actuators 15 16 as a digital signal via a hardwire analog interface 21 the digital signal is converted to an analog signal by the signal conversion electronics 17 which have the capability to convert analog to digital signals and digital to analog signals the command signal affects the flight surface associated with the actuators 15 16 the actuators 15 16 are electronically configured to receive the commands and respond by moving its associated flight surface the flight computer 10 is capable of sending command signals to actuators 15 16 individually sequentially or simultaneously the fault detection system 7 includes at least one computer processor 8 and an associated memory 9 although the fault detection system 7 is illustrated in fig1 as a separate hardware component having a processor and memory it could be implemented completely as software consistent with the present invention for example computer instructions could be stored in the flight computer memory and processed by one or more processors already contained in the flight computer the flight computer would then automatically or on command periodically issue fault detection commands in addition to flight control commands in the manner discussed in more detail below thus references to the fault detection system are intended to mean either a separate hardware component or a computer program operating within existing flight hardware as described more fully below the fault detection system 7 monitors the command signals of the electronic flight control system 5 to monitor unexpected actuator behavior and if necessary issues commands to reconfigure one or more actuators 15 16 to maintain normal flight conditions 0021 fig2 is.