Engineering Commons^™

Fatigue Issues And Mitigation Strategies In Collegiate Aviation, Flavio A. C. Mendonca Ph.D., Julius Keller, Erik Levin, Aaron Teo

Publications

The reduction of fatigue-related accidents has been in the NTSB most wanted list since 2016 (NSTB, 2019).

Most research studies have focused on fatigue identification and management within the commercial and/or military aviation environments (Caldwell et al., 2009; Gawron, 2016; Sieberichs & Kluge, 2016).

However, collegiate aviation may be the most challenging in terms of fatigue mitigation. Flight instructors and students often have schedules which may increase the risks for fatigue.

An Agent Based Model Of Passenger Boarding For Examining Commercial Aircraft Boarding Strategies, Frank W. Ciarallo, Raymond R. Hill, Kerry K. Ward

Faculty Publications

We use an agent-based simulation methodology to study airline passenger boarding using measures that reflect both the customer experience and airline efficiency perspective. This approach supports exploration of models of actual aircraft used in practice and detailed modeling of passenger dynamics. This paper discusses the modeling approach and a set of experiments comparing several boarding strategies from practical settings as well as the literature.

Mitigating The Risk Of Bird Strikes: The Use Of Virtual Reality During Flight Training, Flavio A. C. Mendonca Ph.D., Julius Keller Ph.D., Chien-Tsung Lu, Chenyu Huang Ph.D.

Publications

There were 193,969 wildlife strikes in the US from 1990 through 2017. Wildlife strikes annually cost the US civil aviation industry, on average, $186 million in monetary losses and 111,284 hours of aircraft downtime (Dolbeer & Begier, 2019). According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Aeronautical Decision-Making (ADM) is a systematic approach that encourages pilots to identify hazards and manage risks (FAA, 2016). Additionally, it helps aviators to make timely and safe decisions. Even though it is practically impossible to eliminate the risk of bird strikes, crewmembers play a vital role in the accident prevention process (Mendonca, Carney, & Fanjoy, …

Automatic Landing Gear, Daniel Battles, Cindi Albrightson

Student Research

Airplanes that are equipped with retractable landing gear are typically more desirable by pilots because of the benefits that come from this. There are also cons to having retractable landing gear, and having to remember to retract or extend the gear is one example. A switch on the dashboard must be flipped in order to activate the gear at the right time. In the incident that an airplane lands without the landing gear down, this is referred to as a “Gear up landing”. Gear up landings are usually caused from pilot error, which in many cases means that the pilot …

Correct Delay Code Assignment, Alessandro Conconi, Anderson Da Silva Serafim, Vitor Cordeiro Silva, Thais Vieira Haberli

Graduate Student Works

The air transport market requires high investments, has elevated risks, and low financial return. The competition requires airlines to differentiate themselves by offering better services. On-time Performance (OTP) is an essential service; lack of punctuality affects company costs and revenues. An on-time company generates more satisfaction for travelers, retaining them. Flight delays are identified and reported by airlines through delay codes that are standardized by IATA.

A detailed and specific analysis of an airline's processes was performed to verify the quality of delay code allocation information. It also features the complete mapping of this company's delay code allocation processes and …

A Better Approach For Mishandled Bags Industry Measure, Ana Caroline Costa, Daniel B. Ravagnani, Domenico Giuseppe Valente, Vitor Coletti Fernandes

Graduate Student Works

Since 1987, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) has ordered US airlines to report baggage handling statistics. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), requests each U.S. carrier to report monthly the total number of passengers enplaned, and the total number of mishandled baggage reports (MBR), including lost, pilfered, damaged and delayed baggage. The U.S. DOT also created a mishandled-baggage rate, which represents the total number of MBRs divided by 1,000 passengers enplaned. This KPI is monthly published at the Air Travel Consumer Report. And it is used worldwide to make comparisons between regions, airports, and airlines, characterizing efficiency and consistency …

Contingency Fuel Reduction, Diogo Youssef, Fabiano Gomes De Oliveira, Joao Centeno, Luciano Figueiredo Vale De Oliveira

Graduate Student Works

This project reviews the minimum fuel regulations for commercial passenger flights in different countries and intends to scientifically support a change in the existing contingency fuel requirement regulation in Brazil. This change represents fuel savings for Brazilian air operations, and it deploys into competitive advantage for Brazilian airlines compared to foreign air operators. The objective of this project is to provide the Brazilian civil aviation regulators with the necessary data to justify the reduction of the contingency fuel values from the current 10% to 5%. This project bases the analysis on the historical data of fuel planning and fuel consumption …

Automated Disruption Assistance, Christian Gruber Delamare, Douglas Cabrera Lopes, Patrice Ramos, Raioni De Oliveira Santos

Graduate Student Works

During the last decade, commercial aviation in Brazil has grown significantly, overcoming the number of 100 million passengers per year. The intense operation represents a challenge for the air carriers, especially during flight disruptions. In Brazil, besides the re-accommodation of the passengers into other flights, under certain circumstances, the ANAC 400 resolution requires the airlines to provide a series of material assistance. Meal, transport, and hotel make part of the exigences stated by the ANAC 400.

