Simplified Purchasing Blog

In the cockpit of an aircraft, there are three different instrumentation systems, those which are the flight instrumentation systems, navigational instruments, and the engine instruments. The engine instruments play a pivotal role in the aircraft as they (particularly the gas turbine engines) are the indicators of temperature and fuel flow, along with engine speed. Below you can find a detailed outline of the various components that there are among engine instruments.

There are several different instruments involved with the Exhaust Gas Temperature Indicator (EGT).These include the turbine inlet temperature (TIT), the turbine outlet temperature (TOT) and the interstage turbine temperature (ITT). Each is used to inspect exhaust gas temperatures  that are entering the first turbine inlets. Each of these take the temperatures at different locations of the engine as they must all measure the various phases of the turbine.

The torquemeter is a significant component of the engine instruments because it is used to determine the established power settings of the aircraft. Turboprop engines are normally placed with a torque meter so as to measure the torque that is applied to the shaft turned by the gas generator and power turbines of the engines. The torquemeter functions with a ring gear that reacts to torque force that is applied. This action makes the oil pressure proportional to the torque being applied to the proper shaft.

Fuel flow indicators measure the flow of fuel in pounds per hour. While other indicators are measured in gallons, the fuel flow indicator measures pounds because the weight of the fuel is a significant factor in the aerodynamics of large turbine aircraft. Fuel flow is of interest in monitoring fuel consumption and checking engine performance.

When procuring parts for aircraft, there are many standards that may define a part’s upholding of various requirements set by different authorities. A Technical Standard Order, or TSO, is a type certificate that refers to a part that meets a minimum performance standard that has been set out by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is to be used on civil aircraft.
 
The authorization encompasses the approval of both the submitted design of a part, as well as the production of said part. This means that an approved submission may be manufactured and labeled as a TSO standard part. This does not however, mean that the approved part may be installed onto an aircraft. After approval, the TSO part still has to be proven “airworthy” by the FAA for the specific model before it can be installed. TSO approval simply refers to the part’s meeting of performance requirements.
 
A TSO authorization can also become a “Canceled TSO” or undergo a “Withdrawal of a TSO authorization,” both having distinct and different meanings. When a TSO has been considered canceled, the Federal Aviation Administration has considered the article inactive and will thus not issue any new authorizations for it. Despite this, any previously approved part is still considered valid and can be manufactured. A withdrawal, on the other hand, denotes that the FAA has revoked the authorization, and the part may no longer be produced by the manufacturer. In short, if a part is canceled, the approved part may still be produced but may not gain any new authorizations, while withdrawal means the approval is completely revoked.
 
Foreign countries may also gain approval and produce TSO parts as well, given that they receive what is referred to as a “letter of design approval” from the FAA. To receive this, the country has to be entered into a bilateral agreement with the US for the particular article, and the country will have to work with the exporting Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). On the FAA’s website, their various regulations and policies, as well as current and past TSO part approvals may be viewed.

If you have flown private charter flights before, you have most likely heard the term FBO. FBO stands for Fixed Base Operator and refers to the private jet services at your disposal at a given airport. Depending on the airport, an FBO can range from a simple lounge in the main terminal to a full-scale facility providing a vast array of services for passengers, flight, and crew.
 
FBO is a term dating all the way back to the 1920s, a time when civil aviation was largely unregulated. Aircraft were far more affordable to the average consumer back then due to the large surplus of retired military airplanes following the conclusion of World War I. Casual aviators took advantage of this, buying planes and using them for a variety of purposes such as passenger flight and air shows. These pilots, called barnstormers, would travel across the country, often landing in empty fields on the outskirts of town as opposed to airports.
 
