Aviation Commons^™

Guidance, Navigation And Control Of A Fly-By-Wire Transport Category Airship Designed For Hover Cargo Delivery, Harshad H. Lalan

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this thesis is to develop fly-by-wire pilot controls for a transport category airship propelled with six thrust vectoring engines, and to develop control laws to maintain position, heading, and attitude during hover and cargo operations. Owing to the large body area, most airships require that they be pointed into the wind to maintain their position. This research aims at controlling an airship attitude and position during hover cargo delivery, irrespective of the wind direction.

Control laws were developed for two primary modes of the airship: Flight (High Speed Mode) and Hover (Cargo Delivery Mode). Different sets of …

Potential Environmental Benefits Of Extending Aircraft Pushback Operations, Dennis R. O'Connell

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This study considered extending the operational use of pushback tractors to perform taxi-out airport ground operations for commercial aircraft as an alternative to using aircraft power plants for this operation. Pushback tractors are designed to reverse aircraft from the terminal gate to a position where the aircraft can taxi independently to the departure runway. In this investigation the process of pushback would be extended to pulling the aircraft to the departure runway then returning the pushback tractor to the terminal of origin, a new procedure known as extended pushback.

Data from major aircraft operators and engine manufacturers were collected to …

Analysis Of Airport Security Screening Checkpoints Using Queuing Networks And Discrete Event Simulation: A Theoretical And Empirical Approach, Stephen Louis Dorton

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study utilized discrete event simulation (DES) and queuing networks to investigate the effects of baggage volume and alarm rate at the Security Screening Checkpoint (SSCP) of a small origin and destination airport. A Jackson queuing network was considered for a theoretical assessment to SSCP performance. A DES model using Arena version 12 was utilized for an empirical approach. Data was collected from both literature and by manual collection methods. Manual data was collected during the peak operating time of 6am-7am local time at the airport being modeled. The simulation model was verified and validated qualitatively and quantitatively by statistical …

Effects Of Online Training On Aircrew Monitoring Behaviors: A Field Study, Brian A. Potter

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Data from aircraft accidents and line observation studies indicate that inadequate pilot monitoring is a growing safety concern. In the cockpit environment, pilots who fail to properly manage their workload commit more monitoring errors. Given the lack of training and educational programs available to pilots which emphasize improving their monitoring skills, more research is needed to assess the usefulness of types of training that can be used to improve pilots' monitoring. This research project sets out to determine if the potential exists to enhance pilots' monitoring skills through online training. For this study, 40 military helicopter pilots (participants) were divided …

Nurturing Systems Thinking: Developing A Framework Based On The Human Factors Analysis And Classification System (Hfacs) To Improve Systems Development Processes, Arjun Vijayanarayanan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Large systems engineering projects have an astonishingly high failure rate. The reasons hypothesized for such a high failure rate include the neglect of nonsalient system elements such as social and human or organizational aspects of systems. Social and human factors have long been known to be critical elements of systems that are frequently ignored (e.g., Goguen, 1994). Systems engineering processes can benefit and be improved by effective utilization of a framework that helps developers expand their attention and efforts beyond the salient aspects of the system and the development process. In the aviation field, the Human Factors Analysis and Classification …

The Effect Of Shift Turnover Strategy And Time Pressure On Aviation Maintenance Technician Performance, William R. Warren

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Aviation maintenance technicians (AMTs) provide the technical and applied knowledge required to maintain airworthiness in aircraft. In commercial aviation, maintenance tasks are performed across multiple shifts. When AMTs share a maintenance task between shifts, the shift turnover strategy used may determine if information is effectively transferred between AMTs. Ineffective shift turnover strategies are a contributing factor in many aviation accidents and incidents. Additionally, time constraints on certain maintenance tasks may cause AMTs to commit error when performing a task. The present study examined the effect of shift turnover strategy (face-to-face or written) and time pressure on error capture, accuracy, and …

Depot-Level Simulation And Multivariate Analysis On B-1 High Velocity Maintenance, Florence K. Yee

