Accepted Manuscript

Review Article

Review on signal-by-wire and power-by-wire actuation for more electric aircraft

Jean-Charles Maré, Jian Fu

PII: S1000-9361(17)30089-4
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2017.03.013
Reference: CJA 826

To appear in: Chinese Journal of Aeronautics

Received Date: 25 December 2016

Revised Date: 16 March 2017
Accepted Date: 16 March 2017

Please cite this article as: J-C. Maré, J. Fu, Review on signal-by-wire and power-by-wire actuation for more electric
aircraft, Chinese Journal of Aeronautics (2017), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2017.03.013

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Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, (2016), xxx(xx): xxx-xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Chinese Journal of Aeronautics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cja

REVIEW ARTICLE (INVITED)

Review on signal-by-wire and power-by-wire

actuation for more electric aircraft

Jean-Charles Maréa, Jian FUa,b,*

a
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Institut Clément Ader (CNRS UMR 5312), Toulouse 31077, France
b
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China

Received 25 December 2016; revised 6 February 2017; accepted 10 February 2017

KEYWORDS Abstract
Actuator; The huge and rapid progress in electric drives offers new opportunities to improve the per-
Aerospace; formances of aircraft at all levels: fuel burn, environmental footprint, safety, integration and
Electrohydrostatic; production, serviceability, and maintainability. Actuation for safety-critical applications like
Electromechanical; flight-controls, landing gears, and even engines is one of the major consumers of
Hydraulic; non-propulsive power. Conventional actuation with centralized hydraulic power generation
More electric aircraft; and distribution and control of power by throttling has been well established for decades, but
Power-by-wire; offers a limited potential of evolution. In this context, electric drives become more and more
Signal-by-wire attractive to remove the natural drawbacks of conventional actuation and to offer new oppor-
tunities for improving performance. This paper takes the stock, at both the signal and power
levels, of the evolution of actuation for safety-critical applications in aerospace. It focuses on
the recent advances and the remaining challenges to be taken towards full electrical actuation
for commercial and military aircraft, helicopters, and launchers. It logically starts by empha-
sizing the specificity of safety-critical actuation for aerospace. The following section address-
es in details the evolution of aerospace actuation from mechanically-signaled and hydrau-
lically-supplied to all electric, with special emphasis on research and development programs
and on solutions entered into service. Finally, the last section reviews the challenges to be
taken to generalize the use of all-electric actuators for future aircraft programs.