All that changed in 1926, when the United States Air Commerce Act was put in place. This ushered in a new, far more regulated era of aviation. Pilots had to be licensed, maintenance standards became more stringent, and pilot training was rigorous. Soon after this, pilots and mechanics realized that these new regulations made aviation a more legitimate business opportunity. This was the birth of the Fixed Base Operator. Aviators and mechanics alike began these registered business at given addresses, setting them apart from the barnstormers of days gone by. Like all industries, aviation evolved over time and the need to establish third party organizations to handle the bustling operations became prevalent. Tasks such as refueling, security, hangar management, lounges, concierge, and so on had to be attended to.
 
FBOs and the private jet industry as a whole have taken a noticeable shift since the 2008 recession. Before then, the industry was largely made up of small independent companies each running their own FBO. In recent years, consolidation has become much more common. Companies are merging and combining resources to do whatever they can to compete is this fast-moving market.

As with any vehicle, there are many components and parts that come together and make up an aircraft. To put it into perspective, a single Boeing 747-800 is comprised of over six million different parts. With the plethora of parts that comprise an aircraft, some the main integral components that are used across all types include the fuselage, wings, empennage, power plant, and landing gear. In this blog, we will provide some insight into these various parts, and their functions to aircraft.

 
Fuselage: The fuselage is the structure that serves as the body of the aircraft. The fuselage contains the cockpit, passenger sections, as well as the cargo area. The fuselage is where all other components are connected to. Trusses are created through welding tubing together to create a strong structural integrity. The fuselage also proves important as it helps guide the position and stability of the aircraft during flight.
 
Wings: Wings can come in a plethora of designs, sizes, and shapes. Regardless of design, wings and their attached flaps aid flight through the generation of lift. The wings are attached to the fuselage, and depending on the amount of wings and placement, different flight characteristics can be achieved. The flaps on the wings help generate lift by their deployment and shapes, and help create control for direction and altitude.
 
Empennage: The empennage of an aircraft serves similar functions of the wings and flaps, aiding with the ability to steer and move up and down. The empennage often consists of a vertically-mounted rudder and a horizontally-mounted elevator, all being attached to the tail end of the fuselage.
 
Power Plant: The power plant of the aircraft in comprised of the engine and propeller and serve to generate and utilize thrust and power of an aircraft. The engine creates power by combusting a mixture of jet fuel and oxygen from the air. The propeller then takes that energy created by combustion and then creates propulsive force.
 
Landing Gear: The landing gear is needed at the start and finish of a flight. Landing gear enables an aircraft to taxi around runways, gates, and hangers while on the ground. When landing, shock absorbers take on the force of landing, while brake systems aid in slowing the aircraft and wheels until stop. These braking systems are operated either hydraulically or pneumatically.

The Pillow block bearings are commonly used thanks to their reliability, ease of installation, and durability. Pillow blocks, and their similar bearings plummer blocks, are frequently used, especially in industrial environments, where high performance and high load capacity are needed.
 
Pillow blocks and plummer blocks are often made from cast steel or iron for sheer strength and durability, and can be made either in one piece or two splittable pieces for ease of maintenance and replacement. The mounting surface, or housing surface, is used to mount the entire bearing to a plain surface, while the other element supports the shaft and housing surface. These bearings keep the outer ring stationary, while allowing the inner ring to rotate. Plummer block bearings types are often used in mining, construction, and heavy manufacturing, where strength is paramount.
 
Bearings within the pillow block are usually made from aluminum that offers high load carrying capacity and heat conductivity. Pressed steel is often used in low load carrying applications and offers high performance, and stainless steel is used where corrosion resistance is paramount.

Pillow block bearings take several different forms. Plain bearings that consist of a shaft rotating within a hole, and are usually made from bronze, metal alloy, or plastic. These bearings require copious lubrication, however. Ball bearings are widely used to provide high load carrying capacity at high performance thanks to how much frictionless motion they offer. This is due to the set of balls between the inner and outer ring that rotate and share friction and weight between the set. Roller bearings are used for rotary motion application with a set of rollers, needles, or cylinders between their inner and outer rings. 

