Reasons for going to Fly-By-Light Technology

 Common mode failures that can be caused by severe electro-magnetic interference (EMI) if the
equipment is not effectively screened from EMI.
 Lightning strikes; Overflying high-power radio/radar transmitters; Failures in the electro-
magnetic screening system ; Vicinity to a nuclear explosion (gamma radiation, EM pulses)
 Nuclear hardened components could save from gamma radiation.
 The fibre optic cable is also much lighter than the equivalent screened cables it replaces

 The weight saving can be significant and as mentioned earlier, weight saved on equipment
installation is geared up by a factor of about 10 on the overall aircraft weight.
 A further driver to the adoption of optical data transmission is the extensive use of composite
materials in the aircraft structure and the consequent loss of the screening provided by an
aluminium skin which forms a ‘Faraday cage’ as far as external electric fields are concerned.
 Check the conductivity of composite material. ??
FLY-BY-LIGHT FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM

PASSIVE OPTICAL SENSOR CONCEPT

Aircrafts in which FBL is partially implemented or testing of the
technology is going on
• Boeing X-53 Active Aeroelastic Wing,
• Lockheed Martin X-35B STOVL Demonstrator
• Airbus A380 – some aspects of FBL, still using FBW