Problems and Barriers Impeding the Implementation of MagLev Assisted Aircraft Take-Off and Landing Concept

Nowadays, the success of the new technology development and deployment process depends not only on technical, technological solutions, but also on solving the non-technological problems and crossing the societal and psychological barriers. A large international European projects, GABRIEL1 had developed a maglev assisted aircraft take-off and landing, that was applied to conceptual design of aircraft and required on-board and ground systems, had analysed all impacts (effects of concept deployment on effectiveness, safety, security, noise, emissions) and had demonstrated the safe applicability by concept validation. The applied methodology, used methods and the results of the Gabriel projects had been described and discussed by 55 project deliverables. This paper has a special goal: investigating the problems and barriers of possible implementing of the radically new technology, aircraft MagLev assisted take-off and landing. The study was started by identification and classification of the problems and barriers. After it, the problems were systematically analysed by use of special methodology containing the understanding (description) of the problems, investigation of the possible solutions and discussing their applicability (mainly by use of the Gabriel project results). The paper has three major sections: 1) description of the Gabriel concept and project results, 2) introducing some related thoughts on general aspects of new technology developments, and 3) discussion on the problems and their solutions. The major classes of the problems are the 1) technical, technological problems as developing a radically new solution, landing the undercarriage-less aircraft on the magnetic tracks, 2) stakeholders’ problems as decision makers kicking against supporting the developments of so radically new technologies and 3) society barriers like society worrying on and fear of future passengers on flying by aircraft have not conventional undercarriage systems. The paper will show that these problems have safe and cost-effective solutions.

The Influence of Climate Change and Variability on Aircraft Take-off and Landing Performance;a Case Study of the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport-Zanzibar

Climate change (CC) and variability have been world widely reported to pose number of risks in aviation industry including accidents, astray, and other operational difficulties. The impact of weather on landing and take-off performances has been several times experienced at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (AAKIA);however, the influence of climate change and variability to the aircraft performance needs to be assessed. Thus, this study investigated the influence of climate change and variability on aircrafts take-off and landing performances. Specifically, the study investigated;i) the influence of climate change on Take-off Distance Required (TODR) and Maximum Take-off Mass (MTOM) for different types of aircraft;ii) the influence of climate variability to the aircraft landing performance on light, medium and heavy aircraft and lastly, iii) the study investigated the seasonal and annual variability on aircraft landing performance due to climate variability. The datasets used in this study include the eight years (2014-2021), aircraft operational records (diversion and missed approach events) and Aviation Routine Weather Reports (METAR) records which were utilized as the indicators for landing performance, the long-term (1990-2020) annual maximum temperatures (Tmax) which was used to determine the TODR and MTOM. Statistical tools including mean, percentage changes, correlations, regression, and the chi-square test were used for analysis and hypotheses testing. The results revealed that light and medium aircraft categories were significantly most affected on diversion events as compared to the heavy categories;however, for the missed approach events the impact was vice versa. Moreover, the seasonal and annual variability on diversion and missed approach events were significantly different (at p ≤ 0.001). As for the take-off performance, results show that the TODR and MTOM were significantly increasing and decreasing (at p ≤ 0.001), based on increasing air temperatures. Therefore, the study concludes that the changing climate has significantly affected aircraft by increasing the TODR and decreasing the MTOM, while the climate variability has significantly affected landing performance by influencing the diversion and missed approach events. Thus, the study recommends (i) further research works including the feasibility study on runway extension for the safety of future aircraft operations at the AAKIA and (ii) proper maintenance and improvement of the Instrumental Landing Systems (ILS) as an adaptation measures to the landing aircraft during bad weather events.

