Engineering Commons^™

Effects Of Automation On Aircrew Workload And Situation Awareness In Tactical Airlift Missions, David R. Meyer

Theses and Dissertations

In tactical aviation, decision superiority brought upon by high situation awareness remains the arbiter of combat effectiveness. The advancement of sophisticated avionics and highly automated cockpits has allowed for the reduction of aircrew size, and in certain platforms, removal of the crew from the aircraft entirely. However, these developments have not reduced the complex and dynamic interaction between situation awareness and crew workload. While many predictive and experimental methods of evaluating workload exist, situation awareness can only be measured by conducting trials with human operators in a functional prototype. This thesis proposes an innovative methodology to predicatively determine situation awareness …

Momentum Of Particles From Time-Of-Flight Measurements, Joseph Best

Senior Theses

In order to find the momentum of particles from time of flight measurements, I used a program called Geant4 to simulate experiments. I made a simple two detector setup, and I recreated a real world experiment. I spent a lot of time learning to code in C++ so I could use Geant4 correctly. I simulated these experiments shooting electrons, muons, and pions through the geometry and measured the time at two points in their flight. Subtracting the second time from the first gave me the time of flight distribution for each particle. I used ROOT to draw histograms of the …

Comparison Of Shareholder Value Between Full-Service Airlines (Fsas) And Low-Cost Carriers (Lccs)., William Kee

Honors Theses

Shareholders in the airline industry invest in a service industry that is met with high fixed costs, capital, and external factors such as customer satisfaction and fluctuations in crude oil prices. On one end of the airline spectrum in the United States lie the full-service airlines, such as Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, or United Airlines adopting a product differentiation approach to capture a competitive advantage by providing greater benefits, comfort, and experience to the customer. This approach attracts customers that value the experience more so than simply the price of the fare, but is often met with high operating …

High Speed Jet Turbine Test Final Report, Kenneth Enstrom, Cameron Naugle, Isaac Thomas, Cody Lee

Mechanical Engineering

At high flight altitudes and speeds, external airplane elements are subject to immense loads. External devices must be put through testing that simulates these loads to ensure safety of the device. Our system will subject a device in need of testing to a jet of air, similar to wind seen on the surface of an airplane. The High Speed Air Jet Turbine Test project team has been tasked to design, build, and test an apparatus capable of acquiring real world flight data for micro-ram air turbines (microRAT). The micro-RAT is a device that provides power to an electrical device by …

Review Of Aviation Research: A Content Analysis Of Articles Published In The Collegiate Aviation Review, 2007–2012, Safak Aktemur

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to conduct a content analysis of the methodological quality of articles published in the Collegiate Aviation Review (CAR)” a refereed journal of the University Aviation Alliance (UAA)”to determine if actual practices of aviation researchers were consistent with commonly recommended research methods and procedures. The accessible population consisted of the 76 articles published in CAR between 2007 and 2012 (Volumes 25“30). The sample consisted of N = 69 articles and excluded literature reviews, meta-analyses, studies that described the development or validation of an instrument, philosophical inquiries, position papers, or historical studies. The analysis focused on …

An Integrated Framework For Fostering Human Factor Sustainability And Increased Safety In Aviation Ramp Operations, Sarah M. Hubbard, Denver Lopp

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The aviation work environment has one of the highest accident rates of any industry sector in the United States, resulting in significant costs for both employee injuries and equipment damage. In fact, injury rates exceed rates found in areas that are widely recognized as hazardous, such as construction and mining, and it is estimated that aircraft ground damage costs are as high as 5 billion to 10 billion dollars per year. Purdue University’s Aviation Technology Department has conducted numerous safety and human factors studies in the past decade encompassing maintenance and repair operations, corporate flight departments, and over ten major …

Tailwinds Can Reduce Groundspeed Too, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

FAA Safety Seminar (GL1565666) held at Minnesota State University, Mankato Ostranger Auditorium at 18:30 CST on Monday, November 30, 2015.

