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FOUNDED in 1956 by Mr E. L. Cook, Aircraft Supplies Ltd. have come a long way since then. Mr Cook left the flight test department of the de Havilland organisation at Christchurch to set up his own company to supply aircraft spares, particularly electrical items and aircraft flight instruments such as artificial horizons and other gyro‐based instruments. There can be few things more damaging to the airline operator than to have an aircraft worth hundreds of thousands of pounds grounded for a prolonged period due simply to the inability to obtain quick delivery of some small piece of equipment costing perhaps as little as a few pounds. The initial stores consisted of two hangars discarded by B.O.A.C. and the company was quickly established. As the organisation grew, it was able to offer full overhaul and repair facilities for instruments and electrical equipment and quickly obtained a reputation for the quality of their workmanship and the extent of their stock. Workshop facilities were approved by Mintech and the Air Registration Board gave approval for the manufacture, overhaul and repair of equipment for civil and military operators. A significant advance in the company's capabilities was made when it took over the manufacturing rights of the Midas range of flight data recorders in the U.K. This range of recorders was popular with airline operators wishing to meet the B.o.T. mandatory requirements.

IN its concern with the adequacy of minimum standards, the NTSB over the years has been able to identify the usefulness of the required parameters and the potential significance of parameters that are not currently required. It considers that requirements need to be made to assist in establishing the probable causes of accidents and developing recommendations that might preclude these types of accidents from recurring. The proposals are that the current requirements would be expanded to include the NSTB's recommendation for newly manufactured aeroplanes and existing ones equipped with an ARINC 429 digital data bus or its equivalent. In addition, the recorder requirements of Appendix B would be extended to include Part 135 operations with aeroplanes and rotorcraft capable of carrying 20 passengers or more. Another flight recorder requirement would apply to newly manufactured, multi‐engine, turbine‐powered aircraft capable of carrying 10 or more passengers. It would be required that aeroplanes be equipped with flight recorders that at least record the parameters detailed in Appendix B of Part 121.

Undergoing final review this year by the ICAO Air Navigation Commission (ANC) are updated specifications for flight data and cockpit voice recorders that satisfy today's increased dependency on actual flight information in accident and incident investigation. The object of these specifications that have been developed in the last few years is to improve the effectiveness of flight recorders carried on board aeroplanes and to introduce standards for helicopters.

Methods of recording data in flight have been in existence for many years, but it was not until the potential of a recording medium together with electronic systems came to be realised, that the full value of continuously acquiring a variety of parameters could be appreciated.

The purpose of this paper is to present a quick inspection method based on the post-flight data to examine static aeroelastic behavior for transport aircraft subjected to instantaneous high g-loads.

In the present study, the numerical approach of static aeroelasticity and two verified cases will be presented. The non-linear unsteady aerodynamic models are established through flight data mining and the fuzzy-logic modeling of artificial intelligence techniques based on post-flight data. The first and second derivatives of flight dynamic and static aeroelastic behaviors, respectively, are then estimated by using these aerodynamic models.

The flight dynamic and static aeroelastic behaviors with instantaneous high g-load for the two transports will be analyzed and make a comparison study. The circumstance of turbulence encounter of the new twin-jet is much serious than that of four-jet transport aircraft, but the characteristic of stability and controllability for the new twin-jet is better than those of the four-jet transport aircraft; the new twin-jet transport is also shown to have very small aeroelastic effects. The static aeroelastic behaviors for the two different types can be assessed by using this method.

As the present study uses the flight data stored in a quick access recorder, an intrusive structural inspection of the post-flight can be avoided. A tentative conclusion is to prove that this method can be adapted to examine the static aeroelastic effects for transport aircraft of different weights, different sizes and different service years in tracking static aeroelastic behavior of existing different types of aircraft. In future research, one can consider to have more issues of other types of aircraft with high composite structure weight.

This method can be used to assist airlines to monitor the variations of flight dynamic and static aeroelastic behaviors as a complementary tool for management to improve aviation safety, operation and operational efficiency.

This paper aims to describe the idea behind and design of a miniaturized distributed measurement system based on a controller area network (CAN) data bus.

The intention of the designers was to build a light and modular measurement system which can be used in remotely piloted aircraft systems and ultra-light aircraft during flight tests, as well as normal operation. The structure of this distributed measurement system is based on a CAN data bus. The CAN aerospace standard has been applied to the software as well as the hardware comprising this system. PRP-W2 software designed for PCs is an additional component of the proposed measurement system. This software supports data acquisition from a recorder unit and allows for preliminary data analysis, as well as data conversion and presentation.

The system, complete with a high-speed data recorder, was successfully installed on board of an MP-02 Czajka aircraft. A research experiment using the system and oriented on airframe high frequency vibration analysis is presented in the final part of this paper.

This measurement system allows analysis of high-frequency vibrations occurring at selected points of the aircraft. A data set is recorded by three-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes at frequencies up to 1 kHz.

The use of a miniature and lightweight modular measurement system will, in many cases, be faster and less expensive than full-scale measurement and data acquisition systems, which often require a lengthy assembly process. The implementation of this class of lightweight flight test systems has many advantages, in particular to the operation of small aircraft. Such solutions are likely to become increasingly common in unmanned aerial vehicles and in other light aircraft in the future.

The adaptation of a distributed measuring system with a high frequency of measurements for purposes of small and miniature aircraft.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative study of flight circumstances, dynamic stability characteristics and controllability for two transport aircraft in severe atmospheric turbulence at transonic cruise flight for the purpose to obtain the prevention concepts of injuries to passengers and crew members for pilot training in International Air Transport Association (IATA) – Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I) program.

