Single pilot IFR program overview and status

The history of the General Aviation Single Pilot IFR research program at NASA LaRC was discussed in general terms. The program objective, justification, and technical approach were given. The facilities used to conduct the research were discussed briefly. A general overview of recent accomplishments, present activities and near term plans were given

Helicopter sling load accident/incident survey: 1968 - 1974

During the period considered a mean of eleven accidents per year occurred and a mean of eleven persons were killed or seriously injured per year. Forty-one percent of the accidents occurred during hover, and 63 percent of the accidents had pilot error listed as a cause/factor. Many accidents involved pilots losing control of the helicopter or allowing a collision with obstructions to occur. There was a mean of 58 incidents each year and 51 percent of these occurred during cruise

Single pilot IFR operating problems determined from accidental data analysis

The accident reports examined were restricted to instrument rated pilots flying in IFR weather. A brief examination was made of accidents which occurred during all phases of flight and which were due to all causes. A detailed examination was made of those accidents which involved a single pilot which occurred during the landing phases of flight, and were due to pilot error. Problem areas found include: (1) landing phase operations especially final approach, (2) pilot weather briefings, (3) night approaches in low IFR weather, (4) below minimum approaches, (5) aircraft icing, (6) imprecise navigation, (7) descending below minimum IFR altitudes, (8) fuel mismanagement, (9) pilot overconfidence, and (10) high pilot workload especially in twins. Some suggested areas of research included: (1) low cost deicing systems, (2) standardized navigation displays, (3) low cost low-altitude warning systems, (4) improved fuel management systems, (5) improved ATC communications, (6) more effective pilot training and experience acquisition methods, and (7) better weather data dissemination techniques

Adaptation of time line analysis program to single pilot instrument flight research

A data base was developed for SPIFR operation and the program was run. The outputs indicated that further work was necessary on the workload models. In particular, the workload model for the cognitive channel should be modified as the output workload appears to be too small. Included in the needed refinements are models to show the workload when in turbulence, when overshooting a radial or glideslope, and when copying air traffic control clearances

A system for spacecraft attitude control and energy storage

A conceptual design for a double-gimbal reaction-wheel energy-wheel device which has three-axis attitude control and electrical energy storage capability is given. A mathematical model for the three-axis gyroscope (TAG) was developed, and a system of multiple units is proposed for attitude control and energy storage for a class of spacecraft. Control laws were derived to provide the required attitude-control torques and energy transfer while minimizing functions of TAG gimbal angles, gimbal rates, reaction-wheel speeds, and energy-wheel speed differences. A control law is also presented for a magnetic torquer desaturation system. A computer simulation of a three-TAG system for an orbiting telescope was used to evaluate the concept. The results of the study indicate that all control and power requirements can be satisfied by using the TAG concept

Have We Observed the Higgs (Imposter)?

We interpret the new particle at the Large Hadron Collider as a CP-even scalar and investigate its electroweak quantum number. Assuming an unbroken custodial invariance as suggested by precision electroweak measurements, only four possibilities are allowed if the scalar decays to pairs of gauge bosons, as exemplified by a dilaton/radion, a non-dilatonic electroweak singlet scalar, an electroweak doublet scalar, and electroweak triplet scalars. We show that current LHC data already strongly disfavor both the dilatonic and non-dilatonic singlet imposters. On the other hand, a generic Higgs doublet give excellent fits to the measured event rates of the newly observed scalar resonance, while the Standard Model Higgs boson gives a slightly worse overall fit due to the lack signal in the tau tau channel. The triplet imposter exhibits some tension with the data. The global fit indicates the enhancement in the diphoton channel could be attributed to an enhanced partial decay width, while the production rates are consistent with the Standard Model expectations. We emphasize that more precise measurements of the ratio of event rates in the WW over ZZ channels, as well as the event rates in b bbar and tau tau channels, are needed to further distinguish the Higgs doublet from the triplet imposter.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures; v2: updated with most recent public data as of August 7. A generic Higgs doublet now gives the best fit to data, while the triplet imposter exhibits some tensio

Controls, Displays, and Information Transfer for General Aviation IFR Operations

The purpose of the workshop was to review and evaluate the work performed under the NASA Single Pilot IFR (SPIFR) program, to highlight and disseminate major research findings, and to provide a forum for industry, universities, and government to interact and discuss the future thrust of research in the SPIFR program. The presentations selected represent key elements of the SPIFR program. These elements are classified into five disciplinary areas: program definition, controls, displays, information transfer, and research simulation facilities. Emphasis is also placed on aircraft accident investigation

