Search results

Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) is the foundational technology of the next generation air transportation system defined by Federal Aviation Authority and is one of the most precise ways for tracking aircraft position. ADS-B is intended to provide greater situational awareness to the pilots by displaying the traffic information like aircraft ID, altitude, speed and other critical parameters on the Cockpit Display of Traffic Information displays in the cockpit. Unfortunately, due to the initial proposed nature of ADS-B protocol, it is neither encrypted nor has any other innate security mechanisms, which makes it an easy target for malicious attacks. The system is vulnerable to various active and passive attacks like message ingestion, message deletion, eavesdropping, jamming, etc., which has become an area of concern for the aviation industry. The purpose of this study is to propose a method based on modified advanced encryption standard (AES) algorithm to secure the ADS=B messages and increase the integrity of ADS-B data transmissions.

Though there are various cryptographic and non-cryptographic methods proposed to secure ADS-B data transmissions, it is evident that most of these systems have limitations in terms of cost, implementation or feasibility. The new proposed method implements AES encryption techniques on the ADS-B data on the sender side and correlated decryption mechanism at the receiver end. The system is designed based on the flight schedule data available from any flight planning systems and implementing the AES algorithm on the ADS-B data from each aircraft in the flight schedule.

The suitable hardware was developed using Raspberry pi, ESP32 and Ra-02. Several runs were done to verify the original message, transmitted data and received data. During transmission, encryption algorithm was being developed, which has got very high secured transmission, and during the reception, the data was secured. Field test was conducted to validate the transmission and quality. Several trials were done to validate the transmission process. The authors have successfully shown that the ADS-B data can be encrypted using AES algorithm. The authors are successful in transmitting and receiving the ADS-B data packet using the discussed hardware and software methodology. One major advantage of using the proposed solution is that the information received is encrypted, and the receiver ADS-B system can decrypt the messages on the receiving end. This clearly proves that when the data is received by an unknown receiver, the messages cannot be decrypted, as the receiver is not capable of decrypting the AES-authenticated messages transmitted by the authenticated source. Also, AES encryption is highly unlikely to be decrypted if the encryption key and the associated decryption key are not known.

Implementation of the developed solution in actual onboard avionics systems is not within the scope of this research. Hence, assessing in the real-time distances is not covered.

The authors propose to extend this as a software solution to the onboard avionics systems by considering the required architectural changes. This solution can also bring in positive results for unmanned air vehicles in addition to the commercial aircrafts. Enhancement of security to the key operational and navigation data elements is going to be invaluable for future air traffic management and saving lives of people.

The proposed solution has been practically implemented by developing the hardware and software as part of this research. This has been clearly brought out in the paper. The implementation has been tested using the actual ADS-B data/messages received from using the ADS-B receiver. The solution works perfectly, and this brings immense value to the aircraft-to-aircraft and aircraft-to-ground communications, specifically while using ADS-B data for communicating the position information. With the proposed architecture and minor software updates to the onboard avionics, this solution can enhance safety of flights.

The pivotal aspect of aircraft assembly lies in precise measurement accuracy. While a solitary digital measuring tool suffices for analytical and small surfaces, it falls short for extensive synthetic surfaces like aircraft fuselage panels and wing spars. The purpose of this study is to develop a “combined measurement method” (CMM) that enhances measurement quality and expands the evaluative scope, addressing the limitations posed by singular digital devices in meeting measurement requirements across various aircraft components.

The study illustrated the utilization of the CMM by combining a laser tracker and a portable arm-measuring machine. This innovative approach is tailored to address the intricate nature and substantial dimensions of aircraft fuselage panels. The portable arm-measuring machine performs precise scans of panel components, while common points recorded by the laser tracker undergo coordinate conversion to reconstruct the fuselage panel’s shape. The research outlines the CMM’s measurement procedure and scrutinizes the data processing technique. Ultimately, the investigation yields a deviation vector matrix and chromatogram deviation distribution, pivotal in achieving enhanced measurement precision for the novel CMM device.

The use of CMM noticeably enhances fuselage panel assembly accuracy, concurrently reducing assembly time and enhancing efficiency compared to conventional measurement systems.

The research’s practical implication lies in revolutionizing aircraft assembly by mitigating accuracy issues through the innovative digital CMM for aircraft synthetic structure type product (aircraft fuselage panel). This ensures safer flights, reduces rework and enhances overall efficiency in the aerospace industry.

