Conventional aircraft generally employ mixing algorithms or lookup tables to determine control surface deflections needed to achieve moments commanded by the flight control system. Control allocation is the problem of converting desired moments into control effector commands. Next generation aircraft may have many multipurpose, redundant control surfaces, adding considerable complexity to the c...

The number of fatal accidents involving public transport aircraft has increased significantly in recent years and, because more and more "wide-bodied" aircraft have been coming into service, this has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of fatalities. A combined attack on the problem by all concerned with flight safety is required to improve the situation. The collection and analysis of a...

Multiple metrics are applied to the design of a large civil tiItrotor, integrating minimum cost and minimum environmental impact. The design mission is passenger transport with similar range and capacity to a regional jet. Separate aircraft designs are gener ated for minimum empty weight, fuel burn, and environmental impact. A metric specifically developed for the design of aircraft is employed...

The aerospace community has an increasing interest in developing super sonic transport class vehicles for civil aviation. One of the concerns in such a project is to minimize the sonic boom produced by the aircraft as demonstrated by its ground signature. One approach being considered is to attach a spike/keel on the front of the aircraft to attenuate the magnitude of an aircraft’s ground signa...

We develop an object-oriented simulation that models the airdrop mission of a U.S. transport aircraft, the C-1 7 Globemaster III. The simulation, written in MODSIM III, is based on three basic object types: an aircraft, a wake vortex, and a paratrooper. The aircraft object provides the required aerodynamic constants for simulating the wake vortices generated off each wingtip; the vortex object ...

When there is damage to an aircraft, it is critical to be able to quickly detect and diagnose the problem so that the pilot can attempt to maintain control of the aircraft and land it safely. We develop methodology for real-time classification of flight trajectories to be able to distinguish between an undamaged aircraft and five different damage scenarios. Principal components analysis allows ...

[1] In the summer of 2004 several separate field programs intensively studied the photochemical, heterogeneous chemical and radiative environment of the troposphere over North America, the North Atlantic Ocean, and western Europe. Previous studies have indicated that the transport of continental emissions, particularly from North America, influences the concentrations of trace species in the tr...

Quantifying the fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems in all their diversity, across the continents, is important and urgent for implementing effective mitigating policies. Whereas much is known for Europe and North America for instance, in comparison, South Asia, with 1.6 billion inhabitants and considerable CO2 fluxes, remained terra incognita in thi...

Advances in sensors and avionics computation power suggest real-time structural load measurements could be used in flight control systems for improved safety and performance. A convention transport flight control system determines the moments necessary to meet the pilot’s command, while rejecting disturbances and maintaining stability of the aircraft. Control allocation is the problem of conver...

The basic purpose of aviation maintenance is to prevent the decreased levels of original aircraft airworthiness, safety and reliability design at the lowest cost, which is of great significance to the running of air transport enterprises. According to statistics, aviation maintenance accounts for approximately 20% to 30% of direct operating costs, not including indirect costs caused due to main...