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Many European airports are located in close proximity to residential or protected areas. Aircraft noise emissions caused by the landing and taking off of aircraft are a big problem in these areas. From an operational point of view, the method for reducing noise is to reduce traffic volume or change its organization, especially during the night. Some procedures and tools have been developed to support air traffic management in the implementation of operational constraints necessary to maintain noise at an acceptable level. The objective of this paper is to analyse the effectiveness of these tools. For this purpose, we have analysed existing methods of operational noise reduction, taking into account their influence on the structure, smoothness, punctuality and, especially, the safety of air traffic. As a result, existing risks have been identified, while methods have been proposed to combine two important air traffic service tasks: ensuring safety, while taking into account the environmental constraints, especially in relation to the acoustic climate.

The specificity of military flights operations imposes a number of requirements on aircraft. One of the main factors concerning the realization of the air task is the reliability of the engine. The most common cause of aircraft engine malfunctioning is the quality of the fuel supplied. This paper presents the factors affecting the quality of fuel supplied to aircraft and the procedures preventing the delivery of aircraft fuel, which could interfere with the operation of the aircraft engine.

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.

Information on the suggested aircraft airspeeds can be obtained from flight manuals, but the actual airspeeds flown by an aircraft will vary based on the aircraft landing weight, airport altitude, wind conditions, and other Air-Traffic-Control related factors. The recent advent of new tools and an abundance of new, highly accurate aircraft surveillance data have enabled a reevaluation of past airspeed profile assumptions. The resulting analysis provides a stronger representation for airspeeds flown on final approach and initial departure by the aircraft types comprising a large percentage of U.S. Instrument Flight Rules operations. Furthermore, the time to fly is calculated to determine how long it takes the trailer aircraft to fly the distance to the point where the leader generates a particular portion of the wake. Although this work is performed to provide improved inputs for Recategorization Phase II analyses, the airspeed profiles derived from aircraft surveillance data will also be valuable to other...

For over 100 years manned aviation has been based on pilots seeing and avoiding other aircraft. During this time aviation has evolved to a point where there were 37.4 million commercial flights scheduled in 2014 [1]. The national airspace system (NAS) of each country is a complex system-of-systems involving air traffic control, a network of navigation and communication facilities, airports, controlled and uncontrolled airspace, and the associated rules and regulations for each part of this system. It is into this system that we are now introducing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for commercial and civilian applications.

Nowadays, besides safety issues, environmental protection is the main issue to be considered during the aircraft operations. Recorded total CO2 aviation emissions are approximately 2% of the Global Greenhouse Emissions with the approximated expected growth around 3-4% per year. Therefore, variety of standards and recommending practices have been developed to address aircraft noise and engine emissions embracing technological improvements, operating procedures, proper organization of air traffic, appropriate airport and land-use planning, and the use of market-based options. This paper is based on environmental pressures from long distance air transport with the focus on passenger transport. The paper deals with variety of parameters important for aircraft operations on ground. Those parameters could be grouped within safety, technical, infrastructural, weather, meteorological conditions, etc. It is not possible consider only one group of parameters since aircraft operations on ground present complex environment for the aircraft structure loads, weight limitation or cost efficiency flight performance. Nowadays, research of aircraft ground operations is much oriented to environmental protection and noise limitation issues which influent new technologies of aircraft building or equipment production or airport capacity and air side characteristics. The paper analyzes specific operation parameters related to aircraft capabilities and performance in order to understand the quality and cost efficiency while selecting certain aircraft from fleet to operate on origin/destination airport. Obtained results and final conclusions address future measures for minimizing the environmental pressures based on environmental trends in aviation to 2050 provided by ICAO and EASA.

Flight data of Beechcraft King Airs used as aerial supervision modules and lead aircraft by the U.S. Forest Service are analyzed. The operational conditions experienced by the airplanes are studied as well as the magnitude of the vertical loads. The airplanes are flown in four different types of missions in U.S. Forest Service operation. Data from 1853 flights and seven aircraft are presented. Spectra are shown for gust and maneuver loads, separated using the two-second rule. These are given for the entire flight for various mean sea-level altitudes. In addition, the combined loads are presented and compared to existing data and Federal Aviation Regulation 23. It is shown that these aircraft are operated well within their design envelope. It is demonstrated that, although gust loads are comparable to those outlined in Federal Aviation Regulation 23, the maneuver load frequencies far exceed those of typical airframe use. Although these results do not warrant changes to Federal Aviation Regulation 23, they ...

