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Contemporary twin-engine airliners are more vulnerable to total loss of thrust than yesterday‘s three and four engine airliners, due to reduced engine redundancy. In the event of a total loss of thrust, flight crews have only one chance for landing, because the aircraft cannot gain altitude. Therefore, there is a pressing need to explore the idea of an engines-out landing trajectory optimization for commercial jets. A few past studies addressed this safety issue for general aviation aircraft and fighter jets but not commercial jets, primarily because the essential aircraft-specific aerodynamic data are not publicly available. To fill in this gap, this study adopts a kinematic approach to aircraft trajectory optimization. Unlike conventional trajectory optimization methods, the kinematic algorithm requires minimal amount of aircraft-specific aerodynamic data that can be effortlessly collected in a full flight simulator. The paper describes the kinematic algorithm and applies it to a realistic bird strike scenario. Flight simulation tests are conducted in a full flight simulator to verify the accuracy of the algorithm. The results demonstrate that the algorithm can compute the optimum trajectory with a less than 3.0 percent error. Since the algorithm is accurate and computationally-undemanding, it is promising for real-world applications.

This paper is focused on the description of complex airborne safety and reliability assessment methods mostly used in general aviation. It is a short presentation of standard approaches, principles and methods for the evaluation of aircraft critical systems. There are many techniques that may be used during safety and reliability assessment of an airborne system. The complexity of airborne system components and their interconnection is rapidly growing. System safety assessment is an essential part of an airplane certification process. Therefore, the means of safety and reliability have to evolve. This paper presents one of future potential concepts of safety and reliability analysis. The conclusion of this paper gives a brief summary of a standard and a future-potential technique. Článek popisuje postupy hodnocení bezpečnosti a spolehlivosti nejčastěji používané u letounů kategorie EASA CS-23. Krátká kritická rešerše prezentuje standardní přístupy, principy a metody hodnocení kritičnosti systémů letadel. S rostoucí svázanosti a složitostí palubních systémů se hodnocení bezpečnosti a spolehlivosti stává nezbytnou součástí procesu certifikace letadel. Tento článek představuje jednu z možných budoucích koncepcí hodnocení bezpečnosti a spolehlivosti palubních systémů.

The dynamic growth of general aviation as a mean of transport over medium distances means that people having no extraordinary qualifications or extraordinary physical or mental abilities more often pilot such types of airplanes. This phenomenon creates the necessity of giving planes flying qualities that allow them to be safely piloted by ordinary people. One way of solving this problem is equipping airplanes with fly‐by‐wire control systems that modify their handling qualities. Then the computer included into such control systems modifies the actions taken by the pilot, making the airplane both easier and more comfortable to control. This paper presents sample software tools – control algorithms that allowing an airplane's handling qualities to be improved. They are prepared by the authors and tested on board an experimental plane. That plane was equipped with a prototypical fly‐by‐wire control system, which can modify a plane's responses to a pilot's actions. First Published Online: 14 Oct 2010

The development of informatics and sensor techniques has extended the possibilities of flight parameter measurement. It allows for extensive modification of control and navigation systems in air vehicles. This advance can also be noticed in the research of the Department of Avionics and Control at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Rzeszow University of Technology. Research in the area of digital flight control systems was initiated at the Department of Avionics and Control over twenty years ago.One of the first research works in this field was a digital autopilot for general aviation aircraft M-20 Mewa (APC-1P). At the end of the 90’s the control and navigation system for unmanned aircraft (APC-4) was designed and applied on the board of PZL-110 Koliber aircraft. The next step in control system development was the indirect (Fly-by-Wire) flight control system for general aviation aircraft (SPS-1A) [12]. This system was also installed and tested on the board of PZL-110 Koliber aircraft. The solutions mentioned were featured using a new design approach. Available in-market components were chosen in respect of quality and safety. At the same time the improvement of structures of control and navigation systems were worked out. Safety provision was obtained by the use of structures with reconfiguration, induced by the methods of fault detection and localization. These structures are only known in transport or military aircraft. The progress of theoretical methods of the control systems design was strictly connected with development of production technology. The use of milling and thermo-transfer technology for the manufacture of printed circuits and advanced techniques of electronic devices integration has allowed the development of repeatable methods for manufacturing highly reliable systems. With tens of years of experience in the Department of Avionics and Control, Rzeszow University of Technology contains a lot of conclusions and notices. The authors are going to share some of them in this article. First published online:14 Oct 2010