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Onboard far-field aircraft detection is needed for safe non-cooperative traffic mitigation in autonomous small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) operations. Machine vision systems, based on standard op...

Air vehicle sizing requires the ability to estimate the propulsive power and energy requirements of a flight vehicle as well as its weight. Existing tools and methods for aircraft sizing typically ...

Improving operational sustainability may help U.S. general aviation (GA) airports improve overall sustainable development without substantial financial inputs. An exploratory multiple-case study of five GA airports was conducted to explore the current understandings of airport operational sustainability among U.S. GA airports. Based on findings, a new definition of airport operational sustainability for U.S. GA airports was developed. A set of performance metrics for measuring operational sustainability in U.S. GA airports was identified. The new definition may help GA airports to develop sustainable management plans, and may help airports in other categories to expand their sustainability perspectives. The metrics identified in this study may be used to measure progress to the sustainable development, identify problems, and set performance goals or targets for airports. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Proper exploitation of derived angle of attack (AOA) and sideslip angle from low-cost attitude heading reference system sensors found in general aviation aircraft is a candidate solution for improv...

With the gradual orderly opening of low-altitude areas and the increasing number of private aircraft, the general aviation industry has ushered in new opportunities for development. Ventilation and cooling optimization of the piston aeroengine has become a very important field in general aviation enterprises. The traditional aircraft engine design method and control system do not consider the coupling between aircraft and engine, which can not meet the needs of development. Therefore, an optimization method for the ventilation and cooling of aircraft piston engines based on a genetic algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the engine cooling model is constructed, the ventilation and cooling principles of aircraft piston engines are analyzed, and then the genetic algorithm is used to optimize the ventilation and cooling program of the aircraft piston engine. The results show that the method can effectively optimize the ventilation and cooling scheme of the aero piston engine. During the optimization process, the average convergence value is always greater than 95.00%. Under different working conditions, the maximum failure rate of the optimized ventilation and cooling scheme is 0.03. The maximum failure rate is lower than that of similar methods.

Aiming at the problem of aircraft spare parts inventory management in general aviation, It is necessary to reserve aircraft spare parts by classification in general aviation companies, putting forward a new idea that it comprehensively consider the safety, economy, availability and consumability 4 aspects which affect the inventory of aircraft spare parts, it established aircraft spare parts classification model based on the FAHP method. Finally, the accuracy and practicability of the research method are validated by an example.

The rapid development of general aviation leads to many problems in air traffic management. The efficient and accurate flight trajectory prediction is the key technology to improve the safety and management efficiency of general aviation flight. Aiming at the problem that the communication signal of general aviation flying at low altitude is affected by factors such as mountains and buildings, this paper proposes a short-term flight trajectory prediction method based on log short term memory (LSTM) by adding the characteristics of displacement at adjacent moments on the basis of real-time flight trajectory data of general aviation aircraft. The results show that the flight trajectory prediction model based on LSTM has a high accuracy (81.65%). The predicted flight trajectory is consistent with the actual flight trajectory and the latitude and longitude positions are close. This method meets the requirements of real-time flight trajectory of general aviation aircraft.

The paper presents an analysis of the current state of aviation safety in Poland and an assessment of the possibility of its improvement. It has been pointed out that the specificity of general and commercial aviation practically does not allow their joint treatment in security management. The SHELL concept and the proposal to develop it for use in the design of security systems were discussed. This allowed to indicate the security systems application possibilities. Sequentially potential benefits of the proposed implementation of technology in general aviation were analyzed. The article is summarized by application conclusions which are also the future directions of the development of safety management in general aviation.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) offers various advantages in mapping and surveying in recent times. The use of solar panels in a standard UAV pushes the general aviation standards of endurance in air. This paper focuses on designing and developing a solar-powered UAV with solar endurance capabilities while simultaneously used for surveying, mapping and disaster relief. The proposed UAV is designed specifically to stay in the air as long as possible, which in turn increases the flight travel distance. Acquiring the solar power as an energy resource enables the small scale UAVs to bear a heavier, more efficient payload sensor and can extend flight times. The flight is designed with the gross weight less than 5Kg and low cruise speed. The proposed work also focuses on designing the UAV considering the payload capabilities and integrated with sensors to collect environmental parameters. Highlights in this paper are the construction and the design of the UAV aircraft by using ANSYS.

