P1 – State three purposes of pneumatic supply system for a typical piston engine powered light aircraft, and give the functions of the piston engine air compressor and receiver, within the system.
An aircraft powered by a piston engine usually tends to have a pneumatic air supply system. This allows the function of different systems on the aircraft that are essential to the flight of the aircraft.
In a newer system the supply system will provide a vacuum of air for the gyro’s, so that the de icing boots on the leading edge of the wings can inflate, for example, the boots on the jet stream wings inflate. The vacuum sometimes provides for some of the flight controls. An example of these flight controls would be the auto pilot system. The …show more content…
The systems that run on large aircraft consist of pressurisation of the fuel tanks, de icing of the wings and engine, pressurisation of the fuel tanks, the hydraulic oil. The pressurisation from the APU is also capable of starting the turbine engines of the aircraft.
A continuous flow of air is constantly bled from different stages of the compressor and fed into power certain systems, the stages may change due to the air density at clime and the rpm of the engine. The hot air coming from the exhaust stage of the engine can exceed temperatures of 250°c, so the air needs to be cooled before it can pass through certain parts of the aircraft.
The gas turbine pneumatic system consists of 2-3 bleed ports, the air is normally taken from the low pressure stage, the intermediate pressure stage and the high pressure stage of the engines compressor. The system also has shutoff valves so that the air can be stopped from the compressor.
A non return flow valve stops high pressure air getting into the low pressure bleed port. The bleed air is then taken through a heat exchanger , this is cooled using the ram air taken from the front section of the engine.
Because of high pressure there is also a flow regulator that controls the flow of air through the system.
The air passes through another check valve to prevent the air from being fed back into the system. The air then passes through a pressure