Airplane Heating

Request:

 

A client came to us with a design where they wanted to use an engine, capture the heat generated by this engine, and pump the heat into the interior of an airplane when it was on the ground at an airport.  What they needed was a way to control the engine speed to keep the cabin air temperature constant.

Solution:

We mounted a 720 series actuator to the diesel engine throttle and designed a custom engine control which monitored a thermostat. Depending on the ambient cabin air temperature, the engine would either be throttled up or down (the faster the engine ran, the warmer the air output).  The operator now simply selects the desired temperature on the calibrated dial and our electronics smoothly advanced or retards the throttle to maintain the desired temperature.  A manual "jog" type toggle switch is also included for times when the operator desires to override the automatic feature.

 

Requirements met for our customer

• Maintain optimum internal temperature regardless of outside variances