While they are rarely recognized or considered, bearings are some of the most critical components in modern machinery. Bearings are what allow for parts in a machine to rotate freely with reduced friction, which in turn enables everything from cars and trucks, to washing machines and dentist’s drills. While there are many different types of bearings for many different uses, this blog will focus on one of the most ubiquitous, the ball bearing.
 
As a subset of rolling-element bearings, ball bearings consist of an inner and outer ring, called races, and a set of small metal balls between them that allow the two races to rotate. These ball bearings are typically made from steel, either chrome alloys or stainless, but different types exist for different roles. As an example, MRI machines use ball bearings, but because they cannot have anything magnetic in them, the bearings are made from plastic polymers. Bearings used in the marine industry must be resistant to rusting, so bronze is a favored material. In the aerospace industry, heat and corrosion are constant concerns, so bearings are machined and chemically treated to be resistant to those stresses.
 
The starting material for the bearing is developed through heat treatment, hardened, and then ground down into the proper shape. Once manufacturing is complete, the bearings are closely inspected to make sure they are up to quality standards and ensure their measurements are correct. If the roller is improperly manufactured, it will not align properly within the bearing, and its bearing capacity will decrease. Misalignment can also occur due to mechanical stresses and vibration (some types of roller bearings, such as spherical rollers, are able to re-align themselves).
 
 
The design behind ball bearings is particularly ingenious because they share the stress of weight and friction across multiple components. As the bearing rotates, the balls take turns bearing friction and weight of the load. At any time, a little less than half the balls in a ball bearing are experiencing stresses
While they are rarely recognized or considered, bearings are some of the most critical components in modern machinery. Bearings are what allow for parts in a machine to rotate freely with reduced friction, which in turn enables everything from cars and trucks, to washing machines and dentist’s drills. While there are many different types of bearings for many different uses, this blog will focus on one of the most ubiquitous, the ball bearing.
 
As a subset of rolling-element bearings, ball bearings consist of an inner and outer ring, called races, and a set of small metal balls between them that allow the two races to rotate. These ball bearings are typically made from steel, either chrome alloys or stainless, but different types exist for different roles. As an example, MRI machines use ball bearings, but because they cannot have anything magnetic in them, the bearings are made from plastic polymers. Bearings used in the marine industry must be resistant to rusting, so bronze is a favored material. In the aerospace industry, heat and corrosion are constant concerns, so bearings are machined and chemically treated to be resistant to those stresses.
 
The starting material for the bearing is developed through heat treatment, hardened, and then ground down into the proper shape. Once manufacturing is complete, the bearings are closely inspected to make sure they are up to quality standards and ensure their measurements are correct. If the roller is improperly manufactured, it will not align properly within the bearing, and its bearing capacity will decrease. Misalignment can also occur due to mechanical stresses and vibration (some types of roller bearings, such as spherical bearing, are able to re-align themselves).
 
The design behind ball bearings is particularly ingenious because they share the stress of weight and friction across multiple components. As the bearing rotates, the balls take turns bearing friction and weight of the load. At any time, a little less than half the balls in a ball bearing are experiencing stresses

If you want an object to spin in place, you’ll need to have it mounted on a shaft, and if you want that shaft to spin in place without flying off into the distance, you’ll need to have that shaft mounted in a bearing. But what are the different kinds of bearings how do they work, and what are their relative strengths and weaknesses?
               
The most basic type of bearing is the journal bearing, which is little more than a shaft running and sliding in a hole. The greatest strength of the journal bearing  is the high load capacity due to the shaft and bore being so well-fitted to each other. However, all this sliding and rolling means that there is a high amount of friction, and that friction will gradually damage the shaft and the interior of the bearing. 
 
Thankfully, there are several ways to reduce this friction, such as using slick materials like Teflon and graphite-filled nylon, keeping dust and grit out of the bearing, and lubrication. Oil is particularly useful as a lubricant, because it actually gets thicker under high pressure. Inside a bearing, this means that it can thicken right where the contact between the shaft and bearing needs it the most, preventing metal-on-metal contact. This is why oil-lubricating systems are so prevalent in the engines of both automobiles and aircraft, since most of the important bearings in those engines are journal bearings.
 