1. Introduction1 requirements to define a proposed solution. In practice, this

In recent years, aerospace actuation has made significant steps
forward thanks to extensive introduction of the electrical
technology at both signal and power levels. Despite scientific
progresses and the industrial pressure to make aircraft safer,
cheaper, and greener and to reduce time to market, efforts
towards more electric then all electric aircraft are not always
visible when one concentrates only on the solutions brought
into service. This review intends to highlight recent advances
and remaining challenges to be taken for enabling
power-by-wire (PbW) to be extensively used for actuation in
aerospace.
Following the systems engineering approach, any product
development should follow a “top-down” approach starting
first from the elicitation of needs and their transformation into
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: fujianbuaa@126.com (J. Fu).
process is often reversed as a “bottom-up” process that con-
sists of starting from (almost) mature technology for combin-
ing components to make equipment, subsystems, and then
systems that offer new services to a customer. The first ap-
proach enables disruptive innovation but may ignore
state-of-the-art technology and consequently may fail in put-
ting a mature product into mass production. The second ap-
proach limits risks but only generates incremental innovation
which brings low benefits when the employed technology has
been well established for decades. However, this approach can
take advantage of local step changes. A good example is
found for hydraulic servo actuators (HSAs) that can be sig-
nificantly improved by using new materials (e.g., carbon fiber
reinforced housings1) and new manufacturing processes (e.g.,
additive manufacturing)2-4 or by making them smart through
integration of electronic boards and interfaces with digital
networks. An intermediate or “middle-out” approach is effi-
·2 · Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
cient to solve this dilemma. It consists of combining these two
approaches to inject a realistic view of technological maturity
(bottom-up) for filtering and making decision at each step of
the top-down process.5 Introduced by the NASA for space
programs, the technology readiness levels (TRL) scale 6 pro-
vides an efficient way to measure at a given date the remain-
ing activities for putting a product into operational service. At
TRL2, a concept is formulated. At TRL4, it is validated by
testing a demonstrator in a soft laboratory environment. At
TRL9, it is put into service. Reviewing the evolution of actua-
tion for aerospace highlights the major importance taken by
the technological maturity that comes essentially from the
time scale of aircraft life, from project launch to service with-
drawal. Electro-hydrostatic actuators (EHAs) give a striking
example of this time scale: it took about 15 years to move
from TRL4 (first ground tests in the early 1990s) to TRL9
(entry into service, EIS, on Airbus A380 in 2007). An aircraft
Fig. 1 Power flows in a commercial aircraft.
Fig. 2 Example of a mission profile for an aileron actuator.
model being manufactured for 30 years and flying for 30
years too, typically, takes more than 75 years between the
concept demonstration in lab and the retirement of the product
from service. Finally, as for any embedded safety-critical
application, new solutions for actuation in aerospace have to
meet hard constraints in terms of mass, dimensions, energy
consumption, peak and mean power capability, resistance to
harsh environment, high reliability, and long service life. All
these statements have led to structure this review as follows.
The second section addresses the needs for actuation in aero-
space and focuses on its specificity. The third section is dedi-
cated to the evolution of actuation with emphasis on research
and development projects and solutions entered into service.
The fourth section focuses on the main challenges to be taken
to generalize the use of electrically-signalled and powered
actuators.
2. Needs for actuation in aerospace
As shown in Ref. 7, aircraft involve multiple users of second-
ary, i.e., non-propulsive, power that are displayed on the outer
ring of Fig. 1. These users are supplied by electric, hydraulic,
and pneumatic power networks located on the intermediate
ring of Fig. 1.
The power is provided by various sources that are men-
tioned on the inner ring of Fig. 1. Actuators essentially serve
flight controls (primary and secondary), landing gears (exten-
sion/retraction, braking, and steering), engines (inlet guide
vanes, thrust reversers, and maintenance panels), and other
utilities (e.g., cargo doors). For a large commercial aircraft,
flight controls and landing gear actuation may require from 50
to 350 kW depending on the phase of flight.8 Aerospace actu-
ators shall meet various types of requirements and constraints9
that can be listed typically as:
 Control: position controlled (primary flight controls,
landing gear steering), endstop to endstop (landing gear
 Chinese Journal of Aeronautics ·3·
extension/retraction, deploy/stow of engine thrust intellectual burden (through autopilot, axes decoupling,
reversers), pressure or force controlled (braking). compensations, etc.) and to increase flight performances (by
 Duration of operation: continuous (primary flight extending the flight envelope and improving flight qualities
controls), transient (landing gear steering), pulsed through better stability and aerodynamic efficiency).
(landing gear lock). Mechanical signaling, i.e., transmitting command and
 Power capability: stroke from 10 to 700 mm, force from control signals by means of mechanical cables and rods, is
5 to 320 kN, speed from 10 to 500 mm/s. sufficiently reliable to be simplex, opposite to electrical
 Dynamics: from 1 to 15 Hz. signaling that requires multiple redundancies for any elec-
 Environment: -40 to +70 °C (functional), plus trical unit or transmission line. However, this advantage
electromagnetic interferences, vibrations, humidity, becomes rapidly no more sufficient when drawbacks are
pressure cycles. considered. Mechanical signaling is constraining for mass,
 Quantity of service: 4000 (helicopters, fighters) to envelope, and integration within the airframe. It introduces
135000 (large commercial aircraft) flight hours (FH). hard design constraints to mix or decouple commands and
 Failure rate: as low as 10 -9/FH. to compensate for backlash, friction, compliance, and
 Response to failure: safe life, fail operative/functional, thermal dilation. Finally, it does not allow reaching the high
fail safe (passive, frozen, neutral). bandwidth and accuracy that can be offered by electrical
 Maturity: better than 98%. signaling.
Beside these needs, three important remarks can be Hydraulically-powered actuation offers many ad-
risen. Firstly, power capability is specified for the worst vantages but also strong shortcomings. These drawbacks