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to gain insights on the B-1B depot maintenance operations, with a focus on direct maintenance hours or burn rate, under the implementation of High Velocity Maintenance (HVM). Based on historical depot maintenance data and the current B-1 depot HVM prototype data, a discrete-event simulation model is developed using Arena 12.0. Some United States Air Force supply chain influences, such as manning levels and kitting characteristics of the B-1 depot operations, are incorporated in our models as design factors. The model captures the stochastic nature of 30 HVM tasks performed on one B-1 aircraft in …

Composite Aircraft Life Cycle Cost Estimating Model, Daniel B. Lambert

Theses and Dissertations

Composite materials are beginning to comprise a greater percentage of structural materials used throughout aircraft production. The increased usage of composites has led individuals within the Air Force community to revisit aircraft life cycle cost, LCC, models. A series of affordability initiatives has culminated in significant evidence over the last decade to better quantify the impact of primarily composite structures in aircraft. The Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft, ACCA, a research effort sponsored by the Air Force Research Lab, attempted to determine the impact of part size and large scale composite components on LCC for cargo aircraft. This research evaluates the …

Characterization Of Graphite Composite Material Particulates From Usaf Aircraft Maintenance Operations, Richard E. Yon

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the benefits of their material properties, advanced composite materials (ACM) are increasingly being used as structural components on aircraft, especially within the United States Air Force. As a result, the potential exists for occupational exposures to structural maintenance employees while repairing and fabricating aircraft components. Two field studies were conducted for this thesis in order to characterize ACM aerosol size distribution, determine the feasibility of utilizing direct reading instruments (DRIs) in the field, and ensure workers are protected with adequate controls. In order to characterize exposure, traditional integrated air sampling and DRIs were positioned together near an ACM …

Dealing With Contaminated Runways, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

No abstract provided.

The Name Game As Blame Game: The Domodedovo Terrorist Bombing, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the relevance of blame in the context of terrorism.

Flying Uav’S In Iraq, Stephen Rayleigh

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAV’s, are a growing reality and an important new weapon for today’s military. Hear what it was like to fly the RQ-7B “Shadow” UAV during Operation Iraqi Freedom from Stephen Rayleigh who spent a year in Iraq and has more than 1,000 hours experience flying them.

A Midsummer Night’S Dream (With Flying Robots), Robin Murphy, Dylan Shell, Amy Guerin, Brittany Duncan, Benjamin Fine, Kevin Pratt, Takis Zourntos

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Seven flying robot “fairies” joined human actors in the Texas A&M production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The production was a collaboration between the departments of Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Theater Arts. The collaboration was motivated by two assertions. First, that the performing arts have principles for creating believable agents that will transfer to robots. Second, the theater is a natural testbed for evaluating the response of untrained human groups (both actors and the audience) to robots interacting with humans in shared spaces, i.e., were believable agents created? The production used two types …

The Effects Of System Reliability And Task Uncertainty On Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator Performance Under High Time Pressure, Manuela Jaramillo

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

For many years, the military has understood the value and versatility of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). In the recent years, UASs have sparked the interest of other fields, and in the very near future, they will be introduced into the National Airspace System (NAS). With this inclusion come new concerns. Due to the future wide range applications for UASs, it is important to explore factors, which may affect operator performance. The UAS operator task differs from that of a manned aircraft pilot. An UAS operator does not get the same sensory cues as a pilot and their field of vision …

Uniform And Partially Uniform Redistribution Rules, Florentin Smarandache, Jean Dezert

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper introduces two new fusion rules for combining quantitative basic belief assignments. These rules although very simple have not been proposed in literature so far and could serve as useful alternatives because of their low computation cost with respect to the recent advanced Proportional Conflict Redistribution rules developed in the DSmT framework.

