Different Automation Concepts in Civil Aircraft Cockpits of Today and Their Influence on Airline Flight Operations

Although there are different aircraft manufecturers and hence different practical solutions, there is one bottom line in automation. In aviation automation is only complement to humans. It is not present to challenge the pilot's role and responsibility. The use of new technologies and implementation of new functionality are dictated only by: significant safety benefits, obvious operational advantages, and clear response to the pilot's needs and operational factors influencing his functioning. The paper will discuss different approaches to automation related to flight operations in aviations. The paper intends to demonstrate how different manufacturers' approaches follows quite similar ideas in different automated system designs. The paper does not intend to give any final say when choosing one concept or the other. That is the matter of different circumstances requiring more justifying space and different criteria than the pure scientific one

The Example of Laptop Based Performance Data Generating and Optimisation in Contemporary Commercial Aircraft Operations

Airframe and engine combination gives equal potential to every operator with such a hardware combination. Operator's way of utilization makes its use to the maximum or less. Data related to aircraft performance is one of the basic elements in daily aircraft operations and optimal utiliza-tion of airframe and engine combination in real life environment. New technological solutions and systems affected performance data calculation. Today's laptop computer technology has already boarded the flight deck together with pilots. This paper is to present possible structure and proposed application of one of the system together with envisaged effects of its use in real life commercial aircraft operations. It will present the over-view of the system with considerations taken into account when designing and developing it; it's potentials and advantages compared to paper based performance data calculation and optimiza-tion: and the most important how it is understood as a tool in very demanding, unpredictable air-line operations of today

Automated Operations and Safety Data Collection and Usage in Contemporary Flight Operations Quality Audit Programs

Flight Operations Quality Audit (FOQA) programs are becoming more common to airlines of today. Flight data recording devices modified for repeated and daily data readouts have been dem-onstrating their unquestionable advantages in FOQA programmes. They demonstrate the interest of airlines, that use them, to transport people, cargo and mail in safe and efficient way. The paper will present general FOQA structure, historical developments in this field together with common obstacles when introducing FOQA to an airline. It also brings the latest data and understanding of benefits that FOQA has on airlines operation with potential applications of similar concepts to other means of transportation as well

Flight Operations and Engineering Documentation Managing and Distribution Supported by Intelligent Transport Systems

Aviation as a multitude of activities is meant to satisfy needs of its customers to overcome distance and time between any departure and arrival point in the world. Airlines and other aircraft operators (governments, armed forces, general aviation, and business aviation) differ in their structure depending on their size and services they provide. Some departments are to be found in larger airlines only. However, core departments, to every airline or aircraft operator, are flight operations department and engineering department. Sophistication and the size of these departments depend on the size of the system they are incorporated in. Business logistics of an airline consist of numerous distinctive activities and functions. These activities have to be planned and completed in synchronisation. The paper presents an overview to intelligent systems for the support to these activities with particular stress on flight operations and maintenance functions in a medium sized airline. Authors show how the approach to documentation management, as a part of logistics in the production of transportation service, has evolved since the early 1990s when aviation has started to recognise the value of digital technical data. In light of this, authors analyse conceptual framework adopted by today's aircraft manufacturers towards their logistics activities supported by Internet as a new means of transferring data. The advent of new sophisticated pilot-machine interfaces and aircraft systems tends to increase the volume of the documentation describing these tools drastically. The paper communicates how operational documentation has to change to move towards a more easy and modern media. Intelligent systems that prove aviation entering a period where the "written book" is going to be complemented if not largely supplemented by the "electronic book" are presented from the early beginnings of digital data application to the most recent achievements

A knowledge-based system design/information tool

The objective of this effort was to develop a Knowledge Capture System (KCS) for the Integrated Test Facility (ITF) at the Dryden Flight Research Facility (DFRF). The DFRF is a NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) facility. This system was used to capture the design and implementation information for NASA's high angle-of-attack research vehicle (HARV), a modified F/A-18A. In particular, the KCS was used to capture specific characteristics of the design of the HARV fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system (FCS). The KCS utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge-based system (KBS) technology. The KCS enables the user to capture the following characteristics of automated systems: the system design; the hardware (H/W) design and implementation; the software (S/W) design and implementation; and the utilities (electrical and hydraulic) design and implementation. A generic version of the KCS was developed which can be used to capture the design information for any automated system. The deliverable items for this project consist of the prototype generic KCS and an application, which captures selected design characteristics of the HARV FCS

QPTAS and Subexponential Algorithm for Maximum Clique on Disk Graphs

A (unit) disk graph is the intersection graph of closed (unit) disks in the plane. Almost three decades ago, an elegant polynomial-time algorithm was found for Maximum Clique on unit disk graphs [Clark, Colbourn, Johnson; Discrete Mathematics '90]. Since then, it has been an intriguing open question whether or not tractability can be extended to general disk graphs. We show the rather surprising structural result that a disjoint union of cycles is the complement of a disk graph if and only if at most one of those cycles is of odd length. From that, we derive the first QPTAS and subexponential algorithm running in time 2^{O~(n^{2/3})} for Maximum Clique on disk graphs. In stark contrast, Maximum Clique on intersection graphs of filled ellipses or filled triangles is unlikely to have such algorithms, even when the ellipses are close to unit disks. Indeed, we show that there is a constant ratio of approximation which cannot be attained even in time 2^{n^{1-epsilon}}, unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis fails

Relativistic Winds from Compact Gamma-ray Sources: I. Radiative Acceleration in the Klein-Nishina Regime

We consider the radiative acceleration to relativistic bulk velocities of a cold, optically thin plasma which is exposed to an external source of gamma-rays. The flow is driven by radiative momentum input to the gas, the accelerating force being due to Compton scattering in the relativistic Klein-Nishina limit. The bulk Lorentz factor of the plasma, Gamma, derived as a function of distance from the radiating source, is compared with the corresponding result in the Thomson limit. Depending on the geometry and spectrum of the radiation field, we find that particles are accelerated to the asymptotic Lorentz factor at infinity much more rapidly in the relativistic regime; and the radiation drag is reduced as blueshifted, aberrated photons experience a decreased relativistic cross section and scatter preferentially in the forward direction. The random energy imparted to the plasma by gamma-rays can be converted into bulk motion if the hot particles execute many Larmor orbits before cooling. This `Compton afterburn' may be a supplementary source of momentum if energetic leptons are injected by pair creation, but can be neglected in the case of pure Klein-Nishina scattering. Compton drag by side-scattered radiation is shown to be more important in limiting the bulk Lorentz factor than the finite inertia of the accelerating medium. The processes discussed here may be relevant to a variety of astrophysical situations where luminous compact sources of hard X- and gamma-ray photons are observed, including active galactic nuclei, galactic black hole candidates, and gamma-ray bursts.Comment: LateX, 20 pages, 5 figures, revised version accepted for publication in the Ap