In this paper, we present a complex solution for flight data gathering, analyzation, and visualization. This solution can be used for the Competency-Based Training of pilots in general aviation. For the data gathering, we are introducing a concept of an embedded device. For data analyzation, we are introducing the approach for algorithmic detection of flight maneuvers based on the recorded flight data. There is a multiplatform software application for data visualization. We are also describing the reasons for creating such solutions and potential future uses of our hardware and software products. This paper is mostly describing the important requirements and their implementation regarding the future usage for Competency-Based Training of pilots in general aviation. We are not describing a lot of technical details to keep this paper straightforward and we are mostly focusing on passing the whole idea and benefits of our products.

With an always increasing demand for more efficient aircraft due to both economic and environmental purposes, academy and industry are studying hybrid-electric and full-electric concepts to explore new aircraft design opportunities. This paper proposes a study based on a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, using it as a platform to implement distributed electric propulsion and enable the use of high-lift propellers by electrifying the propulsive system. Key design parameters of the aircraft are varied to evaluate the effectiveness of the lift augmentation system as well as its effects on generated thrust and aerodynamic efficiency. The effects of the propellers slipstreams on the wing are implemented on SUAVE, a conceptual level design environment, which is used to integrate the aircraft model and run the simulations. Results of the analyses differ from what is available on the literature, yielding aerodynamic efficiency gains that are much more modest than what was expected according to assumptions made on recent publications.

General aviation suffers from an alarmingly high rate of fatal loss-of-control accidents. For a number of years, the aviation community has been working on developing new airworthiness certification standards and means of compliance to move the safety needle. This paper proposes a new Part 23 means of compliance based on flight testing of single-engine Level 2 and Level 3 aircraft, crafted to address the low-altitude and startled-pilot loss-of-control problem. This means of compliance encourages good low-speed handling qualities, promotes flight characteristics over warning devices, redefines roll limits to appropriate values, eliminates the ambiguous term “uncontrollable nose down pitching motion”, allows cost-effective flight testing with appropriate minimum standard flight test methodology, specifically emphasizes the qualitative assessment of the certification authority test pilot for compliance determination, and achieves a higher standard than previous Part 23 amendments. The means of compliance combines minimum thresholds for coordinated stall characteristics with point-based scoring for uncoordinated “feet-on-the-floor” stalls, longitudinal trim force changes during configuration changes, and warning devices. The paper reports on the flight tests executed in the development of this means of compliance and discusses the motivation and thought processes.

Timely and efficient air traffic flow management (ATFM) is a key issue in future dense air traffic. The emerging demands for unmanned aerial vehicles and general aviation aircraft aggravate the burden of the ATFM. Thanks to the advanced automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) technique, the aerial vehicles can be tracked and monitored in a real-time and accurate manner, providing possibility for establishing a more intelligent ATFM architecture. In this paper, we first form an aviation big data platform by using the distributed ADS-B ground stations and the obtained ADS-B messages. By exploring the constructed dataset and mapping the extracted information to the routes, the air traffic flow between different cities can be counted and predicted, where the prediction task is implemented on the basis of two machine learning methods, respectively. The experimental results based on real-world data demonstrate that the proposed traffic flow prediction model adopting long short-term memory (LSTM) can achieve better performance, especially when abnormal factors in traffic control are considered.

International audience; Quantification and improvement of safety is one of the most important objectives among the General Aviation community. In recent years, machine learning techniques have emerged as an important enabler in the data-driven safety enhancement of aviation operations with a number of techniques being applied to flight data to identify and isolate anomalous (and potentially unsafe) operations. Energy-based metrics provide measurable indications of the energy state of the aircraft and can be viewed as an objective currency to evaluate various safety-critical conditions across a heterogeneous fleet of aircraft and operations. In this paper, a novel method of identifying instantaneous anomalies for retrospective safety analysis in General Aviation using energy-based metrics is proposed. Each flight data record is processed by a sliding window across the multi-variate time series of evaluated metrics. A Gaussian Mixture Model using energy metrics and their variability within each window is fit in order to predict the probability of any instant during the flight being nominal. Instances during flights that deviate from the nominal are isolated to identify potential increased levels of risk. The identified anomalies are compared with traditional methods of safety assessment such as exceedance detection to highlight the benefits of the developed method. The methodology is demonstrated using flight data records from two representative aircraft for critical phases of flight.