Introducing a new aircraft assembly accuracy compensation method through digital combined measurement, pioneering improved assembly precision. Also, it enhances aerospace assembly quality, safety and efficiency, offering innovative insights for optimized aviation manufacturing processes.

With the advancements in electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft technology such as batteries, mechanisms, motors, configurations and so on, designers and engineers are encouraged to create unique and unconventional configurations of eVTOL aircraft to provide better capabilities and higher efficiencies to compete in the market. The box fan-in-split-wing tiltrotor eVTOL aircraft is an innovative design that aims to address the aerodynamic inefficiencies such as propeller effects in cruise and engine mounts drag that existed in traditional eVTOL aircraft designs such as vectored thrust, rotorcraft, lift + cruise and multi-copter configurations. This paper aims to propose a multi-disciplinary design process to conceptually design the box fan-in-split-wing Tiltrotor eVTOL aircraft.

An unconventional methodology was used to design the UAM aircraft, and the following parameters are considered: capable of vertical take-off and landing, highly aerodynamic with a high lift-to-drag ratio, low Cd₀ modern and appealing, rechargeable or battery swappable and feature to minimise or negate propeller drag. A heavy emphasis on improving performance and weight based on aerodynamics was enforced during the conceptual design phase. MAPLA and XFOIL were used to identify the aerodynamic properties of the aircraft.

Upon determining the key parameters and the mission requirements and objectives, a list of possible VTOL configurations was derived from theoretical and existing designs. The fan in the wing/split wing was selected, as it could stow the propellers. A tiltrotor configuration was selected because of its ability to reduce the total number of lift props/motors, reducing powerplant weight and improving aerodynamic efficiency. For the propulsion configuration, a battery–motor configuration with a hexa-rotor layout was chosen because of its ability to complement the planform of the aircraft, providing redundant motors in case of failure and because of its reliability, efficiency and lack of emissions. Coupled with the fan-in-wing / split wing concept, the box wing seamlessly combines all chosen configurations.

The box fan-in-split-wing Tiltrotor eVTOL aircraft aims to address the aerodynamic inefficiencies of earlier designs such as propeller effects in cruise and engine mounts drag. The potential benefits of this aircraft, such as increased range, endurance and payload capacity, make it an exciting prospect in the field of Urban Air Mobility.

The small air transport (SAT) domain is gaining increasing interest over the past decade, based on its perspective relevance in enabling efficient travel over a regional range, by exploiting small airports and fixed wing aircraft with up to 19 seats (EASA CS-23 category). To support its wider adoption, it is needed to enable single pilot operations.

An integrated mission management system (IMMS) has been designed and implemented, able to automatically optimize the aircraft path by considering trajectory optimization needs. It takes into account both traffic scenario and weather actual and forecasted condition and is also able to select best destination airport, should pilot incapacitation occur during flight. As part of the IMMS, dedicated evolved tactical separation system (Evo-TSS) has been designed to provide elaboration of both surrounding and far located traffic and subsequent traffic clustering, to support the trajectory planning/re-planning by the IMMS.

The Clean Sky 2-funded project COAST (Cost Optimized Avionics SysTem) successfully designed and validated through flight demonstrations relevant technologies enabling affordable cockpit and avionics and supporting single pilot operations for SAT vehicles. These technologies include the TSS in its baseline and evolved versions, included in the IMMS.

This paper describes the TSS baseline version and the basic aspects of the Evo-TSS design. It is aimed to outline the implementation of the Evo-TSS dedicated software in Matlab/Simulink environment, the planned laboratory validation campaign and the results of the validation exercises in fast-time Matlab/Simulink environment, which were successfully concluded in 2023.

This study aims to investigate the design and optimization of landing gear buffers to improve the landing-phase comfort of civil aircraft.

The vibration comfort during the landing and taxiing phases is calculated and evaluated based on the flight-testing data for a type of civil aircraft. The calculation and evaluation are under the guidance of the vibration comfort standard of GB/T13441.1-2007 and related files. The authors establish here a rigid-flexible coupled multibody dynamics finite element model of one full-size aircraft. Furthermore, the authors also implement a dynamic simulation for the landing and taxiing processes. Also, an analysis of how the main parameters of the buffers affect the vibration comfort is presented. Finally, the optimization of the single-chamber and double-chamber buffers in the landing gear is performed considering vibration comfort.