Causes And Trends In Maintenance-Related Accidents In Faa-Certified Single Engine Piston Aircraft, Douglas Boyd, A. Stolzer

Alan J. Stolzer

The accident rate for general aviation remains high. While most general aviation accident studies have been pilot-focused, there is little research on the involvement of aircraft maintenance errors. We undertook a study to answer this question. The Microsoft Access database was queried for accidents occurring between 1989 and 2013 involving single engine piston airplanes operating under 14CFR Part 91. Pearson Chi-Square, Fisher’s Exact Test, and Poisson probability were used in statistical analyses. The rate of maintenance-related general aviation accidents was 4.3 per million flight hours for the 1989–1993 period and remained unchanged for the most recent period (2009–2013). Maintenance errors …

Marbles: The Application Of Input-Output Concepts To Safety Management Systems, Tim Brady, A. Stolzer, Anthony Brickhouse, Antonio Cortes, Dan Mccune, Jayathi Raghavan, David Freiwald

Alan J. Stolzer

The goal of this research was to apply the economic concept titled Input-Output Analysis to an aviation safety concept titled Safety Management Systems (SMS). Input-Output (IO) is based upon the interrelationships of various components of an economic system and what happens to the system when one or more of those components changes. Since SMS is, by definition, a system with definable components, the research sought to determine if the interrelationships between those components could be determined and quantified. The term ‘‘marbles’’ was used to describe the activities that led to the IO-SMS matrix. Marbles was used as a metaphor for …

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 …

Improving The Integration Of Launch And Reentry Operations Into The National Airspace System, Gwendolyn Mazzotta, Daniel P. Murray

Space Traffic Management Conference

With increasing commercial space activities occurring in the National Airspace System, the FAA has identified a need for more efficient management of the NAS with respect to commercial space operations. Current methods for integration of aviation and space activities employ a segregation approach, in which hazard areas are constructed around launch and reentry operations and sections of airspace are closed to other users. Mission objectives and vehicle characteristics dictate the extent of the closure in terms of location, duration, and volume of airspace affected. Launches, reentries, and other operations have an effect on other NAS stakeholders, causing delays, changes to …

Evaluating Launch Vehicle / Reentry Vehicle (Lv/Rv) Separation Concepts, Zheng Tao, Ganghuai Wang, Tudor Masek, Thomas J. St. Clair

Space Traffic Management Conference

Launch Vehicle/Reentry Vehicle (LV/RV) operations are expected to increase across the National Airspace System (NAS) as their reliability and availability improve. LV/RV designs and the industry landscape have vastly changed since the 1960’s, and the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) methods for handling these operations need to evolve to support the expected growth. Currently, large amounts of airspace are segregated for every LV/RV operation. This increases costs for NAS users and may limit LV/RV opportunities. The FAA’s NextGen office recently proposed two more efficient separation concepts for LV/RV operations called Space Transition Corridors, and Four-Dimensional Trajectory Deconfliction. Prior safety research for …

Safe Operations Above Fl600, Lt. Col. Stephen Hunter

Space Traffic Management Conference

Safe Operations Above FL600

Abstract

With the increase in likelihood of near-term development of revenue-generating point-to-point suborbital flights and the increase in high-altitude-long-endurance commercial operations above FL600, the criticality of addressing operations above class A airspace has never been more pressing. While the Federal Aviation Administration describes the National Airspace System, it doesn’t offer a description that includes a top. Technological, physiological, physical and administrative limitations have relegated most air operations to FL600 and below. As that changes, previous work on Space Traffic Management (STM) concepts begin to take on new life and add to sincere considerations for adaptation or …

Flight Physician - November, 2015, Civil Aviation Medical Association

Browse all Civil Aviation Medical Association Newsletters

A twenty-one page newsletter of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. The newsletter provided news about civil aviation medicine and information related to the organization.

Comment On Faa Rule Revision - Transport Category Aircraft, Paul F. Eschenfelder, Valter Battistoni

Paul F. Eschenfelder

No abstract provided.

