Results for “aviation” — Page 9

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Identifying Emerging Safety Threats Through Topic Modeling in the Aviation Safety Reporting System: A Covid-19 Study

The NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is a voluntary, confidential aviation safety reporting system. The ASRS receives reports from pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, and others involved in aviation operations. The reports are de-identified and coded by ASRS expert safety analysts, and a short descriptive synopsis is written to describe the safety issue. The de-identified reports are then disseminated to the aviation community in many ways, including via an online database, Safety Alert Bulletins, For Your Information Notices, and the CALLBACK newsletter. In this work, we consider whether we can improve the grouping, linking, and understanding of safety concerns through topic modeling. Specifically, we use topic modeling as a building block to identify emerging safety threats over time. This unsupervised approach, we argue, offers the flexibility to identify new emerging themes in this large dataset by constructing different timelines based on the content similarity of ASRS report narratives. This method's unsupervised nature improves upon related research, which is limited to pre-defined labels and therefore can not fully capture emerging safety threats. We apply our method to all ASRS reports in 2020 to assess if the generated timelines can highlight COVID-19 as it is emerging as a safety threat in incoming ASRS reports. We perform both a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the automatically constructed timelines. The qualitative evaluation is performed by describing the evolution of top terms in the timelines, generated by our method, which we found explicitly convey the themes of COVID-19. Separately, we use a set of 1,213 COVID-19 reports from 2020 that were manually identified by ASRS analysts to quantitatively evaluate the COVID-19 reports distribution across the timelines. Our results have shown that COVID-19 emergence can be identified using the top terms that were generated by topic modeling. The top terms in topic modeling therefore can serve as a summary alternative to manually inspecting reports. Moreover, leveraging the manually identified COVID-19 reports, we found the manually identified timelines accounted for over 70% of the COVID-19 reports curated by the ASRS analysts, which demonstrates the potential of this approach for facilitating the understanding of safety concerns as they emerge and evolve. This method shows great potential to understand aerospace safety threats and other narrative- driven incident report databases.

ASRS↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Identifying Emerging Safety Threats Through Topic Modeling in the Aviation Safety Reporting System: A COVID-19 Study

The NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is a voluntary, confidential aviation safety reporting system. The ASRS receives reports from pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, and others involved in aviation operations. The reports are de-identified and coded by ASRS expert safety analysts, and a short descriptive synopsis is written to describe the safety issue. The de-identified reports are then disseminated to the aviation community in many ways, including via an online database, Safety Alert Bulletins, For Your Information Notices, and the CALLBACK newsletter. In this work, we consider whether we can improve the grouping, linking, and understanding of safety concerns through topic modeling. Specifically, we use topic modeling as a building block to identify emerging safety threats over time. This unsupervised approach, we argue, offers the flexibility to identify new emerging themes in this large dataset by constructing different timelines based on the content similarity of ASRS report narratives. This method's unsupervised nature improves upon related research, which is limited to pre-defined labels and therefore can not fully capture emerging safety threats. We apply our method to all ASRS reports in 2020 to assess if the generated timelines can highlight COVID-19 as it is emerging as a safety threat in incoming ASRS reports. We perform both a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the automatically constructed timelines. The qualitative evaluation is performed by describing the evolution of top terms in the timelines, generated by our method, which we found explicitly convey the themes of COVID-19. Separately, we use a set of 1,213 COVID-19 reports from 2020 that were manually identified by ASRS analysts to quantitatively evaluate the COVID-19 reports distribution across the timelines. Our results have shown that COVID-19 emergence can be identified using the top terms that were generated by topic modeling. The top terms in topic modeling therefore can serve as a summary alternative to manually inspecting reports. Moreover, leveraging the manually identified COVID-19 reports, we found the manually identified timelines accounted for over 70% of the COVID-19 reports curated by the ASRS analysts, which demonstrates the potential of this approach for facilitating the understanding of safety concerns as they emerge and evolve. This method shows great potential to understand aerospace safety threats and other narrative- driven incident report databases.

ASRS↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Tracing NASA Contributions Toward Aviation Safety Stakeholder Guidance

The System-Wide Safety project at NASA is developing the concept and a subset of supporting technologies for evolving safety management from a post-accident iterative improvement on safety performed by large commercial operators only to predictive and increasingly autonomous safety functions that are performed during operations across vehicles, airports, and services. The system of interest is the In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS), recommended by the National Academies for NASA to develop the concept in coordination with the broad and diverse community of stakeholders in aviation safety. Because the system context is the airspace and aviation industry, it is important to create and maintain traceability from the research work and system architecture elements developed at NASA to community-created roadmaps and aviation agency guidance.

