Conditioning of air supply

Apparatus for conditioning a supply of hot bleed air from an aircraft engine prior to providing the bleed air to a downstream air cycle air conditioning system, the apparatus including a turbine providing a power output as a result of expansion of the hot bleed air over the turbine, and a controller for regulating the power output and thereby controlling the condition of the bleed air downstream of the turbine.

Apparatus for conditioning a supply of bleed air from an aircraft engine to a system utilising such bleed air, the apparatus including a turbine providing a power output as a result of expansion of the bleed air, and a controller for regulating the power output and thereby controlling the condition of the bleed air downstream of the turbine, wherein an electrical generator is driven by the turbine, an electrical load on the generator being regulated by a controller in response to an input from a sensor sensing at least one parameter of the bleed air downstream of the turbine, and wherein the sensor for providing an input to the controller is responsive to one or more parameters including turbine speed, turbine inlet pressure, turbine inlet temperature, turbine outlet pressure, and turbine outlet temperature, the controller responding to the one or more inputs by regulating the electrical load to increase or decrease turbine speed so that the pressure of bleed air downstream thereof is maintained in a generally steady state.

A method of conditioning a supply of hot pressurized bleed air from an aircraft engine prior to providing the bleed air to a downstream air cycle air conditioning system, the method including passing the hot bleed air to a turbine over which the bleed air is expanded to produce a power output, and regulating a load on the power output of the turbine to control the temperature of the air at a location downstream of the turbine.