Fuel level sensors fuel-measurement product

The Fuel level sensors is a fuel-measurement product from Crane Aerospace with aerospace-grade grade and dual-use market. Crane Aerospace & Electronics fuel level sensors are active fuel probes with integrated electronics, used as fuel sensors for aircraft fuel quantity gauging. Crane supplies them either as stand-alone probes or as part of a complete fuel gauging system, for installations on commercial, business and regional aircraft, helicopters and UAV platforms.

The task of the sensor is to measure the quantity of fuel on board, a figure that operators depend on for safe and efficient flight. Crane applies proven sensing technologies chosen to give an accurate reading whatever the geometry and type of the fuel tank, and over the whole flight profile. For an integrator this matters in tanks with irregular shapes, where the height of the fuel surface does not translate directly into a volume.

The output of the product is an active probe signal produced by electronics built into the probe itself, so the signal is conditioned at the sensing point instead of in a remote unit. The fuel measurement system also takes external inputs into account, such as aircraft attitude and G factor, to refine the calculation of fuel behaviour and level. In practice the reading is corrected for pitch, roll and acceleration, and is not a raw level value. More than 20,000 fuel probes have been delivered worldwide.

On the integration side, the probes can be fitted alone or combined into a complete gauging system that adds cockpit displays, external refuel panels and optional sensors for level, density and temperature. Probe quantity, tank layout and interfaces are defined together with the maker for each aircraft installation.

Typical applications are fuel quantity indication in helicopters, business and regional aircraft and unmanned aircraft. Customers named by the maker include Airbus Helicopters, Bell Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters, Pilatus, Grob and UAV programs, which gives an idea of the platform classes covered, from light rotorcraft to fixed-wing aircraft.