Monitoring health of safety brakes in auxiliary lift devices

An aircraft having a system for monitoring health of a plurality of passive safety brakes, the aircraft comprising:

• an aircraft wing having a plurality of auxiliary lift wing devices moveably attached to the aircraft wing, the aircraft wing further including an actuator driveline;
• a plurality of actuators secured to the actuator driveline for deploying the auxiliary lift wing devices, each of the actuators include at least one of the passive safety brakes, and each of the actuators are moveably connected to at least one of the auxiliary lift wing devices;
• a flight computer for synchronously extending and retracting the plurality of auxiliary lift wing devices via the plurality of actuators, wherein the auxiliary lift wing devices are statically fixed when extended to an extended position;
• and
• a plurality of torque sensors each being fixed to the actuator driveline adjacent to respective ones of the actuators and each of the torque sensors are configured to sense torque values on the actuator driveline at each of the actuators when the auxiliary lift wing devices are statically fixed in the extended position during a flight of the aircraft;
• wherein an aerodynamic load acts on the auxiliary lift wing devices that are statically fixed in the extended position, and wherein a signal is generated by the flight computer during the flight of the aircraft to indicate a potential failure of at least one of the passive safety brakes when a higher torque value is sensed at one of the actuators relative to the torque values at the other actuators while the aerodynamic load acts on the auxiliary lift wing devices in the extended position during the flight of the aircraft.

A method of monitoring health of a plurality of passive safety brakes, the method comprising:

• providing an aircraft wing having an actuator driveline and a plurality of auxiliary lift wing devices, wherein the auxiliary lift wing devices are moveably attached to the aircraft wing;
• securing a plurality of actuators to the actuator driveline for deploying the auxiliary lift wing devices, and connecting each of the actuators to at least one of the auxiliary lift wing devices, wherein each of the actuators include at least one of the passive safety brakes;
• providing a flight computer for synchronously extending and retracting the plurality of auxiliary lift wing devices via the plurality of actuators;
• and
• fixing each of a plurality of torque sensors to the actuator driveline adjacent to respective ones of the actuators, wherein each of the torque sensors are configured to sense torque values on the actuator driveline at each of the actuators when the auxiliary lift wing devices are statically fixed in an extended position during a flight of an aircraft, wherein an aerodynamic load acts on the auxiliary lift wing devices that are statically fixed in the extended position;
• generating a signal by the flight computer during the flight of the aircraft to indicate a potential failure of at least one of the passive safety brakes when a higher torque value is sensed at one of the actuators as compared to the torque values at the other actuators while the aerodynamic load acts on the auxiliary lift wing devices in the extended position during the flight of the aircraft.