The electrical system

Alternator, battery, bus bars, circuit breakers, and how to recognize and respond to a charging failure.

10 min read · The airplane: engine and systems

A light airplane's electrical system is a direct-current network, typically 14 or 28 volts, powered by an engine-driven alternator in flight and backed up by a battery. Its failure will not stop the engine -- the magnetos do not need it -- but it will take down the radios, the transponder, and a growing share of the flight instruments on a modern panel.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.The main components
  2. 2.The starting system
  3. 3.Fuses and circuit breakers
  4. 4.The master switch
  5. 5.Responding to an electrical failure

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Key terms

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