Rainbow-colored cables inside an Airbus A380. Photo: APEX
Written for the Airline Passenger Experience Association’s APEX Experience Magazine – Issue 7.2
Passengers are unlikely to be unaware of the complexity of the aircraft systems that are hidden from view. After all, their onboard interactions are limited to aircraft seats, flight attendants and in-flight entertainment systems.
Like a human nervous system, an aircraft’s wiring carries signals and information critical to the safe operation of the airplane. Carlisle IT, W.L. Gore and AeroFlite are a few of the companies that design and manufacture “the nerves.”
Connecting everything from the fly-by-wire flight control systems to the coffeemaker in the galley, miles of wires, thousands of connectors, and tens of thousands of support brackets have to be cut, bundled, tested and installed.
A narrow-body airliner, like the Boeing 737NG, might have 40 miles of wiring. The wide-body Boeing 747 has 150 miles of wires, but the “Queen of the Skies” is topped by the double-decker Airbus A380, which has over 320 miles of cables. And like every component intended for an aerospace application, wires, cables and connectors undergo stringent testing to meet safety and operational standards.
Keeping an aircraft’s weight within its design specification is often a challenge for airframers, and to save a pound in wiring is a pound that can be used for increasing payload and decreaseing fuel consumption. New manufacturing techniques and materials are leading the drive to lighter and more capable wires.
The Airbus A350 benefits from Draka Fileca’s Star Quad KL24 high-transmission rate data cable, which weighs 25 percent less than earlier types of comparable cables. And even though the 787 reflects Boeing’s “more electric” design and engineering philosophy for 787, the Dreamliner has 20 miles less wiring than the aircraft it replaces, the 767.
As airlines install more advanced wired and wireless IFE systems and satellite connectivity solutions, faster, lighter, and more capable aircraft wiring and connectors will be needed. Onboard systems are requiring gigabit bandwidths, so fiber optic cables are being installed to meet the growing demands of the connected passenger.
After all, the guest in 26C wants to finish up binge-watching her favorite show.