case of operation (e.g., rudder steering to compensate yaw have become less and less acceptable for various reasons.
when one engine fails). Hopefully, an aircraft operates most As illustrated in Table 1, they essentially form energy
of the time in the normal mode, without failure, that requires transmission through material transmission (the fluid):
much less power. This is clearly pointed out by Fig. 2 of Ref 1). Pollutants are less and less accepted for their negative
10
that compares the power points specified and the effective impact on environment and severe constraints in the
power needed for actuating an aileron of a single-aisle design, integration, and operation of aircraft.
twin-engine aircraft, during a 120-min flight. It can be noted 2). Power distribution of pressurized fluid is far constraining
that the average speed is null with typical maximal excur- when mass, envelope, manufacturing, and geometrical
sion lower than 15% of the rated value while the average integration within an airframe are considered, especially
force is -30% with typical max values of +10% to -60% of for large aircraft where actuators can be located further
the rated value. than 50 m from pumps.
The second remark concerns the functions to be per- 3). Potentials of reconfiguration and power management at
formed. The main function of metering, transmitting, and the power network level are extremely poor. Indeed,
transforming power from the source to the load is never segregation and independence requirements forbid ex-
forgotten. Oppositely, there are a lot of “other” or secondary change of fluid between networks to avoid leakage and
functions that are often lightly addressed or discovered late pollution propagation.
when comparing technologies although they generate most 4). Control of power is mainly achieved by throttling at
of the complexity of an actuator: declutching (e.g., for metering valves variable orifices. Power is spent to
landing gear steering under the towing mode) or blocking produce the full force whatever the force required by the
(e.g., to freeze the load position for a trim horizontal stabi- load. Efficiency at the mission level is therefore low
lizer), overload protection (e.g., in case of gust on a flight because mean forces to be produced are averagely much
control surface), cooling or heating, absorbing energy when lower than rated forces.
mechanical endstops are reached, force equalization (when However, it will be shown that the natural advantages of
multiple active actuators drive a single load), synchroniza- hydraulics at the equipment level have to be kept in mind,
tion (when multiple active actuators drive independent although often omitted, when it is intended to switch to
loads), etc. The third remark is linked to additional needs PbW actuation.
and constraints that are induced by a chosen technology and Table 1 Advantages/drawbacks of hydraulic technology.
may again increase complexity at both design and product
levels (e.g., fluid conditioning for HSAs or thermal balance Advantages Drawbacks
for PbW actuators). A1 - Excellent power density D1 - Low power density at the
at the equipment level (up to power distribution network
10 kW/kg) level
3. Evolution from hydraulic servo actuation
A2 - Compact and light sec- D2 - Power management dif-
ondary functions when im- ficult at the power distribution
Hydraulically-supplied actuators have been well established plemented in the hydraulic network level (no propagation
for more than 50 years. They were firstly introduced in the domain of leakage or pollution re-
mid-1935s for endstop-to-endstop functions required by quired). Impacts vulnerability
landing gear or secondary flight controls. Their use has A3 - Heat produced by energy D3 - Need for fluid condition-
increased extensively to closed-loop functions, e.g., primary losses easily evacuated by the ing (filling, charging, purging,
flight controls and landing gear steering, under two com- hydraulic fluid returning to the and filtering). Impacts ser-
bined effects. The first one is related to power as the limits reservoir viceability
of human forces (power-by-muscle) have been rapidly A4 - Low inertia of actuator D4 - Bad environ-
reached when the speed and size of aircraft are increased, moving parts and high accel- ment-friendliness
imposing hydraulically-supplied actuators for their excel- eration capability
lent power density. The second is more related to com- A5 - High force / low speed D5 - Nonlinear behavior for
mands. It becomes absolutely necessary to reduce a pilot’s easily realized with direct control design
·4 · Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
connection of cylinder to the from pure mechanical to all electrical signaling took several
load decades to fully establish. Electrical command and control
A6 - Not concerned with D6 - Low efficiency of control signals were firstly transformed into mechanical signals that
electromagnetic interference of power through throttling at were summed to the pilot’s command. Then the introduction
(no emission, poor suscepti- the metering valves level. of servovalves enabled the progressive replacement of
bility) Effect increased by permanent mechanical signaling by full signal-by-wire, as illustrated
leakage in servovalves and
power management compo-
for European commercial aircraft in Table 2.
nents At each step, the use of electrical signaling for flight
controls saved a significant amount of mass 14: 300 kg be-
3.1. Electrical signaling of actuators tween A300-B4 and A310, 200 kg between A310 and A320,
Mechanical signaling of hydraulically-supplied actuators -45% reduction of rudder actuators mass from A300 to
gave progressively way to electrical signaling. This evolu- A340, and 50 kg from A340-200 to A340-500/600. This
tion facilitated the use of more advanced controllers, which still continued on A380, allowing for 10% reduction of the
was earlier constrained by their implementation in the hy- trim horizontal stabilizer area, and on A35015 by increasing
dro-mechanical domain. 11 The introduction of computer the aerodynamic efficiency through differential flap setting
control enabled more advanced control laws to be imple- (DFS), variable camber (VC), and adaptive dropped hinged
mented. In practice, actuator closed-loop performance is flaps (ADHF). The total removal of mechanical signaling
generally easy to obtain and does not require extremely was established earlier for military aircraft, but it still re-
sophisticated control that would be difficult to certify. mains at its beginning for helicopters 16 due to the extreme
However, there is still a continuous effort to improve the criticality of rotorcraft flight control actuation: there are still
performance of servo-hydraulic actuators, in particular to very few full fly-by-wire models produced in series. 17 Fig. 3
better deal with non-linearities 12 and to improve control summarizes the evolution of signaling.
robustness versus parameters uncertainties. 13 Evolution
Table 2 From signal by cables to signal-by-wire for commercial aircraft. 17

