Assessment of Electric Engine Failures Leading to LOPC
AIR7130
This Aerospace Information Report provides guidance to assess the tolerance of an aircraft electric engine design to electrical and electronic failures leading to Loss of Power Control (LOPC) or Loss of Thrust Control (LOTC) events. Its intent is to provide a means to demonstrate compliance to certification requirements.
At issue 1, this document only addresses fully electric engine configurations targeting single engine aircraft applications with conventional engine installation. It may also be suitable for multi-engine general aviation applications with conventional engine installation.
Rationale: Civil aviation authorities have published Special Conditions for the airworthiness and type design of aircraft electric and hybrid engines which include requirements for the tolerance of engine control systems to single failure leading to loss of power or thrust control events. While there is a common industry-wide understanding of the scope of applicability of such requirements for traditional propulsion technologies, this is not the case for electric and hybrid engines. Furthermore, the implementation criteria that address loss of thrust or power control applicable to traditional propulsion technologies may be overly constraining for electric and hybrid engines and some of the aircraft applications they are intended to be integrated into. The intent of this document is to provide and propose the adoption alternative criteria to this historical approach that are better suited to electric and hybrid technologies while ensuring an equivalent level of safety at aircraft level.