The system-level capabilities and component-level sensitivities of hybrid-electric propulsion systems were analyzed by modeling a twin-engine general-aviation aircraft. The flight-performance model...

Knowledge of the precise number of operations of aircraft occurring at general aviation airports is essential due to the application of that information in the process of allocating funds for airpo...

The aim of this paper was to analyse and model the behaviour decision-making of rescue crews in multi-helicopter collaborative search and rescue mission. Firstly, based on decision field theory, a dynamic behavioural decision-making model was put forward considering personal behaviour decision-making preference. Besides, considering physical characteristics, safety requirements and rescue crews’ behaviour decision-making, a multi-helicopter collaborative search and rescue behaviour model was established. Then, based on the survey of four general aviation helicopter search and rescue companies, the search and rescue efficiency by teams composed of different decision-making preferences was simulated based on distributed ant colony algorithm in experiments. Results showed that rescue crews with different personal preferences have different behaviour characteristics. Besides, teams composed of mixed preferences are more efficient than teams composed of single preferences, and the most optimal composition way is when the positive type is slightly more than the conservative type and balanced type.

The growing economical and environmental pressures have accelerated the research and development of hybrid electric power technology in order to increase aircraft performance and reduce the operating and maintenance costs. There has been a big increase in the electrical power rating on new aircraft entering into service. This study gives an overview of the design and development of a hybrid electric propulsion system for light General Aviation aircraft. The theoretical and practical challenges are reviewed and elaborated firstly. The system architecture design is based on a parallel configuration. The ground test of the developed hardware-in-the-loop system is presented based on a test flight mission.

In the context of reducing the environmental footprint of tomorrow’s aviation, Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) has become an increasingly interesting concept. With the strong coupling between disciplines that this technology brings forth, multiple benefits are expected for the overall aircraft design. These interests have been observed not only in the aerodynamic properties of the aircraft but also in the structural design. However, current statistical models used in conceptual design have shown limitations regarding the benefits and challenges coming from these new design trends. As for other methods, they are either not adapted for use in a conceptual design phase or do not cover CS-23 category aircraft. This paper details a semi-analytical methodology compliant with the performance-based certification criteria presented by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to predict the structural mass breakdown of a wing. This makes the method applicable to any aircraft regulated by EASA CS-23. Results have been validated with the conventional twin-engine aircraft Beechcraft 76, the innovative NASA X-57 Maxwell concept using DEP, and the commuter aircraft Beechcraft 1900.

Energy management and energy state awareness are important concepts in aircraft safety analysis. Many loss-of-control accidents are correlated to poor energy management. Energy-based metrics provid...

Accurate counts of aircraft operations at unmonitored or partially monitored general aviation airports are difficult to achieve, but they are important because of their effect on the allocation of federal and state airport improvement funds. Impediments to correctly counting aircraft operations include inaccuracies related to the acoustic counters that are commonly used to collect data and errors in the statistical procedures that extrapolate the sample data into meaningful counts. In response to these impediments, the authors developed a measurement technique that uses data from aircraft transponders to determine the occurrence of aircraft operations at these airports. To validate the accuracy of this technique, operations counts calculated from its use at a general aviation airport in the state of Indiana were compared with those obtained from the FAA’s Air Traffic Activity Data System database, which contains official operations data reported by airports with towers. This comparison, which was conducted using data for April 2016, indicated that the new technology provided values within 5% of the 7,837 total operations reported by tower operators. The transponder signal–counting technology thus appears to be an effective and inexpensive means of establishing accurate operations counts not only at these airports but potentially at the more than 2,800 of the 3,331 airports in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems that lack associated air traffic control towers.

International audience; This paper presents an ongoing work on how systems engineering relates pilot, procedures, and the aircraft. This is done by modelling these three using an example case of landing procedure (general aviation). The model also helps in performing safety analysis of the procedures laid out by the aircraft operators/ manufacturers, or the aviation regulatingauthorities (EASA, FAA, etc.).

