Résumé
The electrification of aircraft passenger doors is technically feasible. It is already performed in large cargo doors because the size of the door prevents the direct use of a mechanism driven by human force. Passenger door size remains small enough to be compatible with human capacity except for emergency openings where assistance needs to be provided to guarantee the opening in some crash configurations (broken landing gear, wind). Since an attendant must be present for safety reasons, electrifying passenger doors does not bring direct value to the product. The feasibility of electrifying a passenger door has been demonstrated successfully through the NexGED research program, but it highlights the difficulty of achieving the main need of the market, which is the cost. Effectively saving on the mechanism is small, but implementing motors generates new costs. Using a functional approach and value analysis, new architectures with electric functions that are cost-effective are defined. Replacement of the hydro-pneumatic assistance is one of them. Dedicated research efforts have been carried out to optimize the electrical actuator for this function.