate electronic commands. These are next processed by an electronic controller, either an analog one, or more modernly, a digital one. Aircraft and spacecraft autopilots are now part of the electronic controller.[citation needed] The hydraulic circuits are similar except that mechanical servo valves are replaced with electrically-controlled servo valves, operated by the electronic controller. This is the simplest and earliest configuration of an analog fly-bywire flight control system. In this configuration, the flight control systems must simulate "feel". The electronic controller controls electrical feel devices that provide the appropriate "feel" forces on the manual controls. This was used in Concorde, the first production fly-by-wire airliner.[12] In more sophisticated versions, analog computers replaced the electronic controller. The canceled 1950s Canadian supersonic intercepter, the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, employed this type of system. Analog computers also allowed some customization of flight control characteristics, including relaxed stability. This was exploited by the early versions of F-16, giving it impressive maneuverability.[citation needed]

Digital systems A digital fly-by-wire flight control system is similar to its analog counterpart. However, the signal processing is done by digital computers and the pilot literally can "fly-via-computer". This also increases the flexibility of the flight control system, since the digital computers can receive input from any

aircraft sensor (such as the altimeters and the pitot tubes). This also increases the electronic stability, because the system is less dependent on the values of critical electrical components in an analog controller.[citation needed] The computers sense position and force inputs from pilot controls and aircraft sensors. They solve differential equations to determine the appropriate command signals that move the flight controls to execute the intentions of the pilot.[citation needed] The programming of the digital computers enable flight envelope protection. In this aircraft designers precisely tailor an aircraft's handling characteristics, to stay within the overall limits of what is possible given the aerodynamics and structure of the aircraft. For example, the computer in flight envelope protection mode can try to prevent the aircraft from being handled dangerously by preventing pilots from exceeding preset limits on the aircraft's flight-control envelope, such as those that prevent stalls and spins, and which limit airspeeds and g forces on the airplane. Software can also be included that stabilize the flight-control inputs to avoid pilot-induced oscillations.[citation needed] Since the flight-control computers continuously "fly" the aircraft, pilot's workloads can be reduced. Also, in military and naval applications, it is now possible to fly military aircraft that have relaxed stability. The primary benefit for such aircraft is more maneuverability during combat and training flights, and the so-called "carefree handling" because stalling, spinning and other undesirable performances are prevented automatically by the computers. [citation needed] Digital flight control systems enable inherently unstable combat aircraft, such as the F-117 Nighthawk and the B-2 Spirit flying wing to fly in usable and safe manners.[citation needed] [edit]Applications The Space Shuttle Orbiter has an all-digital fly-by-wire control system. This system was first exercised (as the only flight control system) during the glider unpowered-flight "Approach and Landing Tests" that began on the Space Shuttle Enterprise during 1977.[citation needed] Launched into production during 1984, the Airbus Industries Airbus A320 became the first airliner to fly with an all-digital fly-by-wire control system. [13] During 2005, the Dassault Falcon 7X became the first business jet with fly-bywire controls.[citation needed]

Redundancy If one of the flight-control computers crashes, or is damaged in combat, or suffers from "insanity" caused by electromagnetic pulses, the others overrule the faulty one (or even two of them), they continue flying the aircraft safely, and they can either turn off or re-boot the faulty computers. Any flight-control computer whose results disagree with the others is ruled to be faulty, and it is either ignored or re-booted. (In other words, it is voted-out of control by the others.)[citation needed] In addition, most of the early digital fly-by-wire aircraft also had an analog electrical, a mechanical, or a hydraulic back-up flight control system. The Space Shuttle has, in addition to its redundant set of four digital computers running its primary flight-control software, a fifth back-up computer running a separately developed, reduced-function, software flight-control system - one that can be commanded to take over in the event that a fault ever affects all of the computers in the other four. This back-up system serves to reduce the risk of total flight-control-system failure ever happening because of a generalpurpose flight software fault has escaped notice in the other four computers. [citation needed] For airliners, flight-control redundancy improves their safety, but fly-by-wire control systems also improve economy in flight because they are lighter, and they eliminate the need for many mechanical, and heavy, flight-control mechanisms. Furthermore, most modern airliners have computerized systems that control their jet engine throttles, air inlets, fuel storage and distribution system, in such a way to minimize their consumption of jet fuel. Thus, digital control systems do their best to reduce the cost of flights. [citation needed] [edit]Airbus/Boeing Main article: Flight control modes (electronic) Airbus and Boeing commercial airplanes differ in their approaches in using fly-by-wire systems. In Airbus airliners, the flight-envelope control system always retains ultimate flight control when flying under normal law, and it will not permit the pilots to fly outside these performance limits unless flying under alternate law.[14] However, in the event of multiple failures of redundant computers, the A320 does have a mechanical back-up system for its pitch trim and its rudder. The A340-600 has a purely electrical (not electronic) back-up rudder control system, and beginning with the new A380 airliner, all flight-control systems have back-up systems that are purely electrical through the use of a so-called "three-axis Backup Control Module" (BCM)[1

With the Boeing 777 model airliners, the two pilots can completely override the computerized flight-control system to permit the aircraft to be flown beyond its usual flight-control envelope during emergencies. Airbus's strategy, which began with the Airbus A320, has been continued on subsequent Airbus airliners.[16][17] FADEC The advent of FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) engines permits operation of the flight control systems and autothrottles for the engines to be fully integrated. On modern military aircraft other systems such as autostabilization, navigation, radar and weapons system are all integrated with the flight control systems. FADEC allows maximum performance to be extracted from the aircraft without fear of engine misoperation, aircraft damage or high pilot workloads. In the civil field, the integration increases flight safety and economy. The Airbus A320 and its fly-by-wire brethren are protected from dangerous situations such as low-speed stall or overstressing by flight envelope protection. As a result, in such conditions, the flight control systems commands the engines to increase thrust without pilot intervention. In economy cruise modes, the flight control systems adjust the throttles and fuel tank selections more precisely than all but the most skillful pilots. FADEC reduces rudder drag needed to compensate for sideways flight from unbalanced engine thrust. On the A330/A340 family, fuel is transferred between the main (wing and center fuselage) tanks and a fuel tank in the horizontal stabilizer, to optimize the aircraft's center of gravity during cruise flight. The fuel management controls keep the aircraft's center of gravity accurately trimmed with fuel weight, rather than drag-inducing aerodynamic trims in the elevators. Full authority digital engine (or electronics) control (FADEC) is a system consisting of digital computer, called an electronic engine controller (EEC) or engine control unit (ECU), and its related accessories that control all aspects of aircraft engine performance. FADECs have been produced for both piston engines and jet engines.[1] Function

True full authority digital engine controls have no form of manual override available, placing full authority over the operating parameters of the engine in the hands of the computer. If a total FADEC failure occurs, the engine fails. If the engine is controlled digitally and electronically but allows for manual override, it is considered solely an EEC or ECU. An EEC, though a component

of a FADEC, is not by itself FADEC. When standing alone, the EEC makes all of the decisions until the pilot wishes to intervene. FADEC works by receiving multiple input variables of the current flight condition including air density, throttle lever position, engine temperatures, engine pressures, and many other parameters. The inputs are received by the EEC and analyzed up to 70 times per second. Engine operating parameters such as fuel flow, stator vane position, bleed valve position, and others are computed from this data and applied as appropriate. FADEC also controls engine starting and restarting. The FADEC's basic purpose is to provide optimum engine efficiency for a given flight condition. FADEC not only provides for efficient engine operation, it also allows the manufacturer to program engine limitations and receive engine health and maintenance reports. For example, to avoid exceeding a certain engine temperature, the FADEC can be programmed to automatically take the necessary measures without pilot intervention. [edit]Safety With the operation of the engines so heavily relying on automation, safety is a great concern. Redundancy is provided in the form of two or more, separate identical digital channels. Each channel may provide all engine functions without restriction. FADEC also monitors a variety of analog, digital and discrete data coming from the engine subsystems and related aircraft systems, providing for fault tolerant engine control. [edit]Applications A typical civilian transport aircraft flight may illustrate the function of a FADEC. The flight crew first enters flight data such as wind conditions, runway length, or cruise altitude, into the flight management system (FMS). The FMS uses this data to calculate power settings for different phases of the flight. At takeoff, the flight crew advances the throttle to a predetermined setting, or opts for an auto-throttle takeoff if available. The FADECs now apply the calculated takeoff thrust setting by sending an electronic signal to the engines; there is no direct linkage to open fuel flow. This procedure can be repeated for any other phase of flight.[citation needed] In flight, small changes in operation are constantly made to maintain efficiency. Maximum thrust is available for emergency situations if the throttle is advanced to full, but limitations cant be exceeded; the flight crew has no means of manually overriding the FADEC.[citation needed] [edit]Advantages