Identifying Secondary Crashes By Using Geographic Information System (Gis) And Determining The Secondary Crashes Characteristics, Yuan Tian

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As the nation’s transportation infrastructure expands, traffic incidents led to more than 25% of traffic congestion in the United States (FHWA, 2014). The risk of the occurrence of secondary crashes can be six times higher in the presence of a primary crash than that at a normal traffic condition (Yang et al., 2013 and Tedesco, 1994). The purpose of this study is 1) to develop a method to identify the secondary crashes with the primary incidents in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) under different spatial-temporal criteria, and 2) to determine the impacts of spatial-temporal criteria on the secondary crash characteristics in …

The Impact Of The First Officer Qualification Ruling: Pilot Performance In Initial Training, Nancy R. Shane

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The intent of the First Officer Qualification (FOQ) ruling was to improve the quality of first officers flying for Part 121 carriers. In order to test this, a study was completed at a regional carrier to compare pilots hired prior to the FOQ ruling with those hired after the FOQ ruling. The study compared 232 pilots hired from 2005–2008 with 184 pilots hired from August 2013–November 2014. The pilots’ date of hire as compared to the date the FOQ ruling went into effect defined the input (Source) variable. Initial training defined the output (Success) variables. The airline name and all …

How Trust In Commercial Airline Pilots Is Affected By Their Perceived Sociability: A Mediation Analysis, Stephen Rice, Scott R. Winter, Russell Tokarski

Publications

Sociability relates to one’s preference to interact with others or remain alone. The current study sought to determine how a pilot’s perceived sociability would relate to consumers’ trust ratings in their pilot using participants from India and the United States. Consumers were presented with one of two scenarios. In the control condition, the pilot was described as sociable, while in the other, the pilot was presented as unsociable. Participants were then asked to rate their trust in the pilot based off of these cues. In general, participants indicated that the pilot who was perceived as unsociable was less trusting compared …

A Forecasting Tool For Predicting Australia's Domestic Airline Passenger Demand Using A Genetic Algorithm, Panarat Srisaeng, Glenn Baxter, Steven Richardson, Graham Wild

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study has proposed and empirically tested for the first time genetic algorithm optimization models for modelling Australia’s domestic airline passenger demand, as measured by enplaned passengers (GAPAXDE model) and revenue passenger kilometres performed (GARPKSDE model). Data was divided into training and testing datasets; 74 training datasets were used to estimate the weighting factors of the genetic algorithm models and 13 out-of-sample datasets were used for testing the robustness of the genetic algorithm models. The genetic algorithm parameters used in this study comprised population size (n): 200; the generation number: 1,000; and mutation rate: 0.01. The modelling results have shown …

Extending Gr While Moving Up To Supersonic Speeds Poses Challenges Requiring Innovations, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

Achieving true global range requires new ideas in lightweight aircraft structures, progress in transonic and supersonic aerodynamics and breakthroughs in low-SFC propulsion.

Causes And Trends In Maintenance-Related Accidents In Faa-Certified Single Engine Piston Aircraft, Douglas Boyd, Alan Stolzer

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The accident rate for general aviation remains high. While most general aviation accident studies have been pilot-focused, there is little research on the involvement of aircraft maintenance errors. We undertook a study to answer this question.

The Microsoft Access database was queried for accidents occurring between 1989 and 2013 involving single engine piston airplanes operating under 14CFR Part 91. Pearson Chi-Square, Fisher’s Exact Test, and Poisson probability were used in statistical analyses.

The rate of maintenance-related general aviation accidents was 4.3 per million flight hours for the 1989–1993 period and remained unchanged for the most recent period (2009–2013). Maintenance errors …

Evaluation Of Control Inputs On The Spin Recovery Of The 8kcab Super Decathlon, Courtney Allen

Theses and Dissertations

The current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) response to stall/spin related accidents is prevention through pilot awareness training and encouraging stall proof aircraft design features. Aircraft have an inherent capability to spin. The controls that influence spin recovery have yet to be quantitatively analyzed in a regression analysis. This thesis presents the regression modeling and validation process for the evaluation of control inputs on the spin recovery of the 8KCAB Super Decathlon. The regression models in this thesis explore the control inputs for factors of: rudder, elevator, and aileron. Additionally, this thesis explores the timing of the control inputs factors for …

Amelia Earhart - A Study In Courage, Daring And Foolhardiness, Gene Tissot

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

Amelia Earhart, disappeared while almost completing an around-the-world flight. This was just one of her many daring adventures. Hear the story of her relatively short, but dynamic aviation career from Gene Tissot, whose father was Amelia’s mechanic during her Hawaii to California flight in 1935. Admiral Tissot knows the pacific well as a decorated combat pilot in Korea & Vietnam. He became the third naval aviator to achieve 1000 arrested carrier landings, without an accident over 20 years, flying 11 different aircraft types.

