29 Aug 2001
Some comforting thoughts travellers can carry aboard the next time they take a plane trip: If the plane's engines were built by GE or CFM International - a fairly good likelihood - the electronic controls on those engines were built by BAE Systems Controls. Since it began producing these systems in the early 1980s, Controls has accumulated an experience record that leads the world: as of August, 300 million operating hours. For perspective, that's more than 34,200 years.
These controls, which continuously monitor and govern such things as engine rotation, fuel flow, air pressure, and temperature and perform sophisticated engine diagnostics, fly on more than 7,500 commercial aircraft world-wide. While used predominantly on GE and CFM International engines, they are found on some engines built by Rolls Royce and other manufacturers as well.
The more modern of these controls, known as FADECs, for Full Authority Digital Engine Control, alone have logged 100 million hours of service. During that time, BAE Systems FADECs have proved so reliable that they account for less than one delay per every 10,000 flights.
"Our products are reliable because they have to be," said James Scanlon, BAE Systems Controls president. "The control is the computer that runs the engine, taking instructions from the pilot and then making the engine respond accordingly. And if the control doesn't run, the engine doesn't run."
Getting such robust performance out of any electronic device is no small task. And in the case of an engine control, which spends its life bolted to the side of an airplane engine, where it is exposed to torturous noise and vibration and temperatures ranging from minus 60 degrees to plus 200 degrees Fahrenheit, it's all the more remarkable. Credit goes to rugged design and the quality-obsessed culture of Controls' engine control production facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
"Our operations are totally focused on producing the highest-quality products possible," said Todd Rash, director of Fort Wayne Operations. The plant was recognised in 2000 as a model for application of "lean manufacturing" and quality improvement measures by IndustryWeek magazine, which named the plant one of the "10 Best" in the United States.
"Our employees understand the product and recognise that these controls are flight-critical and that they absolutely must work right," Rash said. "Their commitment to quality is evident in the high degree of teamwork between the production employees and the process engineers, and among the production employees themselves."
BAE Systems engine controls are in service aboard the world's most popular aircraft, including the Airbus A300; A310, A319, A320, A321, A330, and A340; the Boeing 717, 737 747, 757, 767, and 777; MD-11; VC-25A (Air Force One); all Canadair Regional Jets; and the Saab 340 turboprop.