The Contribution of United States Aircraft Reconnaissance Data to the China Meteorological Administration Tropical Cyclone Intensity Data:An Evaluation of Homogeneity

This paper investigates the homogeneity of United States aircraft reconnaissance data and the impact of these data on the homogeneity of the tropical cyclone(TC)best track data for the seasons 1949-1987 generated by the China Meteorological Administration(CMA).The evaluation of the reconnaissance data shows that the minimum central sea level pressure(MCP)data are relatively homogeneous,whereas the maximum sustained wind(MSW)data show both overestimations and spurious abrupt changes.Statistical comparisons suggest that both the reconnaissance MCP and MSW were well incorporated into the CMA TC best track dataset.Although no spurious abrupt changes were evident in the reconnaissance-related best track MCP data,two spurious changepoints were identified in the remainder of the best-track MCP data.Furthermore,the influence of the reconnaissance MSWs seems to extend to the best track MSWs unrelated to reconnaissance,which might reflect the optimistic confidence in making higher estimates due to the overestimated extreme wind“observations”.In addition,the overestimation of either the reconnaissance MSWs or the best track MSWs was greater during the early decades compared to later decades,which reflects the important influence of reconnaissance data on the CMA TC best track dataset.The wind-pressure relationship(WPR)used in the CMA TC best track dataset is also evaluated and is found to overestimate the MSW,which may lead to inhomogeneity within the dataset between the aircraft reconnaissance era and the satellite era.

Asbestos Exposure during Gasket Removal from Aircraft Engine

We have previously evaluated asbestos exposure associated with various maintenance procedures on light aircraft. The purpose of this study was to evaluate asbestos exposure during engine maintenance on light aircraft. This test was designed to evaluate the potential for asbestos exposure to mechanics and others who remove asbestos-containing engine gaskets from reciprocating style aircraft engines. Utilized in this test was an air cooled, horizontally opposed, aviation gasoline burning engine, assembled during 1986 and operated intermittently up into 2015, having accumulated 1680 hours run time. Nearly 75% of the asbestos-containing gaskets installed during 1986 were still in place at the time of testing. Chrysotile asbestos contents of such gaskets ranged from 55% to 60% by area, for those of sheet style and 5% by area, for the spiral wound metal/asbestos style. Despite the levels of effort required to effect gasket removals, the professional aircraft mechanic was not exposed to airborne asbestos fibers at the lower limits of sampling and analytical detection achieved;all of which were substantially less than the current Occupational Safety and Health Administration Permissible Exposure Limits for asbestos. The results of this testing indicate an absence of gasket related asbestos exposure risk to mechanics who work with light aircraft engines, including those having asbestos-containing gaskets. These results are consistent with the findings of Mlyarek and Van Orden who studied the asbestos exposure risk occasioned during overhaul of larger radial style reciprocating aircraft engines [1].

A Two-Stage Scenario-Based Robust Optimization Model and a Column-Row Generation Method for Integrated Aircraft Maintenance-Routing and Crew Rostering

Motivated by a critical issue of airline planning process,this paper addresses a new two-stage scenario-based robust optimization in operational airline planning to cope with uncertainty and possible flight disruptions.Following the route network scheme and generated flight timetables,aircraft maintenance routing and crew scheduling are critical factors in airline planning and operations cost management.This study considers the simultaneous assignment of aircraft fleet and crew to the scheduled flight while satisfying a set of operational constraints,rules,and regulations.Considering multiple locations for airline maintenance and crew bases,we solve the problem of integrated Aircraft Maintenance Routing and Crew Rostering(AMRCR)to achieve the minimum airline cost.One real challenge to the efficiency of the planning results is the possible disruptions in the initial scheduled flights.Due to the fact that disruption scenarios are expressed discretely with a specified probability,and we provide adjustable decisions under disruption to deal with this disruption risk,we provide a Two-Stage Scenario-Based Robust Optimization(TSRO)model.In this model,here-and-now or first-stage variables are the initial resource assignment.Furthermore,to adapt itself to different disruption scenarios,the model considers some adjustable variables,such as the decision to cancel the flight in case of disruption,as wait-and-see or second-stage variables.Considering the complexity of integrated models,and the scenario-based decomposable structure of the TRSO model to solve it with better computational performance,we apply the column and row generation(CRG)method that iteratively considers the disruption scenarios.The numerical results confirm the applicability of the proposed TSRO model in providing the AMRCR problem with an integrated and robust solution with an acceptable level of computational tractability.To evaluate the proposed TSRO model,which solves the AMRCR problem in an integrated and robust manner,five Key Performance Indicators(KPIs)like Number of delayed/canceled flights,Average delay time,and Average profit are taken into account.As key results driven by conducting a case study,we show the proposed TSRO model has substantially improved the solutions at all indicators compared with those of the sequential/non-integrated and nominal/non-robust models.The simulated instances used to assess the performance of the proposed model and CRG method reveal that both CPLEX and the CRG method exhibit comparable and nearly optimal performance for small-scale problems.However,for large-scale instances the proposed TSRO model falls short in terms of computational efficiency.Conversely,the proposed CRG method is capable of significantly reducing computational time and the optimality gap to an acceptable level.