Better fuel efficiency Automatic engine protection against out-of-tolerance operations Safer as the multiple channel FADEC computer provides redundancy in case of failure Care-free engine handling, with guaranteed thrust settings Ability to use single engine type for wide thrust requirements by just reprogramming the FADECs Provides semi-automatic engine starting Better systems integration with engine and aircraft systems Can provide engine long-term health monitoring and diagnostics Number of external and internal parameters used in the control processes increases by one order of magnitude Reduces the number of parameters to be monitored by flight crews Due to the high number of parameters monitored, the FADEC makes possible "Fault Tolerant Systems" (where a system can operate within required reliability and safety limitation with certain fault configurations) Can support automatic aircraft and engine emergency responses (e.g. in case of aircraft stall, engines increase thrust automatically). [edit]Disadvantages

Full authority digital engine controls have no form of manual override available, placing full authority over the operating parameters of the engine in the hands of the computer. If a total FADEC failure occurs, the engine fails. In the event of a total FADEC failure, pilots have no way of manually controlling the engines for a restart, or to otherwise control the engine. As with any single point of failure, the risk can be mitigated with redundant FADECs. High system complexity compared to hydromechanical, analogue or manual control systems High system development and validation effort due to the complexity [edit]Requirements

Engineering processes must be used to design, manufacture, install and maintain the sensors which measure and report flight and engine parameters to the control system itself. Software engineering processes must be used in the design, implementation and testing of the software used in these safety-critical control systems. This requirement led to the development and use of specialized software such as SCADA. FLIGHT ENVELOPE PROTECTION Flight envelope protection is a human machine interface extension of an aircrafts control system that prevents the pilot of an aircraft from making control commands that would force the aircraft to exceed its structural and aerodynamic operating limits.[1][2][3] It is used in some form in all modern commercial fly-by-wire aircraft.[4] Its advantage is that it restricts pilots in emergency situations so they can react quickly without endangering the safety of their aircraft.[5][6] Function

Aircraft have a flight envelope that describes its safe performance limits in regard to such things as minimum and maximum operating speeds, and its operating structural strength.[1][2][3] Flight envelope protection calculates that flight envelope (and adds a margin of safety) and uses this information to stop pilots from making control inputs that would put the aircraft outside that flight envelope.[5] For example, if the pilot uses the rearward side-stick to pitch the aircraft nose up, the control computers creating the flight envelope protection will prevent the pilot pitching the aircraft beyond the stalling angle of attack. As a result, even if the pilot tried to apply more and more rearward control, the flight envelope protection would cause the aircraft to ignore this command.[4][5] Flight envelope protection can in this way increase aircraft safety by allowing the pilot to apply in an emergency maximum control forces while not at the same time inadvertently putting the aircraft outside the margins of its operational safety. Examples of where this might stop air accidents are when it allows a pilot to make a quick evasive maneuver in response to a ground proximity warning system warning, or in quick response to an approaching aircraft and a potential mid air collision.[4] In this case without a flight envelope protection system, "you would probably hold back from maneuvering as hard as you could for fear of tumbling out of control, or worse. You would have to sneak up on it [2.5 G, the design limit], and when you got there you wouldn't be able to tell, because very few commercial pilots have ever flown 2.5 G. But in

the A320, you wouldn't have to hesitate: you could just slam the controller all the way to the side and instantly get out of there as fast as the plane will take you."[5] Thus the makers of the Airbus argue: "envelope protection doesn't constrain the pilot. It liberates the pilot from uncertainty-and thus enhances safety."[5] [edit]Boeing and Airbus

The Airbus A320 was the first commercial aircraft to incorporate full flightenvelope protection into its flight-control software. This was instigated by former Airbus senior vice president for engineering Bernard Ziegler. In the Airbus, the flight envelope protection cannot be overridden completely, although the crew can fly beyond flight envelope limits by selecting an alternate "control law".[4][7][8][9] Boeing in the Boeing 777 has taken a different approach by allowing the crew to override flight envelope limits using excessive force on the flight controls.[4][10] Electronic flight instrument system An electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) is a flight deck instrument display system in which the display technology used is electronic rather than electromechanical. EFIS normally consists of a primary flight display (PFD), multi-function display (MFD) and engine indicating and crew alerting system (EICAS) display. Although cathode ray tube (CRT) displays were used at first, liquid crystal displays (LCD) are now more common. The complex electromechanical attitude director indicator (ADI) and horizontal situation indicator (HSI) were the first candidates for replacement by EFIS. However, there are now few flight deck instruments for which no electronic display is available. EFIS installations vary greatly. A light aircraft might be equipped with one display unit, on which are displayed flight and navigation data. A wide-body aircraft is likely to have six or more display units. An EFIS installation will follow the sequence: Displays Controls Data processors A basic EFIS might have all these facilities in the one unit. Primary flight display (PFD)

On the flight deck, the display units are the most obvious parts of an EFIS system, and are the features which give rise to the name "glass cockpit". The display unit taking the place of the ADI is called the primary flight display (PFD). If a separate display replaces the HSI, it is called the navigation display. The PFD displays all information critical to flight, including calibrated airspeed, altitude, heading, attitude, vertical speed and yaw. The PFD is designed to improve a pilot's situational awareness by integrating this information into a single display instead of six different analog instruments, reducing the amount of time necessary to monitor the instruments. PFDs also increase situational awareness by alerting the aircrew to unusual or potentially hazardous conditions for example, low airspeed, high rate of descent by changing the color or shape of the display or by providing audio alerts. The names Electronic Attitude Director Indicator and Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator are used by some manufacturers.[1] However, a simulated ADI is only the centerpiece of the PFD. Additional information is both superimposed on and arranged around this graphic. Multi-function displays can render a separate navigation display unnecessary. Another option is to use one large screen to show both the PFD and navigation display. The PFD and navigation display (and multi-function display, where fitted) are often physically identical. The information displayed is determined by the system interfaces where the display units are fitted. Thus, spares holding is simplified: the one display unit can be fitted in any position. LCD units generate less heat than CRTs; an advantage in a congested instrument panel. They are also lighter, and occupy a lower volume. [edit]Multi-function display (MFD) / Navigation display (ND) The MFD (multi-function display) displays navigational and weather information from multiple systems. MFDs are most frequently designed as "chart-centric", where the aircrew can overlay different information over a map or chart. Examples of MFD overlay information include the aircraft's current route plan, weather information from either on-board radar or lightning detection sensors or ground-based sensors, e.g., NEXRAD, restricted airspace and aircraft traffic. The MFD can also be used to view other nonoverlay type of data (e.g., current route plan) and calculated overlay-type data, e.g., the glide radius of the aircraft, given current location over terrain, winds, and aircraft speed and altitude. MFDs can also display information about aircraft systems, such as fuel and electrical systems (see EICAS, below). As with the PFD, the MFD can change

the color or shape of the data to alert the aircrew to hazardous situations. [edit]Engine indications and crew alerting system (EICAS) / electronic centralized aircraft monitoring (ECAM) EICAS (Engine Indications and Crew Alerting System) displays information about the aircraft's systems, including its fuel, electrical and propulsion systems (engines). EICAS displays are often designed to mimic traditional round gauges while also supplying digital readouts of the parameters. EICAS improves situational awareness by allowing the aircrew to view complex information in a graphical format and also by alerting the crew to unusual or hazardous situations. For example, if an engine begins to lose oil pressure, the EICAS might sound an alert, switch the display to the page with the oil system information and outline the low oil pressure data with a red box. Unlike traditional round gauges, many levels of warnings and alarms can be set. Proper care must be taken when designing EICAS to ensure that the aircrew are always provided with the most important information and not overloaded with warnings or alarms. ECAM is a similar system used by Airbus, which in addition to providing EICAS functions also recommend remedial action. [edit]Control panels

