Engineering Commons^™

Computational Fluid Dynamics Visualization For Unmanned Aerial Systems In Bridge Inspections, Kristoffer B. Borgen, John Mott

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Bridge inspections are an expensive and time-consuming process, varying significantly with a bridge’s style, height, width, and length. Inspections create interruptions that interfere with bridge use, as the examination requires partial or total closure, causing traffic delays. Unmanned aerial system (UAS) use has increased significantly over the past decade, including assistance and coordination during bridge inspections. However, the impact on a UAS from high winds and turbulent airflows induced by a bridge’s structure can decrease flight safety during inspections. Visualization of these hazards is difficult for UAS operators; therefore, a process to estimate the velocity and locations of these hazardous …

Comparative Evaluation Of Investigation Methods For Estimating The Load-Dependent State Of Charge And End Of Discharge Of A Multirotor Uav Battery, Hanna Dibbern, Morten Roßberg, Claudia Werner

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

As the scope of multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications increases, more attention is being paid to UAV energy requirements, which vary depending on the mission profile. To obtain accurate information about the UAV battery during flight, the idea of a digital twin including a battery state estimation model is promising. For battery state estimation, a Kalman filter combination is the preferred approach in the literature. Comparing different Kalman filters, the unscented Kalman filter has a more accurate estimation for nonlinear systems compared to the extended Kalman filter. In the application of UAV flight with load-dependent flight missions, the comparison …

A New Empirical Law For The Prediction Of The Zero-Lift Pitching Moment Coefficient Of Swept And Tapered Wings, Mondher Yahyaoui

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

A new empirical law for the prediction of the zero-lift pitching moment coefficient of trapezoidal wings with linear twist and constant taper and sweep in subsonic flow is introduced. This law is quite general in that it does not rely on the use of charts and spans the normal range of values of taper ratio, aspect ratio, and sweep for subsonic aircraft. It does not, however, accommodate different airfoils along the wingspan and only positive sweep has been considered. The empirical law was first derived for the incompressible regime and then an additional empirical law for the compressibility effect has …

An Analysis Of Aerodynamic Design Issues Of Box-Wing Aircraft, Paul Jemitola, Paul Okonkwo

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The potential of the joined/box-wing aircraft as an environmentally friendly airliner that is capable of meeting current and future emission thresholds led to the investigation of this concept. This study reviews the evolution and current trends in the aerodynamic design of the box-wing aircraft with specific emphasis on box-wing theory, airfoil characteristics, and aerodynamic issues of the box-wing aircraft. The study was undertaken to highlight the distinct features of the box-wing configuration which make it very attractive for future airliners. The study reveals that the box-wing aircraft possesses a significant aerodynamic advantage over conventional aircraft. The box-wing aircraft configuration is …

Flight Testing Gls Approaches Enabled By Wide Area Corrections In Kerkyra, Greece, Thomas Dautermann, Thomas Ludwig

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Many airports with a high value to commercial air traffic have spatial or budgetary constraints which prevent the installation of a precision approach system. We previously designed a low-cost precision approach system which combines the advantages of both ground-based and satellite-based augmentation systems by using a converter between them in order to allow GAST-A approach types. We installed, operated, and flight-tested such a system at Kerkyra Airport using an A320 aircraft. During these, we recorded data from a commercial multimode receiver as well as GPS raw data in order to prove the feasibility of the system. Data were analyzed using …

Eye-Gaze-Controlled Hmds And Mfd For Military Aircraft, Lrd Murthy, Abhishek Mukhopadhyay, Somnath Arjun, Varshith Yelleti, Peter Thomas, Dilli Babu Mohan, Pradipta Biswas

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Eye-gaze-controlled interfaces allow the direct manipulation of a graphical user interface by looking at it. This technology has great potential in military aviation, in particular, operating different displays in situations where pilots’ hands are occupied with flying the aircraft. This paper reports studies on analyzing the accuracy of eye-gaze-controlled interfaces inside aircraft undertaking representative flying missions. We report that using eye-gaze-controlled interfaces, pilots can undertake representative pointing and selection tasks at less than two seconds on average in a transport aircraft. Further, we analyzed the accuracy of eye-gaze-tracking glasses under various G load factors and analyzed the failure modes. We …

Changing The Process In Educational Field And Air Navigation Through Advances In Hologram Technology, Camilo Fernandez Sr.

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The objective of this piece is to propose reasons that change the way air traffic controllers and others learn and work in air navigation, but also how they can improve workloads, due to the implementation of holographic radar. This research also aims to describe how this could reduce the cognitive load of an operator, thanks to the improvement of visual perspective and capacity of analysis, in order to more easily control an aircraft.

