Integrated aircraft control system — from drawing to product — is made by Russia’s companies

Photo: United Aircraft Corporation

An integrated control system for the import-substituted Superjet designed by companies included in Rostec’s Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies underwent 1500 tests during three years. Five hundred products were tested for reliability, resistance to including extreme temperatures, lightning strike and equipment failures. Quadruple redundancy of control channels helps maintain aircraft control even when some components fail.

Integrated control system (ICS) is responsible for transmitting pilot’s commands to aircraft controls. The key requirement is to ensure flight safety. Probability of system failure must not exceed a part per billion (10⁻⁹). To meet such rigid criteria, Russia’s ICS has multiple redundancy. For example, rudder control is quadruply redundant, i.e. all four channels are different. 

Qualification program included more than 30 types of environmental tests. The tests covered such factors as lightning-induced transient susceptibility, vibrations, moisture, waterproofing, salt spray, icing, magnetic field effect, voltage pulses, radio-frequency energy generation, sand and dust, explosion safety, fire and flammability.

Special focus was made on temperature resistance. Products were tested at temperatures from −55 to +85 °C. Running electronic units were placed into special chambers and heated to +70 °C. At +85 °C, equipment resistance to extreme temperatures, including simulated fire conditions, was evaluated.  

To check protection against lightning-induced voltage effects, voltage pulses up to 1500V were applied to equipment — 55 times the operating voltage of domestic appliances on the airplane. Thus, reliability of protection against voltage transients in electronic systems was evaluated. 

KRET manufactures about 650 products under the Superjet import substitution program. KRET’s companies create the “nervous system” and “brain” of the aircraft, including the integrated control system, avionics, control panels, exterior and interior lighting, hydraulic system and fuel level sensors and switches, and flight data recording system. 

Superjet is a Russian regional jet designed to carry up to 103 passengers. This is a fully import-substituted aircraft: more than 40 foreign components have been replaced with Russian products.