Transistorized regulation and control of aircraft electrical power systems

The paper describes an attempt to replace with solid-state devices the carbon-pile regulators and electromechanical protective circuits in a representative aircraft´s power system. A complete 2-generator d.c. system has been built and found to give substantial improvements in performance over a conventional system. The only electromechanical device used was a 400 amp d.c. contactor. A new approach to generator protection, relying on a knowledge of its excitation characteristics, is also described. There seems to be no reason why similar principles should not be applied to a.c. systems.