A twin-jet and a four-jet transport aircraft encountering severe atmospheric turbulence are the study cases for this paper. The nonlinear unsteady aerodynamic models are established through flight data mining and the fuzzy-logic modeling technique based on the flight data of flight data recorder. This method can be adopted to examine the influence of horizontal wind shear and crosswind on loss of control, dynamic stability characteristics and controllability for transport aircraft in different weights and different sizes in tracking aviation safety of existing different types of aircraft.

The horizontal wind shear or crosswind before the turbulence encounter will easily induce rolling motion and then initiate the sudden plunging motion during the turbulence encounter. The roll rate will increase the oscillatory rolling motion during plunging motion, if the rolling damping is insufficient. The drop-off altitude will be enlarged by the oscillatory rolling motion during the sudden plunging motion.

A lack of the measurement data of vertical wind speed sensor on board to verify the estimated values of damping term is one of the research limitations for this study. The fact or condition of being severe in sudden plunging motion can be judged through the analysis of oscillatory derivatives with both dynamic stability and damping terms.

The roll rate will increase the oscillatory rolling motion during plunging motion, if the rolling damping is insufficient. The drop-off altitude will be enlarged by the oscillatory rolling motion during the sudden plunging motion. The horizontal wind shear or crosswind before the turbulence encounter will easily induce rolling motion and then initiated the sudden plunging motion during the turbulence encounter. If the drift angle is large, to turn off the autopilot of yaw control first and stabilize the rudder by the pedal. When passing through the atmosphere turbulence area, the pilots do not need to amend the heading angle urgently.

The flight safety prevention in avoidance of injuries for passengers and cabin crews is essential for the airlines. The horizontal wind shear or crosswind before the turbulence encounter will easily induce rolling motion and then initiated the sudden plunging motion during the turbulence encounter.

The flight safety prevention in avoidance of injuries for passengers and cabin crews is essential. The present assessment method is an innovation to examine the loss of control problems of aviation safety and promote the understanding of aerodynamic responses of the jet transport aircraft. It is expected to provide a valuable lecture for the international training courses for IATA – LOC-I program after this paper is being published.

This study aims to enhance the fuel efficiency of jet transport aircraft based on mathematical models and flight crew operating manual (FCOM) for the purpose to assist the civil aviation industry in improving flight safety and operational efficiency.

The research applies flight data mining and fuzzy logic modeling technologies to set up lift-to-drag ratio (L/D) models and nine models of thrust, Mach number, engine pressure ratio and fuel flow rate to estimate the deviation of each flight parameter. All performance deviations are calculated based on the values of flight data recorded in the quick access recorder and FCOM at the observed flight conditions. The L/D model can obtain the influence of each flight parameter and estimate the insufficient amount of each parameter by averaging it with the least square method. In the estimation of optimal altitude, nine models are built based on data from FCOM to estimate the optimal altitude and complete comparative analysis of the airspeed, Mach number and fuel flow rate at the optimal altitude.

Analyze 11 relevant parameters from the sensitivity derivative of L/D model to obtain how each parameter affected fuel consumption and explore the causes of additional fuel consumption. Complete the estimation of the optimal cruise altitude of the aircraft, and calculate the comparative analysis of the altitude, speed, Mach number and other parameters with the sensitivity derivative of the L/D. The estimation of the optimal cruise altitude of the aircraft can meet the analysis of the sensitivity derivative.

This study is to enhance the fuel efficiency of jet commercial transport based on mathematical model and FCOM. FCOM is required to conduct this study. The estimation of the optimal cruise altitude through the nine models of the aircraft could meet the analysis of the sensitivity derivative.

The object of present research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of optimization of flight conditions through model analysis to get knowledge of the effects of each influencing flight variable to L/D for future flight operations’ reference.

The model-based derivative analysis had the ability to perform derivative prediction analysis on any input parameters, more flight parameters could be optimized in future research to help airlines improve flight safety and operational efficiency.

The present enhancement method of fuel efficiency is an innovation to examine the abnormal aircraft performance and its flight operations, thereby to explore the causes of additional fuel consumption. The present method can become an auxiliary tool for flight operations quality assurance to improve fuel efficiency for the airlines.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the risk of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) for airlines and to develop a practical method for evaluating and predicting CFIT risk to ensure safe and efficient airline operations.

In accordance with the monitoring project specification issued by the Flight Standards Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), a preliminary draft of evaluation indicators for CFIT risk was developed based on the literature review and semi-structured interviews. Fifteen aviation experts were then selected and invited to participate in a Delphi method to revise the draft. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy weight method were used to determine the combined weight of the indicators. The variable fuzzy set model and quick access recorder (QAR) data were applied to evaluate the CFIT risk of an airline from 2007 to 2018, and the classification results were compared with actual operational data.

The research findings reveal that the six most significant monitoring items affecting CFIT risk are incorrect configuration settings during landing, loss of altitude during climbing, ground proximity warning, G/S deviation, flap extension delay during landing and incorrect takeoff configuration. The CFIT risk of airlines has shown an increasing trend since 2015. The values in 2010, 2017 and 2018 were greater than 2 and less than 2.5, indicating that the CFIT risk is at Level 2, close to Level 3, and the risk is low but approaching medium.

Using the combination weight determined by AHP and entropy weight method to rank the weight of 15 monitoring items, airlines can take necessary measures (simulator training, knowledge training) to reduce the occurrence of monitoring items with high weight to reduce CFIT risk. This risk assessment method can quantitatively evaluate the CFIT risk of airlines and provide theoretical guidance and technical support for airlines to formulate safety management measures and flight training programs, enabling the interconnection between QAR data and flight quality.

The proposed method in this study differs from traditional approaches by offering a quantitative assessment of CFIT risk for airlines and enabling the interconnection between QAR data and flight quality.