Our study aims to analyze the current process that is mainly manual and propose to automatize several steps through a self-service solution. The researchers …

A Study On Spare Aircraft In Brazilian Airlines, Clarissa Pinheiro Pereira, Eduardo Sakashita, Eliudes Del Grande, Guilherme Bevilacqua

Graduate Student Works

All around the globe, the airlines struggle to sustain profitability. They are deeply affected by the region’s economy. It goes from the fuel price and exchange rate to the level of employment and average salary. That makes it imperative to control the cost, and also to balance very well the cost and level of service. Aircraft utilization is one KPI that measures productivity. Once the airline has a high aircraft utilization, it means that the resource has been productive, hence more cost-efficient.

On the other hand, flight cancelations and delays result in costs and passengers’ dissatisfaction. In Brazil, there is …

An Evaluation Of The Operational Restrictions Imposed To Congonhas Airport By Iac 121-1013, Glanski O.C. Pacheco Jr., Marcus Camargo

Graduate Student Works

The objective of this study is to propose a review of the operational restrictions imposed on Congonhas airport by IAC 121-1013, seeking a balance between flight safety and operational efficiency.

The researchers calculated the landing performance (using specific software), taking into account particular aircraft system failures that increase landing distance. The results indicated that the measures imposed by the IAC have little or no effect on the operational safety increase. Additionally, the restrictions created operational complexity for the airport and reduced its efficiency by impacting airline costs. At the end of the study, the researchers suggest a reissue of the …

Training Synergy, Andre Vieira Caputo, Everton Amieiro, Lucio De Araujo Alves, Renan Dapena Roveran

Graduate Student Works

Brazil is facing a growth in the airline industry where all the major airlines are currently hiring pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics. One of the challenges of those airlines is to provide training for all these professionals. Many times they do not have instructors or classrooms available. It is crucial for the airlines to promote faster and better training, to reduce cost, save time and resources to prepare a better professional. With this capstone, we want to show the possibility of increasing the cost performance of airline training by providing alternatives to airlines. The idea is to promote synergy between …

Engine Light Repair Shop Evaluation For A Brazilian Airline, Gustavo Henrique Melhado Trevilatto, Marcelo Teodoro Miranda

Graduate Student Works

The maintenance cost of a commercial aircraft comprises airframe, components, and engines. The most expensive of them are engines, which may represent up to 60% of an aircraft cost, and therefore will have a significant impact on any airline finance. As a result, engine fleet maintenance management is crucial for any airline sustainability. Apart from heavy maintenance where life limited parts are replaced and its performance restored, aircraft engines are often required to come off wing for light repair due to operational issues like foreign object damage, high oil consumption, and vibration issues. In other cases, even though being operational, …

The Jump Seat Experience, Luke Moriarty

Student Works

It was a Tuesday afternoon as I sat in the conference room of Aegean Airlines, an airline based in the country of Greece. My fellow peers, professors and I were here on a study abroad program, currently participating in a week long workshop with the airline company. It was lunch time, all gathered around at rectangle tables when we found out the answer to our long-anticipated question. The Chief Pilot stood up stating he had an announcement to make. All of the students including myself had a look confusion and anticipation on our faces, we wondered could this be what …

Take Off To Superiority: The Evolution & Impact Of U.S. Aircraft In War, Lane Weidner

Honors Theses

Military aviation has become a staple in the way wars are fought, and ultimately, won. This research paper takes a look at the ways that aviation has evolved and impacted wars across the U.S. history timeline. With a brief introduction of early flight and the modern concept of an aircraft, this article then delves into World Wars I and II, along with the Cold, Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf Wars. The current War on Terrorism is then investigated, and finally, a look toward the future. Topics covered include the newest aircraft of each era, technological advancements, and how strategy and war …