With the development of general aviation transportation, general airports are gradually being built, one of the urgent problems to be solved is optimizing the site selection of general airports to improve flight safety and economy. In order to solve this problem, this paper studies the requirements of clearance and flight performance of the general airports, the factors which affect the optimization of airport site selection with the complex terrain are analyzed, the general airport site selection optimization model is established, and designs a multi-objective genetic algorithm to solve the problem. Based on the actual operation data of a general airport, a set of Pareto optimal solutions is obtained, which is better than the traditional method, the validity of the model is fully verified.

This paper presents an emergency rescue capability evaluation model for general aviation enterprise under specified rescue demand after earthquake. The proposed methodology consists of three steps: (1) correspondence research between demand and capability and influencing factors analysis on rescue capability to construct the rescue capability evaluation indicator system; (2) importance determination of rescue demand and relevance degree analysis between demand and capability to establish the evaluation model by using Quality Function Deployment method; (3) case study by choosing three real general aviation enterprises to verify the rationality and feasibility of the model. The goal is to provide effective and accurate suggestions for the selection of rescue enterprises when deploying air emergency rescue forces after earthquake.

Paper checklists are being replaced by software on a tablet computer, i.e., an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). We focus on what effects this can have on the human pilot and on safety and security. We define practical EFB modifications, implementable in an app, to improve trustworthiness, especially for general aviation (GA).

With the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the U.S. National Airspace System, low altitude regions are being stressed in historically new ways. The FAA must understand and quantify the risk of UAS collision with manned aircraft during desired low altitude unmanned operations in order to produce regulations and standards. A key component of these risk assessments are statistical models of aircraft flight. Previous risk assessments used models for manned aircraft based primarily on Mode C-based secondary surveillance radar observations. However, these models have some important limitations when used at low altitude. We demonstrate a methodology for developing statistical models of low altitude manned flight or applicable at low altitudes that leverages the OpenSky Network, a crowdsourced ADS-B receiver network that provides open access to the aircraft data, and the FAA aircraft registry, an open database of registered aircraft. Unlike Mode C surveillance, a key advantage to this method is the availability of necessary metadata to distinguish between different types of low altitude aircraft. For example, previous models did not discriminate a large commercial aircraft transiting to higher altitudes from low altitude or small general aviation aircraft cruising at low altitudes. We use an aircraft's unique Mode S address to correlate ADS-B reports with aircraft type information from the FAA registry. We filter surveillance data and statistically characterize the low altitude airspace based on aircraft type, performance, and location. Lastly, we leverage the characterization and aircraft tracks to develop a Dynamic Bayesian Network that models the behavior of low altitude manned aircraft, an extension of previous aircraft modeling approaches that have employed Bayesian networks. By sampling representative trajectories from the Bayesian network, we can model encounters between manned and unmanned aircraft at low altitudes to assess collision risk, a key supporting technology to support safe integration of unmanned aircraft.

Florida Institute of Technology partnered with the FAA Small Aircraft Directorate to conduct flight tests characterizing the specific excess power of five general aviation aircraft. The objective of this flight campaign was to compare and contrast performance characteristics among representative single-engine general aviation aircraft. The data produced in the campaign contributes to an effort to create a regulatory environment that uses advances in technology to enhance general aviation safety, while reducing the effort, time and cost associated with the certification of new equipment. Loss of control continues to plague general aviation. Predictive displays and warning systems informing pilots about the aircraft's current energy state, the amount of excess power available, and the control inputs needed to transition to a “healthy” energy state have the potential to reduce the chance for loss of control. This paper contributes data on the amount of excess power available. Examining the data for five aircraft will offer developers of prediction algorithms and warning systems common features to consider for their code logic. Lessons learned in the execution of this flight test program, as well as suggestions for future research, are provided.

By studying the classification and use characteristics of navigable airspace, studying the methods and standards of all kinds of navigable airspace planning, determining all kinds of key parameters of navigable airspace, constructing the navigable airspace planning and management system based on Ge, providing corresponding technical reference and effective management means for the planning of navigable airspace, and solving the problems of airspace planning, efficient use of airspace and low altitude supervision Question.