The pilots are provided with controls, with which they select display range and mode (for example, map or compass rose) and enter data (such as selected heading). Where inputs by the pilot are used by other equipment, data buses broadcast the pilot's selections so that the pilot only needs to enter the selection once. For example, the pilot selects the desired level-off altitude on a control unit. The EFIS repeats this selected altitude on the PFD and by comparing it with the actual altitude (from the air data computer) generates an altitude error display. This same altitude selection is used by the automatic flight control system to level off, and by the altitude alerting system to provide appropriate warnings. [edit]Data processors

The EFIS visual display is produced by the symbol generator. This receives data inputs from the pilot, signals from sensors, and EFIS format selections made by the pilot. The symbol generator can go by other names, such as

display processing computer, display electronics unit, etc. The symbol generator does more than generate symbols. It has (at the least) monitoring facilities, a graphics generator and a display driver.[2] Inputs from sensors and controls arrive via data buses, and are checked for validity. The required computations are performed, and the graphics generator and display driver produce the inputs to the display units. [edit]Monitoring

Like personal computers, flight instrument systems need power-on-self-test facilities and continuous self-monitoring. Flight instrument systems, however, need additional monitoring capabilities: Input validation verify that each sensor is providing valid data Data comparison cross check inputs from duplicated sensors Display monitoring detect failures within the instrument system [edit]Former practice Traditional (electromechanical) displays were equipped with synchro mechanisms which would transmit, to an instrument comparator, the pitch, roll and heading that were actually being shown on the Captain's and First Officer's instruments. The comparator warned of excessive differences between the Captain and First Officer displays. Even a fault as far downstream[3] as a jam in, say, the roll mechanism of an ADI would trigger a comparator warning. The instrument comparator thus provided both comparator monitoring and display monitoring. [edit]Comparator monitoring With EFIS, the comparator function is as simple as ever. Is the roll data (bank angle) from sensor 1 the same as the roll data from sensor 2? If not, put a warning caption (such as CHECK ROLL) on both PFDs. Comparison monitors will give warnings for airspeeds, pitch, roll and altitude indications. The more advanced EFIS systems, more comparator monitors will be enabled. [edit]Display monitoring An EFIS display allows no easy re-transmission of what is shown on the display. What is required is a new approach to display monitoring that provides safety equivalent to that of the traditional system. One solution is to

keep the display unit as simple as possible, so that it is unable to introduce errors. The display unit either works or does not work. A failure is always obvious, never insidious. Now the monitoring function can be shifted upstream[3] to the output of the symbol generator. In this technique, each symbol generator contains two display monitoring channels. One channel, the internal, samples the output from its own symbol generator to the display unit and computes, for example, what roll attitude should produce that indication. This computed roll attitude is then compared with the roll attitude input to the symbol generator from the INS or AHRS. Any difference has probably been introduced by faulty processing, and triggers a warning on the relevant display. The external monitoring channel carries out the same check on the symbol generator on the other side of the flight deck: the Captain's symbol generator checks the First Officer's, the First Officer's checks the Captain's. Whichever symbol generator detects a fault, puts up a warning on its own display. The external monitoring channel also checks sensor inputs (to the symbol generator) for reasonableness. A spurious input, such as a radio height greater than the radio altimeter's maximum, results in a warning. [edit]Human factors

[edit]Clutter At various stages of a flight, a pilot uses different combinations of data. Ideally, only the data in use would be displayed, but an electromechanical instrument has to be in view all the time. To improve display clarity, intricate mechanisms are used on ADIs and HSIs to remove superfluous indications temporarily, e.g., removing the glide slope scale when it is not being used. With EFIS, some indications, e.g., engine vibration, might not be displayed under normal conditions. If limits are exceeded, then the reading will be displayed. In similar fashion, EFIS is programmed to show the glideslope scale and pointer only during an ILS approach. If a failure of input data is detected, electromechanical instruments add yet another indicator to the display. Typically, a bar is dropped across the erroneous data. EFIS, on the other hand, removes invalid data from the display and substitutes an appropriate warning. A de-clutter mode is activated automatically when the pilot's attention is required to be focused on a specific item. For example, if the aircraft is pitched up or down above a specified pitch, usually 30 to 60 degrees, the

attitude indicator will de-clutter items from sight until the pitch is brought to an acceptable level. This allows the pilot to focus on the most important matter of aircraft control. [edit]Color Although color has long been used in traditional instruments, it is restricted to aiding in identification of the data. There is no means of changing the color of any display component. This restriction has been lifted with EFIS. For example, as an aircraft approaches the glideslope, a blue caption could indicate glide slope is armed; on capture the color might change to green. On a typical EFIS system, the navigation needles are color-coded to reflect the type of navigation being used. Green needles are used for ground based navigation such as VORs, Localizers and ILS systems. Magenta needles are used for GPS navigation. [edit]Advantages

EFIS offers versatility by avoiding some of the physical limitations of traditional instruments. Thus, the same display which shows a course deviation indicator, can be switched to show the planned track provided by an area navigation or flight management system. If desired, the weather radar picture can then be superimposed on the displayed route. The flexibility afforded by software modifications, minimises costs when new aircraft equipment and new regulations are introduced. The EFIS system can be updated with new software to extend its capabilities. Such updates introduced in the 1990s included ground proximity warning system and traffic collision avoidance system. A degree of redundancy is available even with the simple two-screen EFIS installation. Should the PFD fail, transfer switching repositions its vital information to the screen normally occupied by the navigation display. Electronic centralised aircraft monitor (ECAM) An electronic centralised aircraft monitor (ECAM) is a system that monitors aircraft functions and relays them to the pilots. It also produces messages detailing failures and in certain cases, lists procedures to undertake to correct the problem. ECAM is similar to another system, known as Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS), used by Boeing and others, which displays data

concerning aircraft systems and also failures. Airbus developed ECAM, such that it not only provided the features of EICAS, but also displayed corrective action to be taken by the pilot, as well as system limitations after the failures. Using a colour-coded scheme the pilots can instantly assess the situation and decide on the actions to be taken. It was designed to ease pilot stress in abnormal and emergency situations, by designing a paperless cockpit in which all the procedures are instantly available. This reduces the required cockpit crew to two pilots. This development means that in modern aviation flight engineers are no longer necessitated. [edit]System design