Lessons For Life, Story Musgrave

The STEAM Journal

This piece explores the creation of character and talent through a wide diversity of education and experience.

Causes And Trends In Maintenance-Related Accidents In Faa-Certified Single Engine Piston Aircraft, Douglas Boyd, Alan Stolzer

Publications

The accident rate for general aviation remains high. While most general aviation accident studies have been pilot-focused, there is little research on the involvement of aircraft maintenance errors. We undertook a study to answer this question.

The Microsoft Access database was queried for accidents occurring between 1989 and 2013 involving single engine piston airplanes operating under 14CFR Part 91. Pearson Chi-Square, Fisher’s Exact Test, and Poisson probability were used in statistical analyses.

The rate of maintenance-related general aviation accidents was 4.3 per million flight hours for the 1989–1993 period and remained unchanged for the most recent period (2009–2013). Maintenance errors …

Synthesis Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Safety Reports, Robert Joslin

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The proliferation and extension of unmanned aircraft systems from military to civil and public use applications has rapidly outpaced the safety analysis that is normally associated with the introduction of a new and novel aircraft. Insights into the types of anomalous events associated with accidents and incidents involving civil and public use unmanned aircraft systems operating in the National Airspace System were derived from an information synthesis of archival, publically available reports from the Aviation Safety Information and Analysis Sharing system. The vast majority of anomalous events were related to equipment failures, primarily lost link, distantly followed by a variety …

Hot Surface Ignition, Yerbatyr Tursyn, Vikrant Goyal, Alicia Benhidjeb-Carayon, Richard Simmons, Scott Meyer, Jay P. Gore

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Undesirable hot surface ignition of flammable liquids is one of the hazards in ground and air transportation vehicles, which primarily occurs in the engine compartment. In order to evaluate the safety and sustainability of candidate replacement fuels with respect to hot surface ignition, a baseline low lead fuel (Avgas 100 LL) and four experimental unleaded aviation fuels recommended for reciprocating aviation engines were considered. In addition, hot surface ignition properties of the gas turbine fuels Jet-A, JP-8, and JP-5 were measured. A test apparatus capable of providing reproducible data was designed and fabricated to experimentally investigate the hot surface ignition …

Identifying Mode Confusion In Recorded Aircraft Data, James Douglas Thomas, Yul Kwon, Steven J. Landry

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In recent decades, commercial aviation accidents have occurred due to human-machine interaction (HMI) problems known as “mode confusion.” This is caused, in some cases, by a lack of understanding of onboard systems by pilots. Large amounts of Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) data are available, analysis of which could assist in identification of safety risks in daily operations. Through analysis of pilot reactions and recorded aircraft data, methods to detect mode confusion are developed to improve aviation safety. This study was conducted by inducing mode confusion into a flight simulation scenario and analyzing aircraft data to detect emerging patterns. Three …

Aviation Bird Hazard In Nexrad Dual Polarization Weather Radar Confirmed By Visual Observations, Bradley M. Muller, Frederick R. Mosher, Christopher G. Herbster, Anthony T. Brickhouse

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Birds represent a significant hazard to flying aircraft as illustrated by the “Miracle on the Hudson” encounter in 2009 between U.S. Airways Flight 1549 and a flock of Canada Geese, forcing the flight to ditch in the river. Birds are common in the skies over Florida during the spring migration season, and often appear in the National Weather Service’s (NWS) NEXRAD weather radar imagery as an easily recognizable signature known as a “roost ring.” This paper presents a NEXRAD roost ring case in central Florida in a rare instance where the signatures were confirmed by visual observations of the birds. …

Global Optimized Isothermal And Nonlinear Models Of Earth’S Standard Atmosphere, Nihad E. Daidzic, Ph.D.,

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Both, a global isothermal temperature model and a nonlinear quadratic temperature model of the ISA was developed and presented here. Constrained optimization techniques in conjunction with the least-square-root approximations were used to design best-fit isothermal models for ISA pressure and density changes up to 47 geopotential km for NLPAM, and 86 orthometric km for ISOAM respectively. The mass of the dry atmosphere and the relevant fractional-mass scale heights have been computed utilizing the very accurate eight-point Gauss-Legendre numerical quadrature for both ISOAM and NLPAM. Both, the ISOAM and the NLPAM represent viable alternatives to ISA in many practical applications and …