Year Manufacturer Model Advancement (from previous model)

*
1969 Sud Aviation - British Aircraft Analog FbW with mechanical backup
1975** Corporation / Concorde Analog electrical signaling between cockpit and actuators
Analog FbW for 12 non-essential functions
1972*
Airbus / A300B Analog Electrical signaling between cockpit and actuators
1974**
Position servo control performed by computer in the cockpit
24 FbW actuators controlled by 5 computers
1982*
Airbus / A310 Removal of low speed ailerons (roll control assisted by spoilers at low speed)
1983**
Introduction of electrically signaled trim for ailerons and rudder
FbW on 3 axes, 7 digital computers
1987* Mechanical signaling between the yaw damper and the rudder actuators
Airbus / A320
1988** Backup mechanical signaling (pseudo FbW) for rudder and Trim Horizontal Stabilizer (THS)
Introduction of the side-stick
5 digital computers
1991*
** Airbus / A330 340 Removal of any mechanical signaling for the rudder control (A340-600) with resort to an
1993
electrical analog Backup Control Module (or BCM)
2005* 6 digital computers
Airbus / A380
2007** Removal of the last mechanical backup signaling for THS control (Full FbW)
*
2013 6 digital computers
Airbus / A350
2015** Position servo-control at actuators level (Actuator Control Electronics or ACE)
* **
Note: First flight, Entry into service (EIS).
 Chinese Journal of Aeronautics ·5·
consists of enabling power to be transmitted on data lines
while the second one is its contrary. Application of PLC to
flight controls 21 was investigated for transmitting data be-
tween the FCCs and remote electronics (6 computers + 27
actuators, distant from 37 to 68 m). The potential saving was
estimated to be 17 kg and 3 km of wires if PLC was used for
the backup signaling channel. For the time being, PLC and
POD are not fully mature. They seem more suited for
cockpit displays and cabin lightning 22 as these functions are
less safety-critical and could potentially save 36 km and 360
kg of wiring on an Airbus A380. Recent studies have shown
that POD and PLC can also be implemented using optical
fiber for transmission. 23
For signaling, optical fibers are also good candidates to
remove electrical wires and make a fly-by-light (FbL) sig-
naling architecture which facilitates integration (e.g., 16
times less attenuation, 8 times lighter, 2 times more com-
pact, and bending radius reduced by 15%). 17 Since 1980,
many research programs have dealt with optical data
transmission for actuation in fighters, helicopters, and
commercial aircraft, including flight tests: e.g.,
HOFCAS/AFCAS 24, ADOCS25, and FLASH26 in United
States, OPST 27 and ACT/FHS 28 in Europe. For the time
being, optical fibers for data transmission have been im-
plemented for less critical functions: 110 optical links (1.7
km) on Boeing B787, 171 data links (2.4 km) on Airbus
A380. 29
The ultimate solution for transmitting information con-
sists of using radio waves to make fly-by-wireless (FbWL).
Obviously, a total removal of wiring provides significant
gains during design, integration, and operation. 30 The con-
cept has been demonstrated in flight in 2008 for spoiler
actuation on the Gulfstream G650 test aircraft. To date,
facing the challenges of safety and security, signaling by
wireless has been put into service only for non-critical
functions like the emergency lighting system for cabin
evacuation on Boeing B787.

