Adaptive Jet Engine Starting Strategies Made Possible by Digital Engine Control Systems 911189

Automatic and adaptive aircraft engine starting strategy is a complicated subject involving many sets of conflicting requirements both from the standpoint of the engine health situation as well as the engine environmental situation. In previous practice, basically involving the application of hydromechanical control technology, design compromises had to be made which often resulted in a limiting of the ability of the engine to achieve total starting success. This was so because the control had limited ability to allow for variations in engine health and operating conditions. The computing power of digital electronic controls has made possible a major step forward in the ability of the control system to cope with the multiple situations facing the designer of the engine starting system.

Many different automatic engine starting strategies could be employed. This paper presents the strategy that has been used in the GE and CFMI family of large, high bypass turbofan engines.