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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.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2005

Recommendations for UAS Crew Ratings. Pilot Ratings and Authorization Requirements for UAS

This position paper is intended to recommend the minimum certificate and rating requirements for a pilot to operate an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in the National Airspace System. The paper will recommend the minimum requirements based on the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) required of a UAS pilot and show how those compare to the KSAs required by regulation for manned-aircraft pilots. The paper will provide substantiation based on studies conducted using analyses, simulation and flight experience. The paper is not yet complete; only initial working material is included. The material provided describes the body of work completed thus far and the plan for remaining tasks to complete the recommendation. The HSI Pilot KSA document provides an analysis of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for UAS operation in the NAS. It is the source document used for the position paper.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1977

Effects of dynamic aeroelasticity on handling qualities and pilot rating

Pilot performance parameters, such as pilot ratings, tracking errors, and pilot comments were determined for a longitudinal pitch tracking task using a large, flexible bomber with parametric variations in the undamped natural frequencies of the two lowest frequency symmetric elastic modes. This pitch tracking task was programmed on a fixed base simulator with an electronic attitude-director display of pitch command, pitch angle, and pitch error. Low frequency structural flexibility significantly affects the handling qualities and pilot ratings in the task evaluated.

Yen, W. Y.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Effects of dynamic aeroelasticity on handling qualities and pilot rating

Pilot performance parameters, such as pilot ratings, tracking errors, and pilot comments, were recorded and analyzed for a longitudinal pitch tracking task on a large, flexible aircraft. The tracking task was programmed on a fixed-base simulator with a CRT attitude director display of pitch angle command, pitch angle, and pitch angle error. Parametric variations in the undamped natural frequencies of the two lowest frequency symmetric elastic modes were made to induce varying degrees of rigid body and elastic mode interaction. The results indicate that such mode interaction can drastically affect the handling qualities and pilot ratings of the task.

Swaim, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1982

An analytical prediction of pilot ratings utilizing human pilot model

In order to analytically predict pilot ratings, an evaluation method of a manual control system which consists of an aircraft and a human pilot, is proposed and examined. The method is constructed upon the assumptions that the control mission determines the critical frequency the pilot should bring to his focus, and that the degree of closed-loop stability and the human compensation necessary to attain the stability determine the human subjective evaluation of the system. As a result, a simple evaluation chart is introduced. The chart enables prediction of the subjective evaluation, if the controlled element dynamics and the mission are given. The chart is in good accord with almost all of the existing results of pilot ratings. This method has the following advantages: (1) simplicity, in a sense that the method needs to evaluate only two typical controlled element parameters, namely, the gain slope and the phase at the critical control frequency; (2) applicability to unstable controlled elements; (3) predictability of controllability limits of manual control; (4) possibility of estimating human compensatory dynamics.

Tanaka, K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Effect of lift-to-drag ratio in pilot rating of the HL-20 landing task

A man-in-the-loop simulation study of the handling qualities of the HL-20 lifting-body vehicle was made in a fixed-base simulation cockpit at NASA Langley Research Center. The purpose of the study was to identify and substantiate opportunities for improving the original design of the vehicle from a handling qualities and landing performance perspective. Using preliminary wind-tunnel data, a subsonic aerodynamic model of the HL-20 was developed. This model was adequate to simulate the last 75-90 s of the approach and landing. A simple flight-control system was designed and implemented. Using this aerodynamic model as a baseline, visual approaches and landings were made at several vehicle lift-to-drag ratios. Pilots rated the handling characteristics of each configuration using a conventional numerical pilot-rating scale. Results from the study showed a high degree of correlation between the lift-to-drag ratio and pilot rating. Level 1 pilot ratings were obtained when the L/D ratio was approximately 3.8 or higher.

Jackson, E. B.↗
NASA NTRS1975

A pilot rating scale for vortex hazard evaluation

A pilot rating scale is developed for subjective assessment of hazard resulting from wake vortex encounter upsets. The development of the rating scale is based on a survey of 48 pilots regarding the semantic properties of various phrases and a choice of formats for the rating scale. The rating scale can be used to define a hazard/nonhazard boundary as well as to determine a measure of the hazard.

Hoh, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Effect of lift-to-drag ratio upon pilot rating for a preliminary version of the HL-20 lifting body

A man-in-the-loop simulation study of the handling qualities of the HL-20 lifting body vehicle has been performed in a fixed-base simulation cockpit. The study was aimed at identifying opportunities to improve the original design of the vehicle from a handling qualities and landing performance perspective. A subsonic aerodynamic model of the HL-20 was used as a baseline, and visual approaches and landings were made at various vehicle lift-to-drag (L/D) ratios. It is concluded that there is a high degree of correlation between maximum L/D ratio and pilot rating. Using the pilot ratings Level 1, flying qualities were found to be possible for configurations with a maximum L/D ratio of 3.8 or higher.

Jackson, E. B.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A pilot rating scale for evaluating failure transients in electronic flight control systems

A pilot rating scale was developed to describe the effects of transients in helicopter flight-control systems on safety-of-flight and on pilot recovery action. The scale was applied to the evaluation of hardovers that could potentially occur in the digital flight-control system being designed for a variable-stability UH-60A research helicopter. Tests were conducted in a large moving-base simulator and in flight. The results of the investigation were combined with existing airworthiness criteria to determine quantitative reliability design goals for the control system.