3.2. Power-by-wire concepts

Fig. 3 Evolution of signaling concepts for aerospace actua-
tion.17
In a conventional centralized fly-by-wire design, the
position control loop is closed at the flight control comput-
ers (FCCs) level, located in the front of an aircraft, up to 60
m away from the actuators. Sensors excitation and outputs,
mode selection, and servovalve commands typically repre-
sent from 16 wires (simplex) to more than 60 wires (quad
redundant) per actuator that put a high penalty on the elec-
trical signaling network. Significant wiring was saved by
introducing remote electronics connected via redundant
digital buses to the FCCs. These fly-by-less-wire (FbLW)
designs can be found on the Northrop B-2 bomber 18 with
actuator remote terminals (ARTs) and on the Boeing B777
commercial aircraft 19 with actuator control electronics
(ACEs). Recently, another step was taken by integrating
these electrical units in the actuators 20, a much harsher
environment than in a pressurized area. So-called smart
actuators entered into service on Boeing B787 with remote
electronic units (REUs) or on Airbus A350 with remote
actuator electronics (RAEs). Note that this concept was
already applied to the backup PbW actuators of Airbus
A380 (see section 3.2.2). Electrical wiring for actuators
signaling could be further reduced using power over data
(POD) or power line communication (PLC). The first one
·6 ·
Fig. 4 Evolution of concepts
all-hydraulic to hydraulic-less. 17
Table 3 Advantages/drawbacks of electrical technology.
Advantages
A1 - Good power density of
3-phase AC power networks
A2 - Wide options to control
power through solid-state
switches and pulse width
modulation, including exten-
sion of velocity range through
flux weakening
A3 - Power on demand that
functionally draws only the
power required by the load
from the source
A4 - Plug and play integration
in the airframe for production
and maintenance
A5 - Self test and monitoring
easy to implement (resources
already present)
A6 - Easy dynamic reconfig-
uration of the power path for
supplying users. Reduced
vulnerability
Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
for actuators, from
Drawbacks
D1 - Need for power transfor-
mation downstream from the
motor that develops low torque
/ high speed to save cop-
per/magnet/laminates mass
D2 - Secondary functions not
always possible to be imple-
mented in the electric domain
due to motor rotor inertia and
mechanical transmission fric-
tion
D3 - High frequency switching
of high current generates high
level of electromagnetic inter-
ferences
D4 - Heat produced by energy
losses to be evacuated/stored
locally
D5 - Mission is a major sizing
driver as it determines the
operating temperature of the
components and therefore their
service life and reliability
D6 - Permanent losses to de-
liver constant force at null
speed (conduction losses)
Very early in the development of aircraft, investigations
dealt with the search for new concepts enabling the draw-
backs of hydraulic power transmission to be removed or
reduced. The candidate concepts are summarized in Fig. 4
which starts from all-hydraulic at top and moves to hy-
draulic-less at bottom.
In conventional hydraulic servo-actuators, as shown in
Fig. 4(a), hydraulic power is distributed by centralized
networks and metered by throttling. The major drawbacks
associated with this concept can be partially removed by:
1). Producing hydraulic power at constant pressure from the
electrical network as close as possible to the actuation
need, as shown in Fig. 4(b). This solution removes par-
tially drawback D1 in Table 1. It has been tested in the
late 1970s as a backup hydraulic power source inte-
grated in an actuator to increase survivability of combat
aircraft. 31. More recently, it has been implemented in
Airbus A380 then A350 as a local electro-hydraulic
generation system (LEHGS) for backup supply of
landing gears steering and braking. 32
2). Using displacement control instead of throttling for the
control of power of hydraulic motors, as shown in Fig.
4(c). When applicable, this concept removes drawback
D6 in Table 1. It has been implemented on Airbus A380
for power control units driving flaps and slats. 33,34
3). Reducing the permanent leakage of servovalves by
removing the hydraulic pilot stage to make direct drive
valves (DDVs). This solution, reducing drawback D6 in
Table 1, has been applied to combat aircraft 35 like Eu-
rofighter and Northrop B2 Saab JAS 39 as well as hel-
icopters 36 like NH Industries NH90. However, it has not
been propagated to commercial aircraft for various
reasons, in particular because the permanent leakage
helps heat the fluid to avoid excessive pressure losses in
pipes at low temperature and DDVs require about 50
times more power at command input that can no longer
considered as pure signaling.
Obviously, the potential of evolution of actuation sys-
tems remains limited if the benefit of the natural advantages
is not taken to electrical power networks and drives, as
shown in Table 3. Supplying actuators by electrical wires
opens a way to attractive concepts that are detailed in the
next sections.
3.2.1. Variable displacement EHA / Fig. 4(d)
An electric power source directly supplies an AC motor that
drives a variable displacement pump connected to a h y-
draulic cylinder. This makes a hydrostatic loop. The load is
closed-loop position-controlled by action on the pump
displacement. This design appeared in the late 1930s for
airborne gun turrets and then was applied to flight controls
of military and commercial aircraft in the 1950s. The con-
cept was investigated again in the 1980s and flight-tested for
aileron actuation in the mid-1990s. 37-39 Although the ab-
sence of power electronics was a real advantage, this con-
cept was abandoned for its low efficiency, difficulty to
reach thermal equilibrium, and poor hydraulic stiffness.
3.2.2. Fixed displacement EHA / Fig. 4(e)
Instead of being controlled by action on the pump yoke, the
power is controlled by action on the electrical drive of a
fixed displacement pump. This concept has been developed
 Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
in parallel in USA and Europe, but for different applica-
tions. The US programs were dedicated to military aircraft
with the purpose to increase aircraft survivability and to
facilitate support in operation. Numerous EHA-FD demon-
strators (EPAD, EACS, FLASH, and J/IST programs) were
developed and flight-tested for flight control actuation of
F-15, F-16, and F-18 fighters. 40-43 Finally, EHA-FD entered
into service in 2015 on full-PbW F-35 multirole combat
aircraft which have no centralized hydraulic network. In
Europe, the development of EHA-FD has addressed com-
mercial aircraft that are penalized by long and wide cen-
tralized hydraulic power networks. Research programs
started first with aileron actuation of single-aisle aircraft
(EGIDE, ELAC 44, CVF, and EPICA) and then were ex-
tended to larger aircraft (ELISA 45 and POA46). Finally, the
EHA-FD entered into service in double-deck Airbus A380,
initiating their use for the primary flight controls of latest
aircraft (Airbus A400M and A350). EHAs were also as-
sessed for application in landing gear extension/retraction
(LGER). A key idea was to use a single electro-pump
(electro-hydraulic module or EHM) to supply in sequence
different LGER users (doors opening/closing, gear exten-
sion/retraction, and locks). It was implemented in the
mid-2000s in the frame of the POA research program 47, in
Japan 48, and more recently in the frame of the THERMAE II
project. 49,50 It is worth noting the interest of standardizing
EHMs, like servovalves, an activity which started in the late
1990s 51 and that is under progress at the Society of Auto-
motive Engineers (SAE) to issue soon an Aerospace Rec-
ommended Practice (SAE-ARP6154).
3.2.3. EMA / Fig. 4(f)
This concept removes totally the hydraulic technology
to transmit power and therefore its natural advantages. This