Evidence Supporting Measure Of Similarity For Reducing The Complexity In Information Fusion, Xinde Li, Jean Dezert, Florentin Smarandache, Xinhan Huang

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper proposes a new solution for reducing the number of sources of evidence to be combined in order to diminish the complexity of the fusion process required in some applications where the real-time constraint and strong computing resource limitation are of prime importance. The basic idea consists in selecting, among the whole set of sources of evidence, only the biggest subset of sources which are not too contradicting based on a criterion of Evidence Supporting Measure of Similarity (ESMS) in order to process solely the coherent information received. The ESMS criterion serves actually as a generic tool for outlier …

Imbalanced Learning For Functional State Assessment, Feng Li, Frederick Mckenzie, Jiang Li, Guanfan Zhang, Roger Xu, Carl Richey, Tom Schnell, Thomas E. Pinelli (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents results of several imbalanced learning techniques applied to operator functional state assessment where the data is highly imbalanced, i.e., some function states (majority classes) have much more training samples than other states (minority classes). Conventional machine learning techniques usually tend to classify all data samples into majority classis and perform poorly for minority classes. In this study, we implemented five imbalanced learning techniques, including random under-sampling, random over-sampling, synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE), borderline-SMOTE and adaptive synthetic sampling (ADASYN) to solve this problem. Experimental results on a benchmark driving test dataset show that accuracies for minority classes …

A Systematic Approach For Engagement Analysis Under Multitasking Environments, Guangfan Zhang, John Leddo, Roger Xu, Carl Richey, Tom Schnell, Frederick Mckenzie, Jiang Li, Thomas E. Pinelli (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

An overload condition can lead to high stress for an operator and further cause substantial drops in performance. On the other extreme, in automated systems, an operator may become underloaded; in which case, it is difficult for the operator to maintain sustained attention. When an unexpected event occurs, either internal or external to the automated system, a disengaged operation may neglect, misunderstand, or respond slowly/inappropriately to the situation. In this paper, we discuss a systematic approach monitor for extremes of cognitive workload and engagement in multitasking environments. Inferences of cognitive workload and engagement are based on subjective evaluations, objective performance …

Automatic Detection Of Aircraft Emergency Landing Sites, Yu-Fei Shen, Zia-Ur Rahman, Dean Krusienski, Jiang Li, Zia-Ur Rahman (Ed.), Stephen E. Reichenbach (Ed.), Mark Allen Neifeld (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

An automatic landing site detection algorithm is proposed for aircraft emergency landing. Emergency landing is an unplanned event in response to emergency situations. If, as is unfortunately usually the case, there is no airstrip or airfield that can be reached by the un-powered aircraft, a crash landing or ditching has to be carried out. Identifying a safe landing site is critical to the survival of passengers and crew. Conventionally, the pilot chooses the landing site visually by looking at the terrain through the cockpit. The success of this vital decision greatly depends on the external environmental factors that can impair …

An Overview Of The Low-Cost Carrier Model In The Russian Market, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna L. Rhoades

Publications

This study provides an overview of the low-cost carrier (LCC) model in the Russian market. The LCC model seeks to achieve a competitive advantage through the reduction of operating costs, below the traditional airline model. Since Russia is an emerging and developing economy, airlines face a high level of uncertainty. Despite the fact that the Russian aviation market is dominated by a few large carriers, Russian lowcost airlines such as SkyExpress and Avianova have been growing rapidly since starting their operations. While Russian LCCs follow the traditional LCC model, some differences are apparent as a result of the specifics of …

Risk Perception Analysis Of A Small Aircraft Transportation System, David S. Ferrel, Thomas Q. Carney, Scott R. Winter

Publications

This study examines the impact and relationship between demographic factors and risk perceptions toward Small Aircraft Transportation Systems (SATS). The study included 178 participants who responded to an electronic survey administered to Purdue University faculty members and to selected leaders within the Purdue Intercollegiate Athletics department. Participants were surveyed as to their demographic identities including gender, age, academic position, and aviation familiarity, as well as their perceptions of physical, financial, and status risk from a SATS program. Results of this study showed that certain demographic factors are significant predictors of certain SATS travel risk perceptions. Participants’ intentions to travel via …

Postures Féminines Dans L’Oeuvre De Calixthe Beyala, Carmen Husti-Laboye

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The aim of this paper is to analyze, through the example of the feminist positions proposed by Calixthe Beyala in the novels she wrote between 1987 and 2007, the change of the novelist’s ideological and artistic perspective. It emphasizes the progressive loss of critical voice to the advantage of a new voice wishing to understand itself as individuality in its world. This study reveals the novelist’s contribution to the construction of a new position of the individual in the context of French social and cultural life.

