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Modernization Of The United States Naval Test Pilot School's Helicopter Fleet - Replacement Of The Th-6b And The Oh-58c With The Bell 407 Helicopter, Steven R. Girard

Masters Theses

The United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) experienced a helicopter mishap on 05 August 2001. The USNTPS Commanding Officer believed that this mishap occurred in large part due to the extremely high workload being placed onto both the school’s students and instructors. As a result of this belief, the USNTPS Commanding Officer ordered his staff to implement the following three orders:

1. Immediately reduce syllabus exercises by 10%.
2. Begin to revamp each syllabus in order to reduce the student workload by 25%.
3. Review syllabus aircraft requirements and recommend one aircraft that can be eliminated from the syllabus inventory without degradation …

A Study Of The Temperature Correction Methods For Reciprocating Engine Flight Testing Under Non Standard Conditions, Juan Carlos Valer

Masters Theses

Federal Aviation Regulations require aircraft reciprocating engines to comply with temperature limits under pre-defined hot-day conditions. When the test is conducted on other than those conditions, the Regulations provide equations to convert the temperature registered into values considered to be corresponding to a hot-day scenario.

It is known by the flight test community that those equations over compensate for flying in non-hot day conditions. As a consequence of that, an aircraft that could be certified under hot day conditions may not be certifiable in a colder atmosphere.

This thesis confirmed that the Piper Saratoga complies with the regulations on cooling …

Proposed Ifr Air Ambulance Coverage For Middle And East Tennessee, James Christopher Mills

Masters Theses

Rural areas do not receive the same emergency medical services as metropolitan and suburban areas due to their remote locations. In the event of a life-threatening medical emergency, citizens in rural areas cannot be transported to a level-one trauma center within the critical Golden Hour. The Golden Hour is the hour during which the mortality rate can be reduced by 50% if a patient can reach a trauma center. The inability of helicopter EMS operations to fly in poor weather lessens a patient’s chances for surviving a medical emergency. Helicopter air ambulance operations enable hospitals to provide comparable service to …

Analysis Of The Instrument Carrier Landing System Certification Process For Amphibious Assault Ships, Arthur Prickett

Masters Theses

The AN/SPN-41 Instrument Carrier Landing System (ICLS) is a precision electronic approach and landing aid that provides shipboard guidance information to Navy and Marine Corps aircraft. The ICLS emits a microwave beam that is received by the aircraft and presented to the pilot as azimuth and elevation needles. These needles indicate the deviation from the ideal glide path and course line and provide the pilot with direct guidance information. This system has long been in use on aircraft carriers and has recently been adapted for use on other U.S. Navy aviation ships.

The shipboard landing task is a challenging effort …

Lessons Learned From The Developmental Flight Testing Of The Improved Tactical Air Launched Decoy, Bradley S. Hutson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the test team responsibilities and decisions made in the planning, execution, and reporting of test results for the Developmental Flight Testing of the Improved Tactical Air Launched Decoy (ITALD). Information gathered as lead Flight Test Engineer for the series of ITALD flight test events is the primary data source for the opinions formulated in this thesis. Test team decisions, influenced by training, budget constraints, test schedules, and changes in production contractors were analyzed to determine their effect on the flight test program. The Development Test guidance obtained from Department of Defense (DoD) …

A Conceptual Design Of A General Aviation Hands-On-Throttle And Stick (Hotas) System., Mark N. Callender

Masters Theses

In this project the concept of Hands-on-Throttle and Stick (HOTAS) was applied to a general aviation (GA) aircraft. HOTAS had seen limited use in GA aircraft, but nothing that would compare to its use in military or commercial aircraft. The purpose of incorporating HOTAS was to give the pilot the ability to quickly and efficiently operate specific functions of the aircraft’s avionics units without having to remove his/her hands from the stick (or control wheel) or throttle. This project followed the systems engineering approach to accomplish the conceptual design of the GA HOTAS system. Two representative GA aircraft were chosen …

A Review And Analysis Of Precision Approach And Landing System (Pals) Certification Procedures, John D. Ellis

Masters Theses

The Precision Approach and Landing System (PALS) is an Electronic Landing Aid (ELA) installed aboard all operational Naval Aircraft Carriers and is designed to provide an all-weather approach and recovery capability during daylight or darkness with minimum interference from conditions of severe weather and sea state for carrier based aircraft. The PALS consists of the AN/SPN-46 Automatic Carrier Landing System, the AN/SPN-41 Independent Landing Monitor/Instrument Carrier Landing System, and a qualified aircraft. PALS is capable of three modes of operation; fully automatic, pilot manual control based on cockpit displays of glide slope and centerline error data, and pilot manual control …

F/A-18 External Configuration Effects On High Angle Of Attack Departure Resistance, Jessica Wilt

Masters Theses

One of the challenges in defining tactical aircraft handling qualities is establishing flight envelopes for multiple external configurations. In the case of the F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornet, there are single seat and two seat variants, a wide variety of stores carriage options, and other outer moldline additions to the basic airframe that can affect aerodynamics. The F/A-18 aircraft has excellent maneuverability and departure resistance throughout the existing flight envelope, however, changes in external configuration affect departure resistance, particularly at high angle-of-attack (AOA). Various configuration effects have been studied throughout the long life of the Hornet, however this work attempts to collect that …