ECAM is actually a series of systems designed to work in unison to display information to the pilots in a quick and effective manner. Sensors placed throughout the aircraft, monitoring key parameters, feed their data into two SDACs (System Data Acquisition Concentrator) which in turn process the data and feed it to two FWCs (Flight Warning Computers.) The FWCs check for discrepancies in the data and then display the data on the ECAM displays through the three Display Management Computers (DMC). In the event of a fault the FWCs generate the appropriate warning messages and sounds. More vital systems are routed directly through the FWCs such that failures in them can still be detected even with the lose of both SDACs. The whole system can continue to operate even with a failure of one SDAC and one FWC. Failures are classed by importance ranging from level 1 failures to level 3 failures. In the event of simultaneous failures the most critical failure is displayed first. The warning hierarchy is as follows: Level 3 Failures red warnings, situations that require immediate crew action and that place the flight in danger. For example an engine fire or loss of cabin pressure. They are enunciated with a red master warning light, a warning (red) ECAM message and a continuous repetitive chime or a specific sound or a synthetic voice. The chime can be silenced by pressing the master warning push button. Level 2 Failures amber cautions, failures that require crew attention but not immediate action. For example air bleed failure or fuel fault. They have no direct consequence to flight safety and are shown to the crew through an amber master caution light, a caution (amber) ECAM message and a single chime. Level 1 Failures Cautions, failures and faults that lead to a loss of system redundancy, they require monitoring but present no hazard. Examples include the loss of DMC3 when not in use. Level 1 failures are enunciated by

a caution (amber) ECAM message only (no aural warning). In addition to the three failure levels are following status messages: Advisory - System parameters' monitoring. It causes an automatic call of the relevant system page on the system display (S/D). The affected parameter pulses green. MEMO - Information: Recalls normal or automatic selection of functions which are temporarily used. It causes an green, amber or magenta message on engine warning display (E/WD).

TURBOFAN ENGINES The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used for aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan", the turbo portion refers to a gas turbine engine which takes mechanical energy from combustion,[1] and the fan, a ducted fan which uses the mechanical energy from the gas turbine to accelerate air rearwards. The ratio of the mass-flow of air bypassing the engine core compared to the mass-flow of air passing through the core is referred to as the bypass ratio. The engine produces thrust through a combination of these two portions working in concert; engines that use more jet thrust relative to fan thrust are known as low bypass turbofans, while those that have considerably more fan thrust than jet are known as high bypass. Most commercial aviation jet engines in use today are of the high-bypass type, and most modern military fighter engines are low-bypass.[citation needed] Since most of the air flow through a high-bypass turbofan is low-velocity bypass flow, even when combined with the much higher velocity engine exhaust, the net average exhaust velocity is considerably lower than in a pure turbojet. Engine noise is largely a function of exhaust velocity, therefore turbofan engines are significantly quieter than a pure-jet of the same thrust. Other factors include turbine blade and exhaust outlet geometries, such as noise-reducing "chevrons" seen on the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 and General Electric GEnx engines used on the Boeing 787. Since the efficiency of propulsion is a function of the relative airspeed of the exhaust to the surrounding air, propellers are most efficient for low speed, pure jets for high speeds, and ducted fans in the middle. Turbofans are thus the most efficient engines in the range of speeds from about 500 to 1000 km/h (310 to 620 mph), the speed at which most commercial aircraft operate.[2][3] Turbofans retain an efficiency edge over pure jets at low supersonic speeds up to roughly Mach 1.6, but have also been found to be

efficient when used with continuous afterburner at Mach 3 and above. The vast majority of turbofans follow the same basic design, with a large fan at the front of the engine and a relatively small jet engine behind it. There have been a number of variations on this design, however, including rearmounted fans which can easily be added to an existing pure-jet design, or designs that combine a low-pressure turbine and a fan stage in a single rearmounted unit. A single-spool (or single-shaft) turbojet (which was the most basic form and the earliest type of jet engine to be developed) has 4 main stages, popularly known as Suck-Squeeze-Bang-Blow[4] : 1 (suck) air enters through an intake, 2 (squeeze) and is compressed by an axial compressor to a greatly increased pressure and temperature. 3 (bang) The hot compressed air exits the compressor into a combustion chamber, where it is mixed with a fuel (e.g. kerosene), and combusted, greatly increasing the temperature of the compressed gases (at a constant pressure). 4 (blow) The very hot, highly compressed, combustion gases then enters a turbine stage, where thermal energy is converted to mechanical work from the pressure and temperature difference between the turbine inlet and outlet. The mechanical power from the turbine in turn is used to drive the compressor, completing the engine cycle. A higher combustion temperature leads to a higher efficiency according to the Brayton cycle.[5] It is important to note that in a turbojet the compressor and turbine taken together form a net-zero mechanical energy system, i.e. all the mechanical shaft power produced by the turbine is consumed by the compressor. The net output of a turbojet is not shaft power, instead it is the kinetic energy of the jet exhaust itself. Although the expansion process in the turbine reduces the gas pressure (and temperature), there remains considerable thermal energy and pressure in the gases leaving the turbine. These energy forms are partly converted into kinetic energy by expansion to ambient pressure through a propelling nozzle, forming a high-velocity flow which provides reactive propulsion. After World War II, two-spool (or two-shaft) turbojets were developed to make it easier to throttle back compression systems with a high design overall pressure ratio (i.e., combustor inlet pressure/intake delivery pressure). Adopting the two-spool arrangement enables the compression system to be

split in two, with a low pressure (LP) compressor supercharging a high pressure (HP) compressor. Each compressor is mounted on a separate (coaxial) shaft, driven by its own turbine (i.e., the HP turbine and LP turbine). Otherwise, a two-spool turbojet is much like a single-spool engine.

View into the outer (propelling or "cold") nozzle of GEnx-2B turbofan engine Modern turbofans evolved from the two-spool axial-flow turbojet engine, essentially by increasing the relative size of the low pressure (LP) compressor to the point where some (if not most) of the air exiting the unit actually bypasses the core (or gas-generator) stream passing through the main combustor. Civil-aviation high-bypass turbofans usually have a single large fan disk, whereas most military-aviation low-bypass turbofans (e.g. combat and trainer aircraft applications) have multi-disk compressors as a compromise between greater power-to-weight ratios, supersonic performance, and the capability of using afterburners, versus the higher fuel economy of a high-bypass design. Modern military transport turbofan engines are virtually identical to their civilian counterparts. Turboprop engines are gas-turbine engines that deliver almost all of their power to a shaft to drive a propeller. Turboprops remain popular on very small or slow aircraft, such as small commuter airliners, for their fuel efficiency at lower speeds, as well as on medium military transports and patrol planes, such as the C-130 Hercules and P-3 Orion, for their high takeoff performance and mission endurance benefits. Like reciprocating propeller engines, turboprops can be used with controllable pitch propellers which allow thrust to be adjusted independently of the engine rotation speed. If the turboprop is better at moderate flight speeds and the turbojet is better at very high speeds, it might be imagined that at some speed range in the middle a mixture of the two is best. Such an engine is the turbofan (originally termed bypass turbojet by the inventors at Rolls-Royce). Another name sometimes used is ducted fan, though that term is also used for propellers and fans used in vertical-flight applications.

Duct work on an Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet At subsonic speeds, the increasing diameter of the inlet duct slows incoming air (according to the principle of continuity). As the incoming air slows, its static pressure increases according to Bernoulli's Principle.