The primary objective in military aviation is to optimize operational readiness: the capability to perform assigned flight missions. In terms of a flight planning process, operational readiness has three primary components: availability, serviceability and sustainability. Furthermore, it is influenced by aircraft downtime due to preventive maintenance at prescribed flight time interval. In practice, aircraft flight scheduling (including maintenance constraints) tends to be managed manually and on a day-to-day basis, leading to a reactive approach to aircraft flight hour allocation in which problems with respect to availability, serviceability and sustainability can easily develop. Optimization models have been developed to address this issue, but none of them cover the full scope of operational readiness. This work introduces a flight and maintenance planning optimization model that simultaneously addresses the aspects of availability, serviceability and sustainability, leading to a pro-active, efficient and more robust scheduling effort. The proposed model is tested, verified and validated using Royal Netherlands Air Force data and infrastructure related to the CH47D Chinook helicopter fleet.

This Chapter reviews the fundamental principles of aerodynamics and flight dynamics of fixed-wing aircraft.

We investigate what can be done, to make better aircraft in terms of control, safety and efficiency. We also discuss the drawbacks in these areas and where their impacts occur.

The paper discusses a comparison of various aircraft state prediction methods in the presence of sensor uncertainty. Aircraft state prediction and, specifically, energy state prediction is an important step in providing the flight crew with visual and aural cues to improve their airplane state awareness (ASA) and, thus, increase aviation safety as the lack of aircraft state awareness has been one of the leading causal and contributing factors in aviation accidents. This paper focusses on predictive alerting methods to predict (a) stall and overspeed conditions, (b) high-and-fast conditions, and (c) automation mode transitions. The proposed method estimates and subsequently predicts the aircraft state based on (i) aircraft state related information output by the onboard avionics, (ii) the configuration of the aircraft, (iii) appropriate aircraft dynamics models of both the active modes and the modes to which can be transitioned via simple pilot actions, and (iv) accurate models of the uncertainty of the dynamics and sensors. To compare the performance of the various methods, this paper analyzed flight data collected during a recent NASA flight simulator study in which eleven commercial airline crews (22 pilots) completed more than 230 flights.

The introduction of Title 14 of the code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) Part 107 by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun widespread integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS). Manned and unmanned aircraft will be occupying the same volumes of airspace for which the safety levels must be upheld. In order to preserve these levels of safety, a thorough scientific and systematic integration approach must be implemented. Until this point, aircraft certifications for operation in the NAS have been based upon the assumption that a pilot flies the aircraft from an in-fuselage cockpit. To maintain equivalency for unmanned aircraft operations, these implicit assumptions must be identified and translated to an unmanned aircraft context. A formal system safety assessment approach was initiated with a fault tree analysis to identify assumptions contingent on the pilot's presence inside the aircraft and areas of weakness in operational equivalency. A UAS fault tree framework is proposed as a translation from the accepted manned aircraft fault tree model. This framework is applicable to UAS of different classes, sizes, and operational modes. A database of international UAS accidents and incidents occurring 2001–2016 was used to categorize reported failure events and develop trend data identifying areas of concern for integration. This database was categorized by the UAS Fault Tree Framework Level 1 Subsystems and ICAO/CAST Aviation Occurrences. The most commonly occurring Aviation Occurrence was System/Component Failure (Non-Power plant). Trend data indicates areas of integration and reliability concern including the Aircraft/System and Flight Crew/Human Factors Level 1 Subsystem categories. The common ICAO/CAST Aviation Occurrences identified were different than those for fatal accidents in manned commercial aviation operations. High system reliability and formal aircraft system certification are needed to achieve equivalent levels of safety between manned and unmanned operations in the NAS. Additionally, pilot/crew training requirements for unmanned operations must be developed independently of existing manned aircraft training standards and must be evaluated to ensure effective systematic risk mitigation to the appropriate levels of safety.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have recently established new light aircraft certification rules that introduce significant changes to the current regulations. The changes include moving from prescriptive design requirements to performance-based standards, transferring many of the acceptable means of compliance out of the rules and into consensus standards. In addition, the FAA/EASA rules change the performance requirements associated with some of the more salient safety issues regarding light aircraft. One significant change is the elimination of spin recovery demonstration. The new rules now call for enhanced stall warning and aircraft handling characteristics that demonstrate resistance to inadvertent departure from controlled flight. The means of compliance with these changes in a safe, cost-effective manner is a challenging problem. This paper discusses existing approaches to reducing the likelihood of departure from controlled flight and introduces a new approach, dubbed Departure Aversion, which allows applicants to tailor the amount of departure resistance, stall warning, and enhanced safety equipment to meet the new proposed rules. The Departure Aversion approach gives applicants the freedom to select the most cost-effective portfolio for their design, while meeting the safety intent of the new rules, by ensuring that any combination of the selected approaches will be at a higher equivalent level of safety than today's status quo.

The NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Strategic Implementation Plan details an ambitious plan for aeronautical research for the next quarter century and beyond. It includes a number of advanced technologies needed to address requirements of the overall aviation community (domestic and international), with an emphasis on safety, efficiency, operational flexibility, and alternative propulsion air transport options. The six ARMD Strategic Thrust Areas (STAs) represent a specific set of multi-decade research agendas for creating the global aviation improvements most in demand by the aviation service consumers and the general public. To provide NASA with a measurement of the preeminent value of these research areas, it was necessary to identify and quantify the measurable benefits to the aviation community from capabilities delivered by the research programs. This paper will describe the processes used and the conclusions reached in defining the principal metrics for ARMD Strategic Thrust Area 3B "Vertical Lift Strategic Direction."

The aviation industry is a competitive and regulated business. It is a function of the engineering manager in aviation to ensure that the aircraft operates cost effectively. One way to manage aircraft operation cost is to speed up aircraft turnaround time during maintenance checks.

This paper presents the research of noise level monitoring at the Zagreb Airport Ltd. The purpose of this paper is to show how the aircraft noise sources can be used as a tool for aircraft detection and for increasing flight safety. The noise measurement was made at the Zagreb Airport by using its professional noise monitoring system. The research has led to new findings, such as determining the aircraft model by measuring the noise level generated by an aircraft during final approach based on its frequency spectrum, as the connectivity from the airport’s side to the radar data was unavailable (only ATC). In addition, it is possible to determine the aircraft altitude and, perhaps most significantly, the increase of flight safety through the detection of potential failures on the aircraft structure and/or engine during the overflight of a noise monitoring terminal.

The future green aircraft will be required to meet demanding constraints, including weight reduction, high energy and aerodynamic efficiencies and high performance, to be compliant with pollutant emissions and noise generation regulations. The joined-wing concept is considered a trade-off variant for a green aircraft design with a lower cruise drag and lower structural weight. In addition, the requirements for low pollution and noise could be met using an all-electric aircraft. Hence, the aim of the present study is to design and produce a joined-wing unmanned aircraft test bed or flight laboratory. The basic design incorporates tip-joined front and rear wings with wing-tip vertical joints. The airframe is mainly composed of carbon and glass fibre composite materials. The power plant consists of an electric ducted fan, speed controller and Li-Po batteries. The aircraft integrates the Piccolo II Flight Management System, which offers a state-of-the-art navigation and flight data acquisition. Prior to production and flight testing of the prototype, aircraft aerodynamics and flight dynamics were analysed. Potential models with wind tunnel tests have been used to determine aircraft aerodynamics. One of the major problems found during simulation and flight experiments is the Dutch roll effect. This is thoroughly discussed in the paper. Some problems that concern autopilot tuning are also described.

