Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Aircraft operations”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2015

Reduced Crew/Single Pilot Operations for Commercial Aircraft - Concept of Operations and Technology Needs

In 2012, NASA began exploring the feasibility of single pilot operations (SPO) and reduced crew operations (RCO) in the context of scheduled passenger air carrier operations (i.e., Parts 121 and 125). Technology and automation, especially aircraft automation, have significantly advanced in the 21st century and may be enabling to SPO. However, a move to SPO also has significant challenges. The purpose of a three-year NASA effort was to identify those challenges through workshops, analytic studies, and human-in-the-loop simulations assessing promising concepts and prototype solutions. This presentation will describe the progress that has been made in that three year effort.

reduced crew operations↗
NASA NTRS1976

Passenger ride comfort technology for transport aircraft situations

Research in ride comfort and of the resultant technology is overviewed. Several useful relations derived from the technology are: input environments to the vehicle; aircraft operations; and aircraft configurations. Input environments which influence the ride motion environment consist of naturally occuring phenomena such as gusts or turbulence and man generated phenomena such as trailing vortex wakes or runway roughness. Aircraft operations influence ride environments in the form of motions caused by maneuvers, of pressure changes caused by rapid descents, or of too high temperature. Aircraft configurations influence the ride environment by size and shape of external surfaces which generate aerodynamic perturbing forces; by onboard equipment, such as power plant noise and vibrations; and by passive equipment which directly interfaces the passengers such as marginal size seats with limited elbowroom and legroom.

Conner, W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis and Prediction of VFR Vs IFR Traffic Behavior to Support Uncrewed Aircraft Flight Operations at Regional Airports

Uncrewed Aircraft flight operations at a regional airport will be affected by the uncertainty in the Visual Flight Rules traffic around. This paper analyzes Visual Flight Rules traffic behavior, compares it with Instrument Flight Rules traffic and develops traffic prediction methods to support uncrewed aircraft flight operations. The spatio-temporal distribution of traffic operating under Visual Flight Rules and Instrument Flight Rules was analyzed from one month of historical track data around Fort Worth Alliance airport as a representative regional airport. The traffic behavior was visualized as occupancy maps generated at different altitudes. The Instrument Flight Rules traffic was concentrated in fewer regions of the airspace along structured routes where the risk of interacting with one or more flights reached close to fifty percent in some areas. Visual Flight Rules traffic was spread over more regions, mostly segregated from the Instrument Flight Rules regions, and the risk of interaction was lower reaching up to twenty-five percent on average over the month in some regions. The interaction risk was predicted using predictive occupancy maps over multiple time horizons and conditioned on time and partial observation of traffic in the vicinity. The month-to-month predictability of Visual Flight Rules risk was lower than that of the Instrument Flight Rules traffic, consistently over all the conditions analyzed. However, the prediction and its accuracy were demonstrated to be sensitive to the conditions used. The predictive models generated can be used to support both strategic planning and in-flight decision-making by uncrewed aircraft during flight operations while maintaining an acceptable risk of interacting with other traffic.

VFR↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis and Prediction of VFR Vs IFR Traffic Behavior to Support Uncrewed Aircraft Flight Operations at Regional Airports

Uncrewed Aircraft flight operations at a regional airport will be affected by the uncertainty in the Visual Flight Rules traffic around. This paper analyzes Visual Flight Rules traffic behavior, compares it with Instrument Flight Rules traffic and develops traffic prediction methods to support uncrewed aircraft flight operations. The spatio-temporal distribution of traffic operating under Visual Flight Rules and Instrument Flight Rules was analyzed from one month of historical track data around Fort Worth Alliance airport as a representative regional airport. The traffic behavior was visualized as occupancy maps generated at different altitudes. The Instrument Flight Rules traffic was concentrated in fewer regions of the airspace along structured routes where the risk of interacting with one or more flights reached close to fifty percent in some areas. Visual Flight Rules traffic was spread over more regions, mostly segregated from the Instrument Flight Rules regions, and the risk of interaction was lower reaching up to twenty-five percent on average over the month in some regions. The interaction risk was predicted using predictive occupancy maps over multiple time horizons and conditioned on time and partial observation of traffic in the vicinity. The month-to-month predictability of Visual Flight Rules risk was lower than that of the Instrument Flight Rules traffic, consistently over all the conditions analyzed. However, the prediction and its accuracy were demonstrated to be sensitive to the conditions used. The predictive models generated can be used to support both strategic planning and in-flight decision-making by uncrewed aircraft during flight operations while maintaining an acceptable risk of interacting with other traffic.

