985. The STAN(R)’S’ Integral Weight and Balance System for the C-130 Aircraft

Paper

Abstract

The STAN(R) Integral Weight and Balance System has been operational for over 8 years and has accumulated well over 4 million hours of operational experience with over 30 different airline and other operators. The STAN ‘S’ system utilizes the basic STAN concept of obtaining aircraft Take Off Gross Weight (TOGW) and Center of Gravity (in % MAC) through use of pressure transducers to measure else strut pressures (a function of weight of the aircraft) plus additional friction reducing components for Stimulating (‘S’) the landing gear struts to eliminate friction/stiction.
Problem-
The C-130 aircraft landing gear is a high friction / stiction gear due to its inherent design and as such is not compatible with use of taxiing or engine operations methods to break stiction and provide useful STAN pressure transducer outputs. Prior attempts by Fairchild to adapt its standard system to this aircraft were conducted from 1968 to 1970 with inconclusive results. It was determined, therefore, that further development work was necessary to provide an accurate and reliable IWBS for the C-130 aircraft.
Approach-
This paper will describe the test program conducted by Fairchild at McGuire Air Force Base in late summer and fall of 1972 on four different C-130 aircraft. Tests were run using the Fairchild Patented approach ‘Peak Pressure Averaging’ which confirmed that this method was the only sound way to eliminate the effects of strut stiction and obtain accurate weight force signals for use in computing TOGW and % MAC with the aircraft static – – at the blocks.
A description of the test program and the resulting hardware generated to provide a flyaway IWBS for this aircraft is presented with some indication of test results as may be available when the paper is printed. Further discussion of the results will be presented by the author at the conference.