The Pioneering Legacy And Consequence Of Wernher Von Braun, Ethan S. Wilt

Student Publications

The fundamental research question of this paper revolves around the idea of; would it have been possible for the United States to land on the Moon by the close of the decade if it hadn’t been for the effort, influence, and work of Wernher von Braun? The secondary question of the paper is what significant accomplishments and work did von Braun contribute to the United States space flight program that consequently led to the success in 1969? Through the effort, work, and influence of Wernher von Braun, it was possible for the United States to land on the Moon in …

The Flight Risk Perception Scale (Frps): A Modified Risk Perception Scale For Measuring Risk Of Pilots In Aviation, Scott R. Winter, Dothag Truong, Joseph R. Keebler

Publications

Risk and risk perception remain focal areas of research within the aviation domain. The purpose of the current study was to assess an existing measure of a 26-item self-risk perception scale for pilots. A sample of 490 participants was used in the present study, and a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the original 26-item instrument. The findings indicated that there was a poor model fit of the original instrument. Through the use of modification indices, a new 13-item scale was produced, which resulted in a second-order CFA model. Flight risk was shown to be the second-order construct with general …

Segmentation Of Severe Occupational Incidents In Agribusiness Industries Using Latent Class Clustering, Fatemeh Davoudi Kakhki, Steven Freeman, Gretchen Mosher

Faculty Publications

One of the principle objectives in occupational safety analysis is to identify the key factors that affect the severity of an incident. To identify risk groups of occupational incidents and the factors associated with them, statistical analysis of workers’ compensation claims data is performed using latent class clustering, for the segmentation of 1031 severe occupational incidents in agribusiness industries in the Midwest region of the United States between 2008–2016. In this study, severe incidents are those with workers’ compensation costs equal to or greater than $100,000 (USD). Based on the latent class clustering results, three risk groups are identified with …

Competency Based Education: A Framework For A More Efficient And Safer Aviation Industry, Flavio A. C. Mendonca Ph.D., Julius Keller Ph.D., Brian G. Dillman Ph.D.

Publications

Aircraft design and reliability as well as pilots’ education and training have steadily and significantly improved in the last 20 years. Nevertheless, high-profile accidents still occur, even when the aircraft and related systems are operating adequately. Controlled flight into terrain, runway incursions accidents, and loss-of-control-in-flight are examples of mishaps in which inadequate decision-making, poor leadership, and ineffective communication are frequently cited as contributing factors. Conversely, the investigation of accidents (e.g., US Airways Flight 1549, in US, in 01/15/2009) and serious incidents (e.g., JJ 3756, in Brazil, in 06/17/2011) have indicated that flight crews have to be flexible and adaptable, think …

Aircraft Hydraulic Systems - Fundamentals, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

Aircraft hydraulic systems are essential non-propulsive power systems. Hydraulic power systems are used to power major functional aircraft systems, such as flight controls (primary and secondary), friction braking, nose gear steering, thrust-reversers, operating heavy cargo doors, etc.

Wind Tunnel Measurements And Data Analysis Tutorial, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

This tutorial gives details on processing of raw aerodynamic data measured directly in the wind tunnel on airfoils and wings. Also procedures and equations from the lab report are given and demonstrated how to compute geometric characteristics of wings/airfoils and air data. All numeric results are typically rounded to five significant digits.

Use Of Logistic Regression To Identify Factors Influencing The Post-Incident State Of Occupational Injuries In Agribusiness Operations, Fatemeh Davoudi Kakhki, Steven Freeman, Gretchen Mosher

Faculty Publications

Agribusiness industries are among the most hazardous workplaces for non-fatal occupational injuries. The term “post-incident state” is used to describe the health status of an injured person when a non-fatal occupational injury has occurred, in the post-incident period when the worker returns to work, either immediately with zero days away from work (medical state) or after a disability period (disability state). An analysis of nearly 14,000 occupational incidents in agribusiness operations allowed for the classification of the post-incident state as medical or disability (77% and 23% of the cases, respectively). Due to substantial impacts of occupational incidents on labor-market outcomes, …

Bird Hazard Mitigation Training For Part 141 General Aviation Pilots: An Experimental Study, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Richard O. Fanjoy Phd, Thomas Q. Carney

Publications

From 1990 through 2018 ==> 209,950 wildlife strikes in the U.S.,

Approximately 95% of those incidents involved birds;

Seventy aircraft destroyed as a result of wildlife strikes!

13 bird strikes 32 ==> fatalities;

• 244 wildlife strikes ==> 319 people injured!
• 224 bird strikes ==>299 people injured!

