Using Intelligent Simulation to Enhance Human Performance in Aircraft Maintenance

Human factors research and development investigates the capabilities and limitations of the human within a system. Of the many variables affecting human performance in the aviation maintenance system, training is among the most important. The advent of advanced technology hardware and software has created intelligent training simulations. This paper describes one advanced technology training system under development for the Federal Aviation Administration

Near Transfer After Direct Instruction: An Experimental Inquiry within Aviation Technician Training

This study put forth two instructional interventions set within a direct instruction (DI) framework specific to an aviation maintenance context. To evaluate the effectiveness of these two training interventions a criterion was established to measure near transfer during a performance evaluation on a live aircraft. Information learned within this study indicates that DI can be highly effective in technical training environments. This study also articulates how VR experiences may be included within these types of training contexts and discusses the factors and affordances that come with utilizing VR in instructional activities. Additionally, this study revealed experiential characteristics of a DI training experience from the learner perspective. Most notable among them was how much emphasis learners placed on the Present phase of the direct instruction framework, oftentimes discussing the quality, usefulness, and preference of the study’s training videos comparative to other forms of instructional media, including even the study’s VR experience itself. Finally, this study leveraged a novel research design for both the instructional context and the study’s unit of measurement in near transfer. This study exemplifies how within-subject repeated measure design may be an ideal framework for researchers looking to address long-standing critiques of experimental research within the field of instructional design

Aviation Maintenance Technician Decision-Making

Aircraft accidents caused by human decision-making errors cause property loss and fatalities on a global scale in the aviation industry. Aviation repair technician decision-making perceptions influence aviation safety. The purpose of transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of aviation repair technicians related to decision-making perceptions regarding aviation safety. The central research question and sub-question focused on the lived experiences of repair technicians’ decision-making perceptions. The naturalistic decision-making framework, decision theories, and decision-making models comprised the lens to assess the impact of aviation maintenance technician decision-making perceptions in aviation safety. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 12 aviation repair technicians in a maintenance repair and overhaul facility. Transcribed interviews were coded and thematically analyzed. Five themes emerged: decision-making experience, decision-making application, importance of decision-making, technician job experience, and decision-making influence. Four subthemes also emerged: situational awareness, aviation hazards, aviation safety, and personal safety. Recommendations for future studies include conducting the study in aviation repair facilities abroad and specifically targeting female aviation technicians for comparison and studying the effectiveness of current training and safety programs. Aviation leadership and federal agencies can use the findings of this study to create social change at policy and organizational levels to mitigate accidents, aircraft damage, and personnel injuries

The Application of Advanced Composites for the Construction of Commercial Transport Aircraft

This individual Capstone project examined and evaluated current industry methods of testing, certification, and maintenance of advanced composite materials for the construction of commercial transport aircraft and the FAA regulations governing their use. The project critically compared and contrasted existing FAA standards and regulations governing the testing, certification, and maintenance of advanced composites for commercial transport aircraft structural applications with current industry practices to determine whether there were any areas of conflict between the two in order to accept or reject that current testing, certification, and maintenance procedures for advanced composites used in primary and secondary commercial transport aircraft structures are standardized throughout the aerospace industry and sufficiently capable of detecting damage or component failure. This was accomplished by performing a qualitative and quantitative analysis utilizing meta-analysis to contrast and compare past and current aerospace composite materials studies with non-destructive inspection (NDI) testing and structural health monitoring (SHM) data to determine statistical significance that supported or refuted the hypothesis of comprehensive process improvement throughout the industry. The results of the analysis showed that the hypothesis was accepted for testing and certification, but overwhelmingly rejected for current maintenance and repair. In addition, industry concerns were examined to determine whether limitations exist that would preclude the future use of advanced composites in structural applications based on current FAA standards and regulations. This project determined how current industry practices and FAA methodologies for the testing, certification, and maintenance of advanced composites in commercial transport aircraft structural applications may need to be modified in order to capture and address future industry use

Evaluating Optimum Levels Of Detail For 3d Interactive Aviation Maintenance Instructions

With the aviation industry shifting from paper based maintenance instructions to digital maintenance instructions, there needs to be a standard for what goes into creating the digital instructions. This study was done to determine what the optimum level of detail for 3D interactive aviation maintenance instructions. The definition of optimum for this study was: lowest amount of geometrical data with lowest rendering needed for comprehension and ease of use

Applying Lessons from Safety-II Proof of Concept in Line Operational Safety Audit to Aviation Maintenance

Maintenance safety culture is a topic that continues to arise. There is much information in many different literature sources that discusses measuring, analyzing, and scrutinizing data to determine if a safety culture exists in an organization and how to improve it. Currently, aviation maintenance personnel are surveyed for their opinions on how safe their culture is. However, this may not be an adequate reflection of the safety culture or help maintenance personnel conduct their jobs. Typically, they are operating in an environment that has a central determination of what safety culture is. Other programs in other fields have attempted a decentralization of control to guide employees to adapt to variation in the environment and safely achieve their job requirements. A proof of concept is being tried in the commercial airline industry with university support. The results could be expanded beyond the flight deck and into aviation maintenance with further research into how Safety-II has been successfully applied to other industries

Risk Assessment of Fuel Quantity Indicator Replacement in ATR72 Aircraft

Aircraft maintenance activities are rife with opportunities for error. The concurrent in-flight failure of all of the engines of a non-scheduled airline flight and the following lost of human lives highlight one of these opportunities. As commonly recognized among flight operators, each Flight Safety Agency follows the criteria of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Annex 16 in which all the evidences of the technical investigation pave the way for avoiding future flight accidents or incidents. On the other hand, when the italian penal procedure codewas applied for the Tuninter aircraftATR72 (identification code TSLBB) crash at issue on 6th August 2005 near Palermo (Italy), the investigation is also carried out for finding (if concurrent or not) the personal and professional responsibilities. This was the task of the first author. Now, this article briefly reports the findings of the investigation and discuss more in detail how both human factors of design and human factors in the published instructions for the completion of a maintenance task contributed to this accident

A new resilient risk management model for offshore wind turbine maintenance

The objective of this study is to implement the principles of Resilience Engineering (RE) for the maintenance management of Offshore Wind Turbine (OWT) systems by taking into account human and organizational factors. Resilience concepts are integrated into existing maintenance management elements and a resilient model is developed and applied to OWT in order to manage the maintenance related risks. The four main capabilities proposed by RE, i.e. responding, monitoring, anticipating and learning, are linked to a three level resilience system in order to prevent or mitigate OWT maintenance failures. The paper presents the applicability and effectiveness of RE in preventing accidents/incidents and system failures, and learning activities