FADEC is the acronym for Full Authority Digital Engine Control. It is a system consisting of a digital computer (called EEC /Electronic Engine Control/ or ECU /Electronic Control Unit/)and its related accessories which control all aspects of aircraft engine performance. FADEC has been produced for both piston engines and jet engines, their primary difference due to the different ways of controlling the engines. Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ... A digital system is one that uses numbers, especially binary numbers, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (an analog system) or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons. ... A computer is a machine capable of undergoing complex calculations. ... A Japan Airlines Boeing 747-400. ... An engine is something that produces some effect from a given input. ... Components of a typical, four stroke cycle, DOHC piston engine. ... A Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle is tested at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, USA. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape. ...

Electronics' superior accuracy led to early generation analogue electronic control first used in Concorde's Rolls-Royce Olympus 593 in the 1960s. Later in the 1970's NASA and Pratt and Whitney experimented with the first experimental FADEC, first flown on an F-111 fitted with a highly modified Pratt & Whitney TF-30 left engine. The experiments led to Pratt & Whitney F100 and Pratt & Whitney PW2000 being the first military and civil engines respectively fitted with FADEC and later the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 as the first commercial "Dual FADEC" engine. The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST) was one of only two models of supersonic passenger airliners to have seen commercial service. ... Rolls-Royce Olympus 593 The Olympus is a high-powered axial-flow turbojet, originally developed at Bristol Aero Engines, later passed to Bristol Siddeley, and finally to Rolls-Royce. ... NASA logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Pratt & Whitney is an American owned aircraft engine manufacturer whose products are widely used in both civil and military aircraft. ... A U.S. Air Force F-111 The General Dynamics F-111 was a long-range strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and tactical strike aircraft. ... The TF-30, produced by Pratt & Whitney was the worlds first afterburning turbofan. ... The F100 is an afterburning turbofan manufactured by Pratt & Whitney. ... Pratt & Whitneys PW2000 series engines is a high-bypass turbofan aero engine with a thrust range from 37,000 to 43,000 lb (165 to 190 kN) built by Pratt & Whitney . ... The Pratt & Whitney PW4000 is a family of high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines with certified thrust ranging from 52,000 to 99,040 lbf (230 to 440 kN). ...

The airplane's thrust lever sends electrical signals (pilot's command, may also be the autothrottle) to FADEC. The FADEC digitally calculates and precisely controls the fuel flow rate to the engines giving precise thrust. In addition to the fuel metering function, FADEC performs numerous other control and monitoring functions such as Variable Stator Vanes (VSV's) and Variable Bleed Valves (VBV's) control, cabin bleeds and power off-takes control, control of starting and re-starting, turbine blade and vane cooling and blade tip clearance control, thrust reversers control, engine health monitoring, oil debris monitoring and vibration monitoring. The inputs come from various aircraft and engine sensors. Apart from the key parameters that are monitored for a safe thrust control (shaft rotational speeds, pressures and temperatures at various points along the gas path) the FADEC also monitors hundreds of various analog, digital and discrete data coming from the engine subsystems and related aircraft systems, providing a fully redundant and fault tolerant engine control.

This digital computer has to be considered an essential part of the engine as a complete failure of the FADEC would cause the complete loss of the engine thrust. For redundancy reasons the FADEC incorporate two separate identical digital channels, each channel may provide all engine functions without restrictions. The FADEC may be powered by the aircraft electrical systems, and in all modern aircraft it uses power from a separate generator connected to the related engine.

FADEC today is employed by almost all current generation jet engines and increasingly in newer piston engines, on fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Fixed-wing aircraft is a generic term used to refer to what are more commonly known as airplanes in North American English and aeroplanes in Commonwealth English. ... A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more large horizontal rotors (propellers). ...

The summary of advantages are as below

• better fuel efficiency
• automatic engine protection against out-of-tolerance operations
• safer as the multiple channel FADEC computer provides redundancy in case of failure
• care-free engine handling, with guaranteed thrust settings
• ability to use single engine type for wide thrust requirements by just reprogramming FADEC
• provides semi-automatic engine starting
• better systems integration with engine and aircraft systems
• can provides engine long-term health monitoring
• the number of external and internal parameteres used in the control processes increases with one order of magnitude
• reduces the number of parameters to be monitored by flight crews
• due to the high number of parameters monitored, the FADEC opens the avenue of what is called "Fault Tolerant Systems" (where a system can operate within required reliability and safety limitation with certain fault configurations)
• the FADEC can support automatic aircraft and engine emergency responses (e.g. in case of aircraft stall, engines increase thrust automatically)