IASMS↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Energize the Future - Systems Engineering Processes and Methods: Tracing NASA Contributions Toward Aviation Safety Stakeholder Guidance

The System-Wide Safety project at NASA is developing the concept and a subset of supporting technologies for evolving safety management from a post-accident iterative improvement on safety performed by large commercial operators only to predictive and increasingly autonomous safety functions that are performed during operations across vehicles, airports, and services. The system of interest is the In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS), recommended by the National Academies for NASA to develop the concept in coordination with the broad and diverse community of stakeholders in aviation safety. Because the system context is the airspace and aviation industry, it is important to create and maintain traceability from the research work and system architecture elements developed at NASA to community-created roadmaps and aviation agency guidance.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRS2015

A Formal Messaging Notation for Alaskan Aviation Data

Data exchange is an increasingly important aspect of the National Airspace System. While many data communication channels have become more capable of sending and receiving data at higher throughput rates, there is still a need to use communication channels efficiently with limited throughput. The limitation can be based on technological issues, financial considerations, or both. This paper provides a complete description of several important aviation weather data in Abstract Syntax Notation format. By doing so, data providers can take advantage of Abstract Syntax Notation's ability to encode data in a highly compressed format. When data such as pilot weather reports, surface weather observations, and various weather predictions are compressed in such a manner, it allows for the efficient use of throughput-limited communication channels. This paper provides details on the Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) implementation for Alaskan aviation data, and demonstrates its use on real-world aviation weather data samples as Alaska has sparse terrestrial data infrastructure and data are often sent via relatively costly satellite channels.

communications↗

NASA NTRS2014

Dangers on the Ramp: Aviation Safety Reporting System

The Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) in a partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), participating carriers, and labor organizations. It is designed to improve the National Airspace System by collecting and studying reports detailing unsafe conditions and events in the aviation industry. Employees are able to report safety issues or concerns with confidentiality and without fear of discipline.

confidential reporting↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Impact of General Aviation Operations on Airport Performance Through Fast-Time Simulations at Charlotte Douglas International Airport

NASA, in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration and commercial airlines, deployed the Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) traffic management system at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2017 for field evaluation. The system features new capabilities of data exchange and integration, collaborative surface metering and scheduling, which has demonstrated operational benefits of reducing delay time and fuel consumption. General Aviation flights, however, are not currently included in the surface metering programs because of their different operational procedures and lack of reliable predictability in departure time. Thus, their impact on the system performance is not well understood. This paper presents a study of the impact of General Aviation traffic at CLT using fast-time simulations.

General Aviation↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Reports of Resilient Performance: Investigating Operators' Descriptions of Safety-producing Behaviors in the Aviation Safety Reporting System

While many existing taxonomies and frameworks provide a common vocabulary for describing how human operators fail in the context of sociotechnical systems, at present, there is no common vocabulary to describe how humans succeed. Such a framework would facilitate systematically collecting and analyzing data on how human performance can produce safety, not just how it can reduce safety. One potentially rich source of currently available information for exploring desired performance is the reports submitted to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). These de-identified, confidential, and voluntary narrative reports are submitted by pilots, controllers, ground operators, and others within aviation operations. While these reports are primarily submitted to describe safety risks, incidents, and problems, they also often describe how those risks were mitigated, and provide a window into aspects of everyday work in aviation. This paper describes an analysis of ASRS narratives to understand how operators talk about their own resilient behaviors during adverse safety conditions and events. Guided by Erik Hollnagel’s Resilience Assessment Grid framework (i.e., anticipate, monitor, respond, learn), we illustrate our approach and methodology with examples from reports. We also highlight some of the challenges and how further research is needed in developing a taxonomy of operators’ descriptions of resilient performance.

resilient behaviors↗

NASA NTRS2023

Aviation 2072: Scenario Planning for Wicked Problems

The world is changing rapidly. And with it, so are the potential futures for humanity. Many of these potential futures pose hidden threats, while others offer new opportunities for aviation and the broader aerospace community. To mitigate these risks and capitalize on opportunities, organizations must work to deeply understand these potential future scenarios and uncover any underlying drivers. Organizations will be more equipped and informed when making strategic investment decisions by better understanding these threats, opportunities, and drivers . The future scenarios and their threats and opportunities described in this paper were identified through a series of extensive brainstorming workshops, collectively titled MADNESS (Mapping for Aviation Driven by Needs Emergence and Satiating Society). These workshops engaged NASA civil servants and contractors with diverse backgrounds through a facilitated process of future scenario development and critique. The participants were led through exercises focused on a time horizon spanning from 2022 to 2072 and on problems that aviation might solve and or create during this period. From the broad results, two patterns of critical uncertainty emerged: “availability” (scarcity versus abundance) and “transparency” (openness versus security and privacy). The successful iteration and ideation across the MADNESS workshops also suggests a repeatable mechanism for strategic risk exploration across a variety of NASA and industry stakeholders.

