Aviation Commons^™

Ads-B Aircraft Photography, Gabriel Michael Adamson, Wesley Crouch, Jacob Elmore

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

A Primer For Designing A Small Spacecraft Mission Operations Architecture, Joseph M. A. Feliciano

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Joseph M. A. Feliciano on April 28, 2022.

The Positive Effects Of Study Abroad On Education, Brooke Semler

Honors Theses

Education, especially at the collegiate level, can be influenced in many ways. Traveling, especially in the form of study abroad allows individuals to experience different cultures firsthand and broaden their perspectives of the world. Study abroad and education have a very strong correlation. When examining all students that attended Western Michigan University from Summer of 2011 to the 2017-2018 school year, students who studied abroad have higher educational success than students who don’t. Most students who completed study abroad show a higher GPA after completing their study abroad course. Furthermore, students who studied abroad have a higher graduation rate than …

Greater Understanding Of Human Factors Will Lead To Improved Aviation Safety, Alaba Gabriel Idowu

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

The objective of this research was to reveal the impact of human factors on flight safety and provide corrective recommendations that can mitigate human errors in the aviation industry. The method of investigation included an evaluation of the crash of Avianca Airlines Flight 052, which resulted in findings of probable cause of the accident and evaluated how human factors, including a lack of effective communication, stress, fatigue, complacency, lack of awareness, norms, assumptions, and pressure affected the safety of flight. In addition, an analysis of the data and information synthesis was done to arrive at results, conclusions, and recommendations to …

General Aviation Fatal And Non-Fatal Accidents By Season, Abdulrahman Alzahrani, Hassaan Bedeiry, Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

This study examined the difference in fatal and non-fatal GA accident rates in the United States among the seasons. Accident data was from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB, 2022) database from 2010 to 2019. Seasonality and fatality have a significant effect on the number of GA accidents.

U.S. Wildlife Strikes By Engine Type, Hasan Arif, John Gaynor, Shane Slettom Jr., Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

This study analyzed the relationship between wildlife strikes and engine type using data from the FAA (2022) Wildlife Strike Database from 2010-2019 in the United States. Turbofan aircraft had the most wildlife strikes. There was a significant difference in mean annual wildlife strikes between turbofan and all other engine types.

The Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Airport Demand Forecasts And Critical Aircraft For Commercial Service Airports Serving Southwest Michigan, Matthew Wietstock

Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered the aviation industry and the nature of how airports predict their future use. This paper conducts a new analysis of the various prediction methods regarding airport demand forecasting using the commercial service airports serving Southwest Michigan. Primarily, the methods researched include time-series analysis using regressions, market-share analysis, and an examination of socio-economic factors. While no one method prevails over the other, the market-share analysis has proven to be the most realistic predictor in three of the four airports analyzed, with time-series analysis predicting the other. A thorough analysis of these forecasting methods can help …

When Engine(S) Go Silent: Speed-To-Fly For Airplane And Glider Pilots, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

FAA Safety Webinar held at 9:00 CST on Saturday, April 15, 2022.

Understanding Travel For Families With A Physically Disabled Child Through The Occupational Therapy Lens, Dinah Adams, Karen Park, Susan Macdermott

Spring 2022 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Travel is a complex occupation that involves interactions between body function, activity participation, and the environment. For families traveling with a physically disabled child this occupation becomes even more complex. The available literature on the lived experiences of these families is significantly limited. This project aims to determine participants’ experiences of commercial airline travel with a child who has a physical disability. Through the participants experiences, barriers and needs of this population can be identified. Through identification of barriers, the needs of this population are highlighted as well as ways they can be supported and advocated for.

Newton Versus Bernoulli: How Is Lift Created?, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

FAA Safety Seminar (GL15109627) held on Saturday, April 2, 2022.

Design Considerations Of A Magnus Effect Flettner Rotorcraft, Benjamin Cook

Senior Honors Theses

Airfoils have dominated the development of aircraft since the Wright brothers’ first flight. There are very few (if any) functional alternative mechanisms for heavier-than-air flight. However, in exploring the Magnus effect phenomenon applied to Flettner rotors in a rotorcraft configuration, a new and significantly underdeveloped method of heavier-than-air flight may be accomplished. Considering the aerodynamic context of the Magnus effect and its implementation in existing applications, this research principally concerns a single proposed mechanism and its design, viability, and lift-surface optimization. The proposed mechanism employs at least two 180^o offset rotating cylinders rotating about a central vertical axis, like …

Three Approaches, Two Go-Arounds, One Diversion…And All On The Internet, Eric Carter, James Norman