Hindson, William S.↗
NASA NTRS1981

An analytical pilot rating method for highly elastic aircraft

An analytical method was developed to predict pilot ratings for highly elastic aircraft subject to severe mode interactions between rigid body and elastic dynamics. An extension of the standard optimal control model of pilot response was made to include the hypothesis that the pilot controls the system with an internal model consisting of the slowly varying part of the aircraft dynamics. This modified optimal control model was analytically evaluated for a longitudinal pitch tracking task on a large flexible aircraft. Parametric variations in the undamped natural frequencies of two symmetric elastic modes were made to induce varying amounts of mode interaction. The model proved successful in discriminating when the pilot can or cannot visually separate rigid from elastic pitch response in the turbulence excited tracking task. This method shows considerable promise in making it possible to investigate such mode interaction effects on handling qualities in the preliminary design stage of new aircraft.

Swaim, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2006

In-Flight Validation of a Pilot Rating Scale for Evaluating Failure Transients in Electronic Flight Control Systems

Engineering development and qualification of a Research Flight Control System (RFCS) for the Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL) JUH-60A has motivated the development of a pilot rating scale for evaluating failure transients in fly-by-wire flight control systems. The RASCAL RFCS includes a highly-reliable, dual-channel Servo Control Unit (SCU) to command and monitor the performance of the fly-by-wire actuators and protect against the effects of erroneous commands from the flexible, but single-thread Flight Control Computer. During the design phase of the RFCS, two piloted simulations were conducted on the Ames Research Center Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) to help define the required performance characteristics of the safety monitoring algorithms in the SCU. Simulated failures, including hard-over and slow-over commands, were injected into the command path, and the aircraft response and safety monitor performance were evaluated. A subjective Failure/Recovery Rating (F/RR) scale was developed as a means of quantifying the effects of the injected failures on the aircraft state and the degree of pilot effort required to safely recover the aircraft. A brief evaluation of the rating scale was also conducted on the Army/NASA CH-47B variable stability helicopter to confirm that the rating scale was likely to be equally applicable to in-flight evaluations. Following the initial research flight qualification of the RFCS in 2002, a flight test effort was begun to validate the performance of the safety monitors and to validate their design for the safe conduct of research flight testing. Simulated failures were injected into the SCU, and the F/RR scale was applied to assess the results. The results validate the performance of the monitors, and indicate that the Failure/Recovery Rating scale is a very useful tool for evaluating failure transients in fly-by-wire flight control systems.

Kalinowski, Kevin F.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Pilots Rate Augmented Generalized Predictive Control for Reconfiguration

The objective of this paper is to report the results from the research being conducted in reconfigurable fight controls at NASA Ames. A study was conducted with three NASA Dryden test pilots to evaluate two approaches of reconfiguring an aircraft's control system when failures occur in the control surfaces and engine. NASA Ames is investigating both a Neural Generalized Predictive Control scheme and a Neural Network based Dynamic Inverse controller. This paper highlights the Predictive Control scheme where a simple augmentation to reduce zero steady-state error led to the neural network predictor model becoming redundant for the task. Instead of using a neural network predictor model, a nominal single point linear model was used and then augmented with an error corrector. This paper shows that the Generalized Predictive Controller and the Dynamic Inverse Neural Network controller perform equally well at reconfiguration, but with less rate requirements from the actuators. Also presented are the pilot ratings for each controller for various failure scenarios and two samples of the required control actuation during reconfiguration. Finally, the paper concludes by stepping through the Generalized Predictive Control's reconfiguration process for an elevator failure.

Soloway, Don↗
NASA NTRS1981

On the use of the OCM's quadratic objective function as a pilot rating metric

A correlation between the magnitude of the quadratic objective function from an optimal control pilot model and the subjective rating of the vehicle and task provides a valuable tool for handling qualities research and flight control synthesis. An analysis of simulation results for fourteen aircraft configurations flight tested earlier was conducted. A fixed set of pilot model parameters, are found for all cases in modeling the simulated regulation task. The agreement obtained between performance statistics is shown and a strong correlation was obtained between the cost function and rating.

Schmidt, D. K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Preliminary Analysis of Pilot Ratings of "Party Line" Information Importance

With the introduction of digital data link communications into the ATC system, there is concern over the potential loss of situational awareness by flight crews due to the reduction in the 'Party Line' Information (PLI). This information is available to the pilot by overhearing communications between ATC and other aircraft. A survey was distributed to determine current PLI use by several pilot operational groups, experience levels and geographic regions. The survey identified numerous important elements. PLI was rated the highest for operations near or on approach to the airport. Several significant variations were found between pilots from different operational groups and experience levels. Traffic and weather information were the most frequently cited as information required to obtain global situation awareness.

Pritchett, Amy↗
NASA NTRS1993

Preliminary analysis of pilot ratings of 'part line' information importance

With the introduction of digital datalink communications into the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, there is concern over the potential loss of situational awareness by flight crews due to the reduction in the 'Party Line Information' (PLI). This information is available to the pilot by overhearing communications between ATC and other aircraft. A survey was distributed to determine current PLI use by several pilot operational groups, experience levels and geographic regions. The survey identified numerous important elements. PLI was rated the highest for operations near or on approach to the airport. Several significant variations were found between pilots from different operational groups and experience levels. Traffic and weather information were the most frequently cited as information required to obtain global situation awareness.

Pritchett, Amy↗