Analysis and Research on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Quad Tilt Rotor Aircraft

For the quad tilt rotor aircraft, a computational fluid dynamics method based on multiple reference frames (MRF) was used to analyze the influence of aerodynamic layout parameters on the aerodynamic characteristics of the quad tilt rotor aircraft. Firstly, a numerical simulation method for the interference flow field of the quad tilt rotor aircraft is established. Based on this method, the aerodynamic characteristics of isolated rotors, rotor combinations at different lateral positions on the wing, and rotor rotation directions under different inflow velocities were calculated and analyzed, in order to grasp their aerodynamic interference laws and provide reference for the design and control theory research of such aircraft.

Effect of Spray Rails on Takeoff Performance of Amphibian Aircraft

Amphibian aircraft have seen a rise in popularity in the recreational and utility sectors due to their ability to take off and land on both land and water, thus serving a myriad of purposes, such as aerobatics, surveillance, and firefighting. Such seaplanes must be aerodynamically and hydrodynamically efficient, particularly during the takeoff phase. Naval architects have long employed innovative techniques to optimize the performance of marine vessels, including incorporating spray rails on hulls. This research paper is dedicated to a comprehensive investigation into the potential utilization of spray rails to enhance the takeoff performance of amphibian aircraft. Several spray rail configurations obtained from naval research were simulated on a bare Seamax M22 amphibian hull to observe an approximate 10% - 25% decrease in water resistance at high speeds alongside a 3% reduction in the takeoff time. This study serves as a motivation to improve the design of the reference airplane hull and a platform for detailed investigations in the future to improve modern amphibian design.

Assessment of Meteorological Threats to the Coordinated Search and Rescue of Unmanned/Manned Aircraft

The architecture and working principle of coordinated search and rescue system of unmanned/manned aircraft,which is composed of manned/unmanned aircraft and manned aircraft,were first introduced,and they can cooperate with each other to complete a search and rescue task.Secondly,a threat assessment method based on meteorological data was proposed,and potential meteorological threats,such as storms and rainfall,can be predicted by collecting and analyzing meteorological data.Finally,an experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in different scenarios.The experimental results show that the coordinated search and rescue system of unmanned/manned aircraft can be used to effectively assess meteorological threats and provide accurate search and rescue guidance.

Modeling of Carrier-based Aircraft Ski Jump Take-off Based on Tensor

A general mathematical model of carrier-based aircraft ski jump take-off is derived based on tensor. The carrier, the aircraft body and the movable parts of the landing gears are treated as independent entities. These entities are assembled into a multi-rigid-body system with flexible links. Dynamical equations of each entity are derived on the basis of the Newton law and the Euler transformation. Using the invariance property of the tensor, the dynamical and kinematical equations are converted to tensor forms which are invariant under time-dependent coordinate transformations. Then the tensor-formed equations are expressed by the matrix operation. Differential equation group of the matrix form is formulated for the programming. The closure of the model is discussed, and the simulation results are given.