VFR↗
NASA NTRS1974

New design and operating techniques and requirements for improved aircraft terminal area operations

Current aircraft operating problems that must be alleviated for future high-density terminal areas are safety, dependence on weather, congestion, energy conservation, noise, and atmospheric pollution. The Microwave Landing System (MLS) under development by FAA provides increased capabilities over the current ILS. The development of the airborne system's capability to take maximum advantage of the MLS capabilities in order to solve terminal area problems are discussed. A major limiting factor in longitudinal spacing for capacity increase is the trailing vortex hazard. Promising methods for causing early dissipation of the vortices were explored. Flight procedures for avoiding the hazard were investigated. Terminal configured vehicles and their flight test development are discussed.

Reeder, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS2019

A Detect and Avoid System in the Context of Multiple-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations

NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration into the National Airspace System (UAS in the NAS) project examines the technical barriers associated with the operation of UAS in civil airspace. For UAS, the removal of the pilot from onboard the aircraft has eliminated the ability of the ground-based pilot in command (PIC) to use out-the-window visual information to make judgements about a potential threat of a loss of well clear with another aircraft. NASA's Phase 1 research supported the development of a Detect and Avoid (DAA) system that supports the ground-based pilot's ability to detect potential traffic conflicts and determine a resolution maneuver, but existing display/alerting requirements did not account for multiple UAS control (1:N). Demands for increased scalability of UAS in the NAS operations are expected to create a need for simultaneous control of UAs, and thus, a new DAA HMI design will likely be necessary. Previous research, however, has found performance degradations as the number of vehicles under operator control has increased. The purpose of the current human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation was to examine the viability of 1:N operations with the Phase 1 DAA alerting and guidance. Sixteen UAS pilots flew three scenarios with varying number of UAs under their control (1:1, 1:3, 1:5). In addition to their supervisory and sensor mission responsibilities, pilots were to utilize the DAA system to remain DAA well clear (DWC) during scripted conflicts of mixed severity. Measured response times, separation performance, mission task data, and subjective feedback were collected to assess how the multi-UAS control configuration impacted pilots' ability to maintain DAA well clear and perform the mission tasks. Overall, the DAA system proved surprisingly adaptive to multi-UAS control for preventing losses of DAA well clear (LoDWC). The findings suggest that, while multi-UAS operators are able to maintain safe separation (DWC) from other traffic, their ability to efficiently perform missions drastically decreases with their number of controlled vehicles. Pilot feedback indicated that, for this context, the use of automation support tools for completing and managing mission tasks would be appropriate and desired, especially for ensuring efficient use of assets. Finally, human-machine interface (HMI) design considerations for multi-UAS operations are discussed.

Monk, Kevin J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Operational requirements for flight control and navigation systems for short haul transport aircraft

Operational procedures for use in an assumed short haul transport route were evaluated. The curved path approaches in airline use by large jet airplanes were studied. The characteristics of these approaches were included in development of operational procedures for transitions and approaches by a jet STOL transport. These procedures were used in a simulation experiment and were satisfactory for autoflight operation. A minimum turn radius of 3,000 ft. for a 180 final turn was determined for the wind conditions tested. The accuracy of the approaches was very good.