Many efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of aviation, like NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project, place high importance on reducing fuel burn, nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions, and noise of future aircraft. However, the environmental and economic impact of a new aircraft is not solely a function of the aircraft’s performance but also of how airlines use new aircraft along with other existing aircraft to satisfy the passenger demand for air transportation. In this work, an optimization problem finds the optimal allocation of existing and future aircraft to routes representing commercial air transportation within or to/from the United States to measure various fleet-level metrics. Examining fleet-level environmental metrics helps assess how aircraft meeting NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project goals could impact fleet-level environmental goals established by the International Air Transport Association. The goal set forth by the International Air Transport Association examined in this paper is to reduce to...

Analysis of data from 1,007 U.K. general aviation (GA) accidents demonstrates the predominant cause of accidents is loss of control, exacerbated by a lack of recent flying experience. These are long-standing problems that can be targeted effectively with simulation training. Discussion on training strategies in commercial aviation reinforces the logic of introducing simulation training for the GA pilot. Conclusions drawn affirm the notion that GA safety would benefit from implementation of regulated simulation training.

Flight Operations Quality Assurance or FOQA is a proven tool in the effort to enhance aviation safety. Employed by air carriers as early as the 1960’s, FOQA allows aviation operations and safety managers to objectively monitor how their aircraft are being operated. This data can then be translated into informed decisions to improve the safety and efficiency of the overall operation. While FOQA has proven itself in the world of airlines and other commercial aviation ventures, these flight data monitoring programs have largely been absent in the area where the vast majority of flight operations occur, general aviation. Advancements in technology allow those in general aviation management positions the ability to apply the same techniques in general aviation. This study attempts to further the body of knowledge of Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs by examining the unique requirements of a FOQA program adapted to the university flight-training environment. The methodology employed are qualitative in nature employing a Delphi study to gather data from a group of subject matter experts on both FOQA and general aviation flight instruction. Qualitative observations gathered by the researcher from the direct observation of flight instruction will be used to supplement the data gathered from the Delphi Study. Through the analysis of these two data sets, this study determines what events and parameters should be monitored in a collegiate FOQA program.

Global aviation is growing exponentially and there is a great emphasis on trajectory optimization to reduce the overall environmental impact caused by aircraft. Many optimization techniques exist and are being studied for this purpose. The CLEAN SKY Joint Technology Initiative for aeronautics and Air transport, a European research activity run under the Seventh Framework program, is a collaborative initiative involving industry, research organizations and academia to introduce novel technologies to improve the environmental impact of aviation. As part of the overall research activities, "green" aircraft trajectories are addressed in the Systems for Green Operations (SGO) Integrated Technology Demonstrator. This paper studies the impact of large commercial aircraft trajectories optimized for different objectives applied to the on board systems. It establishes integrated systems models for both conventional and more electric secondary power systems and studies the impact of fuel, noise, time and emissions optimized trajectories on each configuration. It shows the significant change in the fuel burn due to systems operation and builds up the case as to why a detailed aircraft systems model is required within the optimization loop. Typically, the objective in trajectory optimization is to improve the mission performance of an aircraft or reduce the environmental impact. Hence parameters such as time, fuel burn, emissions and noise are key optimization objectives. In most instances, trajectory optimization is achieved by using models that represent such parameters. For example aircraft dynamics models to describe the flight performance, engine models to calculate the fuel burn, emissions and noise impact, etc. Such techniques have proved to achieve the necessary level of accuracy in trajectory optimization. This research enhances previous techniques by adding in the effect of systems power in the optimization process. A comparison is also made between conventional power systems and more electric architectures. In the conventional architecture, the environmental control system and the ice protection system are powered by engine bleed air while actuators and electrics are powered by engine shaft power off-takes. In the more electric architecture, bleed off take is eliminated and the environmental control system and ice protection system are also powered electrically through engine shaft power off takes.

The Green Flight Challenge occurred in September 2011 as a competition to spur extreme flight efficiency for general aviation aircraft. In order to compete, an aircraft had to demonstrate flight over a 200 mile course at an average groundspeed of 100 mph with a fuel efficiency greater than 200 passenger miles per equivalent gallon. This paper describes the design of Taurus G4, the world’s first four-seat electric-powered aircraft, and the flight-planning techniques used in winning the competition. The aircraft demonstrated flight over a 196 mile course at an average speed of 107 mph and an average equivalent fuel efficiency of 403.5 passenger miles per equivalent gallon of automotive gasoline. In this demonstration, it showed that battery-powered flight is practical for general aviation missions.

