13 January 1956

55

HOT and COLD

Aircraft Temperature Control Equipment from a Modern Welsh Factory

ALTHOUGH the parent company is situated at i\ Sunbury-on-Thames and Teddington, the L JL well-known accessory firm of Teddington Aircraft Controls, Ltd., have no factory in the Middlesex town of that name. Since 1947, their principal plant has been at Cefn Coed, near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales; it is, in fact, the largest element of the aircraft industry anywhere in the Principality. Among the multitude of Teddington products are many which are designed for the control of temperature in aircraft. Even the simplest powered aircraft has to have some sort of temperature control perhaps of the cylinder heads, oil or cabin air even though such factors may be left to the discretion Fig. 2. Type FLM cabin-temperature controllers for k.A.F. fighters on routine of the pilot who governs them directly by opening production test. These units employ magnetic amplifiers housed in a sealed shutters or altering power settings. In the complex cylindrical case. Their performance is discussed below. aircraft of today, such simple arrangements are no longer practicable, and as many as 50 different systems may have to be automatically maintained within quite narrow resistance of one arm of the bridge to oppose the upsetting signal. limits of temperature. This problem is aggravated by the fact that Thus, the cabin temperature can be stabilized within a band of the ambient temperature may range from 150 deg C to 60 deg C, pre-determined width. and in supersonic aircraft the upper limit may be considerably Alternatively, an additional temperature-sensitive winding can raised by the effects of kinetic heating and ram-temperature rise. be inserted in the hot-air duct itself, the unit then being known One of the most obvious requirements is the control of the as a ductstat. These elements also employ fine nickel wire, but, temperature of any space occupied by crew or passengers. in this case, the winding is carried on a precision-machined dural Teddington's work in this field dates from about 1947. When former, deep-anodized and coated with a silicone varnish in order applied to the control of cabin-air temperature, the classical to permit operation in an ambient temperature of up to 200 deg thermostatic system suffers from excessive lag, and the Teddington C. For some purposes, the ductstat elements are shrouded within company accordingly decided to employ an electronic circuit. a cylindrical case provided with a small ram intake and an adjustAlthough there were at this time a variety of sensitive relays in able exit nozzle, with the aid of which the response characteristics the U.S.A. (for example, those developed by Barber Colman), the can be varied according to the thermal lag of the aircraft system. British firm had to work virtually from scratch. The basic circuit Generally, ductstats pick up heat very quickly and produce an chosen was that of the familiar Wheatstone bridge, an out-of- e.m.f. in opposition to the upsetting call. A second, and similar, balance e.m.f. being sensed either by a sensitive relay indirectly resistance winding may then be introduced with a lagging response, actuating a valve in the cabin-air circuit, or by equipment using so that a combined action is obtained and point control of temthermionic valves. perature achieved by what is, in effect, the introduction of a differential action to the control. A typical simplified system is shown in Fig. 1, the method of Temperature controls of this nature have long been standard operation of which needs little explanation. The cabin sensing elements comprise plastic formers on which are arranged spaced equipment, and remain in production. The standard thermionic windings of fine-gauge nickel wire in order to give a very quick controller Type FHB is employed in such aircraft as the Viscount response. Stability with time is an important requirement, and and Comet. The original unit weighed 4 lb 5 oz and was suitable this factor can generally be determined by a bench-test, for, if an for operation in ambient temperatures from 65 deg C to element is going to drift, it usually does so within the first few + 70 deg C. More recently, a miniaturized amplifier was developed, cycles, normally as a function of the stress in the windings. The sealed in a cylindrical case. The circuit remains unchanged, but temperature selector is a simple rheostatic potentiometer, and the miniature "ruggedized" components are employed, and the weight amplifier typically employs three thermionic valves. As shown, has been cut to approximately 2\ lb. the circuit is a proportional control, the actuator of the air valve At the end of 1950, an attempt was made to find an alternative also being coupled to a feed-back potentiometer which alters the to thermionic valves in circuits for military aircraft. At first, attention was turned to sensitive relays, using high-fidelity thermistors as sensing elements. Many such relays at present suffer from somewhat poor reliability, variation in the minute gapfig. 1 Schematic layout of a simple Wheatstone-bridge system for settings tending to cause random drifts. Accordingly, late in the accurate control of cabin-air temperature. 1951 work began upon the development of a magnetic-amplifier type of control. Sensing elements and the circuit remain generally MASS FLOW REFRIGERATION UNIT the same as in the thermionic-valve equipment. COOLER CONTROL VALVE Initially, the magnetic amplifier control was purely military, HOT AIR the principal application being in fighters. It was, therefore, INPUT FROM possible to accept rapid variation in temperature, and accordingly ENGINE COMPRESSOR a relatively simple single-stage system was designed, using a followup resistor to offer a proportional opposition to the upsetting call. The requirements for fighter control are quite broad, and specify TEMPERATURE a 10-deg C band width. Much finer characteristics can be CONTROL VALVE obtained, if required. The layout and performance characteristics of the system naturally depend upon the requirements of the aircraft. One of the simplest units is the FLM/A/14, some of which are shown in Fig. 2, undergoing production testing. These units, which weigh 3 lb, comprise a Wheatstone bridge connected to a pair of transductor circuits, which energize output relays to "close" and "open" relays governing the temperature-control valve. With direct feedback band control, as employed in the Hunter, the temperature of US VOLT A C the cockpit can be maintained within + 5 deg C, it being possible 2* VOLT D C to effect finer manual adjustment to within 1 deg C during periods AMPLIFIER UNIT