Engineering Commons^™

Market Analysis For Small And Mid-Size Commercial Turboprop Aircraft, Vitaly Guzhva, Tamilla Curtis, Vladislav Borodulin

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

Recent fuel price volatility and growing concerns about the efficiency of regional jets have led to a revival of large turboprop aircraft as efficient passenger carriers on short-haul regional routes. However, the overall market for smaller turboprops is much less defined as it is characterized by a plethora of small commuter and niche operators in addition to regional carriers. Since most small and mid-size turboprop manufacturers have gone bankrupt or discontinued production due to some other reasons, current operators of this aircraft class are left with aging fleets that would need to be replaced by 2020-2030. This paper assesses the …

Solving An Age-Old Debate: What Really Controls Altitude And Airspeed?, Juan Merkt

Juan R. Merkt

Mismanagement of altitude and/or airspeed is linked to the top three causes of fatal aviation accidents: loss of control inflight (LOCI), controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), and runway excursions during approach and landing (RE). Clearly, the ability to control altitude and airspeed is a critical skill that all pilots must learn. Yet, differing opinions of how the throttle and elevator work to control altitude and speed can lead to confusion in the cockpit. Energy management is an effective approach to learn how the controls work. Unfortunately energy principles have not found their way into primary flight training. To help bridge …

The Weather And Air Traffic Management Integration Course In The Graduate Aeronautics Program At Embry-Riddle, John Lanicci

John M Lanicci

One year ago, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University added a new Area of Concentration (AOC) in Aviation Meteorology to the Master of Science in Aeronautics (MSA) program at the Daytona Beach, Florida campus. As part of the preparation for the start of this program, an experimental graduate seminar in Weather and Air Traffic Integration was taught over the summer, which attracted graduate students with backgrounds in commercial and private aviation, applied meteorology, and engineering physics. The purpose of this course was to introduce the students to the concept of weather and air traffic integration as it currently exists and is being planned …

Weather Technology In The Cockpit (Wtic): Concept Of Operations, User Needs, Education, And Training, John Lanicci, L. Kirk, L. Martin, J. Vacek, E. A. Roberts, M. Edwards

John M Lanicci

The FAA, through sponsorship of the Center for General Aviation Research (CGAR), has funded a multi-disciplinary research program on Weather Technology In the Cockpit (WTIC). The CGAR is a consortium of four universities, three of which (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, University of North Dakota, University of Alaska-Anchorage) are working together on this program. Each university partner has the lead on a portion of the project: the University of Alaska-Anchorage is the lead on developing the WTIC Concept of Operations (CONOPS); the University of North Dakota is the lead on developing a robust set of WTIC user needs; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is …

General Aviation Weather Encounter Case Studies, John Lanicci, Massoud Bazargan, Daniel Halperin, Scott Shappell, Jaclyn Baron, Rebecca Iden, Carla Hackworth, Kali Holcomb

John M Lanicci

This study presents a compilation of 24 cases involving general aviation (GA) pilots’ weather encounters over the continental U.S. The project team interviewed pilots who had experienced a weather encounter, and we examined their backgrounds, flight experience, and weather encounter details. Results from meteorological data analysis for each weather encounter were consistent with findings of larger GA weather accident studies in terms of the types of hazards encountered and flight phase during which the encounters occurred. Investigation of pilot weather products and the sources from which they were obtained revealed a lack of uniformity of pre-flight data sources and underutilization …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of An Education And Training Module For General Aviation Pilots On The Use Of Nexrad-Based Products In The Cockpit, John Lanicci, Erin Roberts, E. Blickensderfer

John M Lanicci

Numerous studies over the years have documented the need to improve meteorological education and training for General Aviation (GA) pilots. With the advent of readily available aviation weather hazard products for real-time pilot use on the flight deck, there is now a lack of education and training on the proper interpretation and usage of these products. Data-linked NEXRAD is a good example of a currently available real-time product that is very popular in the GA community, but lacks a coherent understanding of its proper usage in pre-flight planning and in-flight operation.

Proper usage of NEXRAD in the cockpit should require …

Weather And Collaborative Decision Making In The Aviation Community: Two “Tactical” Case Study Examples, John Lanicci, R. E. Haley, K. Rader

John M Lanicci

Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) in the aviation community has been defined as a “cooperative effort between the various components of aviation transportation, both government and industry, to exchange information for better decision making” (http://cdm.fly.faa.gov/). Two central tenets of CDM are that better information will lead to better decision-making, and that tools and procedures will enable air navigation service providers and flight operators to respond to changing conditions more readily. CDM can trace its roots to the mid 1990s, when airlines began sharing information about flight schedules with air traffic managers in an effort to determine potential “bottlenecks” in the National …