When compared with most other common methods of travel, travel in general aviation aircraft is relatively unsafe. Fortunately, the most frequent causes of fatal general aviation (GA) mishaps could be significantly reduced with very simple autopilot systems. However, such systems can be prohibitively costly due in large part to the expense of validation and verification required to certify them. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NASA, and the US Air Force have been working to develop alternative certification methods to reduce this cost. In particular, run-time assurance (RTA) methods have recently been gaining momentum as a potential avenue to achieve this goal. This has led researchers from the aforementioned group to propose an RTA system for GA autopilots, which uses the human pilot as the baseline controller and a lesser certified autopilot as the advanced controller. This paper expands on that work by developing a hybrid control model which takes into account the human pilot's variable timing and control ability. Simulation results and a discussion on the impact of these findings are also provided.

Rapidly expanding unmanned air traffic includes and will continue to include non-cooperative participants. Non-cooperative behavior may be due to technical failure, a lack of appropriate equipment, a careless or malicious operator. Regardless of the cause, the outcome remains: growing density of non-cooperative traffic will increase the risk of collision between unmanned vehicles and aircraft carrying humans. As a result, the degraded safety of airspace may limit access to airspace, with adverse consequences for the traveling public and the economy. Because encounters with small non-cooperative objects, such as birds or wayward drones, can happen too rapidly for an external control system to mitigate them, it is imperative that the aircraft that carry humans survive encounters with non-cooperative vehicles. To-date, design for survivability has been practiced explicitly in the military domain. Survivability against collisions in civil aviation has been limited to tolerances against bird strikes; and these tolerances have proved inadequate on occasion. The growing risk of collision with unmanned vehicles now requires the development of survivability discipline for civilian transport aircraft. The new discipline must be infused into multidisciplinary design methods, on par with traditional disciplines. In this paper, we report on a preliminary study of survivability considerations for the civil aviation domain.

Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures to parallel runways that include curved approaches offer many benefits to the flying public, airlines, and nearby residents on the ground. Fewer track miles are required during approach, thus enabling decreases in missed connections, fuel burn, emissions, and noise footprint.

This study is to develop a procedure to estimate the market share of itinerant GA operations (MSIGO) by aircraft type at an airport. The procedure can be used, for example, by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and airport planners to make projections of itinerant operations by aircraft type for airport planning and improvements. Our procedure consists of two sub-procedures. The first one is a national level logistic model which separates the MSIGO by three fixed-wing aircraft types (i.e., piston, turboprop, and turbofan) from the other aircraft types. The second sub-procedure includes an airport-level logistic model and a national level estimation model. The airport-level logistic model is to estimate the MSIGO by each of the three fixed-wing aircraft types under IFR flight plan. The national level estimation model is designed to estimate the MSIGO by aircraft type under all flight rules. We validated our procedure using the statistics reported in the Air Traffic Activity System. In addition, we applied our procedure to the projections of itinerant GA operations made by the FAA in the Terminal Area Forecasting. Based on our results for the towered airports, between 2013 and 2018, the number of itinerant operations by piston and turboprop would decline at about 0.2% per year, and the number of itinerant operations by turbofan and the other aircraft types would increase at 0.75% and 1.33% per year, respectively.