The double-chamber buffer with optimized parameters in landing gear can improve the vibration comfort of the aircraft during the landing and taxiing phases. Moreover, the comfort index can be increased by 25.6% more than that of a single-chamber type.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study first investigates the evaluation methods and evaluation indexes on the aircraft vibration comfort, then further conducts the optimization of the parameters of landing gear buffer with different structures, so as to improve the comfort of aircraft passengers during landing process. Most of the current studies on aircraft landing gear have focused on the strength and safety of the landing gear, with very limited research on cabin vibration comfort during landing and subsequent taxiing because of the coupling of runway surface unevenness and airframe vibration.

Blockchain is the fastest-growing technology currently being used in the aviation industry, especially in aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services. This study aims to create an analytic framework to assess the main factors and subfactors that have significantly influence the blockchain used in aviation MRO services. A mixed-methods approach is used to gain a comprehensive understanding of how blockchain is being adopted in aircraft maintenance facilities, Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires are used to gather data. The questionnaire is focused on the present state of the MRO industry.

Based on the literature review, a framework including four factors and 12 subfactors is developed, and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is then established. This study explores how these factors influence the implementation of blockchain in aviation MRO services. The five aviation MRO services providers in Taiwan, namely, “Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation,” “Taiwan Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Co., Ltd.,” “Air Asia Company Ltd.,” “Aerospace Industrial Development Corp.” and “GE Evergreen Engine Services Corporation” are considered; furthermore, 55 experts working in these organizations were invited to evaluate the relative importance criteria in the AHP framework.

The results indicate that “inventory management” is the most important criterion, followed by “provisioning, procurement and sales” and “maintenance planning.” In addition, the three most important subfactors are “parts interchangeability,” “customer stock” and “SPEC2K interface for ATA SPEC 2000.”

Asia is ranked as the second most important aviation MRO service market in the world. Taiwan has the shortest flight hours in the western Pacific region, the seven major foreign cities in this area. Aviation MRO service providers located in Taiwan are the best choices for aircraft MRO in the Asia-Pacific region, indicating that Taiwan serves as a promising market development evaluation model for blockchain aviation MRO services. The results offer a comprehensive overview of the relative importance of different criteria for MRO services that use blockchains. In addition, the findings present the market potential for key players in the aviation industry, including aircraft engineers, airline companies, aircraft component manufacturers and aviation MRO service providers.

With the increasing use of small unmanned aircrafts (SUAs), many countries have enacted laws and regulations to ensure the safe use of SUAs. However, there is a lack of industry-specific regulations accounting for the unique features of construction-related SUA operations. Operating SUAs in the construction industry is attributed to specific risks and challenges, which should be regulated to maximize the utility of SUAs in construction. This study, therefore, aims to develop a multi-dimensional regulatory framework for using SUAs in the construction industry.

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to compare seven selected national/regional SUA regulations to identify the applicability of implementing the existing regulations in construction. The interview surveys were then conducted to diagnose the challenges of construction-related SUA operations and gather interviewees' suggestions on the regulatory framework for SUA uses in construction.

The research found that some challenges of construction-related SUAs operations were not addressed in the current regulations. These challenges included the complex and time-consuming SUA operation permit, lack of regulation for special SUA operations in construction, insufficient regulatory compliance monitoring and a lack of construction-related remote pilots' training. A regulatory framework was then developed based on the findings of comparative analysis and interview surveys.

This study mainly compared seven representative countries/regions' regulations, leading to a small sample size. Further research should be carried out to study the SUA regulations in other places, such as South Africa, South America or Middle East countries. Besides, this study's respondents to the interviews were primarily concentrated in Hong Kong, which may cause the interview results to differ from the construction industry in other countries/regions. A large-scale interview survey should be conducted in other places in the future to validate the current findings.

The proposed regulatory framework provides a reference for the policy-makers to formulate appropriate industry-specific SUA regulations and improve the applicability of SUA regulations in the construction industry. It sheds light upon the future of SUA regulations and the development of regulatory practice in this area.

This study is the first to propose a multi-dimensional regulatory framework for operating SUAs in construction by comprehensive policy comparisons and interviews. The regulatory framework offers a fresh insight into the unexplored research area and points out the direction for subsequent studies on SUA regulations in the construction industry.