Aviation Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Store-To-Store Energy Transfers On The Global Dynamics Of Aircraft, Guilherme Mainieri Eymael, Keegan J. Moore

UNL Student Research Days Posters, Undergraduate

This study analyzes the energy transfer mechanisms when nonlinear devices (stores) are attached to a linear model airplane. For that, a reduced-order model (ROM) was derived to simulate the first two flexible modes of vibration of the primary structure (aircraft) with one store in each wing. Each store can either be locked or unlocked. When locked, it only contributes as mass-effect, and when unlocked, it adds nonlinearity to the system. Simulations were then performed with either both stores locked, one store unlocked, or both stores unlocked. It was found that the attachment of nonlinear stores in the ROM changes the …

Investigation Of The Low-Temperature Combustion Phenomena Of A Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Aerospace Fuel In A Constant Volume Combustion Chamber For Greenhouse Gas Reduction, Lily H. Parker

Honors College Theses

Greenhouse gases (GHG) have a harmful effect on our environment as they trap heat in the atmosphere accelerating climate change. As such, the Federal Aviation Administration’s 2025 strategic plan to reduce GHG emissions from air transportation. This call to action for a more environmentally friendly option highlights the importance of synthetic fuels as they are more sustainable compared to traditional fossil fuels. An investigation was conducted into the thermal-physical properties of Synthetic Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and the Low Temperature Combustion (LTC). LTC is composed of the Low Temperature Heat Release (LTHR) and Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) region, …

Gen. Thomas P. Stafford Archive Dedication Program, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Stafford Archives Dedication Documents

On March 11th, 2022, the Al Harris Library hosted the dedication of the General Thomas P. Stafford Archives.

Unless stated otherwise within this repository collection, all materials are shared under the following Creative Commons license: [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License].

Scheduling Aircraft Departures To Avoid Enroute Congestion, Johannes Martinez

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

When scheduled flights are forecast to overcrowd sections of enroute airspace, an air traffic control authority may need to delay departures. Mixed integer linear programming can be used to compute a schedule that resolves the congestion while bringing the sum of all delays to a minimum. Standard linear programming constraint formulations for such scheduling problems, however, have poor run times for instances of realistic size. A new constraint formulation based on cycles and paths through a route graph reduces run times in computational experiments. It shows particularly strong performance for schedules that approach the worst-case solution times in standard formulations.

Applying Lessons From Safety-Ii Proof Of Concept In Line Operational Safety Audit To Aviation Maintenance, David R. Zubowski

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Maintenance safety culture is a topic that continues to arise. There is much information in many different literature sources that discusses measuring, analyzing, and scrutinizing data to determine if a safety culture exists in an organization and how to improve it. Currently, aviation maintenance personnel are surveyed for their opinions on how safe their culture is. However, this may not be an adequate reflection of the safety culture or help maintenance personnel conduct their jobs. Typically, they are operating in an environment that has a central determination of what safety culture is. Other programs in other fields have attempted a …

Airworthiness Decision Factors In The Us Air Force, Derek N. Dennis

Theses and Dissertations

There are multiple airworthiness (AW) certification paths for aircraft platforms and their modifications. Specifically, military commercial derivative aircraft (MCDA) have a unique opportunity to pursue either FAA certification, military certification or a combination of both. Policy tells MCDA programs to pursue FAA certification to the maximum extent possible, however, the policy lacks clarity regarding where that extent ends. This concept of extent encompasses multiple factors and the choice of an AW basis is a complex decision. Under ideal conditions the decision maker, the program manager, has the experience and insight to support their decision, however, this is not always the …

Examining Failures Of Kc-135s Using Survival Analysis, Vanessa I. R. Unseth

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force manages an inventory of 396 KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft. With mission capability rates falling and total non-mission capability supply rates increasing, it is necessary to take a deeper look at recurrent failures. The study applies non-parametric and semi-parametric survival models to a dataset retrieved from LIMS-EV to look at the duration(s) until failure for the KC-135. Results of non-parametric models show cumulative failure rates increase as sorties or flight hours increase. In addition, semi-parametric models or Cox proportional hazards models with frailty confirm that locations or air bases are not associated with recurrent failures.

Real Time Evaluation Of Boom And Drogue Occlusion With Aar, Xiaoyang Wu

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have seen a rise in popularity. Various navigational algorithms have been developed as a solution to estimate a UAV’s pose relative to the refueler aircraft. The result can be used to safely automate aerial refueling (AAR) to improve UAVs’ time-on-station and ensure the success of military operations. This research aims to reach real-time performance using a GPU accelerated approach. It also conducts various experiments to quantify the effects of refueling boom/drogue occlusion and image exposure on the pose estimation pipeline in a lab setting.