explains why the maturation of high-power EMAs for
safety-critical functions is not straightforward, having to
deal simultaneously with the reliability and the response to
failure of electric drives and mechanical power transmission
(see section 4.3). Numerous research and development
programs have been conducted for decades covering a wide
range of applications.
(1) Space. The short mission duration and the strong
requirements of availability in space and weapons applica-
tions favored the first developments of EMAs for thrust
vector control (TVC). EMAs were already serviced for the
manned exploration of the moon in the early 1970s. 52,53
Later, the feasibility of replacing an HSA by EMAs was
studied for the NASA Space Shuttle TVC 54,55, missiles
TVC56, and crew vehicles. 57,58 EMAs have now replaced
HSAs for TVC of the latest launchers programs like Atlas V
in US or Vega in Europe. 59,60
(2) Primary flight controls. EMAs for primary flight
controls of airplanes have been assessed simultaneously
with EHAs for the above-mentioned programs: EMAS 61,
EPAD62, and ELAC 44. Another impulse was given to EMA
actuation in Europe in the mid-2000s through consecutive
programs: MOET 63,64, COVADIS 65, and ACTUATION
2015 66. Primary flight controls actuators for helicopters are
much more critical as the load positioning cannot be lost for
more than a very few milliseconds. Electromechanical
actuation was investigated in the HEAT project 67 for the
Merlin EH101 helicopter but flight tests were cancelled due
to a lack of demonstrated safety during ground tests. More
recently, the HEMAS project 68,69 aimed at demonstrating a
·7·
TRL5. EMAs are also potentially attractive to implement
individual blade control (IBC) or higher harmonic control
(HHC) that reduces noise and vibration while improving
aerodynamic efficiency of rotors. IBC EMAs were tested on
ground on a Sikorsky CH-53G70 and developed for the
PROJECT ZERO unmanned convertiplane. 71 For the time
being, EMAs have not entered into service for primary
flight control applications, mainly due to their risk of jam-
ming that raises real issues regarding their back-drivability.
(3) Secondary flight controls. Jamming is not a strong
issue for most secondary flight controls where the preferred
response to failure is of fail-frozen type. Moreover, hy-
draulically-supplied solutions already involve a significant
amount of mechanical transmission devices for flaps, slats,
and trim horizontal stabilizers: spur gears, geared rotary
actuators, brakes, speed summing through differential,
clutches, no-back, etc. For this reason, replacing hydraulic
motors by electric motors is not so challenging if the same
concepts for mechanical transmission are kept. Conse-
quently, taking benefits of the maturation of electric drives,
research projects addressed EMA actuation for secondary
flight controls in the 2000s. The research project DEAWS 72
dealt with the replacement of a centralized power drive by
distributed actuation of high lift devices to offer new op-
tions for improving aerodynamics through differential
steering. The AFC program launched by Gulfstream
flight-tested EMAs-driven spoilers. 73
(4) Landing gears. Landing gears require multiple tran-
sient or pulsed actuation functions (doors, exten-
sion/retraction, locks, steering, and braking). Major argu-
ments speak in favor of PbW for LGER. For example, the
nose landing gear requires long hydraulic pipes because it is
located far from the hydraulic power centers, but it is close
to the electrical power center. For brakes, hydraulic fluid
may also ignite fire in case of leakage of hoses if it comes to
high-temperature brakes. However, two major issues are to
be fixed by using EMAs. Firstly, extension/retraction is
characterized by the need to enable free-fall in case of fail-
ure (back-driving is ensured by gravity and airload). Sec-
ondly, the control of extension/retraction in hydraulics is
extremely simple: on-off control of a directional valve for
up or down, fixed flow limiters to limit speed, and fixed
snubbing for absorbing the landing gear kinetic energy
when end-stops are reached. In PbW actuation, a motor
needs power electronics and associated command elec-
tronics to generate and apply the motion profile versus time,
in order to generate the corresponding motor voltages and to
reduce speed before endstops. It appears that this second
issue is simpler to fix than the first one that requires the
extension/retraction actuator to be tolerant to jamming and
to provide sufficient damping during free-fall. This is why
most of the research projects like MELANY 74, CISACS75,
and ARMLIGHT mainly dealt with tolerance to jamming.
Braking through EMAs is challenged by the high
closed-loop dynamics that is required for antiskid and by the
harsh environment constraints (in particular thermal). It has
been investigated in the frame of the EABSYS research
program76 that matured to enter into service on Boeing
B787 and Bombardier C-Series. 77 Landing gear steering has
also to meet strong requirements and constraints: response
to failure shall be fail-passive to allow self-alignment of the
wheels as well as damping in any mode (normal or failed) to
avoid Shimmy. Steering by EMAs has also been investi-
gated, in particular in Europe for commercial aircraft
through the DRESS 78, ELGEAR72, and MELANY projects.
·8 · Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
(5) Engines. Engines also involve actuation functions
for thrust reverse, inlet guide vanes (IGVs), and engine
doors for maintenance. Airbus A380 introduced EMAs in its
electrical thrust reverser actuation system (ETRAS). IGVs
are also good candidate for EMAs, but the high temperature
at which they have to operate most of the time still remains a
barrier.
3.2.4. Hybrid designs
Combining the concepts mentioned above is an interesting
option to make actuators more reliable and available
through dissimilarity. As illustrated in Fig. 4, hybridization
can be implemented in different manners:
(1) Electro-hydrostatic backup actuator (EBHA). It is
interesting to make an actuator redundant and more availa-
ble by combining two dissimilar power sources. The ad-
vantages of hydraulics (in particular A1, A2, and A5 in
Table 3) can be kept by using a hydraulic cylinder that is
either fed by a servovalve (HSA concept) or by an EHM
(EHA concept). As the service life of EHA pumps is still
limited, the logical solution consists of using the HSA
concept for the normal mode and the EHA for the backup
mode. By the way, only one mode is active at a given time,
making an “exclusive or” function between the HSA and
EHA modes. The actual mode is engaged by a solenoid
mode selection valve that connects the cylinder either to the
servovalve (HSA mode) or to the EHM (EHA mode). If
required, a damping mode can be added to make the actu-
ator fail-passive in case of failure of both power channels.
The EBHA concept was introduced on Airbus A380 79 and
propagated to A400, A350, and Gulfstream G650. Table 4
lists the uses of EHAs and EBHAs in in-service aircraft.
(2) Electro-assisted hydrostatic actuator (EAHA). The
concept of the EBHA can be modified in order to enable
both the HSA and EHA modes simultaneously (logical
“inclusive or” function). In this case, flows are summed to
the cylinder and the EHM boosts the HSA during peak
power demands or in case of partial loss of hydraulic power.
This design, tested in the frame of the POA project, can be
used efficiently to downsize the hydraulic network while
increasing actuator availability.
(3) Electro-backup mechanical actuator (EBMA).
Electromechanical actuation can be combined with hydrau-
lic actuation to produce a backup mode with dissimilar
sources of power. In this case, the rod of the hydraulic
cylinder contains a nut-screw device that can be mechani-
cally driven by an electric motor. This concept has been put
into service for the landing gear doors actuation of the
Airbus A400M military transporter. 74