The proposed model aims to consider the flying hours as a criterion to initiate maintenance operation. Based on this condition, aircraft must be checked before flying hours threshold is met. After receiving maintenance service, the model ignores previous flying hours and the aircraft can keep on flying until the threshold value is reached again. Moreover, the model considers aircraft age and efficiency to assign them to flights.

The aircraft maintenance routing problem (AMRP), as one of the most important problems in the aviation industry, determines the optimal route for each aircraft along with meeting maintenance requirements. This paper presents a bi-objective mixed-integer programming model for AMRP in which several criteria such as aircraft efficiency and ferrying flights are considered.

As the solution approaches, epsilon-constraint method and a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), including a new initializing algorithm, are used. To verify the efficiency of NSGA-II, 31 test problems in different scales are solved using NSGA-II and GAMS. The results show that the optimality gap in NSGA-II is less than 0.06%. Finally, the model was solved based on real data of American Eagle Airlines extracted from Kaggle datasets.

The authors confirm that it is an original paper, has not been published elsewhere and is not currently under consideration of any other journal.

At present, the statistics of human error events in domestic civil aviation are limited, and the analysis indicators are difficult to quantify. The purpose of this study is to reduce the incidence of human error events and improve the safety of civil aviation.

In this paper, a safety prevention evaluation method combining analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) is proposed. The risk factors of civil aviation safety are identified through questionnaire survey and calculated by MATLAB software.

The results of the study are as follows: a safety risk evaluation index system including 4 first-level indicators and 16 second-level indicators is constructed; the AHP is used to calculate the weight of the influencing factors of human error and sort them; and the FCE method is used to quantitatively evaluate the safety prevention of civil aviation human error and put forward the countermeasures.

This study also has some limitations. While it provides an overall quantitative identification of civil aviation safety risk factors, the research methods chosen, such as the questionnaire survey method and the AHP, involve individual subjectivity. Consequently, the research results may have errors. In the preliminary preparation of the follow-up study, we should analyze a large number of civil aviation accident investigation reports, more accurately clarify the human error factors and completely adopt the quantitative analysis method in the research method.

This study identifies the risk factors of civil aviation safety and conducts a reasonable analysis of human error factors. In the daily training of civil aviation, the training can be focused on previous man-made accidents; in view of the “important” influencing factors, the aviation management system is formulated to effectively improve the reliability of aviation staff; according to the evaluation criteria of human error in civil aviation, measures to prevent and control accidents can be better formulated.

In view of these four kinds of influencing factors, the corresponding countermeasures and preventive measures are taken according to the discussion, so as to provide the basis for the prevention of aviation human error analysis, management and decision-making, prevent the risk from brewing into safety accidents and improve the safety of aviation management.

Based on the questionnaire survey, this study creatively applies the safety prevention evaluation method combining AHP and FCE to the study of civil aviation human error, integrates the advantages of qualitative and quantitative methods, flexibly designs qualitative problems, objectively quantifies research results and reduces subjective variables. Then, by discussing civil aviation safety management measures to avoid risk factors, reduce the incidence of human error events and improve the safety of civil aviation.

This study investigates the evolution of skilled personnel in airline operations driven by technological advancements. It aims to elucidate the changing personnel demands necessitated by technological innovations in the ground and flight services.

The impact of technological advancements on aviation services has been broadly outlined. Secondary sources were used to identify the relationship between technology and human resources in aviation and categorize the current situation. However, the main narrative was based on the author’s observations.

The progression of technology in air transportation has led to a reduction in the number of personnel involved and the time spent on human interactions. Technological advancements in aviation have predominantly affected three crucial domains: back offices, ground services, and flight services. A future trend foresees a substantial shift toward self-service in ground services, contributing to streamlined processes with minimal errors.

Airlines must consider candidates' ability to adapt to technological changes during the hiring process to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. The current staff should be supported by training programs to facilitate their adaptation to technology.

This study provides a theoretical framework regarding changes in personnel requirements due to technological applications in aviation, the integration of technology into the sector, and the adaptation of current personnel to these technologies.

This perspective resonates with scholars engaged in the realms of aviation and tourism. This study assesses technological progress from both managerial and customer perspectives.