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Air Force Institute of Technology

Theses/Dissertations

2001

Aviation

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Pilot Mental Workload Calibration, Jeremy B. Noel Mar 2001

Pilot Mental Workload Calibration, Jeremy B. Noel

Theses and Dissertations

Predicting high pilot mental workload is important to the U.S. Air Force because lives and aircraft can be lost when errors are made during periods of mental overload and task saturation. Current research efforts use psychophysiological measures such as electroencephalography, cardiac, ocular, and respiration measures in an attempt to identify and predict mental workload levels. The primary focus of this effort is the development of a calibration scheme that allows a small subset of salient psychophysiological features developed using actual flight data for one pilot on a given day to accurately classify pilot mental workload for a separate pilot on …

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Estimating C-17 Operating And Support Costs: Development Of A System Dynamics Model, Christopher D. Purvis Mar 2001

Estimating C-17 Operating And Support Costs: Development Of A System Dynamics Model, Christopher D. Purvis

Theses and Dissertations

This research provides justification for experimenting with system dynamics (SD) for performing Operation and Support Cost estimates. For the C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft, these costs could exceed $64 billion dollars. Also, many of our weapon systems are beginning to reach the end of their effective life span, and discussions about the impact of aging, on aircraft, has become a hot topic in the literature. System Dynamics is a modeling methodology developed in 1958, but never used extensively for cost estimating. SD offers unique capabilities to the cost estimator, including the ability to model causal relationships. This capability offers the …

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Aircraft Maintenance Performance: The Effects Of The Functional Decentralization Of On-Equipment Maintenance, Mark A. Commenator Mar 2001

Aircraft Maintenance Performance: The Effects Of The Functional Decentralization Of On-Equipment Maintenance, Mark A. Commenator

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force has implemented various aircraft maintenance organizational structures. The implementation of the Objective Wing in the early 1990s was the latest occurrence of reorganization. This research looks at the effect of the type of aircraft maintenance organizational structure on aircraft maintenance performance. The type of organizational structure was defined by the functional centralization of the on-equipment maintenance. Aircraft maintenance performance was measured using TNMCM rates, fix rates, repeat/recur rates, man-hours per flying hour, and scheduling effectiveness rates. Three F-15 wings and three F-16 wings were selected to compare the changes in aircraft maintenance performance and to determine if …

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A Methodology For Simulating The Joint Strike Fighter's Prognostics And Health Management System, Michael E. Malley Mar 2001

A Methodology For Simulating The Joint Strike Fighter's Prognostics And Health Management System, Michael E. Malley

Theses and Dissertations

The Autonomic Logistics System Simulation (ALSim) model was developed to provide decision makers a tool to make informed decisions regarding the Joint Strike Fighter's (JSF) Autonomic Logistics System (ALS). The ALS provides real-time maintenance information to ground maintenance crews, supply depots, and air planners to efficiently manage the availability of JSF aircraft. This thesis effort focuses on developing a methodology to model the Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) component of ALS. The PHM component of JSF monitors the aircraft status. To develop a PHM methodology to use in ALSim a neural network approach is used. Notional JSF prognostic signals were …

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Identification Of Critical Roles Of Program Managers And Contracting Officers, Daniel R. Shingledecker Mar 2001

Identification Of Critical Roles Of Program Managers And Contracting Officers, Daniel R. Shingledecker

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to identify current disagreement among acquisition professionals in regards to their role and authority; and to identify benefits and risks associated with combining program management and contracting officer roles into a single position. The research questions were answered through a literature review and use of the Delphi technique. The literature review indicated that the DoD has been operating with multiple conflicting perceptions of authority among its key acquisition professionals. The literature also identified the need for complex organizations, such as DoD acquisition offices, to pair high levels of responsibility with equally high levels of …

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Requirements-Based Methodology For Determining Age Inventory Levels, James A. Mackenna Mar 2001

Requirements-Based Methodology For Determining Age Inventory Levels, James A. Mackenna

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to illuminate crucial areas in analyzing AGE needs on an operational flightllne and assist in determination of AGE inventory levels. Further refinements could result in more objective and accurate assessments of actual flightline AGE needs and associated risks involved with reduction of AGE inventory levels. The research in this thesis consists of a discrete event simulation to determine desired AGE inventory level through an analysis of aircraft launches and wait time for AGE support by varying AGE (mean time between failure) MTBF and AGE inventory. Stochastic inputs for aircraft failures, AGE delivery times, and …

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The Effect Of Improving The Logistics Pipeline On Supply Support Of Aerospace Expeditionary Forces, Steven L. Martinez Mar 2001

The Effect Of Improving The Logistics Pipeline On Supply Support Of Aerospace Expeditionary Forces, Steven L. Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

One of the biggest considerations for an Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF), in terms of cost and airlift requirement, is the use of aircraft spares kits to support combat operations. To date, these kits are built on the assumption that there would be no resupply for the first 30 days of a contingency. However, with more efficient transportation and information resources available today, it seems logical that resupply would occur much more quickly. If so, the Air Force should be able to trim its wartime stocks of aircraft spares. This thesis investigated the effect of improving the logistics pipeline on the …

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