Table 4 In-service aircraft using EHAs and EBHAs for flight controls.
Airbus Airbus Airbus Gulfstream Lockheed
Aircraft
A380 A400M A350 G650 F-35

EIS 2007 2013 2015 2012 2015

Military Military
Type Commercial Commercial Business
(transport) (fighter)

Operating pressure (bar) 350 210 350 210 280

Actuation Numbers indicate the use of HSA/EHA/EBHA

Ailerons 8/4/0 2/2/0 6/2/0 2/0/2 0/2*/0

Elevator 4/4/0 2/2/0 2/2/0 2/0/2 0/2*/0
Rudder 0/0/4 0/0/2 2/1/0 1/0/1 0/2/0
Spoilers 12/0/4 8/0/2 8/0/4 4/0/2

Total 24/8/8 12/4/4 18/5/4 9/0/7 0/6/0

to drive a single load, a special attention has to be paid to

(4) Passive hydraulic backup EMA. As mentioned
above, one of the issues for the LGER function lies in dis-
sipating energy during free-fall. Opposite to the EBMA, this
time, the translating part of an EMA nut-screw system can
also play the role of a piston that will force fluid to flow
through a hydraulic resistance during landing gear exten-
sion. This design has been investigated in the frame of the
CISACS project.
Hybridization can also be performed by using separate
actuators of different technologies, e.g., EHA/HSA or
EMA/HSA. This solution is attractive because it increases
dissimilarity and enables more electrical actuation to be
progressively introduced with the removal of one or two
centralized hydraulic power networks. If the actuators have
force fighting due to the difference in the static and dynamic
behaviors of the associated technologies. 80-82
4. Challenges to be taken for PbW actuation
To be placed in the front line and extensively used in aer-
ospace for high-power safety-critical applications, PbW
actuators still need to be improved in terms of cost, enve-
lope, mass, reliability, and service life. This concerns all
domains: power electronics, motors, and mechanical
transmission.
4.1. Power electronics
 Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
Of course, motor control electronics, motor power drive,
and electric motors generate a lot of research activities to
take the best of the opportunities offered by the electrical
technology. Among all the directions of investigation in
power electronics, one can mention:
4.1.1. Removal of the DC link
In common designs, the power delivered to an actuator
motor is metered by an inverter that is supplied at a contact
DC voltage. This so-called DC-link is got by rectification of
a 3-phase AC supply network. Two options can reduce the
number of elements associated with EMAs. The first one
mutualizes a high-voltage DC-link (e.g., 540 V or “double
voltage”) for several users in order to remove rectifiers,
filters (input, line, and motor), and preload 83, and to enable
energy regeneration when driven loads become aiding. The
other solution removes the need for the DC link by con-
necting the motor to the AC supply through a matrix con-
verter. 84,85
4.1.2. Increase of service voltage of power switches 86
For a given power, this will enable reducing the current to
be carried by the wires and windings, and consequently save
mass and/or conduction losses.
4.1.3. Improvement of cooling
As already mentioned, opposite to HSAs, PbW actuators
cannot take advantage of the hydraulic fluid returning to the
reservoir to evacuate the heat generated by energy losses.
When natural convention is used, the heat exchange factor is
limited to a very few W/(m²°C). Forcing convection re-
quires power to generate the airflow around an actuator and
may be detrimental to reliability. Resort to heat pipes, which
implement two-phase cooling, is already applied for space
applications, but still looked at with interest for aircraft. 87
4.2. Motors design and control
For the time being, actuation for aerospace essentially uses
brushless motors, as long as variable/switched reluctance
motors are not sufficiently mature or attractive. Brushless
motors bring a huge panel of options to designers that can be
played with:
1). Number of phases, poles, and slots. 88
2). Magnet assembly. Magnet can be surface-mounted (with
or without step skewing89, buried, with flux concentra-
tion in a V or double layer 90, in a Halbach array). 91
3). Type of winding. With or without overlap, distributed or
concentrated, a single or double layer. 92
4). Shape of slots. Full, empty, closed, bifurcated, straight or
skewed, segmented or not. 91,93
5). Type of association with power electronics. 94
These choices impact both power density and extension
of torque/velocity capability, thermal/magnetic/electric
segregation, torque ripple, and iron losses. 95
In practice, the powers of electric motors used in PbW
actuators range between a few kW (e.g., 5 kW for sin-
gle-aisle aileron actuators) and some 10 kW (large aircraft
rudder actuators or space launcher thrust vector control
actuators). Due to the mass constraints, these motors de-
velop low torque to save heavy materials (copper for
·9·
windings, magnets and laminates for magnetic fields). For a
given power, this is therefore compensated by high angular
velocities which range typically between 6000 and 15000
r/min. 17
4.3. Mechanical transmission
More electrical actuation generates a lot of research activi-
ties dealing with mechanical transmission, in particular in
the following directions.
4.3.1. Lubrication
One first reason of focusing on lubrication concerns loaded
contacts between moving pieces (bearings, joints, power
transmission devices) that make up generally the weakest
points of failure. Sizing such devices is well established for
applications where there is no speed reversal and the mean
velocity is high, e.g., hydropower plants. Therefore, con-
tacts between rolling solids are well lubricated and there is
no risk of sliding due to inertia effects under speed rever-
sals. Oppositely, flight control or landing gear steering