Flight Physician - December, 2010, Civil Aviation Medical Association

Browse all Civil Aviation Medical Association Newsletters

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

The U2 Spy Plane Crisis: Turning Point In The Cold War, William Weiss

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

When the Soviets shot down Francis Gary Powers’ U2 spy plane in 1960, it caused an international crisis. Thanks to recently declassified US and former Soviet archives, we can now hear the inside story of what really happened as told by an American History writer & lecturer.

The Yemen Narrative: Cargo Cults And Cargo Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author gives a psychological perspective on the security of aviation cargo shipments.

Developing Proactive Methods For General Aviation Data Collection, Scott Shappell, Carla Hackworth, Kali Holcomb, John Lanicci, Massoud Bazargan, Jaclyn Baron, Rebecca Iden, Daniel Halperin

Publications

Introduction. Over the last 20 years, nearly 40,000 general aviation (GA) aircraft were involved in accidents, roughly 20% of which were fatal. To address this safety concern, scientists have often relied on accident data. Because of the rare nature of accidents, commercial aviation incident and near miss data may prove to be useful sources of safety information. In one such study, the National Transportation Safety Board interviewed GA pilots that were flying near a weather-related accident in pursuit of a different perspective than that of the accident pilot. Interviewing GA pilots about their own weather-related event may provide similar …

Estimation Of Air Flow Angles Derived From An Inertial Navigation System, Brett Douglas Mather

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of an Inertial Navigation System as a primary method for measuring aircraft air flow angles in flight testing. The traditional methods used to measure air flow angles consist of sensors external to the aircraft, such as an air data boom or an angle of attack probe. The advantage of using INS to measure air flow angles would be in the simplicity of the instrumentation. All components could be fixed internally, leaving minimal external modifications to the aircraft necessary for instrumentation. This would reduce costs and instrumentation time and enable air …

Fault-Injection Experiment For The Statistical Characterization Of Faults In Avionics Communication System, Amy M. Yates

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Since flight control systems perform safety-critical functions, it is important to understand the possible effects on the closed-loop dynamical system's performance caused by these faults. The purpose of this project is to design the software and hardware needed to add fault-injection and monitoring capabilities to ROBUS-2, a flight communication system. ROBUS-2 is the current version of the fault-tolerant computer communication system used by the Scalable Processor-Independent Design for Enhanced Reliability (SPIDER), a general-purpose fault-tolerant integrated modular architecture (IMA) developed at the NASA Langley Research Center. The major components of SPIDER include processing elements (PEs) to perform calculations, bus interface units …

Pilot Perception Of Light Emitting Diodes Versus Incandescent Elevated Runway Guard Lights, Hilary Stevens

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Pilots must understand and be aware of the purpose of each airport sign, light and marking, for there are numerous. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is planning on replacing the current incandescent lighting with far more economical LED airport lighting. In preparation for this change, two experiments were conducted for this thesis. Experiment 1 attempted to determine what pilots know about the meaning of the signs, markings and lights on the taxiways and runways through a questionnaire that was developed with the FAA. Experiment 2 evaluated pilot perception of LED lighting compared to current incandescent elevated runway guard lights.

The …

A Day In The Life Of A Float Plane Charter Pilot, Bryan Cox

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

Ever taken a float plane trip or wanted to? Learn what it’s like to be a float plane pilot doing charter work in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. Hear this light-heated, informal, presentation by someone who has done all this for “fun and profit”!