Mapping↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Towards Sustainable Aviation With Efficient Airspace Operations

In November 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration published the United States Aviation Climate Action Plan to accelerate innovation across the U.S. aviation ecosystem. In response, NASA has established the Sustainable Flight National Partnership to engage with industry, academia, and other agencies to accomplish net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. As part of the SFNP Mission, NASA is conducting a series of real world operational demonstrations in the current National Airspace System with a focus on delivering real world sustainability benefits. This paper presents the current work and future plan for the SFNP Ops Demo Series and describes the cloud based infrastructure used for virtual deployment of decision support tools to flight operators and Air Traffic Controllers to help improve operational efficiency of the National Airspace System. Validation results are shared along with the key sustainability benefits such as jet fuel savings and reduction in CO2 emissions. The operational efficiency metrics such as delay savings are also reported.

Sustainable Flight National Partnership↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Building Enhanced Resilience into Aviation

The aviation sector is a very complex but generally successful enterprise within the United States. Unfortunately, over multiple decades a series of demonstrable major aviation disruptions have occurred, for a wide-ranging set of reasons. Thus, it is more than timely to consider how to enhance the resilience of the aviation sector. This will entail developing research projects that promote system-of-systems engineering solutions that focus on both vehicle design advances and novel airspace system architectures. Several such potential research initiatives are outlined in this paper.

Aviation↗

NASA NTRS1971

Summary of spin technology as related to light general-aviation airplanes

A summary was made of all NASA (and NACA) research and experience related to the spin and recovery characteristics of light personal-owner-type general-aviation airplanes. Very little of the research deals with light general-aviation airplanes as such, but many of the airplanes and models tested before and during World War II were similar to present-day light general-aviation airplanes with regard to the factors that are important in spinning. The material is based mainly on the results of spin-tunnel tests of free-spinning dynamically scaled models of about 100 different airplane designs and, whenever possible, includes correlation with full-scale spin tests. The research results are discussed in terms of airplane design considerations and the proper use of controls for recovery.

Bowman, J. S., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Design study of general aviation collision avoidance system

The selection and design of a time/frequency collision avoidance system for use in general aviation aircraft is discussed. The modifications to airline transport collision avoidance equipment which were made to produce the simpler general aviation system are described. The threat determination capabilities and operating principles of the general aviation system are illustrated.

Bates, M. R.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Research And Development Contributions to Aviation Progress (RADCAP): Executive summary

Positive contributions of military aeronautical research and development programs to civil aviation are reviewed and some possible future contributions of those military programs are assessed. A summary is presented of detailed results concerned with: (1) review of the progress that has been made in aviation since 1925 and the significant technological advances that have been made; (2) an examination of current and planned military aeronautical research and technology programs and an assessment of their relevancy to the aeronautical R and D needs of civil aviation; (3) the relationship of the development base generated by military programs to the needs of civil airliner design, development, and production; (4) information on aeronautical R and D funding; and (5) the findings and observations of the RADCAP study.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1975

General aviation and community development

The summer program is summarized. The reports presented concern (1) general aviation components, (2) general aviation environment, (3) community perspective, and (4) transportation and general aviation in Virginia.

Sincoff, M. Z.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Domestic and world trends affecting the future of aviation (1980 - 2000), appendix C

The results are presented of a study of variables affecting aviation in the United States during the last fifth of the twentieth century. A series of key trends relating to economic, social, political, technological, ecological, and environmental developments are identified and discussed with relation to their possible effects on aviation. From this analysis a series of scenarios is developed representing an array of possibilities ranging from severe economic depression and high international tension on the one hand to a world of detente which enjoys an unprecedented economic growth rate and relaxation of tensions on the other. A scenario is presented which represents the manner in which events will most probably develop and their effect on the aviation industry.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1976

NASA aviation safety reporting system

The origins and development of the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) are briefly reviewed. The results of the first quarter's activity are summarized and discussed. Examples are given of bulletins describing potential air safety hazards, and the disposition of these bulletins. During the first quarter of operation, the ASRS received 1464 reports; 1407 provided data relevant to air safety. All reports are being processed for entry into the ASRS data base. During the reporting period, 130 alert bulletins describing possible problems in the aviation system were generated and disseminated. Responses were received from FAA and others regarding 108 of the alert bulletins. Action was being taken with respect to 70 of the 108 responses received. Further studies are planned of a number of areas, including human factors problems related to automation of the ground and airborne portions of the national aviation system.

Billings, C. E.↗

NASA NTRS1976

NASA aviation safety reporting system

During the second quarter of the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) operation, 1,497 reports were received from pilots, controllers, and others in the national aviation system. Details of the administration and results of the program to date are presented. Examples of alert bulletins disseminated to the aviation community are presented together with responses to those bulletins. Several reports received by ASRS are also presented to illustrate the diversity of topics covered by reports to the system.

Source record↗