The difference between a turbofan and a propeller, besides direct thrust, is that the intake duct of the former slows the air before it arrives at the fan face. As both propeller and fan blades must operate at subsonic inlet velocities to be efficient,[citation needed] ducted fans allow efficient operation at higher vehicle speeds. Some large modern turbofans, like the Trent, have blade tip speeds at 1730 km/h.[4] Depending on specific thrust (i.e., net thrust to intake airflow), ducted fans operate best from about 400 to 2,000 kilometres per hour (250 to 1,200 mph), which is why turbofans are the most common type of engine for aviation use todayin airliners as well as in subsonic and supersonic military fighter and trainer aircraft. It should be noted, however, that turbofans use extensive ducting to force incoming air to subsonic velocities (thus reducing shock waves throughout the engine). Bypass ratio (bypassed airflow to combustor airflow) is a parameter often used for classifying turbofans; when the low-bypass Conway engine entered service in 1960, no one even called it a turbofan, that term first being applied to Pratt and Whitney's JT3D with its 1-to-1 bypass. The noise of any type of jet engine is strongly related to the velocity of the exhaust gases, typically being proportional to the eighth power of the jet velocity. High-bypass-ratio (i.e., low-specific-thrust) turbofans are relatively quiet compared to turbojets and low-bypass-ratio (i.e., high-specific-thrust) turbofans. So for zero flight velocity, specific thrust is directly proportional to jet velocity. Relatively speaking, low-specific-thrust engines are large in diameter to accommodate the high airflow required for a given thrust. Although jet aircraft are loud, a conventional piston engine or a turboprop engine delivering the same thrust would be much louder. Low-bypass turbofan

Schematic diagram illustrating a 2-spool, low-bypass turbofan engine with a mixed exhaust, showing the low-pressure (green) and high-pressure (purple) spools. The fan (and booster stages) are driven by the low-pressure turbine, whereas the high-pressure compressor is powered by the high-pressure turbine

A high specific thrust/low bypass ratio turbofan normally has a multi-stage fan, developing a relatively high pressure ratio and, thus, yielding a high (mixed or cold) exhaust velocity. The core airflow needs to be large enough to give sufficient core power to drive the fan. A smaller core flow/higher bypass ratio cycle can be achieved by raising the (HP) turbine rotor inlet temperature. Imagine a retrofit situation where a new low bypass ratio, mixed exhaust, turbofan is replacing an old turbojet, in a particular military application. Say the new engine is to have the same airflow and net thrust (i.e. same specific thrust) as the one it is replacing. A bypass flow can only be introduced if the turbine inlet temperature is allowed to increase, to compensate for a correspondingly smaller core flow. Improvements in turbine cooling/material technology would facilitate the use of a higher turbine inlet temperature, despite increases in cooling air temperature, resulting from a probable increase in overall pressure ratio. Efficiently done, the resulting turbofan would probably operate at a higher nozzle pressure ratio than the turbojet, but with a lower exhaust temperature to retain net thrust. Since the temperature rise across the whole engine (intake to nozzle) would be lower, the (dry power) fuel flow would also be reduced, resulting in a better specific fuel consumption (SFC). A few low-bypass ratio military turbofans (e.g., F404) have Variable Inlet Guide Vanes, with piano-style hinges, to direct air onto the first rotor stage. This improves the fan surge margin (see compressor map) in the mid-flow range. The swing wing F-111 achieved a very high range/payload capability by pioneering this, and it was also the heart of the famous F-14 Tomcat air superiority fighter which used the same engines in a smaller, more agile airframe to achieve efficient cruise and Mach 2 speed. [edit]Afterburning turbofan

Since the 1970s, most jet fighter engines have been low/medium bypass turbofans with a mixed exhaust, afterburner and variable area final nozzle. An afterburner is a combustor located downstream of the turbine blades and directly upstream of the nozzle, which burns fuel from afterburner-specific fuel injectors. When lit, prodigious amounts of fuel are burnt in the afterburner, raising the temperature of exhaust gases by a significant degree, resulting in a higher exhaust velocity/engine specific thrust. The variable geometry nozzle must open to a larger throat area to accommodate the extra volume flow when the afterburner is lit. Afterburning is often designed to give a significant thrust boost for take off, transonic acceleration and combat maneuvers, but is very fuel intensive. Consequently afterburning can only be

used for short portions of a mission. Unlike the main combustor, where the downstream turbine blades must not be damaged by high temperatures, an afterburner can operate at the ideal maximum (stoichiometric) temperature (i.e., about 2100K/3780Ra/3320F). At a fixed total applied fuel:air ratio, the total fuel flow for a given fan airflow will be the same, regardless of the dry specific thrust of the engine. However, a high specific thrust turbofan will, by definition, have a higher nozzle pressure ratio, resulting in a higher afterburning net thrust and, therefore, a lower afterburning specific fuel consumption (SFC). However, high specific thrust engines have a high dry SFC. The situation is reversed for a medium specific thrust afterburning turbofan: i.e., poor afterburning SFC/good dry SFC. The former engine is suitable for a combat aircraft which must remain in afterburning combat for a fairly long period, but only has to fight fairly close to the airfield (e.g. cross border skirmishes) The latter engine is better for an aircraft that has to fly some distance, or loiter for a long time, before going into combat. However, the pilot can only afford to stay in afterburning for a short period, before aircraft fuel reserves become dangerously low. Modern low-bypass military turbofans include the Pratt & Whitney F119, the Eurojet EJ200, the General Electric F110, the Klimov RD-33, and the Saturn AL-31, all of which feature a mixed exhaust, afterburner and variable area propelling nozzle. [edit]High-bypass turbofan

Animation of a 2-spool, high-bypass turbofan. A. Low pressure spool B. High pressure spool C. Stationary components 1. Nacelle 2. Fan 3. Low pressure compressor 4. High pressure compressor 5. Combustion chamber

6. High pressure turbine 7. Low pressure turbine 8. Core nozzle 9. Fan nozzle

Schematic diagram illustrating a 2-spool, high-bypass turbofan engine with an unmixed exhaust. The low-pressure spool is coloured green and the highpressure one purple. Again, the fan (and booster stages) are driven by the low-pressure turbine, but more stages are required. A mixed exhaust is often employed nowadays. The low specific thrust/high bypass ratio turbofans used in today's civil jetliners (and some military transport aircraft) evolved from the high specific thrust/low bypass ratio turbofans used in such [production] aircraft back in the 1960s. Low specific thrust is achieved by replacing the multi-stage fan with a single stage unit. Unlike some military engines, modern civil turbofans do not have any stationary inlet guide vanes in front of the fan rotor. The fan is scaled to achieve the desired net thrust. The core (or gas generator) of the engine must generate sufficient core power to at least drive the fan at its design flow and pressure ratio. Through improvements in turbine cooling/material technology, a higher (HP) turbine rotor inlet temperature can be used, thus facilitating a smaller (and lighter) core and (potentially) improving the core thermal efficiency. Reducing the core mass flow tends to increase the load on the LP turbine, so this unit may require additional stages to reduce the average stage loading and to maintain LP turbine efficiency. Reducing core flow also increases bypass ratio (5:1, or more, is now common). Further improvements in core thermal efficiency can be achieved by raising the overall pressure ratio of the core. Improved blade aerodynamics reduces the number of extra compressor stages required. With multiple compressors (i.e., LPC, IPC, and HPC) dramatic increases in overall pressure ratio have become possible. Variable geometry (i.e., stators) enable high pressure ratio compressors to work surge-free at all throttle settings.