General aviation community;

• 97% of the strikes occurred below 3,500 feet AGL;
• There were 22,775 wildlife strikes ==> 26% caused damage to the aircraft!

Wildlife Hazard Management: An Analysis Of Wildlife Strikes Data From The Five Busiest Airports In Brasil: 2011-2018, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Julius Keller, Carlos F. G. Schonhardt

Publications

Brasil ==> the largest country in Latin America - 8.514.876 Km²;

Booming aviation industry;

• From 2008 through 2017 ==>7.1% per year;
• 104 million passengers in 2018;
• International destinations – 21.8 million (~20%);
• U.S. - 4.4 million passengers;
• Argentina – 3.8 million passengers;
• Portugal & Chile – 1.7 million passengers;
• Brazilian Airlines – 38.3%.

Domestic Passengers 200 million in 2030; International Passengers 55 million in 2030.

Varying Class Schedules And Learning Effectiveness At Far Part 147 Aviation Maintenance Training Schools (Amts), Kristen Hammer

Student Works

Of the three learning styles, kinesthetic (hands-on) learning is the most common for individuals (Dinkel, 2011). This is especially relevant for people who work in technical, skill-based fields, such as aircraft maintenance. The hands-on learning style, coupled with a job that requires a great depth of systems knowledge, tool, equipment, and component manipulation, and a multitude of other physical job-related skills, requires that the student maximize his or her knowledge and skill retention while in training. The purpose of this research was to determine if FAR Part 147 Aviation Maintenance Technician School (AMTS) students would achieve more success, as measured …

Evaluating Machine Learning Performance In Predicting Injury Severity In Agribusiness Industries, Fatemeh Davoudi Kakhki, Steven Freeman, Gretchen Mosher

Faculty Publications

Although machine learning methods have been used as an outcome prediction tool in many fields, their utilization in predicting incident outcome in occupational safety is relatively new. This study tests the performance of machine learning techniques in modeling and predicting occupational incidents severity with respect to accessible information of injured workers in agribusiness industries using workers’ compensation claims. More than 33,000 incidents within agribusiness industries in the Midwest of the United States for 2008–2016 were analyzed. The total cost of incidents was extracted and classified from workers’ compensation claims. Supervised machine learning algorithms for classification (support vector machines with linear, …

Comparative Analysis Of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations Manuals, Stephen M. Cigal

Student Works

With over 100,000 remote pilots in the United States, individuals and companies are rapidly incorporating unmanned aircraft system technologies into their everyday life and businesses models. The companies that use these technologies must comply with federal and state regulations in order to maintain a safe environment to operate. These operations must also be accepted by the general public. Since the FAA regulations for small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) went into effect in 2016, supplemented by additional state and/or local requirements, some companies have generated operations manuals (OM) to ensure consistent, safe flight that meets these requirements. By analyzing the OM’s …

Longitudinal Analysis Of Perceived And Objective Airline Performance Quality, Kaetlyn Blocker, Javad Gorjidooz

Student Works

Commercial air carrier performance is a multivariable function, uniquely and substantially impacted by passenger's perception of negative employee behavior. High industry visibility, coupled with exponential social media growth, has provided the incredible potential to either widen or narrow the perception-performance gap. The present research conducts a rare longitudinal evaluation of objective airline performance quality in contrast with consumer perceptions of perceived airline performance and the dynamic changes occurring therein. Additionally, the implications regarding air carriers facing both objective and perceived performance challenges, as well as implications for the industry as a whole, are discussed. Utilizing nearly 30 years of objective …

Aviation Weather Products In General Aviation : Interpretability And Usability Research Trends, Jacqueline Mcsorley, Jayde King, Beth Blickensderfer

General Aviation Weather Display Interpretation

• Introduction
• Current Study
• Trends
• Summary
• Conclusion

English Language Proficiency And Aviation Safety, Robert Fowler Jr.

Student Works

The goal of this research study is to determine if aviation incidents and accidents due to deficiencies in English language proficiency have increased in the last 10 years based on data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). In addition, this study will determine whether deficiencies in English language proficiency have a significant impact on aviation safety. There are currently 184,636 student pilots according to the Federal Aviation Administration Airmen Certification System. Included in this number are 11,776 student pilots with a foreign address (Federal Aviation Administration [FAA], 2019). Findings presented at a NASA …

Keeping Your Distance: The Science Of Turns-Around-A-Point And Ground Reference Maneuvers, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

Ground reference maneuvers are more important than you may think. Frequently regarded as unimportant or boring, ground reference maneuver training is often limited to a few minutes of flight instructor demonstration and brief student practice.