Morrison, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

A Cognitive System Model for Human/Automation Dynamics in Airspace Management

NASA has initiated a significant thrust of research and development focused on providing the flight crew and air traffic managers automation aids to increase capacity in en route and terminal area operations through the use of flexible, more fuel-efficient routing, while improving the level of safety in commercial carrier operations. In that system development, definition of cognitive requirements for integrated multi-operator dynamic aiding systems is fundamental. In order to support that cognitive function definition, we have extended the Man Machine Integrated Design and Analysis System (MIDAS) to include representation of multiple cognitive agents (both human operators and intelligent aiding systems) operating aircraft, airline operations centers and air traffic control centers in the evolving airspace. The demands of this application require representation of many intelligent agents sharing world-models, and coordinating action/intention with cooperative scheduling of goals and actions in a potentially unpredictable world of operations. The MIDAS operator models have undergone significant development in order to understand the requirements for operator aiding and the impact of that aiding in the complex nondeterminate system of national airspace operations. The operator model's structure has been modified to include attention functions, action priority, and situation assessment. The cognitive function model has been expanded to include working memory operations including retrieval from long-term store, interference, visual-motor and verbal articulatory loop functions, and time-based losses. The operator's activity structures have been developed to include prioritization and interruption of multiple parallel activities among multiple operators, to provide for anticipation (knowledge of the intention and action of remote operators), and to respond to failures of the system and other operators in the system in situation-specific paradigms. The model's internal representation has been be modified so that multiple, autonomous sets of equipment will function in a scenario as the single equipment sets do now. In order to support the analysis requirements with multiple items of equipment, it is necessary for equipment to access the state of other equipment objects at initialization time (a radar object may need to access the position and speed of aircraft in its area, for example), and as a function of perception and sensor system interaction. The model has been improved to include multiple world-states as a function of equipment am operator interaction. The model has been used -1o predict the impact of warning and alert zones in aircraft operation, and, more critic-ally, the interaction of flight-deck based warning mechanisms and air traffic controller action in response to ground-based conflict prediction and alerting systems. In this operation, two operating systems provide alerting to two autonomous, but linked sets of operators, whose view of the system and whose dynamics in response are radically different. System stability and operator action was predicted using the MIDAS model.

Corker, Kevin M.↗
NASA NTRS2018

UTM and D-NET: NASA and JAXA's Collaborative Research on Integrating Small UAS with Disaster Response Efforts

Natural disasters, such as flooding, wildfire, hurricane, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, pose challenges in preserving human life and minimizing the damages to a region. During catastrophic events, timely response of disaster relief personnel, an efficient deployment of resources in the recovery effort, and coordinated information sharing amongst different relief agencies can make a substantial difference in responding to those impacted by the disaster. Many relief activities currently utilize both ground personnel and manned airborne assets during different phases of the disaster response. Typically, multiple organizations support relief activities and this often creates logistics coordination challenges between agencies which can result in wasted time or resources. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been developing an "Integrated aircraft operation system for disaster relief (D-NET)", which assists collection and sharing of disaster information through the integrated operation of aircraft such as helicopters, aircraft, and satellites, for efficient and safe rescue operations by disaster relief aircraft. Due to the advancement in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) technologies, public safety organizations have started incorporating small UAS (sUAS) as an asset in their disasters response activities. To address the airspace integration challenges of the influx of sUAS in the United States the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), under the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) project, has been engaged in research to enable large-scale commercial applications of sUAS operating in low altitude airspace. This paper presents the integration of D-NET, which incorporate sUAS in the planning, information sharing, and operation support of disasters response activities, and UTM, which provides airspace management to enable large scale high density operations. The integration of the DNET and UTM systems enables coordination, data sharing, and airspace management to improve the timeliness of the disaster response, enable relief organization to reduce cost and overhead by using UAS assets and still maintain airspace safety during the relief activities.