Cutaway diagram of the General Electric CF6-6 engine The first high-bypass turbofan engine was the General Electric TF39, designed in mid 1960s to power the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy military transport aircraft.[3] The civil General Electric CF6 engine used a derived design. Other high-bypass turbofans are the Pratt & Whitney JT9D, the three-shaft RollsRoyce RB211 and the CFM International CFM56. More recent large highbypass turbofans include the Pratt & Whitney PW4000, the three-shaft RollsRoyce Trent, the General Electric GE90/GEnx and the GP7000, produced jointly by GE and P&W. For reasons of fuel economy, and also of reduced noise, almost all of today's jet airliners are powered by high-bypass turbofans. Although modern combat aircraft tend to use low bypass ratio turbofans, military transport aircraft (e.g., C-17 ) mainly use high bypass ratio turbofans (or turboprops) for fuel efficiency. Because of the implied low mean jet velocity, a high bypass ratio/low specific thrust turbofan has a high thrust lapse rate (with rising flight speed). Consequently the engine must be over-sized to give sufficient thrust during climb/cruise at high flight speeds (e.g., Mach 0.83). Because of the high thrust lapse rate, the static (i.e., Mach 0) thrust is relatively high. This enables heavily laden, wide body aircraft to accelerate quickly during take-off and consequently lift-off within a reasonable runway length. The turbofans on twin engined airliners are further over-sized to cope with losing one engine during take-off, which reduces the aircraft's net thrust by 50%. Modern twin engined airliners normally climb very steeply immediately after take-off. If one engine is lost, the climb-out is much shallower, but sufficient to clear obstacles in the flightpath. The Soviet Union's engine technology was less advanced than the West's and its first wide-body aircraft, the Ilyushin Il-86, was powered by low-bypass engines. The Yakovlev Yak-42, a medium-range, rear-engined aircraft seating up to 120 passengers introduced in 1980 was the first Soviet aircraft to use high-bypass engines. [edit]Turbofan configurations

Turbofan engines come in a variety of engine configurations. For a given engine cycle (i.e., same airflow, bypass ratio, fan pressure ratio, overall pressure ratio and HP turbine rotor inlet temperature), the choice of turbofan configuration has little impact upon the design point performance (e.g., net thrust, SFC), as long as overall component performance is maintained. Off-

design performance and stability is, however, affected by engine configuration. As the design overall pressure ratio of an engine cycle increases, it becomes more difficult to throttle the compression system, without encountering an instability known as compressor surge. This occurs when some of the compressor aerofoils stall (like the wings of an aircraft) causing a violent change in the direction of the airflow. However, compressor stall can be avoided, at throttled conditions, by progressively: 1) opening interstage/intercompressor blow-off valves (inefficient) and/or 2) closing variable stators within the compressor Most modern American civil turbofans employ a relatively high pressure ratio high pressure (HP) compressor, with many rows of variable stators to control surge margin at part-throttle. In the three-spool RB211/Trent the core compression system is split into two, with the IP compressor, which supercharges the HP compressor, being on a different coaxial shaft and driven by a separate (IP) turbine. As the HP compressor has a modest pressure ratio it can be throttled-back surge-free, without employing variable geometry. However, because a shallow IP compressor working line is inevitable, the IPC has one stage of variable geometry on all variants except the -535, which has none.[8] Single-shaft turbofan Although far from common, the single-shaft turbofan is probably the simplest configuration, comprising a fan and high pressure compressor driven by a single turbine unit, all on the same shaft. The SNECMA M53, which powers Mirage fighter aircraft, is an example of a single-shaft turbofan. Despite the simplicity of the turbomachinery configuration, the M53 requires a variable area mixer to facilitate part-throttle operation. [edit]Aft-fan turbofan One of the earliest turbofans was a derivative of the General Electric J79 turbojet, known as the CJ805-23, which featured an integrated aft fan/low pressure (LP) turbine unit located in the turbojet exhaust jetpipe. Hot gas from the turbojet turbine exhaust expanded through the LP turbine, the fan blades being a radial extension of the turbine blades. This aft-fan configuration was later exploited in the General Electric GE-36 UDF (propfan) Demonstrator of the early 80s. One of the problems with the aft fan configuration is hot gas leakage from the LP turbine to the fan.[citation needed]

[edit]Basic two spool Many turbofans have the basic two-spool configuration where both the fan and LP turbine (i.e., LP spool) are mounted on a second (LP) shaft, running concentrically with the HP spool (i.e., HP compressor driven by HP turbine). The BR710 is typical of this configuration. At the smaller thrust sizes, instead of all-axial blading, the HP compressor configuration may be axial-centrifugal (e.g., General Electric CFE738), double-centrifugal or even diagonal/centrifugal (e.g., Pratt & Whitney Canada PW600). [edit]Boosted two spool Higher overall pressure ratios can be achieved by either raising the HP compressor pressure ratio or adding an intermediate-pressure (IP) Compressor between the fan and HP compressor, to supercharge or boost the latter unit helping to raise the overall pressure ratio of the engine cycle to the very high levels employed today (i.e., greater than 40:1, typically). All of the large American turbofans (e.g., General Electric CF6, GE90 and GEnx plus Pratt & Whitney JT9D and PW4000) feature an IP compressor mounted on the LP shaft and driven, like the fan, by the LP turbine, the mechanical speed of which is dictated by the tip speed and diameter of the fan. The Rolls Royce BR715 is a non-American example of this. The high bypass ratios (i.e., fan duct flow/core flow) used in modern civil turbofans tends to reduce the relative diameter of the attached IP compressor, causing its mean tip speed to decrease. Consequently more IPC stages are required to develop the necessary IPC pressure rise. [edit]Three spool Rolls-Royce chose a three spool configuration for their large civil turbofans (i.e., the RB211 and Trent families), where the intermediate pressure (IP) compressor is mounted on a separate (IP) shaft, running concentrically with the LP and HP shafts, and is driven by a separate IP turbine. The first three spool engine was the earlier Rolls-Royce RB.203 Trent of 1967. Ivchenko Design Bureau chose the same configuration for their Lotarev D-36 engine, followed by Lotarev/Progress D-18T and Progress D-436. The Turbo-Union RB199 military turbofan also has a three spool configuration, as does the Russian military Kuznetsov NK-321. [edit]Geared fan Main article: Geared turbofan

Geared turbofan As bypass ratio increases, the mean radius ratio of the fan and low pressure turbine (LPT) increases. Consequently, if the fan is to rotate at its optimum blade speed the LPT blading will spin slowly, so additional LPT stages will be required, to extract sufficient energy to drive the fan. Introducing a (planetary) reduction gearbox, with a suitable gear ratio, between the LP shaft and the fan enables both the fan and LP turbine to operate at their optimum speeds. Typical of this configuration are the long-established Honeywell TFE731, the Honeywell ALF 502/507, and the recent Pratt & Whitney PW1000G. [edit]Military turbofans Most of the configurations discussed above are used in civil turbofans, while modern military turbofans (e.g., SNECMA M88) are usually basic two-spool. [edit]High-pressure turbine Most civil turbofans use a high efficiency, 2-stage HP turbine to drive the HP compressor. The CFM56 uses an alternative approach: a single stage, highwork unit. While this approach is probably less efficient, there are savings on cooling air, weight and cost. In the RB211 and Trent series, Rolls-Royce split the two stages into two discrete units; one on the HP shaft driving the HP compressor; the other on the IP shaft driving the IP (Intermediate Pressure) Compressor. Modern military turbofans tend to use single stage HP turbines. [edit]Low-pressure turbine Modern civil turbofans have multi-stage LP turbines (e.g., 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). The number of stages required depends on the engine cycle bypass ratio and how much supercharging (i.e., IP compression) is on the LP shaft, behind the fan. A geared fan may reduce the number of required LPT stages in some applications.[9] Because of the much lower bypass ratios employed, military turbofans only require one or two LP turbine stages. [edit]Cycle improvements