Calculation of Transactinide Homolog Isotope Production Reactions Possible with the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The LLNL heavy element group has been investigating the chemical properties of the heaviest elements over the past several years. The properties of the transactinides (elements with Z > 103) are often unknown due to their low production rates and short half-lives, which require lengthy cyclotron irradiations in order to make enough atoms for statistically significant evaluations of their chemistry. In addition, automated chemical methods are often required to perform consistent and rapid chemical separations on the order of minutes for the duration of the experiment, which can last from weeks to months. Separation methods can include extraction chromatography, liquid-liquid extraction, or gas-phase chromatography. Before a lengthy transactinide experiment can be performed at an accelerator, a large amount of preparatory work must be done both to ensure the successful application of the chosen chemical system to the transactinide chemistry problem being addressed, and to evaluate the behavior of the lighter elemental homologs in the same chemical system. Since transactinide chemistry is literally performed on one single atom, its chemical properties cannot be determined from bulk chemical matrices, but instead must be inferred from the behavior of the lighter elements that occur in its chemical group and in those of its neighboring elements. By first studying the lighter group homologs in a particular chemical system, when the same system is applied to the transactinide element under investigation, its decay properties can be directly compared to those of the homologues, thereby allowing an inference of its own chemistry. The Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) includes a 1 MV Tandem accelerator, capable of accelerating light ions such as protons to energies of roughly 15 MeV. By using the CAMS beamline, tracers of transactinide homolog elements can be produced both for development of chemical systems and for evaluation of homolog chemical properties. CAMS also offers an environment for testing these systems 'online' by incorporating automated chemical systems into the beamline so that tracers can be created, transported, and chemically separated all on the shorter timescales required for transactinide experiments. Even though CAMS is limited in the types and energies of ions they can accelerate, there are still a wide variety of reactions that can be performed there with commercially available target materials. The half-lives of these isotopes vary over a range that could be used for both online chemistry (where shorter half-lives are required) and benchtop tracers studies (where longer lived isotopes are preferred). In this document, they present a summary of tracer production reactions that could be performed at CAMS, specifically for online, automated chemical studies. They are from chemical groups four through seven, 13, and 14, which would be appropriate for studies of elements 104-107, 113, and 114. Reactions were selected that had (a) commercially available target material, (b) half-lives long enough for transport from a target chamber to an automated chemistry system, and (c) cross-sections at CAMS available projectile energies that were large enough to produce enough atoms to result in a statistically relevant signal after losses for transport and chemistry were considered. In addition, the resulting product atoms had to decay with an observable gamma-ray using standard Ge gamma-ray detectors. The table includes calculations performed for both metal targets and their corresponding oxides

Development and validation of a piloted simulation of a helicopter and external sling load

A generalized, real time, piloted, visual simulation of a single rotor helicopter, suspension system, and external load is described and validated for the full flight envelope of the U.S. Army CH-54 helicopter and cargo container as an example. The mathematical model described uses modified nonlinear classical rotor theory for both the main rotor and tail rotor, nonlinear fuselage aerodynamics, an elastic suspension system, nonlinear load aerodynamics, and a loadground contact model. The implementation of the mathematical model on a large digital computing system is described, and validation of the simulation is discussed. The mathematical model is validated by comparing measured flight data with simulated data, by comparing linearized system matrices, eigenvalues, and eigenvectors with manufacturers' data, and by the subjective comparison of handling characteristics by experienced pilots. A visual landing display system for use in simulation which generates the pilot's forward looking real world display was examined and a special head up, down looking load/landing zone display is described

High energy neutrinos from neutralino annihilations in the Sun

Neutralino annihilations in the Sun to weak boson and top quark pairs lead to high-energy neutrinos that can be detected by the IceCube and KM3 experiments in the search for neutralino dark matter. We calculate the neutrino signals from real and virtual WW, ZZ, Zh, and $t \bar t$ production and decays, accounting for the spin-dependences of the matrix elements, which can have important influences on the neutrino energy spectra. We take into account neutrino propagation including neutrino oscillations, matter-resonance, absorption, and nu_tau regeneration effects in the Sun and evaluate the neutrino flux at the Earth. We concentrate on the compelling Focus Point (FP) region of the supergravity model that reproduces the observed dark matter relic density. For the FP region, the lightest neutralino has a large bino-higgsino mixture that leads to a high neutrino flux and the spin-dependent neutralino capture rate in the Sun is enhanced by 10^3 over the spin-independent rate. For the standard estimate of neutralino captures, the muon signal rates in IceCube are identifiable over the atmospheric neutrino background for neutralino masses above M_Z up to 400 GeV.Comment: 45 pages, 18 figures and 5 tables, PRD versio