Seeing that the visual facilitation is well known, radar is able to represent in three dimensions and in detail that which could not previously be perceived. This …

Design Of Rotorcraft Performance-Based Navigation Routes And Procedures: Current Challenges And Prospects, Carlos Gonzaga Lopez

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Helicopters play a relevant role in society due to their extraordinary versatility. However, they are particularly vulnerable to adverse weather conditions as the majority of operations are carried out under visual flight rules. This is partly due to the shortage of tailored helicopter instrument flight procedures and routes. The emergence of the performance-based navigation concept supported by the latest satellite navigation technologies has opened up new possibilities for rotorcraft operations in the last few years. This paper presents an extensive overview of the state of the art in the design of performance-based navigation routes for helicopters from two main standpoints: …

Airplane Pitch Response To Rapid Configuration Change: Flight Test And Safety Assessment, Ralph Kimberlin, Markus Wilde, Brian Kish, Isaac Silver

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

This paper examines airplane response to rapid flap extension on seven general aviation airplanes. The scenario involves a pilot flying in the traffic pattern becoming distracted, abruptly extending flaps while looking outside the airplane, and failing to notice airspeed and pitch-attitude changes. The airplanes tested reached pitch forces of up to 36 lbf, meeting FAA requirements but exceeding the capability of 55% of the population. Flight data showed a pitch-up to more than 30˚ in 5 s after flap extension, causing airspeed to drop below stall speed for four of the airplanes. At traffic pattern altitudes, stalling an airplane can …

Atmospheric Pressure Calibration To Improve Accuracy Of Transponder-Based Aircraft Operations Counting Technology, John H. Mott, Chuyang Yang, Darcy M. Bullock

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

In the United States, over 2,400 of the 2,941 non-primary National Plan of Integrated Airport System airports have limited means of establishing operations counts due to lack of available personnel. Precise counts of airport operations are helpful for allocating airport improvement funds, as well as for local and system planning. An emerging technology utilizing ADS-B position data to calibrate signal strength received from Mode C transponders, thereby capturing location information from over 90% of the aircraft operating in the National Airspace System, has successfully estimated operations counts at these non-towered airports with reasonable levels of accuracy. This paper evaluates the …

Tooling Design Modeling For Composite Fuselage Of Beechcraft King Air 250 Using Catia, Miazor Fidelis Ekom

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Aircraft’s constant operation in tough conditions necessitates the need for structural components of high strength yet low weight. Composite materials are being used as an alternative to conventional aluminum alloys because of their competitive strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios. In this paper, the detailed design procedure of a light-aircraft composite material fuselage tooling in three dimensions is shown. In its operation, the layup tools provide a surface for the composite part which is the correct shape of the part and is stable through the cure cycle, and also providing a means of indexing the part for the next manufacturing operation. This …

Operating Different Displays In Military Fast Jets Using Eye Gaze Tracker, Jeevitha Shree Dv, L. R. D. Murthy, Kamalpreet Singh Saluja, Pradipta Biswas

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

This paper investigated the use of an eye-gaze-controlled interface in a military aviation environment. We set up a flight simulator and used the gaze-controlled interface in three different configurations of displays (head down, head up, and head mounted) for military fast jets. Our studies found that the gaze-controlled interface statistically significantly increased the speed of interaction for secondary mission control tasks compared to touchscreen- and joystick-based target designation system. Finally, we tested a gaze-controlled system inside an aircraft both on the ground and in different phases of flight with military pilots. Results showed that they could undertake representative pointing and …

Design Of Dc-Link Vscf Ac Electrical Power System For The Embraer 190/195 Aircraft, Eduardo Francis Carvalho Freitas, Nihad E. Daidzic

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

A proposed novel DC-Link VSCF AC-DC-AC electrical power system converter for Embraer 190/195 transport category airplane is presented. The proposed converter could replace the existing conventional system based on the CSCF IDGs. Several contemporary production airplanes already have VSCF as a major or backup source of electrical power. Problems existed with the older VSCF systems in the past; however, the switched power electronics and digital controllers have matured and can be now, in our opinion, safely integrated and replace existing constant-speed hydraulic transmissions powering CSCF AC generators. IGBT power transistors for medium-level power conversion and relatively fast efficient switching are …

Hybrid Buoyant Aircraft: Future Stol Aircraft For Interconnectivity Of The Malaysian Islands, Anwar Ul Haque, Waqar Asrar, Ashraf Ali Omar, Erwin Sulaeman, Jaffar Syed Mohamed Ali

