Valve World Magazine November 2022 | Page 81

Aircraft brake valve π www . valve-world . net Valve World November 2022

Aerospace

Image by Nasa

Manual valves for aerospace

Manually operated valves have various uses in the highly automated fields of spacecraft and aircraft . Valcor
Engineering offers a series of such valves for different sorts of applications .
Text by Valcor Engineering

Today ’ s modern commercial and military aircraft , rotorcraft and spacecraft are highly automated and utilise ultra-fast response solenoid valves to start , stop , and divert the flow of gases and liquids to propel , guide , and slow the craft . Ground Support Equipment ( GSE ) also utilise these solenoid valves to prepare and launch spacecraft .

Aircraft brake valve
The use of manually operated valves is often overlooked in the complex fluid control and delivery systems of these spacecrafts . Manually operated valves are used when solenoid valves are not required or desirable , such as operating or locking out on-board systems . They play a critical role in the preparation and testing of the vehicle prior to , and post-flight service and maintenance . They are employed to isolate sections of the fluid control system for pressure and leak testing in ground support equipment as well .
Aircraft emergency landing gear blowdown system control valve
In aircraft and rotorcraft , manually operated valves are used in many emergency-related applications including fire wall shut-off , parking brake , emergency brake , and emergency landing gear blowdown . Firewall shut-off valves allow the flight crew to shut off the fuel to the engines from the cockpit of small general aviation aircraft and business jets . Lever-actuated emergency landing gear blowdown valves allow the flight crew to lower the landing gear pneumatically in the event of a hydraulic pump failure . Similarly , lever-actuated emergency brake and parking brake valves apply pneu-

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