The other common type of bearing is the rolling-element bearing. While ball bearings are the most common type and use balls as their rolling element (obviously), other types of rolling-element bearings use cones, cylinders, and needles. The common element of the rolling-element bearing is that they all roll without slipping on the races (the tracks that the rolling elements roll on), which means that there is no sliding involved. Compared to the plain journal bearings, this means that rolling-element bearings cause much less wear and tear on their individual elements, and typically require less lubrication than journal bearings  However, because rolling-element bearings have a smaller contact area than journal bearings, they can place more stress on a smaller surface area. This means that rolling-element bearings are typically better suited for lighter-duty work.
 
While plain and rolling-element bearings are the most common, they are not the only types of bearings in use. Less-common bearings include the magnetic bearing, which uses magnetic fields to support the load, and fluid bearings, that prevent contact between the shaft and bearing with a gas or liquid.  Due to the engineering and power requirements that these types of bearings have, however, they are not as widely used as the more conventional plain and rolling-element types. 

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s third law of motion is the essence of anything that moves us through the world. If you’re walking forward, it’s because your feet are pushing backward against the sidewalk. If you’re driving in a vehicle, you’re moving forward because the tires are implementing force in the opposite direction. This same principle can help explain how aircraft propellers work.
 
A propeller can be described as a type of fan that creates power by converting rotational motion into thrust. It is a piece of technology that moves you forward through a liquid or gas when you turn it. The aircraft also having Aircraft wheel and Brake System. Air is accelerated behind the blades of the propeller as it causes a pressure difference between the front and rear surfaces, enabling forward movement. It can consist of two, three, or four angled blades that extend from a central hub and are powered by an engine or motor. The angle of the propeller is a key component to thrust.
 
The angle the propeller sits in is called the pitch angle. The pitch angle is a strong determinant in how quickly you move forward when the propeller is functioning, as well as how much force is required to use it. The blades of a propeller are also a bit twisted; imagine a curved top with a flat bottom. When the propeller is turned fast enough, it produces a backward force that pushes you forward. Different parts of the propeller operate at different speeds - the tips of the blades move faster than the parts nearest the hub.
 
To ensure that a propeller produces a constant force, the angle of attack needs to be different as you move along the blade— so the propeller blade is designed with a twist a and having Aircraft Landing Equipment. The angle must be greater near the center where the blade is moving slower, and less distinct near the tips, where the blade is moving the fastest. If a propeller didn’t have the twist, or angled blade at the tip, it would produce different amounts of thrust at different areas. The optimum angle of propeller blades can vary according to its intended application. Shallow angled, low pitch blades create less drag. Steeper angled, high pitch blades work better for cruising flights.
 
Larger and more modern planes come equipped with variable-pitch propellers. These come in three basic variations: adjustable-pitch propellers, controllable-pitch propellers, and constant-speed propellers. Adjustable-pitch propellers have the ability to change their pitch manually before a flight. Alternatively, controllable-pitch propellers can be adjusted during flight through a hydraulic operating mechanism. Constant-speed propellers change the blade pitch automatically during flight using hydraulic operating mechanisms, allowing the propeller to always function at a constant speed. This enables the engine to generate power much more efficiently.

A bearing allows parts that sit close together to rotate freely and significantly reduce friction. Thrust bearings are rotary bearings that predominantly support axial loads. They're often used in automotive, marine, and aerospace applications. There are many variations of a thrust bearing— each designed to support different loads and performance.
 
Thrust bearings are used in vehicles, centrifuges, and generators; they're designed to assist rotation around a fixed shaft or axis. There are two main types of thrust bearings, ball thrust bearings, and roller thrust bearings. Ball thrust bearings are frequently used in aerospace, chemical, and utility applications, while roller thrust bearings are frequently used in the agricultural industry where high-load capacity is required.  
 