UTM↗
NASA NTRS2018

Development of a Multi-Phase Mission Planning Tool for NASA X-57 Maxwell

The physical design and operation of electric aircraft like NASA Maxwell X-57 are significantly different than conventionally fueled aircraft. Operational optimization will require close coupling of aerodynamics, propulsion, and power. To address the uncertainty of electric aircraft operation, a system level Mission Planning Tool is developed to simulate all aircraft trajectory phases: taxi, motor run-up, takeoff, climb, cruise, and descent. The Mission Planning Tool captures performance parameters at each point of the trajectory including battery state of charge, the temperatures of components in the electrical system, and propulsion system thrust. This work describes the modeling of each mission phase, and compares the results of simulating a user-specified trajectory, and using a collocated optimal control approach to determine an optimal trajectory. The results show that optimization of the mission show a significant increase in the final battery state of charge over the user- specified simulation strategy. These results will inform the operation of the NASA Maxwell X-57 test flights that will take place this year.

Schnulo, Sydney L.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Analysis of the flow field generated near an aircraft engine operating in reverse thrust

A computer solution is developed to the exhaust gas reingestion problem for aircraft operating in the reverse thrust mode on a crosswind-free runway. The computer program determines the location of the inlet flow pattern, whether the exhaust efflux lies within the inlet flow pattern or not, and if so, the approximate time before the reversed flow reaches the engine inlet. The program is written so that the user is free to select discrete runway speeds or to study the entire aircraft deceleration process for both the far field and cross-ingestion problems. While developed with STOL applications in mind, the solution is equally applicable to conventional designs. The inlet and reversed jet flow fields involved in the problem are assumed to be noninteracting. The nacelle model used in determining the inlet flow field is generated using an iterative solution to the Neuman problem from potential flow theory while the reversed jet flow field is adapted using an empirical correlation from the literature. Sample results obtained using the program are included.

Ledwith, W. A., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Why twin-fuselage aircraft

Operational and design features of twin-fuselage aircraft are outlined, noting capabilities of transporting 100-400 passengers at subsonic speeds at an efficiency of around 190 passenger mi/gal. Wings for two body aircraft are lighter and are designed more from an aerodynamics point of view due to reductions in the bending moment. A 280 passenger configuration would need a 172 ft wingspan, compared to a 155 ft wingspan for a conventional aircraft, but the conventional wings would have a larger area. The higher aspect ratio contributed to the increased efficiency of the twin body operation. A lower wetted fuselage area is calculated for the two body aircraft with passenger capacities over 190, and twin fuselages are shown to have a higher passenger packaging density than double-deck widebodies. Finally, simple compounding of existing aircraft such as the DC-9 into a two-body shape is projected to offer a 1.9 factor increase in passenger mi/gal.

Houbolt, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Application of the H-Mode, a Design and Interaction Concept for Highly Automated Vehicles, to Aircraft

Driven by increased safety, efficiency, and airspace capacity, automation is playing an increasing role in aircraft operations. As aircraft become increasingly able to autonomously respond to a range of situations with performance surpassing human operators, we are compelled to look for new methods that help us understand their use and guide their design using new forms of automation and interaction. We propose a novel design metaphor to aid the conceptualization, design, and operation of highly-automated aircraft. Design metaphors transfer meaning from common experiences to less familiar applications or functions. A notable example is the "Desktop metaphor" for manipulating files on a computer. This paper describes a metaphor for highly automated vehicles known as the H-metaphor and a specific embodiment of the metaphor known as the H-mode as applied to aircraft. The fundamentals of the H-metaphor are reviewed followed by an overview of an exploratory usability study investigating human-automation interaction issues for a simple H-mode implementation. The envisioned application of the H-mode concept to aircraft is then described as are two planned evaluations.

Goodrich, Kenneth H.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Aircraft Ship Operations

The interest in the use of shipborne aircraft is widespread among NATO countries. Major weapons systems like aircraft carriers with conventional fixed-wing aircraft, VSTOL aircraft or helicopters embarked, are operated by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. Nearly all NATO countries employ various classes of smaller ships as helicopter platforms for amphibious assault, anti-submarine warfare or search and rescue. The deployment of aircraft on board ships presents unusual and difficult technical and operational problems. Considering the multi-national interest in aircraft/ship operations it was considered meaningful and timely for the Flight Mechanics Panel to sponsor a symposium on this topic. This symposium considered problems of mutual interest connected with fixed and rotary wing aircraft operations from ships, and the application of new technology to enhance such operations. The Symposium reviewed and assessed the current problems and possible future progress in: - The ship environment in terms of wind, temperature, precipitation, turbulence and deck motion. - Guidance, Controls and Displays, primarily in the approach and landing phase. - Flight Test and Simulation Techniques. - Launch, Recovery and Handling Systems Developments. - Operational/Pilot Views. - Future Developments.