In order to better promote the collaborative innovation ability among general aviation enterprises and promote the high-quality development of general aviation industry, this paper is based on the social network relationship theory and embeddedness principles, using the general aviation enterprises as structural embedding to determine the key nodes of the innovation network. The value chain, supply and demand chain, and information sharing behavior are used as relational embeddings to build a general aviation enterprise chain innovation network. On this basis, from the aspects of network topology graph, node degree, clustering coefficient, etc., quantitative analysis of the structure and characteristics of the general aviation enterprise innovation network is carried out, so as to lay a foundation for the functional orientation of the main body of collaborative innovation in the aviation industry. The research shows that: At present, the collaborative innovation of general aviation enterprises has not formed a scale. The inn ovation of enterprises mainly relies on large-scale general aviation enterprises with stat e prefix. Most general aviation enterprises have weak innovation capabilities, and the s mall and medium-sized general aviation enterprises are in the initial development stage. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the support of various types of general aviation enterprises, provide support in terms of funds and policies and so on, so as to promote the improvement of collaborative innovation capabilities among various types of general aviation enterprises

In the frame of the European objectives in terms of CO2 emissions, the aeronautics is looking for a technological rupture to achieve them, in particular, the aircraft design domain pursuits this through the research of innovative architectures. One of these innovative configurations currently being explored includes the hybrid electric energy source (thermal/electric) for Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) architecture. This Paper details a code developed to size a general aviation aircraft at concept level, by only defining its top level requirements and the main architecture parameters. The code can manage both conventional and hybrid power source as well as concentred or distributed propulsion architectures in order to allow the user to evaluate and compare the feasibility and benefits respectively of these innovative architectures. This code is a branch of the code “FAST-CS25” (Future Aircraft Sizing Tool for conventional CS-25 type) held by ONERA/ISAE-SUPAERO. The presented work aims at the expansion of the FAST code to CS-23 conventional type, hybrid electric energy source, and distributed propulsion system configurations. Through this paper, the models and the main sizing loops for the concept design are described, but putting special emphasis on the distributed propulsion aerodynamics and wing mass estimation. These detailed models where validated with the NASA X-57 DEP aircraft satisfactory. The whole concept design loop of a hybrid energy aircraft was validated with the eGenius hybrid energy aircraft.

The advantages of electric drives and conventional combustion engines can be combined in series hybrid-electric aircraft through appropriate aircraft design. As a consequence, energy-efficient aircraft with sufficient range can be realised in general aviation. The sizing of the energy storage system has a significant impact on the range, the energy consumption, and the related energy cost of the aircraft. In this paper, the boundary conditions for the sizing of the energy storage are analysed. Based upon this, a design for an energy-optimized aircraft will be suggested. The energy consumption of this aircraft will then be compared to modern conventional aircraft.

This paper develops a state-based accident model that we apply to General Aviation (GA) accidents recorded in the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident database. We demonstrate our approach on 6180 helicopter accidents that occurred in the United States between 1982 and 2015, with emphasis on inflight loss of control (LOC-I) accidents. Our model helps remove the redundancies in the NTSB coding system by logically grouping various NTSB accident codes that convey the same meaning. Further, this model checks for logical gaps or omissions in NTSB accident records, and potentially fills the omissions in. This approach uses NTSB coding data to define a set of states (safe or hazardous) for a system and triggers that move the system into (or out of) these states. We identify the most frequent triggers for LOC-I and compare the results from the state-based approach with those obtained from a conventional analysis of NTSB accident codes.

The paper presents a wheel dynamometer system developed for testing aircraft landing gear. The purpose of the dynamometer is to measure forces and moments acting on an aircraft landing gear wheel. The dynamometer was designed with the use of strain gages, as an autonomous measuring device, with a wireless data transferring system. The presented system was designed for the PZL 104 Wilga 35A multipurpose aircraft, but it could be re-designed for any other general aviation, light aircraft. The paper contains detailed descriptions of the design and development as well as sample results from early test measurements. Certification for ground and flight tests of airplanes has been considered for the presented dynamometer system.