Landing high-drag, low-inertia light sport and experimental aircraft requires significant pilot cognitive workload, causing this to be one of the most dangerous phases of flight for these types of aircraft. Reducing pilot workload through a standardized landing procedure will help maximize safety during landing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides many commercial aircraft with standardized procedures for landing, but the same level of support does not exist for light sport and experimental aircraft. In order to calculate a landing approach that can be customized to multiple light sport and experimental aircraft, a model has been developed to test various speed and power combinations with the given runway parameters to determine the best approach(es) for that given aircraft and runway. The simulation model is used to minimize the workload required by ensuring that only the engine power (revolution per minute-RPM) or the approach airspeed (miles per hour) variable remains constant throughout the landing sequence. Since the pilot needs to adjust the speed and power settings in order to follow the landing procedure, keeping one of these parameters constant will minimize pilot workload.

gross weight, acquisition cost, and operating cost) based on design requirements derived from market research and the perceived needs of aircraft operators. This is a loosecoupling between the aircraft design problem of the aircraft manufacturer and the assignment or allocation problem of the aircraft operator. Providing a tighter coupling between aircraft operations and aircraft design can concurrently identify the best new aircraft design and the best operational concept using this new aircraft. This paper presents an approach to couple the uncertain aircraft assignmentproblemoffractionaloperationsandtheaircraftdesignproblemofaircraftmanufacturers.Asolutionto thistypeofproblemdescribesanaircraftdesignthatdirectlyimprovesoperationsandidentifiesoperatingstrategies that influence, and take advantage of, the characteristics of the new aircraft. With this formulation, an aircraft manufacturer could work more closely with a customer to determine the best new aircraft for the operations.

The subject of investigation are unmanned aircraft lighter than 150kg under control by national aviation authorities and therefore prudently requiring harmonized individual state regulations. Originated from a general premise that the unmanned aircraft regulations should evolve from the existing standards for manned aircraft of equivalent class or category, the light fixed wing unmanned aircraft equivalence to the manned aircraft is defined in the form of sets of equivalency and non-equivalency based on the established administrative type of methodology of impact kinetic energy comparison. The basic flight characteristics of the existing operational light fixed wing unmanned aircraft are analyzed assuring proper input for determination of the more realistic unmanned aircraft impact kinetic energy in controlled and uncontrolled flight into terrain crash scenarios used for the evaluation of established methodology adequacy for equivalence determination. It is shown in the paper that determination of the unmanned aircraft equivalency to the manned aircraft should not be based on the unmanned aircraft maximum take-off mass nor their airspeed range alone. KEYWORDS: light unmanned aircraft, impact kinetic energy, hazard potential, classification

This paper describes calculations and computer simulations concerning handling qualities of general aviation aircraft equipped with an indirect (fly-by-wire) control system. The main idea of this proposal is shaping small aircraft dynamic characteristics in a way that enables all general aviation aircraft to exhibit similar user-friendly properties from the pilot’s point of view. The natural solution of this problem is modifying aircraft dynamic properties to comply with the “ideal model” of a safe and easily controllable airplane. We can improve the handling qualities of an aircraft using the indirect flight control system. In this paper, the model following method was used for controller synthesis, with the purpose of obtaining qualitatively new handling properties and simplifying the control system for pilots with limited professional training. However, a control system designer has to assume responsibility for proper functioning of complex flight control systems. The properties of the optimal controll...

The 21st Century Aviation System can reduce the cost of flying, while substantially increasing the safety and security of cargo and carrier aircraft with an onboard pilot/s and a remote copilot residing in a secure ground-based simulator.

Safety of Operation and Maintenance Systems of Aircraft Fleet The flight of on aircraft has been realzed I on operational subsystem. The operation of on aircraft and its safeability are determined for aircraft fleet the so-called flight safety. Aircraft operation and its safeability determine the flight safety of aircraft fleet. The flight safety can be modelled, condition diagnosed, put the procedures of genesis and prognosis. As the results of these activities the prevention treatments can be worked out. A aircraft safety, air system safety or air safety can be considered. Within the flight safety science.

Crosswind conditions are a contributory factor in many general aviation landing incidents and accidents. In an online survey, it was observed that 98% of respondents either failed to or could not accurately calculate the runway crosswind component from air traffic control (ATC) reports passed using the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard phraseology; the majority of pilots also severely underestimated the crosswind strength. Furthermore, nearly 30% of these respondents could not recall or inaccurately recalled the crosswind limit of their aircraft. In a 2nd study using a series of approach and landing trials in a general aviation simulator, wind reports were passed to participants using either the standard ICAO format or in a modified format, where the runway crosswind component was explicitly stated. The results showed that for the group receiving wind reports in the standard format, the mental arithmetic associated with calculating the runway crosswind impaired flying performance. ...