Consider a mixed turbofan with a fixed bypass ratio and airflow. Increasing the overall pressure ratio of the compression system raises the combustor entry temperature. Therefore, at a fixed fuel flow there is an increase in (HP) turbine rotor inlet temperature. Although the higher temperature rise across the compression system implies a larger temperature drop over the turbine

system, the mixed nozzle temperature is unaffected, because the same amount of heat is being added to the system. There is, however, a rise in nozzle pressure, because overall pressure ratio increases faster than the turbine expansion ratio, causing an increase in the hot mixer entry pressure. Consequently, net thrust increases, whilst specific fuel consumption (fuel flow/net thrust) decreases. A similar trend occurs with unmixed turbofans. So turbofans can be made more fuel efficient by raising overall pressure ratio and turbine rotor inlet temperature in unison. However, better turbine materials and/or improved vane/blade cooling are required to cope with increases in both turbine rotor inlet temperature and compressor delivery temperature. Increasing the latter may require better compressor materials. Overall pressure ratio can be increased by improving fan (or) LP compressor pressure ratio and/or HP compressor pressure ratio. If the latter is held constant, the increase in (HP) compressor delivery temperature (from raising overall pressure ratio) implies an increase in HP mechanical speed. However, stressing considerations might limit this parameter, implying, despite an increase in overall pressure ratio, a reduction in HP compressor pressure ratio. According to simple theory, if the ratio turbine rotor inlet temperature/(HP) compressor delivery temperature is maintained, the HP turbine throat area can be retained. However, this assumes that cycle improvements are obtained, whilst retaining the datum (HP) compressor exit flow function (nondimensional flow). In practise, changes to the non-dimensional speed of the (HP) compressor and cooling bleed extraction would probably make this assumption invalid, making some adjustment to HP turbine throat area unavoidable. This means the HP turbine nozzle guide vanes would have to be different from the original! In all probability, the downstream LP turbine nozzle guide vanes would have to be changed anyway. [edit]Thrust growth

Thrust growth is obtained by increasing core power. There are two basic routes available: hot route: increase HP turbine rotor inlet temperature cold route: increase core mass flow Both routes require an increase in the combustor fuel flow and, therefore, the heat energy added to the core stream. The hot route may require changes in turbine blade/vane materials and/or

better blade/vane cooling. The cold route can be obtained by one of the following: adding T-stages to the LP/IP compression adding a zero-stage to the HP compression improving the compression process, without adding stages (e.g. higher fan hub pressure ratio) all of which increase both overall pressure ratio and core airflow. Alternatively, the core size can be increased, to raise core airflow, without changing overall pressure ratio. This route is expensive, since a new (upflowed) turbine system (and possibly a larger IP compressor) is also required. Changes must also be made to the fan to absorb the extra core power. On a civil engine, jet noise considerations mean that any significant increase in Take-off thrust must be accompanied by a corresponding increase in fan mass flow (to maintain a T/O specific thrust of about 30 lbf/lb/s). To reduce noise civilian turbofans have a specially shaped nozzle that limits the exhaust speed to subsonic speeds. This leads to a thermic clogging termed choked nozzle where the mass flow cannot be increased beyond a certain amount. Thus, the mass flow can only be increased through the bypass airstream, usually by increasing fan diameter. On military engines, the fan pressure ratio would probably be increased to improve specific thrust, jet noise not normally being an important factor. [edit]Technical discussion

Specific Thrust (net thrust/intake airflow) is an important parameter for turbofans and jet engines in general. Imagine a fan (driven by an appropriately sized electric motor) operating within a pipe, which is connected to a propelling nozzle. It is fairly obvious, the higher the Fan Pressure Ratio (fan discharge pressure/fan inlet pressure), the higher the jet velocity and the corresponding specific thrust. Now imagine we replace this set-up with an equivalent turbofan - same airflow and same fan pressure ratio. Obviously, the core of the turbofan must produce sufficient power to drive the fan via the Low Pressure (LP) Turbine. If we choose a low (HP) Turbine Inlet Temperature for the gas generator, the core airflow needs to be relatively high to compensate. The corresponding bypass ratio is therefore relatively low. If we raise the Turbine Inlet Temperature, the core airflow can be smaller, thus increasing bypass ratio. Raising turbine inlet temperature tends to increase thermal efficiency and, therefore, improve fuel efficiency.

Naturally, as altitude increases there is a decrease in air density and, therefore, the net thrust of an engine. There is also a flight speed effect, termed Thrust Lapse Rate. Consider the approximate equation for net thrust again:

With a high specific thrust (e.g., fighter) engine, the jet velocity is relatively high, so intuitively one can see that increases in flight velocity have less of an impact upon net thrust than a medium specific thrust (e.g., trainer) engine, where the jet velocity is lower. The impact of thrust lapse rate upon a low specific thrust (e.g., civil) engine is even more severe. At high flight speeds, high specific thrust engines can pick-up net thrust through the ram rise in the intake, but this effect tends to diminish at supersonic speeds because of shock wave losses. Thrust growth on civil turbofans is usually obtained by increasing fan airflow, thus preventing the jet noise becoming too high. However, the larger fan airflow requires more power from the core. This can be achieved by raising the Overall Pressure Ratio (combustor inlet pressure/intake delivery pressure) to induce more airflow into the core and by increasing turbine inlet temperature. Together, these parameters tend to increase core thermal efficiency and improve fuel efficiency. Some high bypass ratio civil turbofans use an extremely low area ratio (less than 1.01), convergent-divergent, nozzle on the bypass (or mixed exhaust) stream, to control the fan working line. The nozzle acts as if it has variable geometry. At low flight speeds the nozzle is unchoked (less than a Mach Number of unity), so the exhaust gas speeds up as it approaches the throat and then slows down slightly as it reaches the divergent section. Consequently, the nozzle exit area controls the fan match and, being larger than the throat, pulls the fan working line slightly away from surge. At higher flight speeds, the ram rise in the intake increases nozzle pressure ratio to the point where the throat becomes choked (M=1.0). Under these circumstances, the throat area dictates the fan match and, being smaller than the exit, pushes the fan working line slightly towards surge. This is not a problem, since fan surge margin is much better at high flight speeds. The off-design behaviour of turbofans is illustrated under compressor map and turbine map. Because modern civil turbofans operate at low specific thrust, they only require a single fan stage to develop the required fan pressure ratio. The desired overall pressure ratio for the engine cycle is usually achieved by

multiple axial stages on the core compression. Rolls-Royce tend to split the core compression into two with an intermediate pressure (IP) supercharging the HP compressor, both units being driven by turbines with a single stage, mounted on separate shafts. Consequently, the HP compressor need only develop a modest pressure ratio (e.g., ~4.5:1). US civil engines use much higher HP compressor pressure ratios (e.g., ~23:1 on the General Electric GE90) and tend to be driven by a two stage HP turbine. Even so, there are usually a few IP axial stages mounted on the LP shaft, behind the fan, to further supercharge the core compression system. Civil engines have multistage LP turbines, the number of stages being determined by the bypass ratio, the amount of IP compression on the LP shaft and the LP turbine blade speed. Because military engines usually have to be able to fly very fast at Sea Level, the limit on HP compressor delivery temperature is reached at a fairly modest design overall pressure ratio, compared with that of a civil engine. Also the fan pressure ratio is relatively high, to achieve a medium to high specific thrust. Consequently, modern military turbofans usually only have 5 or 6 HP compressor stages and only require a single stage HP turbine. Low bypass ratio military turbofans usually have one LP turbine stage, but higher bypass ratio engines need two stages. In theory, by adding IP compressor stages, a modern military turbofan HP compressor could be used in a civil turbofan derivative, but the core would tend to be too small for high thrust applications. [edit]Recent developments in blade technology

The turbine blades in a turbofan engine are subject to high heat and stress, and require special fabrication. New material construction methods and material science have allowed blades, which were originally polycrystalline (regular metal), to be made from lined up metallic crystals and more recently mono-crystalline (i.e., single crystal) blades, which can operate at higher temperatures with less distortion. Nickel-based superalloys are used for HP turbine blades in almost all modern jet engines. The temperature capabilities of turbine blades have increased mainly through four approaches: the manufacturing (casting) process, cooling path design, thermal barrier coating (TBC), and alloy development. Although turbine blade (and vane) materials have improved over the years, much of the increase in (HP) turbine inlet temperatures is due to improvements in blade/vane cooling technology. Relatively cool air is bled from the compression system, bypassing the combustion process, and enters the hollow blade or vane. The gas temperature can therefore be even higher

than the melting temperature of the blade.[4] After picking up heat from the blade/vane, the cooling air is dumped into the main gas stream. If the local gas temperatures are low enough, downstream blades/vanes are uncooled and not adversely affected. Strictly speaking, cycle-wise the HP Turbine Rotor Inlet Temperature (after the temperature drop across the HPT stator) is more important than the (HP) turbine inlet temperature. Although some modern military and civil engines have peak RITs of the order of 1,560 C (2,840 F), such temperatures are only experienced for a short time (during take-off) on civil engines. Turbofan engine manufacturers

