General Aerospace Aircraft Hydraulic and Electro-Mechanical Technologies

General Aerospace is a specialist in the design and manufacture of aviation hydraulic and electro-mechanical technologies, ranging from turnkey systems to products such as shock absorbers, actuators, rotary and linear dampers, electro-mechanical window shades, and electro-chromic windows. Our products serve customers in the commercial aviation, space and defence sectors.

We offer a full service that covers initial feasibility study, product design, qualification and delivery.

Customised aircraft shock absorbers

General Aerospace supplies custom-designed aircraft shock absorbers which fit the space envelope and the technical requirements specified by our customers. Large, small or micro shock absorbers are designed to operate in landing gears or in the cabin interior to eliminate shocks and noises, increasing passenger comfort.

Cable shock absorbers for aircraft

Cable shock absorbers are used where space is very limited and in functions where the hydraulics is not appropriate. Typical examples of applications are electronic racks and transportation systems for optics and sensitive electronics.

Self-adjustable aircraft linear dampers

Our dampers are unique in the market. By applying a sophisticated technology, General Aerospace manufactures simple, lightweight and dependable self-adjustable aircraft dampers. Our 'Aerospace-Series' family of dampers incorporates patented load-sensing orifices and volume-compensation valves that allow constant motion control even when a wide range of loads are applied.

Applications include doors, engine cowling, overhead compartments, tables, lids. Our linear dampers are load-compensating and single or double-acting, stroke up to 400mm, and have a body diameter from 10mm to 60mm.

Aircraft actuators

General Aerospace designs and manufactures several types of aircraft actuators, from sophisticated two-stage to simple spring-return cylinders, and electro-hydraulic actuators (EHA) to electro-mechanical drive actuators. We manufacture exclusive EHAs with high efficiency and extremely low power consumption: a 500N force output requires only 8W electrical power input.

Our aircraft actuators can be used for landing gear, engine cowling, doors, flaps and uplock systems.

Aircraft rotary dampers

Designed to improve passenger comfort and reduce noise, our broad family of aircraft rotary dampers can be supplied in various configurations, rotation directions, torque, materials and functions.

Typically integrated with mounting hinges, our rotational dampers are used in the lavatory area to dampen the motion of toilet seats and lids and in the overhead compartments to actuate and control the motion of the doors. Special materials and surface coatings are provided when the dampers come in contact with aggressive agents.

Electro-mechanical aircraft window shades

Passengers travelling in both business class and first class enjoy the comfort and the quietness of General Aerospace's automatic window shades. At the touch of a button or simply by touching the familiar handle grip, the shade blade moves smoothly to the wished position. A built-in function allows the crew to remote-control all windows simultaneously and disables the local command when required.

Design simplicity, low weight and use of original components make General Aerospace's automatic window shades very attractive to airlines and to manufacturers of VIP interiors. They have been used on A320 ACJ, A330, A340 and A380 aircraft.

Aircraft electro-chromic windows

General Aerospace's electro-chromic windows offer passengers an extraordinary opportunity never experienced before. At a touch of a button the window darkens, reducing the undesirable effect of the sun, and each passenger can adjust the amount of light entering the window to their personal preference.

The electro-chromic window blocks up to 99.5% of UV-A, UV-B and UV-C entering the cabin, reducing the fuel consumption and the stress on the air-conditioning system. Other benefits are a reduction in interior fading, enhancement of the cabin interior by adding matching tint, and cabin mood enhancement.

CAD for aircraft hydraulic and electro-mechanical technologies

General Aerospace utilises both Unigraphics and CATIA V5 CAD systems, together with a suite of performance-analysis tools. The multi-station facility allows us to respond quickly to customers' enquiries and interface directly with their drawing packages, allowing optimisation of the development times.

Quality is a key component in all General Aerospace's activities: this ranges from documented control plans and procedures for all processes that affect quality, to a scheduled programme of quality audits of critical operations and procedures, supported by comprehensive, fully calibrated in-house inspection and test facilities.