Ball thrust bearings contain bearing balls that sit inside a ring between two grooved washers and are typically used for smaller axial loads. The difference between ball thrust and roller bearings is self-explanatory— the bearings are either balls or rollers. Roller bearings can support larger loads. There are three subtypes of roller thrust bearings: cylindrical, tapered, and spherical. Cylindrically shaped rollers are the least expensive but wear quicker because they create more friction and circular speed. Tapered rollers are more expensive but can be used in pairs to support axial thrust in opposing directions and assist with radial loads. Spherical rollers support axial and radial loads.
 
There are two other types of bearings that are less common, magnetic thrust bearings and fluid thrust bearings. Fluid thrust bearings contain a pressurized fluid in place of the ball or roller bearings. They have less friction, wear, and vibration, but they can also have potential leaks and higher power consumption. Magnetic thrust bearings have a magnetic field in place of any physical bearing; they have low drag and can sustain higher speeds.

There are many unsung heroes in aircraft mechanics that are not as exciting as fuel injectors or engines but play an integral role in functionality. One of those is the engine mount. The main role of the aircraft engine mount is to attach an engine to the fuselage or airframe of a plane. Outside of its initial purpose, an engine mount must also serve two main demands: distribute the weight of an engine, and diffuse vibration and torque generated by the mechanics of the aircraft.
 
A standard engine mount structure resembles a spider-web with minimalist design. The “web” is made of steel chrome molybdenum, or Chromoly 4130 tubular steel, that is welded together to fit specific engine structures. Types of engine mount vary, but most are made from the same material, and deviate only in shape. Three of the most commonly seen engine mounts are conical, dynafocal, and bed mount.
 
A standard conical mount has four points to fasten an engine, and four points to secure the mount to the airframe. Other mount designs can include awkward angles and difficult to reach attachment points, but the conical model runs parallel to the aircraft’s firewall. This allows easy access for installment and maintenance. While simple and easy to attach, the conical arrangement does not diffuse vibration and engine torque efficiently and can transmit load to the airframe.
 
Dynafocal engine mounts are much more capable of distributing torque and vibration from the engine. In this design, the attachment locations are decided based on the center of gravity of the applied engine. Like the conical mount, there are usually four fastener points. The points are rounded about the engine, and the mechanism takes on a ring-like shape. Due to the specificity of the attachment, and the curved shape of the mount, installment and build are more difficult, and are often a higher fiscal investment.
 
Lastly, a bed mount is often used with diesel engines, and/or rotax engines. Its shape diverges from that of the dynafocal and conical mounts. The engine is still mounted using four attachment points, but it is situated under a crankcase, often beneath the firewall. Most of the mount structure lies beneath the engine, as suggested by the name.
 
Typically, an engine mount is painted white or a bright color, to make cracks or corrosion more obvious during an inspection. Regular aircraft maintenance checks will include a survey of engine mount condition, and with good reasoning. The engine mount is the only structure keeping the engine securely attached to the aircraft. As a result, the engine mount is designed to withstand extreme conditions.
 
Some of the stressors experienced by an engine mount include interaction with heat and harsh temperatures, exposure to corrosive materials, and load bearing challenges. Fuse pins fasten the mount and engine to the airframe. Also known as shear pins, the devices are designed to break off under extreme strain or damage, in order to prevent detrimental harm to the wings and body of an airplane. Knowing what engine mount an aircraft might have is entirely based on the specific needs of the vehicle and its manufacturer.
 
At Simplified Purchasing, owned and operated by ASAP Semiconductor, we can help you find all the aircraft engine mounts, aviation engine accessories, and bolts and rivets you need, new or obsolete. As a premier supplier of parts for the aerospace, civil aviation, and defense industries, we’re always available and ready to help you find all the parts and equipment you need, 24/7x365. For a quick and competitive quote, email us at sales@simplifiedpurchasing.com or call us at +1-434-321-4470.