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Hybrid buoyant aircraft are new to the arena of air travel. They have the potential to boost the industry by leveraging new emerging lighter-than-air (LTA) and heavier-than-air (HTA) technologies. Hybrid buoyant aircraft are possible substitutes for jet and turbo-propeller aircraft currently utilized in aviation, and this manuscript is a country-specific (Malaysia) analysis to determine their potential market, assessing the tourism, business, agricultural, and airport transfer needs of such vehicles. A political, economic, social, and technological factors (PEST) analysis was also conducted to determine the impact of PEST parameters on the development of buoyant aircraft and to assess all existing problems …

Modeling And Computation Of The Maximum Braking Energy Speed For Transport Category Airplanes, Nihad E. Daidzic

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Transport-category or FAR/CS 25 certified airplanes may occasionally become braking energy capacity limited. Such limitation may exist when heavy airplanes are departing airports at high-density altitudes, on relatively long runways, and/or possibly with some tailwind component. A maximum braking energy VMBE speed exists which may limit the maximum allowable takeoff decision/action speed V1. The ever-existing possibility of high-speed rejected takeoff in such conditions may also limit the airplane gross weight for declared available distances. To gain deeper insights and acquire better understanding of the topic, a theoretical model of the maximum braking energy and the related VMBE speed for T-category …

Estimation Of Performance Airspeeds For High-Bypass Turbofans Equipped Transport-Category Airplanes, Nihad E. Daidzic

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Conventional Mach-independent subsonic drag polar does not replicate the real airplane drag characteristics exactly and especially not in the drag-divergence region due to shock-induced transonic wave drag. High-bypass turbofan thrust is a complicated function of many parameters that eludes accurate predictions for the entire operating envelope and must be experimentally verified. Fuel laws are also complicated functions of many parameters which make optimization and economic analysis difficult and uncertain in the conceptual design phase. Nevertheless, mathematical models and predictions have its important place in aircraft development, design, and optimization. In this work, airspeed-dependent turbofan thrust and the new fuel-law model …

A Contribution Toward Better Understanding Of Overbanking Tendency In Fixed-Wing Aircraft, Nihad E. Daidzic

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The phenomenon of overbanking tendency for a rigid-body, fixed-wing aircraft is investigated. Overbanking tendency is defined as a spontaneous, unbalanced rolling moment that keeps increasing an airplane’s bank angle in steep turns and must be arrested by opposite aileron action. As stated by the Federal Aviation Administration, the overbanking tendency may lead to a loss of control, especially in instrument meteorological conditions. It was found in this study that the speed differential over wing halves in horizontal turns indeed creates a rolling moment that achieves maximum values for bank angles between 45 and 55 degrees. However, this induced rolling moment …

Increasing Participation In The Pilot Weather Reporting (Pirep) System Through User Interface Design, Stephen M. Casner

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Although pilots regard pilot weather reports (PIREPs) as valuable flight planning resources, the number of PIREPs that pilots submit is relatively small. In a previous survey, pilots indicated that submitting PIREPs sometimes requires too much effort, and that they are often unable to recall the information fields required to complete a report. Pilots also indicated that the idea of submitting a PIREP often does not occur to them, and that they feel that other pilots are mainly interested in receiving reports about severe weather. In this study the authors attempt to address obstacles to submitting PIREPs by proposing two alternative …

Validation Of New Technology Using Legacy Metrics: Examination Of Surf-Ia Alerting For Runway Incursion Incidents, Robert Joslin

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

This study demonstrated an innovative method of utilizing expert raters and actual high-risk incidents to identify shortcomings of using legacy metrics to measure the effectiveness of new technology designed to mitigate hazardous incidents. Expert raters were used to validate the Enhanced Traffic Situational Awareness on the Airport Surface with Indications and Alerts (SURF-IA) model for providing alerts to pilots to reduce the occurrence of pilot deviation type runway incursion incidents categorized as serious (Category A or B) by the legacy FAA/ICAO Runway Incursion Severity Classification (RISC) model. The study concluded that the SURF-IA model did not yield an outcome of …

Effect Of Cellular Phone And Radar Forensics On Search And Rescue Duration For General Aviation Aircraft Accidents In The Contiguous United States, Ryan J. Wallace

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT) are generally the primary tool for locating distressed aircrews following an aircraft accident. In 2009, the International COSPAS-SARSAT organization ordered the cessation of 121.5 MHz ELT satellite monitoring to alleviate systemic false alarms and encourage pilots to upgrade ELTs to modern 406 MHz models. While most nations acquiesced to the mandate, the United States encountered severe resistance from pilot groups. As a result, 121.5 MHz ELTs are still in use in the U.S. but remain unmonitored by satellite systems. This study sought to assess the impact of alternative search methods such as radar and cellular phone …