actuators which are position-controlled operate in the vi-
cinity of the null speed with high accelerations, within a
wide temperature range and under loads that can also re-
verse. At low velocity or high temperature (low lubricant
viscosity), contacts may operate in boundary lubrication
conditions: wear becomes more severe as the lubricant
thickness between moving parts decreases and the friction
coefficient increases.
4.3.2. Secondary functions
As already mentioned, several secondary functions (e.g.,
damping, freeing or locking the load in position, overload
protection, snubbing at endstops) have to be performed in
addition to pure power transmission and transformation. In
EHAs, this is not an issue as conventional and efficient
hydraulic solutions can be kept. Oppositely, EMAs de-
signers have to find means to perform these functions either
mechanically or electrically. It is tempting to implement
them at the motor control level as it essentially requires
additional lines of code. Unfortunately, this type of solution
does not work if the electric (signal and power) and elec-
tromechanical (motor) power elements have failed. More-
over, the motor inertia and the friction losses in the me-
chanical transmission often make the motor current an
inaccurate representative of the force transmitted to the
load. This often cancels the option of using the motor cur-
rent for overload protection. Addition of a force sensor, on
either the actuator rod or the actuator housing, may enable
active damping. 96
4.3.3. Jamming
Fortunately, there are many options to deal with reliability
in the electric and electromagnetic domains with resort to
redundancies: fault-tolerant power electronics 97,98, redun-
dant electronics/motor architectures 94, or motor topology. 99
In the mechanical domain, a strong issue is raised when the
expected response of an actuator to jamming is fail-passive
or fail-functional. A first solution consists of developing
mechanical power transmission devices that are
jam-tolerant 100 to ensure safe-life operation. For other so-
·10 · Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
lutions, it is generally required that de-clutching a jammed
actuator can be performed under load. A passive solution
consists of shearing a mechanical fuse (e.g., pins) in case of
excessive transmitted load. It has been implemented with
limited success. 67 Active solutions declutch the jammed
path under command. Pyrotechnic has been addressed for
helicopters flight control actuators 101 and then abandoned
because it cannot be tested, as the former one does, to check
for availability. More recent solutions are electromagneti-
cally or electromechanically supplied. 102-105 When an actu-
ator shall be fail-functional in case of internal jamming, two
mechanical paths are required. The first candidate ar-
rangement sums the forces of the two channels (e.g., Ref102)
while the second sums the displacements of the two chan-
Fig. 5 Panel of in-service flight control actuators from mechanically-signaled / hydraulically-supplied to all electric
4.3.4. Anti-rotation function
In hydraulic cylinders, the rod is linked to the housing
though a cylinder pair joint. This introduces a degree of
freedom that can compensate the deformations in the ki n-
ematic chain involving the holding frame, the actuator, and
the driven load. Oppositely, electromechanical linear actu-
ators require anti-rotation functions for the housing and the
rod to hold the reaction torques generated by the nut-screw
function (plus those of the motor and the mechanical ele-
ments depending on the actuator topology). 17 These an-
ti-rotation functions can be integrated to an actuator (e.g.,
slider or compass) or performed by the above-mentioned
kinematic chain (e.g., trunnions or anti-rotation tabs).
In order to illustrate the evolution towards all electrical
actuators, Fig. 5 gives a panel of in-service actuators for
commercial and military aircraft and launchers.
nels, e.g., by nesting two nut-screws to make a telescopic
jack (e.g., Ref103). Beside all these solutions, health and
usage monitoring (HUM) is more and more considered as
an alternative to make an actuator resistant or tolerant to
jamming. 95 It intends to early detect the presence of a fault
(diagnosis) and to calculate the remaining service before the
fault turns into failure (prognostics). This approach starts to
be well established for the electric domain, but is not so easy
to be applied to jamming, firstly due to a lack of means to
early detect a fault in a real aircraft environment, and sec-
ondly for a lack of models for predicting the evolution of the
fault into jamming.
5. Conclusions
(1) The huge and rapid progresses in electrical drives create
a high pressure to replace conventional actuators with
electrically-signaled and electrically-powered actuators.
However, their use in safety-critical applications is not
so simple. Sometimes forgotten, the natural advantages
of hydraulics and the specific drawbacks of electric
drives make this replacement not straight-forward, es-
pecially when secondary functions, thermal balance,
and reliability are considered.
(2) It has taken more than two decades to fully replace
mechanical signaling with signal-by-wire. Considering
the time scale of aircraft production and service, pow-
er-by-wire and hydraulic-less actuation has just started
to appear and has a high potential of improvement. One
 Chinese Journal of Aeronautics · 11 ·

of the main difficulties lies in evaluating the overall gain 4th international conference on recent advances in aero-
at the stake-order level (passenger, airline, air traffic, space actuation systems and components; 2010 May 5-7;
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