Fiber Optic Technology Used in Aircraft
The optic fiber owed its origin to the development of optical voice transmission system known a photophone by Alexander Graham Bell during the year 1880. The photophone applying free space light could carry the human voice 200 meters. The fiber optical technology has a significant progress during the second half of the twentieth century. The initial success in this regard occurs during the 1950s with the development of fiberscope, an image transmitting device. This used first practical all-glass fiber and concurrently devised by Brian O' Brien at the American Optical Company and Narinder Kapany, who first devised the terminology 'fiber optics' in 1956 and colleagues at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. The fiberscope soon applied in the inspecting welds inside reactor vessels and combustion chambers of jet aircraft engines as well as in the medical field. The Fiberscope technology has evolved over the period of time to facilitate laparoscopic surgery considered as one of the great medical advance of the twentieth century. The development of laser technology was considered as the next significant application of fiber optics. The laser diode -- LD or the light-emitting diode -- LED, had the prospective to evo
As the flight test reveals the presentation of the smart actuator was exceptional and compared very well to that of the standard F-18 aileron actuator. Irrespective of the fact that the serial interface of the smart actuator could have been traditional forms of electrical interface, valuable fiber optic experience was being attained via the means of application of 1773 communication links. The system integration becomes more effective and simple in terms of bringing about a reduction of both installation time and cable harness weight considerably. The fiber optic interface, however, complicated the system of integration tests. The smart actuator program brought out the significant areas of development for the general application of fiber optics in aerospace vehicle systems. Such critical areas apply to a broad range of fiber optic applications and will thereby influence the system of operation and reliability unless specific attention and considerable progress is being made. (Zavala, Eddie. Fiber Optic Experience with the Smart Actuation System on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft Eddie Zavala Dryden Flight Research Center Edwards, California) The DFDAU system is expected to apply distributed processing to translate and route data received from over 160 sources and interfaces located across the aircraft. The system is devised to translate the data into an industry standard open protocol -SAE AS-5370- and then thereafter route the data to the 1900D's digital flight data recorder by applying a fault tolerant fiber optic network. The DFDAU system involves seven identical DFDAUs linked by fiber on the 1900D. Each DFDAU is able to capture physical parameters up to 32 sources like engine sensors, navigation, traffic collision avoidance system, gyros, position and force sensors along with the warning, deicing and other important systems, cockpit controls, autopilot, flight instruments, altitude and the Global positioning system, flight control surface position sensors. (Fiber optic networks for flight data recorders) Gordon Gould fostered the idea of applying lasers, describing it as an intense light source. Soon after, Charles Townes and Arthus Schawlow at Bell Laboratories worked on use of the laser in scientific circles. The laser evolved through many generations in terms of ruby laser and the helium-neon laser in 1960 until the realization of semiconductor lasers in 1962. The higher modulation frequency capability of the lasers attracted the scientists to apply this in the filed of communication engineering. Light is realized to have an information carrying capacity of 10,000 times that of the highest radio frequencies being applied. The US military responded rapidly to apply fiber optics for improved communications and tactical systems. The US navy in the early 1970s established a fiber optic telephone link aboard the USS Little Rock. The Air Force developed its Airborne Light Optical Fiber Technology -- ALOFT program in the year 1976. Such initial successes encouraged military R & D funding for development of stronger fiber, tactical cables, ruggedized, high performance components and several demonstrations starting from aircraft to undersea applications. After the installation of fiber optic telephone system in Chicago and Boston by both AT & T and GTE marked the beginning of commercial application of Fiber optics. (A brief history of Fib
Some common words found in the essay are:
DFDAU Beech, Edwards California, Video-on-Demand Systems, Aerospace Environments, Data Bus, Technology London, Bell Laboratories, Delta Clipper, Graham Bell, Channel Firewire, fiber optic, fiber optics, flight data, fiber optic technology, optic technology, data recorders, application fiber, smart actuator, flight data recorders, optic grating, aircraft systems, application fiber optics, fiber optic experience, fiber optic grating, strain gages,
Approximate Word count = 2271
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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