Parameter Optimization of Nose Landing Gear Considering Both Take-off and Landing Performance of Catapult Take-off Carrier-Based Aircraft

Optimization of the parameters of landing gear systems with double-stage air springs of catapult take-off carrier-based aircraft is here studied based on the mathematical equations of the classic dual mass spring-damper dynamic model.Certain standards for both take-off and landing performance are put forward.The contradictory factors between take-off and landing processes are analyzed.The optimization of oil in the pin area and the area near the rear oil hole is performed.Then these optimized parameters are used to assess the influence of the initial pressure of the low chamber,the ratio of the high chamber to the low chamber,and the tire inflation pressure on the performance of arresting landing and catapult take-off.The influences of these parameters on carrier-based aircraft and the aircraft-carrier on aircraft catapult take-off is also assessed.Based on the results of the simulation,respective take-off criteria must be drafted considering different types of aircraft and different take-off load cases,all of which must be matched to parameters relevant to catapult take-off.

Space range estimate for battery-powered vertical take-off and landing aircraft

A novel method for estimating the space range of battery-powered vertical take-off and landing(VTOL) aircraft is presented. The method is based on flight parameter optimization and numerical iteration. Subsystem models including required thrust, required power and battery discharge models are presented. The problem to be optimized is formulated, and then case study simulation is conducted using the established method for quantitative analysis. Simulation results show that the space range of battery-powered VTOL aircraft in a vertical plane is an oblate curve, which appears horizontally long but vertically short, and the peak point is not located on the vertical climb path. The method and results are confirmed by parameter analysis and validations.

SAR-AIRcraft-1.0:高分辨率SAR飞机检测识别数据集

针对合成孔径雷达(SAR)图像中飞机散射点离散以及背景强干扰造成虚警的问题,该文提出了一种结合散射感知的SAR飞机检测识别方法。一方面,通过上下文引导的特征金字塔模块来增强全局信息,减弱复杂场景中强干扰的影响,提高检测识别的准确率。另一方面,利用散射关键点对目标进行定位,设计散射感知检测模块实现对回归框的细化校正,增强目标的定位精度。为了验证方法有效性、同时促进SAR飞机检测识别领域的研究发展,该文制作并公开了一个高分辨率SAR-AIRcraft-1.0数据集。该数据集图像来自高分三号卫星,包含4,368张图片和16,463个飞机目标实例,涵盖A220,A320/321,A330,ARJ21,Boeing737,Boeing787和other共7个类别。该文将提出的方法和常见深度学习算法在构建的数据集上进行实验,实验结果证明了散射感知方法的优异性能,并且形成了该数据集在SAR飞机检测、细粒度识别、检测识别一体化等不同任务中性能指标的基准。

A bi-population immune algorithm for weapon transportation support scheduling problem with pickup and delivery on aircraft carrier deck

The weapon transportation support scheduling problem on aircraft carrier deck is the key to restricting the sortie rate and combat capability of carrier-based aircraft.This paper studies the problem and presents a novel solution architecture.Taking the interference of the carrier-based aircraft deck layout on the weapon transportation route and precedence constraint into consideration,a mixed integer formulation is established to minimize the total objective,which is constituted of makespan,load variance and accumulative transfer time of support unit.Solution approach is developed for the model.Firstly,based on modeling the carrier aircraft parked on deck as convex obstacles,the path library of weapon transportation is constructed through visibility graph and Warshall-Floyd methods.We then propose a bi-population immune algorithm in which a population-based forward/backward scheduling technique,local search schemes and a chaotic catastrophe operator are embedded.Besides,the randomkey solution representation and serial scheduling generation scheme are adopted to conveniently obtain a better solution.The Taguchi method is additionally employed to determine key parameters of the algorithm.Finally,on a set of generated realistic instances,we demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms all compared algorithms designed for similar optimization problems and can significantly improve the efficiency,and that the established model and the bi-population immune algorithm can effectively respond to the weapon support requirements of carrier-based aircraft under different sortie missions.