This article studies on the analysis of safety characteristics of flight situation in complex low-altitude airspace with Agent-based simulation. Several aircraft behavior models are proposed taking account of complex low-altitude environment and general aviation flight characteristics, including an individual aircraft behavior model, a multi-flight behavior model, and an individual interaction model. And, some flight situation indicators are introduced to be used to analyze safety characteristics, such as flight volume, average speed, and flight conflict. In addition, a mixed flight situation simulation environment for complex low-altitude airspace is built with Agent technology and NetLogo. Based on the simulation environment, the relationship and influence rules among these flight situation indicators are found with flight situation evolution process. The results show a non-linear relationship between flight volume and flight conflict and conflict time; as flight volume increases, the fluctuation of average separation decreases, while the average speed-change increases first, but decreases with continuous increase in the volume, meanwhile the average heading-change gradually stabilizes after initial increase. It is also found that a reasonable setting of flight parameters is beneficial for the smooth operation of low-altitude airspace.

In recent years, China's general aviation (GA) has developed rapidly. However, the support of navigation flight services is still very weak, flight planning and coordination is difficult, lack of meteorological information, supervising and surveillance means, low level of information automation, and does not adapt to general aviation development. By adopting various information and communication network technologies, the general aviation flight service platform based on “cloud” and virtual technology can provide flexible, convenient, professional and reliable operation support services for general aviation flight, and promote general aviation development. In this paper, the operation mode of general aviation flight service is discussed firstly, and then the system structure, software and hardware composition of general aviation flight service platform are designed. Finally, through the development of the system platform, the design function of flight service platform is realized, and it is applied in the actual construction.

The FAA's Small Airplane Directorate has been working for years to address General Aviation (GA) safety and to create a regulatory environment that uses advances in technology to enhance GA safety, while reducing the effort, time and cost associated with the certification of new equipment. This paper presents suggestions for new methods of compliance for Angle-of-Attack (AOA) warning systems and AOA-limiting systems. The methods of compliance were derived from a flight campaign on the Technical University of Munich's fly-by-wire DA42 research aircraft. The team consisted of GA test pilots, experienced flight test engineers, research assistants, and college students. The project explored novel concepts for audio, visual and haptic AOA warning. Classic test-matrix approaches were compared to pilot-tracking tasks designed to put GA aircraft in conditions that activate AOA-warning or AOA-limiting systems. Lessons learned in the execution of this flight test program, as well as the system integration of the advanced technologies, are provided.

This article proposes a novel and effective solution for estimating fatigue life of General Aviation (GA) airframes using flight data produced by digital avionics systems, which are being installed or retrofitted into a growing number of GA aircraft. In the proposed implementation, a flight dynamics model is adopted to process the recorded flight data and to determine the dynamic loadings experienced by the aircraft. The equivalent loading cycles at fatigue-critical points of the primary structure are counted by means of statistical methods. For validation purposes, the developed approach is applied to flight data recorded by a fleet of Cessna 172S aircraft fitted with a Garmin G1000 integrated navigation and guidance system. Based on the initial experimental results and the developed uncertainty analysis, the proposed approach provides acceptable estimates of the residual fatigue life of the aircraft, thereby allowing a cost-effective and streamlined structural integrity monitoring solution. Future developments will address the possible adoption of the proposed method for unmanned aircraft structural health monitoring, also considering the accuracy enhancements achievable with advanced navigation and guidance architectures based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Vision-Based Navigation (VBN) Sensors, Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and Aircraft Dynamics Model (ADM) augmentation.

Object tracking is performed when surveillance applications have multiple observations of an object over time. An example of such a surveillance application is mounting a wideangle Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar system on board of a General Aviation aircraft. This is done in order to observe its environment in detail, including noncooperative objects such as birds and windmills. Data generated by such a system follows different physical laws than the images of standard visual applications. In this paper, a novel tracking algorithm is introduced which is tailor-made for FMCW applications. The algorithm is tested in a simulated crowded general aviation airspace, and the resulting tracks are qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. The proposed algorithm performs better than a traditional algorithm on all aspects, but tracking errors can still be made in rare cases. The proposed algorithm can be used in conjunction with research focusing on observation quality or assignment problems.

Object tracking is performed when surveillance applications have multiple observations of an object over time. An example of such a surveillance application is mounting a wideangle Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar system on board of a General Aviation aircraft. This is done in order to observe its environment in detail, including noncooperative objects such as birds and windmills. Data generated by such a system follows different physical laws than the images of standard visual applications. In this paper, a novel tracking algorithm is introduced which is tailor-made for FMCW applications. The algorithm is tested in a simulated crowded general aviation airspace, and the resulting tracks are qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. The proposed algorithm performs better than a traditional algorithm on all aspects, but tracking errors can still be made in rare cases. The proposed algorithm can be used in conjunction with research focusing on observation quality or assignment problems.