One way of reducing the environmental impact of aviation is to improve the efficiency of aircraft operations to reduce fuel burn and emissions. In the current air transportation system, there are many factors that can cause aircraft to be operated away from the environmentally optimal trajectory. This chapter outlines the factors that can impact the environmental efficiency of aircraft operations in the different planning and flight phases. These include decisions made by the airline, pilot and air traffic controller and limitations imposed by airspace design, congestion, and weather. Best practice aircraft operation techniques that may reduce environmental impact are then detailed. Keywords: aircraft operations; air traffic control; emissions; fuel burn; noise

Poznavanje stvarnih performansi zrakoplova bitno je za učinkovitu eksploataciju i pravovremeno održavanje. Performanse su određene fizikalnim karakteristikama zrakoplova. U Priručniku za letenje opisane su teorijske performanse određene od proizvođača nakon proizvodnje zrakoplova i testiranja u letu. Komercijalni zrakoplovi su tijekom svog operativnog ciklusa uglavnom izloženi predviđenim uvjetima eksploatacije. Unatoč predviđenim uvjetima eksploatacije i redovnom održavanju, starenje materijala i velika opterećenja na strukturu zrakoplova kod leta visokim podzvučnim Machovim brojem, mogu dovesti do promjene temeljnih fizikalnih faktora koji određuju performanse. Zbog toga se stvarne performanse zrakoplova nerijetko razlikuju od teorijskih. Zračni prijevoznici prate stanje zrakoplova i njegove stvarne performanse tijekom korištenja. U ovom radu prikazan je pregled dosadašnjih metoda praćenja performansi i mogućnosti istraživanja na području određivanja fizikalnih parametara zrakoplova u eksploataciji prema podacima iz leta., To ensure timely maintenance and efficient aircraft operations, it is necessary to know and keep track of aircraft’s actual performance. Flight performance is determined by aircraft's physical characteristics. Theoretical aircraft performance, obtained after manufacturing and flight testing, are described in flight manual. Transport aircraft in operation is usually exposed to standard operational conditions. Despite the standard operational conditions and regular aircraft maintenance, structure aging and high dynamic loads due to high subsonic Mach number could lead to changes of main physical factors that determine flight performance. For this reason actual aircraft performance often differs from theoretical. Commercial airlines monitor true performance of aircraft in operation. This paper presents an overview of existing performance monitoring methods as well as first indications for new research possibilities regarding physical characteristics determination for aircraft in operation using flight data.

Flight simulators are important for pilot training, cockpit design and management, and experimental scenario analysis. This paper is focuses on a description of a simulation center which is used in the framework of training of the Czech Air Force personnel at the Department of Air Force and Aircraft Technology of the University of Defence (UoD), Brno. The workplace includes several types of flight simulators ranging from simple designs to provide pilots with a basic knowledge of cockpit designs and equipment, to complex flight simulators capable of imitating a jet plane that can be used for practicing tactical maneuvers. Designing flight simulators for military personnel differ from those applied in civilian aviation, although common issues are important to all engineers. The Learning, Evaluation, and Training Aviation Center (LET-AC) is also the workplace for training military Air Traffic Controllers (ATC), forward air controllers, Ground Control Intercept (GCI), or aerospace engineers. This cooperation enables the center to use also experimental simulators applicable for research, such as the testing flight simulator from the Department of Aerospace and Electrical systems of the University of Defence, Brno, or the disorientation flight simulator operated at the Institute of Aviation Medicine, Prague.

The lack of aircraft state awareness has been one of the leading causal and contributing factors in aviation accidents. Many of these accidents were due to flight crew's inability to understand the automation modes and properly monitor the aircraft energy and attitude state. The capability of providing flight crew with improved aircraft state awareness is essential in ensuring aviation safety. The aircraft state described in this paper includes energy state, attitude state, and system mode state. Most of the elements in these states can be measured by onboard navigation systems such as Global Navigation Satellites Systems (GNSS), Inertial, and Air Data. This paper describes a predictive alerting method that uses Multiple Hypothesis Prediction (MHP) based on available aircraft avionics outputs. A speed reversion scenario is used to demonstrate the functionality of the MHP method in reducing the occurrence of the vertical navigation (VNAV) function mode confusion.

