Aviation Commons^™

The Plastics Collection Reference Packet, Special Collections Research Center

Special Collections Research Center

This reference packet is an informational tool to support further research into the history of plastics—whether interested in companies, individuals within the plastics industry's history, historical plastics materials, essays, and more. All content featured within this packet was previously published on the former plastics.syr.edu website as part of a Syracuse University Libraries and Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) partnership established in 2007 with the Plastics Pioneers Association (PPA)—an association of plastics industry professionals interested in preserving the plastics industry's past.

Identification And Validation Of A Predicted Risk-Taking Propensity Model Among General Aviation Pilots, Joel Samu

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Risk-taking, a persistent topic of interest and concern in aviation, has been linked with unsafe behaviors and accidents. However, risk-taking propensity is a complex construct that encompasses numerous factors still being researched. Even within the limited research available about the factors affecting pilots’ risk-taking propensity, studies have yielded inconsistent results. Therefore, this quantitative study explores existing and novel factors that predict the propensity for risk-taking among general aviation (GA) pilots in the United States.

This study, conducted in two stages, involved developing a prediction model using backward stepwise regression to predict pilots’ risk propensity, followed by model fit testing using …

Overview Of Low-Cost Carriers In Russia And Post-Soviet States, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna L. Rhoades

Publications

The low-cost carrier's model made remarkable gains across the globe in the prior decade, although growth was uneven domestically and intraregionally. Within this region, there are significant differences in overall country size, the size of the domestic aviation market, and the number of carriers serving the market. The largest and most developed market is in Russia, but rest of the region also experienced growth in economy airlines' activity as they discovered the power of the model to expand aviation access and lower costs. The success of low-cost carriers, however, has been halting and hampered by government decisions on foreign investment, …

Evidence-Based Managerial Decision-Making With Machine Learning: The Case Of Bayesian Inference In Aviation Incidents, Aaron Glassman, Burak Cankaya, Kazim Topuz, Dursun Delen

Publications

Understanding the factors behind aviation incidents is essential, not only because of the lethality of the accidents but also the incidents’ direct and indirect economic impact. Even minor incidents trigger significant economic damage and create disruptions to aviation operations. It is crucial to investigate these incidents to understand the underlying reasons and hence, reduce the risk associated with physical and financial safety in a precarious industry like aviation. The findings may provide decision-makers with a causally accurate means of investigating the topic while untangling the difficulties concerning the statistical associations and causal effects. This research aims to identify the significant …

A Literary Survey On The Challenges Of Adopting Lean In Aerospace Production And Aviation Maintenance, Seanan C. Lee

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Lean production began as a new method for creating value through the elimination of waste, continuous process improvement by workers, and fostering respect for people. Despite its success in other industries, the significantly lower production volume, the substantially higher complexity, and the service-oriented nature of aviation maintenance demand significant adaptation of Lean principles to be effective. The lack of a holistic study on Lean adoption for aerospace production and aviation maintenance organizations hinders transformation as the two industries are intertwined in product and characteristics. Lean adoption in aerospace production is hindered by the lingering notion that it is an ‘‘automotive …

Developing Systems Engineering And Machine Learning Frameworks For The Improvement Of Aviation Maintenance, Fatine Elakramine

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops systems engineering and machine learning models for aviation maintenance support. With the constant increase in demand for air travel, aviation organizations compete to maintain airworthy aircraft to ensure the safety of passengers. Given the importance of aircraft safety, the aviation sector constantly needs technologies to enhance the maintenance experience, ensure system safety, and limit aircraft downtime. Based on the current literature, the aviation maintenance sector still relies on outdated technologies to maintain aircraft maintenance documentation, including paper-based technical orders. Aviation maintenance documentation contains a mixture of structured and unstructured technical text, mainly inputted by operators, making them …

Unmanned Aerial System Integration Safety And Security Technology Ontology, Rebecca A. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is a versatile and essential tool for law enforcement, first responders, utility providers, and the general public. Integrating the UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS) poses a significant challenge to policymakers and manufacturers. A UAS Integration Safety and Security Technology Ontology (ISSTO) has been developed in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) to aid in this integration. ISSTO is a domain ontology covering aviation topics corresponding to flights, aircraft types, manufacturers, temporal/spatial, waivers and authorizations, track data, NAS facilities, air traffic control advisories, weather phenomena, surveillance and security equipment, and events, sensor types, radio frequency ranges, …

Design And Implementation Of High-Efficiency, Lightweight, System-Friendly Solid-State Circuit Breaker, Dehao Qin

All Dissertations

Direct current (DC) distribution system has shown potential over the alternative current (AC) distribution system in some application scenarios, e.g., electrified transportation, renewable energy, data center, etc. Because of the fast response speed, DC solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) becomes a promising technology for the future power electronics intensive DC energy system with fault-tolerant capability. First, a thorough literature survey is performed to review the DC-SSCB technology. The key components for DC-SSCB, including power semiconductors, topologies, energy absorption units, and fault detection circuits, are studied. It is observed that the prior studies mainly focus on the basic interruption capability of the …

The Impact Of Flight On Cabin Crew Wellness: A Literature Review, Ashleigh Roderick

Senior Honors Theses

Since its conception in 1903, aviation has captivated the attention of people across the globe and has been utilized in many sectors of society. Aviation related occupations pose a unique set of risks to those working in the field, health risks being one of the most prominent. Cancer, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal ailments, and genetic damage have all been studied as potential consequences of working in the aviation industry, as some studies indicate a higher prevalence of these issues in aviation employees. Apart from physiological issues, mental health issues have also been observed in those working in aviation. Mental health issues …