This paper deals with the development, implementation and testing of an aircraft ground roll runway centerline tracking controller for a modified general aviation Diamond Aircraft Industries DA42 M-NG aircraft. The controller was designed for the takeoff run as well as the rollout after an automatic landing. In contrast to many existing solutions, the controller presented in this paper had to cope with the mechanical link between nose wheel steering and rudder as well as limited control authority of the nose wheel steering at low speeds. The ground controller was tested and demonstrated in roll and flight tests. Corresponding results are shown to demonstrate the performance of the controller.

This paper describes the development of a methodology to assess the handling qualities requirements for vertical takeoff and landing-capable personal aerial vehicles. It is anticipated that such a personal aerial vehicle would be flown by a “flight-naive” pilot who has received much less training than is typically received even by today’s general aviation private pilots. The methodology used to determine handling requirements for a personal aerial vehicle cannot therefore be based entirely on existing best practice; the use of highly experienced test pilots in a conventional handling assessment limits the degree to which results apply to the flight-naive pilot. Using rotary-wing handling qualities methods as a start point, this paper describes both existing and newly developed alternative methods to subjectively and objectively analyze the performance and workload of flight-naive pilots in typical personal aerial vehicle tasks. A highly reconfigurable generic flight dynamics simulation model that has been...

As the rapid development of general aviation and the growing number of the aviation enterprise and aircraft, a great pressure comes to industry supervision of civil aviation and operational control of general aviation. Because of the shortage of solution of the general aviation, there’s a big difficulty on operational protection. This paper elaborates the current situation of general aviation enterprise of our country, analyzes the shortage of it, combines with the characteristic of general aviation operational control and units being researched, and has a systematic research, then ensures the need of general aviation enterprise‘s operational control.

In this paper the hybrid supervisory control architecture developed by Famularo et al. (2011) for constrained control systems is adopted with the aim to improve safety in aircraft operations when critical events like command saturations or unpredicted anomalies occur. The capabilities of a low-computational demanding predictive scheme for the supervision of non-linear dynamical systems subject to sudden switchings amongst operating conditions and time-varying constraints are exploited in the flight control systems framework. The strategy is based on command governor ideas and is tailored to jointly take into account time-varying set-points/constraints. Unpredictable anomalies in the nominal plant behaviour, whose models fall in the category of time-varying constraints, can also be tolerated by the control scheme. In order to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, simulations both on a high altitude performance demonstrator unmanned aircraft with redundant control surfaces and the P92 general aviation aircraft are discussed.

The development of general aviation industry has been regarded as the strategic emerging industries of national priority. With many related industries and strong employment promotion, the industry can promote the upgrading of consumption and the development of regional economy. Mainly based on the industrial chain perspective, the article analyzes the development of general aviation industry development, and constructs the collaborative innovation model of aviation industry development chain, discussing the characteristics, influencing factors and evolution process of the general aviation industry collaborative innovation and putting forward the corresponding policy recommendations.

In this paper, we proposed an energy-based flight planning system for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM). Fuel consumption estimation at the flight planning stage is safety critical in general aviation, because energy-related failures are often life-threatening. However, conservative fuel estimation is not economical and environmentally friendly because carrying unnecessary fuel load burns a lot of extra fuel. The same reasoning holds in UTM. Aviation researchers are actively working on optimizing fuel loading, but such research is lacking in UTM. In this paper, we aim to optimize energy consumption in UTM with a flight planning system. The accuracy and effectiveness of the system is illustrated by experiments and simulations, respectively.

Flight data monitoring (FDM) is believed to be effective for mitigating risks of aviation accidents by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and major airlines who implemented flight data monitoring programs. In the United States, flight data monitoring is recommended by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a voluntary safety program, namely the flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) program. However, implementing a FDM program not only requires an expensive investment on technological equipment, but also involves long-term labor costs to regularly collect and analyze flight data after flights are completed. Especially for general aviation (GA), implementation of a FDM program using on-board flight data recorder equipment may be too expensive for some owners or operators. Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast Out (ADS-B Out) is a precise satellite-based surveillance system which can continually broadcast flight data. The broadcasted flight data can be received by other nearby ADS-B In capable aircraft or ground-based ADS-B receivers. This paper explores the ADS-B as an alternative data source of FDM for GA. First, the structure and content of flight data broadcast by ADS-B Out are analyzed. Then, based on the basic flight parameters, additional flight parameters are derived, and flight metrics are developed from the standpoint of flight operation analysts. Finally, the potential of ADS-B for supporting FDM is discussed.

