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Next-generation communications and navigation systems are being developed to facilitate safer and more efficient airline operations. Technologies include the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system, instrument landing systems, and flight management systems offering continuous descent.

European research and development efforts aimed at reducing air pollution coming from aircraft engines are described. Technology developments include those of open-rotor and turbofan engines.

An empirical study on quality management and continuous quality improvement is presented based on research carried out at Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems in Fort Worth, Texas.

The results from DLR, German Aerospace Center, Airbus, and ONERA from the Second AIAA CFD Drag Prediction Workshop are presented. The lift, drag, and pitching moments are calculated for the DLR-F6 configuration at transonic flow conditions by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier--Stokes equations on structured as well as on unstructured, hybrid grids. First, the drag is computed with the standard near-field method by integrating the surface pressure forces and shear stresses and second by a drag breakdown into its physical components, such as viscous, wave, and induced drag, by applying a far-field method. The influence of the grid is investigated, and the results are compared to experimental data. For all cases a slightly smaller angle of incidence is required in the computations as compared to the experiments to obtain the same lift coefficient. The drag polars and the engine installation drag can be computed accurately, but significant deviations exist for the pitching moments as a result of an underestimation of the flow separation at the trailing edge of the upper wing upper. Comparing the far-field drag breakdown results for structured and unstructured solution methods shows that viscous and wave drag are computed nearly identical. The far-field method gives a better understanding of the sources of drag and offers a substantial benefit for aerodynamic design.

This paper uses an empirical dynamic oligopoly model of the commercial aircraft industry to analyse industry pricing, industry performance, and optimal industry policy. A novel feature of the model with respect to the previous literature is that entry, exit, prices, and quantities are endogenously determined in Markov perfect equilibrium (MPE). We find that many unusual aspects of the aircraft data, such as high concentration and persistent pricing below static marginal cost, are explained by this model. We also find that the unconstrained MPE is quite efficient from a social perspective, providing only 10% less welfare on average than a social planner would obtain. Finally, we provide simulation evidence that an anti-trust policy in the form of a concentration restriction would be welfare reducing.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Rowan University researchers conducted aircraft seat drop tests to compare and contrast passenger crash protection. These tests showed significant differences in the ability of individual seat designs to protect their occupants from serious lower lumbar injury.

Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are currently involved with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored Quiet Supersonic Platform (QSP) program. Currently in Phase II, the QSP effort is intended to investigate new approaches to supersonic flight, specifically, making it more efficient and quieter. The QSP effort has three goals: advanced propulsion systems; the development of QSP technologies; and the integration of the technologies and knowlege gained. Lockheed Martin has used as its starting point its 30 years of experience with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on reducing the effects of sonic booms by shaping the aircraft's lift and volume to prevent the pressure waves created from forming into a noticeable boom. Northrup Grumman's effort is focused on a joined wing design.

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration's concept of the Small Airplane Transportation System (SATS) is studied here for its economical value. Results show the SATS is to be clearly superior over the airlines in nearly all of the 200 trips created.

X-planes, that particular designation and the origination of X-planes are discussed. According to a recent report, the X-designation seems to be reserved by the Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Air and space in the year 2000 is reviewed, covering aspects including engineering and technology management, propulsion and energy, aerospace sciences, space and missile systems, aircraft technology and operations, structures, design and test and information and logistics systems.

A corotational approach is used to analyze toroidal shells under static-dynamic loading. This approach decomposes the deformation into stretches and rigid-body rotations, examining the deformed state with respect to an orthogonal rigidly translated and rotated triad located at the point of interest on the deformed structure. The Jaumann stresses and strains are employed in the algorithm. Local and layerwise thickness stretching and shear warping functions are used to model the 3D behavior of the shell. These functions, developed through the use of the constitutive equations, enforce the continuity of stresses and displacements required at the ply interfaces and laminate surfaces. The model is validated against toroidal shell data available in the literature, and it shows good agreement.

Taiwan's Aero Industry Development Center (AIDC), which has manufactured that nation's military aircraft since 1974, has diversified into commercial aircraft production and is expected to lead Taiwan's practically non-existent commercial aircraft industry into the 21st century. A study of the structural challenges faced by AIDC in this endeavor indicates that its prospects for success are quite poor and demonstrates the very difficulty of having a strong hold in an industry of high-tech complex systems engineering.

The operational success of civil aviation is largely due to the engineers, pilots, air traffic controllers and cabin crew who are responsible for managing the technologies entrusted to them. Although clashes occur between the organizational bureacracy and the occupational community, it is the latter which should be credited with the 'successful management of hazard' and risk.

The Pratt & Whitney and Northrop companies together, under the Air Force Wright Research and Development Center (WRDC) sponsored Integrated Reliable Fault-Tolerant Tolerant Control for Large Engines (INTERFACE II) Program [1, 2], designed and demonstrated an advanced real-time Integrated Flight and Propulsion Control (IFPC) system. This IFPC system was based upon the development of physically distinctive, functionally integrated, flight and propulsion controls that managed the Northrop twin engine, statically unstable, P700 airplane. Digital flight control and digital engine control hardware were combined with cockpit control hardware and computer simulations of the airplane and engines to provide a real-time, closed-loop, piloted IFPC system. As part of a follow-on effort, lessons learned during the INTERFACE II program are being applied to the design of a flight critical propulsion control system. This paper will present both the results of the INTERFACE II IFPC program and approaches toward definition and development of an integrated propulsion control system for flight critical applications., Pratt and Whitney collaborated with Northrop Corp and the Air Force Wright Research and Development Center to initiate the Integrated Reliable Fault-Tolerant Control for Large Engines (INTERFACE II) Program and in the design of an Integrated Flight and Propulsion Control (IFPC) system. INTERFACE II demonstrated the viability of high-risk technologies and integrated flight and propulsion control systems. It was shown that thrust nozzles and control surfaces can be integrated to give better aircraft maneuverability.

The development of advanced structural materials is necessary for improving the performance of today's aircraft. Such materials must be economically viable and must provide the stability and strength required for aircraft structures. Authorities in the aircraft industry and NASA are conducting research programs for the development of low-cost composite materials for airframe structural applications. The program aims to develop a high-speed transport aircraft with the use of new materials technology.

Titanium matrix composite landing gear testing Researchers at the U.S. Air Force Wright Laboratories and McDonnell Douglas Corp. are testing an F-15 nose gear outer cylinder made of titanium matrix [...]