Innovation For The Air: A Brief History Of Worldwide Aviation, Lauren Plumley

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The purpose of this report is to present a brief but comprehensive overview of the variety of innovations related to aviation, and to discuss their impact on scientific progress over the course of human history. Relevant discoveries from the fields of physics and aerodynamics, and the numerous technologies built based upon these discoveries, are discussed over a period ranging from ancient times to the twenty-first century. The scope of this report is an overview of the development of powered and unpowered aircraft, including lighter-than-air, heavier-than-air, and aerospace technologies. Aviation developments were generally not limited to one specific country or person, …

Simulating Dielectric Barrier Plasma Actuators With Varying Geometries, Cass Wiederkehr

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The idea of Ionic Wind Propulsion has long been a topic of research for whether or not it can be used as a practical power source for flight. MIT researchers proved in 2018 that a plane with zero moving parts powered by Ionic Wind Propulsion was possible, and sustained flight could work with an internal power supply. However, due to the thin wire electrodes required to generate the ion cloud that made such propulsion possible, large amounts of drag rendered the plane extremely inefficient and impractical. Dielectric Barrier Discharge Devices (DBDs) are being investigated as to whether they can serve …

Investigating The Costs And Economic Impact Of Flight Delays In The Aviation Industry And The Potential Strategies For Reduction, Ashmith Anupkumar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study addressed a critical issue in our travel life: flight delays. This study covers all aspects of a flight delay, from its causes and consequences to reduction strategies. The focused research questions were: To determine the outcome of flight delays in the aviation industry, to determine costs associated with flight delays for airlines, airports, and passengers, and to determine strategies for reducing flight delays in the aviation industry for robust findings. The findings for each question were as follows: the primary causes were overscheduling, airport hubbing, late check-ins, technical failure, etc. And the consequences were significant financial loss, the …

Cfis’ Safety Behaviors At Flight Training Schools: Understanding The Effects Of Personality Traits, Self-Efficacy, Risk Perception, And Safety Climate, Vivek Sharma

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits, affective domain variables, safety climate, and safety behaviors of certified flight instructors (CFIs). Personality traits consisted of the five dimensions of the Big Five personality model, including Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Openness, and Conscientiousness. Affective domain variables included self-efficacy and risk perception. The study used an explanatory correlational design to determine the relationship between the targeted factors and safety behaviors. The dependent variable was CFIs’ safety behaviors. The sample consisted of 134 CFIs who completed all of the study’s protocols. Participants were obtained from a professional flight …

The Examination Of Factors That Influence Trust In A Multi-Agent Team Context, Cherrise Ficke

Theses and Dissertations

Current dyadic teams in the human-agent teams literature demonstrates that Propensity to Trust in Technology (PTT), previous experience with an agent, levels of autonomy (LOA), workload, and mission performance affect trust and mission performance to some capacity. However, the purpose of this study was to expand this line of research by examining how these factors influence trust and mission performance in a multi unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) context. To investigate the relationship between these factors and trust, an archival study was conducted using data from a previously-conducted, multi-UAV study. The previous study utilized a within-subjects repeated measures design in which …

Disaster Resilience In Air Traffic Control: Recovery Of Airspace Activity At U.S. Primary Airports That Experience A Catastrophic Hurricane, Victoria Thorpe

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between U.S. airport characteristics, hurricane strength, and hurricane proximity and the time it takes airspace activity to recover to normal after experiencing a catastrophic hurricane. It determined the relative influence of five airport characteristics and two hurricane characteristics as predictors of time for airspace activity to recover to normal. The result is a predictive airport disaster resilience equation to estimate the expected airport recovery rate for a forecasted catastrophic hurricane. This supports expectation management for aviation practitioners. This is significant for air traffic controllers because post-hurricane airspace is unpredictable, demanding, …

Empirical Evaluation Of A Novel Spatial Disorientation Induction Strategy, Michaela Cathlin Satter

Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that spatial disorientation-related accidents account for roughly 33% of all aviation mishaps with a 90% fatality rate (Gibb et al., 2011). Research meant to establish common practices and standardization of spatial disorientation (SD) training is needed to work toward decreasing this staggering statistic. The current study investigated the viability of a novel SD Induction Strategy that combined rotation about the vertical axis, visual cue input from a wireless virtual reality (VR) head mounted display (HMD) flight environment, and tactile input from a wireless joystick controller. To assess this combination’s effectiveness, Bank situation awareness (SA) and Pitch SA, …

Willingness To Fly Based On First Officer Experience, Madison Larkin, Christopher Hudak, Ashley Babiarz, Vivek Sharma, Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

This study examined passengers’ willingness to fly with a first officer whose experience is 500, 1000, or 1500 total flight hours and concluded that there is no difference in passengers’ willingness to fly between first officer experience levels.

Academic Workload, Willingness To Pilot, And Perceived Stress, Derek M. Dolnik, Carlie Swords, Shahd Abualhamayl, Vivek Sharma, Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

This study found no relationship between perceived stress and number of credits. However, willingness to pilot (WTP) for flight students in a Part 141 flight training program was significantly lower with three or more exams than with one or two exams.

Unruly Passenger Reports During And After The Mask Mandate, Jacob Coutant, Travis Richards, Nicholas Brunetti, Vivek Sharma, Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

This study found a significant difference in weekly reported unruly passenger incidents per 10,000 operations during and after the federal COVID-19 mask mandate.

Measuring Willingness To Fly Onboard Aircraft Equipped With Two Pilots, A Single Pilot, And A Single Pilot With Artificial Intelligence, Dillon J. Hanrahan, Andrew C. Angelo, Jeremy S. Mcfarland, Vivek Sharma, Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

There is no statistically significant difference between consumers’ willingness to fly on aircraft with two pilots and traditional automation, a single pilot with traditional automation, and a single pilot with artificial intelligence (AI).