The conduct of research using unmanned aircraft systems represents tremendous opportunity, and at the same time challenges, in terms of complying with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. This paper documents research and practice on procedures, expectations, and protocols for conducting flight operations within the context of an FAA issued Certificate of Authorization or Waiver (COA). The material is based on two years of successful flight operations with a single engine fixed wing unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Current research is focused on aeronautical performance measures to document UAS capability in an agricultural setting. This involves flights to define the capability of an unmanned aircraft to place pixels on target. All research flights comply with COA requirements and protocols, which are described and summarized in this paper. The opening of the National Air Space to unmanned aircraft systems will have significant implications for the agricultural sector. UAS will offer a tremendous opportunity to place crop and soil sensors, robotics, and advanced information systems at more timely and desired locations for increasing production and improving efficiency of agricultural operations. The ability to conduct research for the advancement of unmanned aircraft is possible under FAA regulations, and is described in this document.

General aviation (14CFR Part 91) accounts for 83% of civil aviation fatalities. While much research has focused on accident causes/pilot demographics in this aviation sector, studies to identify factors leading up to the crash (accident-precipitating factors) are few. Such information could inform on pre-emptive remedial action. With this in mind and considering the paucity of research on turbine-powered aircraft accidents the study objectives were to identify accident-precipitating factors and determine if the accident rate has changed over time for such aircraft operating under 14CFR Part 91. The NTSB Access database was queried for accidents in airplanes (

There is a growing shortage of commercial pilots in the aviation industry. Flight schools provide a necessary, but insufficient, link in producing pilots. Rising prices associated with aircraft lead to higher training costs. It is possible that this burden associated with training significantly influences the declining number of students completing flight training. This paper details the development of a system to assist flight schools in choosing the lowest-cost combination of aircraft type and quantity at a static level of demand for training. A stochastic queuing model covering the costs for a ten-year life-cycle is developed for the decision support system. Stochastic characteristics are derived from historical data from a flight school. The model accounts for recurring and non-recurring costs for aircraft operation.

Aircraft enthusiasts who desire to build and fly their own aircraft are 350% more likely to be involved in an accident during the first 40 hours of flight than all other aircraft in the general aviation (GA) fleet. Pilots must manually collect measurements that are used to develop a pilot’s operating handbook (POH), to include emergency procedures. Currently, no system exists to automate the process of recording specific inflight aircraft measurements, parameterizing the aircraft, and creating the necessary documentation required by the FAA. This project proposes a low-cost flight data recording and analysis system that uses a combination of hardware and software for experimental amateur built (E-AB) aircraft pilots to use during the first 40 hours of their testing process that will help reduce error and inconsistencies. Final simulation data will be used to influence the ultimate device requirements for both the microcontroller platform, and inertial and positional sensors.

Despite the NASA X-15 program’s outstanding success in developing and operating the first manned hypersonic research platform, the program suffered a fatal accident on November 15, 1967, when X-15-3, the only aircraft outfitted with advanced pilot displays and an adaptive flight control system, was lost after entering uncontrolled flight at an altitude of 230,000 feet and a velocity near Mach 5. The pilot, Major Michael J. Adams, was incapacitated by the aircraft accelerations and was killed either during the ensuing breakup or upon ground impact.

In this paper, passengers evaluation to air transport service with small aircraft is analyzed. At first, passengers images to specific aircraft such as large jet aircraft, small jet aircraft, and small turbo-prop aircraft were compared. Then it was shown that small turbo-prop aircraft is especially evaluated as a lesser safety aircraft. Secondly, air transport service choice models were estimated, and the existence of negative effects of the service with small aircraft and with propeller aircraft was shown. Finally, sensitivity analysis was executed, and it was clear that the negative image of the turbo-prop aircraft can be supplemented with lower fare.