Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

The Sensitivity Of Aircraft Emergency Locator Transmitters To Non-Distress Impact Events, Christopher John Molnar

Theses and Dissertations

Emergency locator transmitters are radio beacons that help locate aircraft in distress and are required on many aircraft, primarily general aviation aircraft. The purpose of an emergency locator transmitter is to assist SAR teams in rapidly locating downed aircraft so aid can be provided to the pilot and passengers. The first emergency locator transmitters, still in use today, were found to have crash activation rates of only twenty-five percent (25%). This means that three out of every four crashes are not detected by these devices. Newer emergency locator transmitters were found to have crash activation rates of seventy-three percent (73%) …

The Accuracy Of Energy-Based Crash Reconstruction Techniques Using Event Data Recorder Measurements, Peter Niehoff

Theses and Dissertations

In the field of accident investigation, a vehicle's delta-V is commonly used to quantify the severity of a collision. Delta-V is defined as the impulsive change in vehicle velocity caused by a collision. Often, the method used to obtain delta-Vs in real-world collisions is estimation based on post-collision vehicle crush measurements. However, these estimates have been known to result in large errors. The recent advent of Event Data Recorder (EDR) technology has provided engineers with measured delta-Vs from real-world collisions. These accurate measurements were the basis for several studies conducted in this thesis.

As EDRs are a new technology, little …