US 12,275,536 B2
Aircraft power supply arrangements
Behzad Hagshenas, San Diego, CA (US); Serge Dussault, Ste-Julie (CA); Tim Sullivan, La Mesa, CA (US); and Francois Belleville, Varennes (CA)
Assigned to PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA CORP., Longueuil (CA)
Filed by PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA CORP., Longueuil (CA)
Filed on Jun. 16, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/903,021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/925,365, filed on Oct. 24, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0122487 A1, Apr. 29, 2021
Int. Cl. B64D 41/00 (2006.01); B64D 13/06 (2006.01)
CPC B64D 41/00 (2013.01) [B64D 13/06 (2013.01); B64D 2013/0611 (2013.01); B64D 2013/0644 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A power supply arrangement (PSA) for an aircraft having an electrical system and an environmental control system (ECS) operatively connected to a cabin of the aircraft, the PSA comprising:
at least one propelling engine;
a backup system including at least one backup-load compressor pneumatically connected to the ECS of the aircraft;
a secondary power unit (SPU) having a rotary engine, the rotary engine having at least one combustion chamber of varying volume, at least one generator in driving engagement with the rotary engine and operatively connectable to the electrical system of the aircraft, and at least one load compressor operatively connected to the rotary engine and pneumatically connected to a pneumatic circuit connectable to the ECS of the aircraft, the PSA having a propelling configuration in which the at least one propelling engine and the SPU are both powered and a hotel configuration in which the at least one propelling engine is unpowered while the SPU is powered, the pneumatic circuit pneumatically disconnected from the at least one propelling engine in both of the hotel and propelling configurations; and
a controller having a processing unit operatively connected to a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon operable by the processing unit to:
while the aircraft is in a cruise flight phase, operate the SPU in a normal configuration in which the at least one load compressor of the SPU provides compressed air to the ECS of the aircraft and in which the backup system is powered off,
determine that the rotary engine is in an adverse configuration in which the rotary engine is powered off, and
power on the backup system such that the back up system supplies compressed air to the ECS of the aircraft while the rotary engine is powered off.