Anti-Disturbance Control for Tethered Aircraft System With Deferred Output Constraints

In this paper,we investigate the peaking issue of extended state observers and the anti-disturbance control problem of tethered aircraft systems subject to the unstable flight of the main aircraft,airflow disturbances and deferred output constraints.Independent of exact initial values,a modified extended state observer is constructed from a shifting function such that not only the peaking issue inherently in the observer is circumvented completely but also the accurate estimation of the lumped disturbance is guaranteed.Meanwhile,to deal with deferred output constraints,an improved output constrained controller is employed by integrating the shifting function into the barrier Lyapunov function.Then,by combining the modified observer and the improved controller,an anti-disturbance control scheme is presented,which ensures that the outputs with any bounded initial conditions satisfy the constraints after a pre-specified finite time,and the tethered aircraft tracks the desired trajectory accurately.Finally,both a theoretical proof and simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Refined Aerodynamic Test of Wide-Bodied Aircraft and Its Application

The large dual-channel wide-bodied aircraft has a long range and a high cruise Mach number.Therefore,its aerodynamic design requires a high level ofwind tunnel test refinement.Based on the requirements of aerodynamic design for the future wide-bodied aircraft and the characteristics of high-speed wind tunnel tests,the error theory is introduced to analyze the factors affecting the accuracy of the test data.This study carries out a series of research on the improvement of refined aerodynamic test technology in an FL-26 wind tunnel,including design and optimization of the support system of wide-bodied aircraft,model attitude angle measurement,Mach number control accuracy,measurement and control system stability,test data correction and perfection,high-precision force balance and standard model development.In addition,the effect of the standard specification of the refined aerodynamic test is investigated to improve the data quality.The research findings have been applied in the standard model test and subsequent models of wide-bodied aircraft.The results show that whenMach numbers are less than 0.9,the control accuracy of Mach numbers in the FL-26 wind tunnel is smaller than 0.001 and the measurement error of attack angle is smaller than 0.01°.Therefore,it has the ability to correct the data influenced by factors,such as support/wall interference,model deformation,floating resistance and airflow deflection angle.The repeatability accuracy of the standard model’s comparison test shows that the lift coefficient is less than or equal to 0.0012,the drag coefficient is less than or equal to 0.00004,pitching moment coefficient is less than or equal to 0.0004.The bending resolution of the model’s deformation measurement is less than 0.2 mm,and the tensional deformation is smaller than 0.04°.The revised aerodynamic data and model deformation measurement results have good agreement with that of the ETW wind tunnel.The results demonstrate that the improved technology presented in this paper can significantly enhance the refined aerodynamic test of wide-bodied aircraft.

Mechanical Dispatch Reliability Prediction for Civil Aircraft Considering Operational Parameters

To effectively predict the mechanical dispatch reliability(MDR),the artificial neural networks method combined with aircraft operation health status parameters is proposed,which introduces the real civil aircraft operation data for verification,to improve the modeling precision and computing efficiency.Grey relational analysis can identify the degree of correlation between aircraft system health status(such as the unscheduled maintenance event,unit report event,and services number)and dispatch release and screen out themost closely related systems to determine the set of input parameters required for the prediction model.The artificial neural network using radial basis function(RBF)as a kernel function,has the best applicability in the prediction of multidimensional,small sample problems.Health status parameters of related systems are used as the input to predict the changing trend ofMDR,under the artificial neural network modeling framework.The case study collects real operation data for a certain civil aircraft over the past five years to validate the performance of the model which meets the requirements of the application.The results show that the prediction quadratic error Ep of the model reaches 6.9×10−8.That is to say,in the existing operating environment,the prediction of the number of delay&cancel events per month can be less than once.The accuracy of RBF ANN,BP ANN and GA-BP ANN are compared further,and the results show that RBF ANN has better adaptability to such multidimensional small sample problems.The efforts of this paper provide a highly efficientmethod for theMDR prediction through aircraft system health state parameters,which is a promising model to enhance the prediction and controllability of the dispatch release,providing support for the construction of the civil aircraft operation system.

