A novel active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) strategy is presented to improve position control performance of airborne direct drive electro-mechanical actuator (EMA). To begin with, kinematics model of the direct drive EMA is deduced for simulation benefits. Then, an ADRC controller is designed to implement the position control. Finally, simulation work is put forward to verify the steady-state precision, dynamic performance and load disturbance rejection ability, accounting for over-running load. The results verify that the ADRC-based EMA servo system is fast, precise, of no overshoot and strongly robust to load disturbance.