Aircraft carriers↗
NASA NTRS2007

Evaluation of Head-Worn Display Concepts for Commercial Aircraft Taxi Operations

Previous research has demonstrated that a Head-Up Display (HUD) can be used to enable more capacity and safer aircraft surface operations. This previous research also noted that the HUD exhibited two major limitations which hindered the full potential of the display concept: 1) the monochrome HUD format; and, 2) a limited, fixed field of regard. Full-color Head Worn Displays (HWDs) with very small sizes and weights are emerging to the extent that this technology may be practical for commercial and business aircraft operations. By coupling the HWD with a head tracker, full-color, out-the-window display concepts with an unlimited field-of-regard may be realized to improve efficiency and safety in surface operations. A ground simulation experiment was conducted at NASA Langley to evaluate the efficacy of head-worn display applications which may directly address the limitations of the HUD while retaining all of its advantages in surface operations. The simulation experiment used airline crews to evaluate various displays (HUD, HWD) and display concepts in an operationally realistic environment by using a Chicago, O Hare airport database. The results pertaining to the implications of HWDs for commercial business and transport aviation applications are presented herein. Overall HWD system latency was measured and found to be acceptable, but not necessarily optimal. A few occurrences of simulator sickness were noted while wearing the HWD, but overall there appears to be commercial pilot acceptability and usability to the concept. Many issues were identified which need to be addressed in future research including continued reduction in user encumbrance due to the HWD, and improvement in image alignment, accuracy, and boresighting.

Bailey, Randall E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Aircraft ship operations

Worldwide interest in the use of shipborne aircraft as a major weapons system is very broad. Many NATO countries operate fixed wing aircraft from ships. Additionally, the use of ships as helicopter platforms is extensive in the NATO community and brings another import dimension to the aircraft/ship interface issue. Thus, it seemed that both fixed and rotary wing aviation deserved equal billing in the Aircraft/Ship Interface Symposium which is the subject of this Technical Evaluation Report. This Symposium was held in Seville, Spain, from 20th to 23rd May 1991 and was the first Symposium sponsored by the AGARD Flight Mechanics Panel devoted to this topic. The Symposium contained twenty-five presentations grouped under the following topics: Keynote Addresses; Ship Environment; Guidance, Controls, and Displays; Flight Test and Simulation Techniques; Launch, Recovery, and Handling Systems Development; and Operational Views and Future Developments. The full texts of the papers presented at this Symposium are published in AGARD-CP-509.

Aircraft carriers↗
NASA NTRS1997

Light Absorption of Stratospheric Aerosols: Long-Term Trend and Contribution by Aircraft

Measurements of aerosol light-absorption coefficients are useful for studies of radiative transfer and heating rates. Ogren appears to have published the first light- absorption coefficients in the stratosphere in 1981, followed by Clarke in 1983 and Pueschel in 1992. Because most stratospheric soot appears to be due to aircraft operations, application of an aircraft soot aerosol emission index to projected fuel consumption suggests a threefold increase of soot loading and light absorption by 2025. Together, those four data sets indicate an increase in mid-visible light extinction at a rate of 6 % per year. This trend is similar to the increase per year of sulfuric acid aerosol and of commercial fleet size. The proportionality between stepped-up aircraft operations above the tropopause and increases in stratospheric soot and sulfuric acid aerosol implicate aircraft as a source of stratospheric pollution. Because the strongly light-absorbing soot and the predominantly light-scattering sulfuric acid aerosol increase at similar rates, however, the mid-visible stratospheric aerosol single scatter albedo is expected to remain constant and not approach a critical value of 0.98 at which stratospheric cooling could change to warming.

Pueschel , R. F.↗