Evaluation of Onboard System State and Path Awareness Technologies During Transport Operations
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flight crew error↗
Engineering topics
Timothy J Etherington
Publications and source records attributed to Timothy J Etherington.
Initial Design Guidelines for Onboard Automation of Flight Path Management
Achieving the National Academy of Science’s vision of advanced aerial mobility will depend on significant developments in automation to achieve safe and efficient operations. Flight path management (FPM), a major category of automation functionality needed to achieve this vision, will provide dynamic management of an aircraft’s flight path, ensuring that it remains feasible to fly to mission completion, deconflicted from hazards, coordinated with other traffic, flexible to accommodate future disturbances, and optimized to meet business objectives. While efforts are underway to advance FPM technology for the Urban Air Mobility application, initial design guidelines are presented for FPM automation capabilities to achieve each of these objectives based on 15+ years of prior FPM automation research and development. Methods to efficiently account for uncertainty in the prediction of trajectories are described, as are additional considerations for prioritizing safety in the design of FPM automation capabilities and interactions between aircraft. Recommendations are supported by extensive experience gained via previous work with the FPM reference automation system, Autonomous Operations Planner, developed by NASA. By employing capable FPM automation supported by cooperative operational flight rules and information sharing, future aircraft operators will benefit from an increased ability to plan and execute safe and efficient flights and to achieve mission success in a dynamic airspace.
Flight Path Management↗
Flightcrew Thrust Control and Engine Display Concepts for the Subsonic Single Aft Engine (SUSAN) Transport Aircraft
NASA is developing a new hybrid-electric aircraft concept called the SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan. The SUSAN airplane is being designed as a 180-passenger commercial regional jet and is expected to fly in the 2040 time frame. The flight deck of the SUSAN airplane is expected to resemble a typical two flightcrew transport. Research issues include pilot control and the display elements needed for the hybrid-electric propulsion system. This paper describes a research study conducted in a high-fidelity simulator where 14 commercial pilots evaluated throttle controls and engine display concepts for a proposed SUSAN flight deck. The results showed that the number of throttle levers did not affect pilot’s situation awareness, workload, or speed control.
hybrid electric aircraft↗
Single Throttle Design for the Subsonic Single Aft Engine (SUSAN) Transport Aircraft
NASA is conducting trade studies for a new hybrid-electric aircraft concept called the SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan. The SUSAN airplane is being designed as a 180-passenger commercial airplane and is expected to fly in the 2040 time frame. The flight deck of the SUSAN airplane is envisioned to resemble a typical two person flightcrew transport. Pilot control research issues include interfaces and display state elements needed for the 17 engine hybrid-electric propulsion system. A pilot study was conducted where one, two, and three throttle handles were the independent variable in a simulation experiment. The results from the study showed that the three throttle concepts were equivalent in terms of workload, situation awareness, and thrust control. However, the pilots rated the usability of the single throttle test case to be “good” compared to the rating of “excellent” for the two- and three-throttle cases. From these results, a follow-on pilot study is described to explore a redesigned single throttle concept with associated engine display concepts.
flight deck displays↗