The turbofan engine market is dominated by General Electric, Rolls-Royce plc and Pratt & Whitney, in order of market share. GE and SNECMA of France have a joint venture, CFM International which, as the 3rd largest manufacturer in terms of market share, fits between Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney. Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney also have a joint venture, International Aero Engines, specializing in engines for the Airbus A320 family, whilst finally, Pratt & Whitney and General Electric have a joint venture, Engine Alliance marketing a range of engines for aircraft such as the Airbus A380. [edit]General Electric

GE CF6 Turbofan engine GE Aviation, part of the General Electric Conglomerate, currently has the largest share of the turbofan engine market. Some of their engine models include the CF6 (available on the Boeing 767, Boeing 747, Airbus A330 and more), GE90 (only the Boeing 777) and GEnx (developed for the Boeing 747-8 & Boeing 787 Dreamliner and proposed for the Airbus A350, currently in development) engines. On the military side, GE engines power many U.S. military aircraft, including the F110, powering 80% of the US Air Force's F-16 Fighting Falcons, and the F404 and F414 engines, which power the Navy's F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. Rolls-Royce and General Electric were jointly developing the F136 engine to power the Joint Strike Fighter, however, due to government budget cuts, the program has been eliminated. [edit]CFM International

CFM International is a joint venture between GE Aircraft Engines and SNECMA of France. They have created the very successful CFM56 series, used on Boeing 737, Airbus A340, and Airbus A320 family aircraft. [edit]Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce plc is the second largest manufacturer of turbofans and is most noted for their RB211 and Trent series, as well as their joint venture engines for the Airbus A320 and McDonnell Douglas MD-90 families (IAE V2500 with Pratt & Whitney and others), the Panavia Tornado (Turbo-Union RB199) and the Boeing 717 (BR700). The Rolls-Royce AE 3007 was developed by Allison Engine Company before its acquisition by Rolls-Royce, powers several Embraer regional jets. Rolls-Royce Trent 970s were the first engines to power the new Airbus A380. The famous thrust vectoring Pegasus[10] engine is the primary powerplant of the Harrier "Jump Jet" and its derivatives. [edit]Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is third behind GE and Rolls-Royce in market share. The JT9D has the distinction of being chosen by Boeing to power the original Boeing 747 "Jumbo jet". The PW4000 series is the successor to the JT9D, and powers some Airbus A310, Airbus A300, Boeing 747, Boeing 767, Boeing 777, Airbus A330 and MD-11 aircraft. The PW4000 is certified for 180-minute ETOPS when used in twinjets. The first family has a 94-inch (2.4 m) fan diameter and is designed to power the Boeing 767, Boeing 747, MD-11, and the Airbus A300. The second family is the 100 inch (2.5 m) fan engine developed specifically for the Airbus A330 twinjet, and the third family has a diameter of 112-inch (2.8 m) designed to power Boeing 777. The Pratt & Whitney F119 and its derivative, the F135, power the United States Air Force's F-22 Raptor and the international F-35 Lightning II, respectively. Rolls-Royce are responsible for the lift fan which will provide the F-35B variants with a STOVL capability. The F100 engine was first used on the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. Newer Eagles and Falcons also come with GE F110 as an option, and the two are in competition. [edit]Aviadvigatel Aviadvigatel (Russian: ) is a Russian manufacturer of aircraft engines that succeeded the Soviet Soloviev Design Bureau. The company currently offers[11] several versions of the Aviadvigatel PS-90 engine that powers Ilyushin Il-96-300/400/400T, Tupolev Tu-204, Tu-214 series and the Ilyushin Il-76-MD-90. The company is also developing the new Aviadvigatel PD-14 engine for the new Russian MS-21 airliner.[12] [edit]Ivchenko-Progress

Ivchenko-Progress is the Ukrainian aircraft engine company that succeeded the Soviet Ivchenko Design Bureau. Some of their engine models include Progress D-436 available on the Antonov An-72/74, Yakovlev Yak-42, Beriev Be-200, Antonov An-148 and Tupolev Tu-334 and Progress D-18T that powers two of the world largest airplanes, Antonov An-124 and Antonov An-225. [edit]Extreme bypass jet engines

In the 1970s, Rolls-Royce/SNECMA tested a M45SD-02 turbofan fitted with variable pitch fan blades to improve handling at ultra low fan pressure ratios and to provide thrust reverse down to zero aircraft speed. The engine was aimed at ultra quiet STOL aircraft operating from city centre airports. In a bid for increased efficiency with speed, a development of the turbofan and turboprop known as a propfan engine was created that had an unducted fan. The fan blades are situated outside of the duct, so that it appears like a turboprop with wide scimitar-like blades. Both General Electric and Pratt & Whitney/Allison demonstrated propfan engines in the 1980s. Excessive cabin noise and relatively cheap jet fuel prevented the engines being put into service. [edit]Terminology

Afterburner extra combustor immediately upstream of final nozzle (also called reheat) Augmentor afterburner on low-bypass turbofan engines. Average stage loading constant (delta temperature)/[(blade speed) (blade speed) (number of stages)] Bypass airstream that completely bypasses the core compression system, combustor and turbine system Bypass ratio bypass airflow /core compression inlet airflow

Core turbomachinery handling the airstream that passes through the combustor. Core power residual shaft power from ideal turbine expansion to ambient pressure after deducting core compression power Core thermal efficiency core power/power equivalent of fuel flow Dry afterburner (if fitted) not lit EGT Exhaust Gas Temperature EPR Engine Pressure Ratio Fan turbofan LP compressor Fan pressure ratio fan outlet total pressure/intake delivery total pressure Flex temp use of artificially high apparent air temperature to reduce engine wear Gas generator engine core HPC high pressure compressor HP compressor high pressure compressor HPT high pressure turbine

HP turbine high pressure turbine Intake ram drag penalty associated with jet engines picking up air from the atmosphere (conventional rocket motors do not have this drag term, because the oxidiser travels with the vehicle) IEPR Integrated engine pressure ratio IPC intermediate pressure compressor IP compressor intermediate pressure compressor IPT intermediate pressure turbine IP turbine intermediate pressure turbine LPC low pressure compressor LP compressor low pressure compressor LPT low pressure turbine LP turbine low pressure turbine Net thrust nozzle total gross thrust - intake ram drag (excluding nacelle drag, etc., this is the basic thrust acting on the airframe)

Overall pressure ratio combustor inlet total pressure/intake delivery total pressure Overall thermal efficiency thermal efficiency * propulsive efficiency Propulsive efficiency propulsive power/rate of production of propulsive kinetic energy (maximum propulsive efficiency occurs when jet velocity equals flight velocity, which implies zero net thrust!) SFC Specific fuel consumption Specific fuel consumption total fuel flow/net thrust (proportional to flight velocity/overall thermal efficiency) Static pressure normal meaning of pressure. Excludes any kinetic energy effects Specific thrust net thrust/intake airflow Thermal efficiency rate of production of propulsive kinetic energy/fuel power Total fuel flow combustor (plus any afterburner) fuel flow rate (e.g., lb/s or g/s) Total pressure static pressure plus kinetic energy term Turbine rotor inlet temperature gas absolute mean temperature at principal (e.g., HP) turbine rotor entry