Incorporating The Sju-17a Naval Aircrew Common Ejection Seat In The Ea-6b Aircraft, Daniel D. Moore

Masters Theses

This research investigated the feasibility of incorporating the Martin Baker Aircraft Company (MBA) SJU-17A Naval Aircrew Common Ejection Seat (NACES) and an electronic command eject sequencing system in the Northrop-Grumman EA-6B Prowler aircraft. The EA-6B is a four seat tactical aircraft derived from the A-6 Intruder airframe and flown solely by the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps. The mission of the EA-6B is electronic warfare (EW), providing suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) by the use of electronic noise jamming and the employment of the AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM). The current ejection system in the EA-6B uses …

State-Space Modeling Of The Rigid-Body Dynamics Of A Navion Airplane From Flight Data, Using Frequency-Domain Identification Techniques., Robert Charles Catterall

Masters Theses

State-space models of the open-loop dynamics for the cruise flight condition (V = 90 KCAS) of a modified Navion were extracted from flight data using a frequency-domain identification method. The identified longitudinal and lateral/directional models closely match the aircraft’s dynamic response, in both magnitude and phase, for dissimilar flight data. The identified lateral/directional dimensional stability and control derivatives, the model parameters, compare well to values obtained from previous wind tunnel testing. The identified longitudinal derivatives, however, differ from the wind tunnel results, in some cases significantly. The results for the longitudinal derivatives are attributed to insufficient excitation of the aircraft, …

Modification Of A One-Dimensional Dynamic Compression System Model To Calculate Stage Characteristics Internally, Grady Alan Tibboel

Masters Theses

A one-dimensional, dynamic gas turbine engine performance analysis program, based on a modified parallel compressor theory, was enhanced with an added capability to calculate compressor stage characteristics given basic blade correlations, blade and casing geometry, and flow conditions. Total pressure ratio and total temperature ratio across rotors and stators had previously been provided solely by stage characteristics maps created using experimental data or computational means. The user now has the option to have those ratios, or characteristics, calculated via a one-dimensional code during the simulation. Experimental data is still required for calibration of this characteristics prediction code. An existing characteristics …

Developing Modified Ads-33d Helicopter Maneuvers For The Shipboard Environment, Philippe Catoire

Masters Theses

The Office of the Secretary of Defense chartered the Joint Shipboard Helicopter Integration Process (JSHIP), Joint Test and Evaluation (JT&E) Program to improve Joint interoperability between U.S. Navy ships and U.S. Army/Air Force helicopters. One effort of the JSHIP JT&E Program was to improve the modeling and simulation tools and fidelity levels associated with conducting Joint shipboard helicopter operations, for both testing agencies and operational users. The UH-60A helicopter and the LHA class ship were identified as the highest priority helicopter-ship pair for operational forces and also allowed JSHIP to enhance models that currently existed. Enhancing the visual model of …

The Benefits And Risks Associated With Use Of The Wind Tunnel In Safe Separation Flight Test, Shawn Grant Denihan

Masters Theses

Flight test demonstrating safe separation of stores from aircraft has gained greater importance since World War II. With the expansion of aircraft flight envelopes, the impact of the aircraft flow field on store separation has also expanded. At best the store fell away from the aircraft; at worst it could tumble or hit the aircraft causing significant structural damage. Early safe separation flight test programs took a simple approach, starting slow and in straight and level flight and then in small increments, building up to supersonic straight path dives. Unfortunately, this approach required a great deal of stores as well …

An Investigation Of Terrain Avoidance System Flight Test Techniques For High Performance Aircraft, Gregory D. Glen

Masters Theses

Controlled-flight-into-terrain incidents have been a leading cause of aircraft related fatalities for a number of years. The development of warning systems to prevent this type of mishap has been constant since the early 1970’s. A family Ground Proximity Warning Systems and, recently, Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems have been mandated for use in commercial aircraft in the United States.

Such systems have also been adapted for use in high performance military aircraft, although they tend to be very different from the commercially required variants due to their unique operating environment and aircraft performance requirements.

In this paper, one such system …

Design Of A Piezoelectric Actuator Using Topology Optimization, Joachim Drenckhan

Masters Theses

This study investigates the optimal topology for a piezoelectric actuator under a static load. The project consists of two major parts: implementation of the control law into the commercial finite element code ABAQUS and studies in topology optimization. The first part gives a thorough derivation and explanation of the implementation of static feedback control and dynamic proportional and derivative control. The result is compared with results published in the literature. The second part examines the results of topology optimization with different geometries and constraints. Thus, this study develops fundamental understanding of advantageous shapes for optimal performing piezoelectric actuators.

Refining The U.S. Navy Flight Clearance (Airworthiness Certification) Process: Maximizing Acquisition Reform Benefits For Commercial Derivative Aircraft Acquisitions, Douglas A. Lucka

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to propose several specific process improvements to the U.S. Navy Flight Clearance process. It also makes recommendations for investment in test and evaluation infrastructure to better support commercial derivative aircraft acquisition for military use. Recent changes to Department of Defense acquisition regulations have increased alternatives available to the services to meet military operational requirements. In order to reduce cost and cycle times, the military services are turning more and more to acquiring commercially developed and certified aircraft to meet military requirements.