The number of annual aircraft operations (take-offs and landings) is a significant concern to both airport owners and operators and to governmental agencies because operations data are one of the most important criteria used for determining future investments in airports. However, estimating the number of aircraft operations at non-towered general aviation airports is challenging work due to the lack of counts from air traffic control towers or useful estimates developed using models. Previous work in estimating annual aircraft operations has resulted in models and sampling methods that are imprecise or difficult to use. In 2014, new classification categories of 2,939 public-use general aviation airports in the United States were published in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) 2015-2019 Report. The goal of this research is to determine if the new airport classification categories provide an opportunity to improve models for estimating aircraft operations at GA airports. This research used the FAA Form 5010 data reported by airport managers. Another potential source for operations is the TAF (Terminal Area Forecast). Both Form 5010 and TAF have inaccuracies for non-towered airports. The Form 5010 was selected because it is one of the sources for the TAF. Based on this study, the NPIAS categories were found to be significant in the regression model developed. Future research will investigate using TAF data. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Automotive engines have outstanding quality controls and extremely high cost-effectiveness. This is typical to lean, mass production. For this reason, the application of these engines on aircraft is most appealing. Ultralight-sport aircraft have pioneered this approach. A few automotive-aircraft certified engines are already available on the market. However, this approach has not been as successful as foresaw a few years ago. This is due to the differences between the automotive application and the aircraft use. These differences have lead to teething problems that have been solved in almost 20 years of research work. The level now reached and the experience achieved makes it possible to convert any "successful" automotive engine into an aircraft engine. This work starts with the description of the data available from automotive manufacturers. Automotive engines have a huge background of statistical data on performance, reliability and TBO (Time between Overhaul). The correlation of these data to an aircraft application is not straightforward. Then the performance curves obtainable from the new aircraft engine are introduced. Finally, an algorithm calculates the residual life to TBO (Time between Overhaul) of an automotive engine. The method was tested on a few small last-generation CRDIDs (Common Rail Direct Injection Diesels) and spark ignition (gasoline) engines. These engines were also converted for use into small aircrafts with power ranging from 60 to 200HP. This very simple method is implemented directly in the FADEC (Full Authority Digital Electronic Control) or E-ECU (Engine Electronic Control Unit) of the engine with very few lines of C-Code (C-Language Code). It is assumed that the engine undergoes regular maintenance schedule and OBD (On Board Diagnostic) is implemented. OBD is perfectly able to foresee the imminent failure of the accessories like the starting motor, the generator, the turbocharger, the injector(s), the HPP (High Pressure Pump), etc. These parts are external to the engine and can be changed during field maintenance. Accidents, like prolonged under/overcooling, crankshaft damper failure, overspeed are monitored by the OBD and require specific maintenance actions. Ordinary problems like excessive fuel, lubricant, coolant consumption, pressures out of range... are also dealt by the OBD-related service system.

Traditional energy services providers have largely underserved airports. This is especially true for small to mid-size facilities and general aviation sites. Reasons for this include the complexity of airport ownership and management, strict FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) oversight, and the availability of funding paths for capital improvements. This article is intended to educate the energy services professional to the basic terminology specific to airport facilities and identify some typical opportunities for energy efficiency improvements.

Tablet devices are increasingly used as electronic flight bags in general aviation. However, there are risks associated with the use of such devices in the aviation context, particularly if the pilot becomes fixated and loses situation awareness. The present study investigated the effectiveness of presenting iconic cues and generic icons on a tablet device interface as a means of reengaging pilots with aircraft flight systems following a failure. The results indicated that the participants were faster to respond to simulated aircraft failures when icons were associated with the cause of the failure, and slower when they were associated with a related aircraft indicator or with a generic event. The implications of these findings are discussed.