Investigation of Nonlinear PI Multi-loop Control Strategy for Aircraft HVDC Generator System with Wound Rotor Synchronous Machine

In order to enhance the transient performance of aircraft high voltage DC(HVDC)generation system with wound rotor synchronous machine(WRSM)under a wide speed range,the nonlinear PI multi-loop control strategy is proposed in this paper.Traditional voltage control method is hard to achieve the dynamic performance requirements of the HVDC generation system under a wide speed range,so the nonlinear PI parameter adjustment,load current feedback and speed feedback are added to the voltage and excitation current double loop control.The transfer function of the HVDC generation system is derived,and the relationship between speed,load current and PI parameters is obtained.The PI parameters corresponding to the load at certain speed are used to shorten the adjusting time when the load suddenly changes.The dynamic responses in transient processes are analyzed by experiment.The results illustrate that the WRSM HVDC generator system with this method has better dynamic performance.

Hardware-in-loop adaptive neural control for a tiltable V-tail morphing aircraft

This paper proposes an adaptive neural control(ANC)method for the coupled nonlinear model of a novel type of embedded surface morphing aircraft which has a tiltable V-tail.A nonlinear model with sixdegrees-of-freedom is established.The first-order sliding mode differentiator(FSMD)is applied to the control scheme to avoid the problem of“differential explosion”.Radial basis function neural networks are introduced to estimate the uncertainty and external disturbance of the model,and an ANC controller is proposed based on this design idea.The stability of the proposed ANC controller is proved using Lyapunov theory,and the tracking error of the closed-loop system is semi-globally uniformly bounded.The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method are verified by numerical simulations and hardware-in-the-loop(HIL)simulations.

Risk Assessment of Aircraft’s Lateral Veer-off the Runway Surface during Landing

This article presents a methodology to determine the risk of aircrafts lateral runway excursion during landing via mathematical risk modeling. In addition, the methodology is demonstrated by means of detailed calculation of the lateral runway excursion risk value during the landing of the aircraft Airbus A310-200, in view of the maximum landing weight and the appropriate range of landing velocities according to the International Civil Aviation Organization specification. Obviously, the calculation demonstrates that the developed math solutions and equations presented herein are powerful tools to evaluate the risk of lateral runway excursion of the majority of aircrafts and for any airport. The method is also applicable to assess the residual level of risk at any specific airport and its deviation compared to the recommended safety level. Consequently, the presented mathematical solutions to determine the risk rate of lateral runway excursion during landing offers airports’ operational and safety management departments a viable tool so that appropriate measurements could be adopted. Finally, it is a methodology not only to assess the risk but also to determine the appropriate runway width.

A cloud Bayesian network approach to situation assessment of scouting underwater targets with fixed-wing patrol aircraft

The battlefield situation changes rapidly because underwater targets'are concealment and the sea environment is uncertain.So,a great number of situation information greatly increase,which need to be dealt with in the course of scouting underwater targets.Situation assessment in sea battlefield with a lot of uncertain information is studied,and a new situation assessment method of scouting underwater targets with fixed-wing patrol aircraft is proposed based on the cloud Bayesian network,which overcomes the deficiency of the single cloud model in reasoning ability and the defect of Bayesian network in knowledge representation.Moreover,in the method,the cloud model knowledge deal with the input data of Bayesian network reasoning,and the advantages in knowledge representation of cloud theory and reasoning of Bayesian network are applied;also,the fuzziness and stochasticity of cloud theory in knowledge expression,the reasoning ability of Bayesian network,are combined.Then,the situation assessment model of scouting underwater targets with fixed-wing patrol aircraft is established.Hence,the directed acyclic graph of Bayesian network structure is constructed and the assessment index is determined.Next,the cloud model is used to deal with Bayesian network,and the discrete Bayesian network is obtained.Moreover,after CPT of each node and the transformation between certainty degree and probability are accomplished;the final situation level is obtained through a probability synthesis formula.Therefore,the target type and the operational intention of the other side are deduced to form the battlefield situation.Finally,simulations are carried out,and the rationality and validity of the proposed method are testified by simulation results.By this method,the battlefield situation can be gained.And this method has a wider application range,especially for large sample data processing,and it has better practicability.