Hazardous Attitude Factors Influence Risk Perception in General Aviation Pilots

This manuscript presents a research proposal to investigate how hazardous attitudes among general aviation pilots influence pilot performance in aviation accidents. General aviation pilots train to maintain safe flying conditions, but accidents still occur, and human factors figure prominently among the causes of aviation accidents. The levels of hazardous attitudes among pilots may influence the likelihood of engaging in risky flight behaviors that can lead to accidents. This quantitative study aims to determine whether dangerous attitudes impact risk perception in general aviation pilots. The study will focus on two specific hazardous attitudes, “Anti-Authority” and Macho” behaviors. Among the hazardous attitudes identified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the two attitudes often stand out in accident investigations and pilot narratives. While all hazardous attitudes have inherent dangers, these two attitudes tend to be more frequently cited in accident reports and investigations. Despite rigorous training in safe flying conditions, general aviation accidents still transpire due to human factors. This research hypothesizes that the five attitudes from the hazardous attitude model, particularly Anti-Authority and Macho, significantly shape pilots’ risk perception. The insights from this study would benefit stakeholders, like the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Air Safety Institute, and aviation training programs, in creating training modules tailored to reduce such attitudes.

The Influence of Demoiselle Aircraft on Light and General Aviation Design

In 1907, aviation pioneer Santos-Dumont had the idea of building a very light airplane. He designed and built the SD 19, the Demoiselle, an aircraft with a 6 meter wing span and a 24 HP engine of his own design. The Demoiselle was very successful in flying and, became very popular and its development continued as SD20, SD21 and SD22 （his last airplane）. The influence of the Demoiselle on design principles of light aircraft and general aviation were studied in this work, using statistical entropy, The designs number 20 and 22 may be considered dominant and influenced the design principles of light aircraft and general aviation.

A Meta-Learning Approach for Aircraft Trajectory Prediction

The aviation industry has seen significant advancements in safety procedures over the past few decades, resulting in a steady decline in aviation deaths worldwide. However, the safety standards in General Aviation (GA) are still lower compared to those in commercial aviation. With the anticipated growth in air travel, there is an imminent need to improve operational safety in GA. One way to improve aircraft and operational safety is through trajectory prediction. Trajectory prediction plays a key role in optimizing air traffic control and improving overall flight safety. This paper proposes a meta-learning approach to predict short- to mid-term trajectories of aircraft using historical real flight data collected from multiple GA aircraft. The proposed solution brings together multiple models to improve prediction accuracy. In this paper, we are combining two models, Random Forest Regression (RFR) and Long Short-term Memory (LSTM), using k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN), to output the final prediction based on the combined output of the individual models. This approach gives our model an edge over single-model predictions. We present the results of our meta-learner and evaluate its performance against individual models using the Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Absolute Altitude Error (AAE), and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) evaluation metrics. The proposed methodology for aircraft trajectory forecasting is discussed in detail, accompanied by a literature review and an overview of the data preprocessing techniques used. The results demonstrate that the proposed meta-learner outperforms individual models in terms of accuracy, providing a more robust and proactive approach to improve operational safety in GA.

ADS-B Anomaly Data Detection Model Based on Deep Learning and Difference of Gaussian Approach

Due to the influence of terrain structure,meteorological conditions and various factors,there are anomalous data in automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast(ADS-B)message.The ADS-B equipment can be used for positioning of general aviation aircraft.Aim to acquire the accurate position information of aircraft and detect anomaly data,the ADS-B anomaly data detection model based on deep learning and difference of Gaussian(DoG)approach is proposed.First,according to the characteristic of ADS-B data,the ADS-B position data are transformed into the coordinate system.And the origin of the coordinate system is set up as the take-off point.Then,based on the kinematic principle,the ADS-B anomaly data can be removed.Moreover,the details of the ADS-B position data can be got by the DoG approach.Finally,the long short-term memory(LSTM)neural network is used to optimize the recurrent neural network(RNN)with severe gradient reduction for processing ADS-B data.The position data of ADS-B are reconstructed by the sequence to sequence(seq2seq)model which is composed of LSTM neural network,and the reconstruction error is used to detect the anomalous data.Based on the real flight data of general aviation aircraft,the simulation results show that the anomaly data can be detected effectively by the proposed method of reconstructing ADS-B data with the seq2seq model,and its running time is reduced.Compared with the RNN,the accuracy of anomaly detection is increased by 2.7%.The performance of the proposed model is better than that of the traditional anomaly detection models.

Development cost prediction of general aviation aircraft using combined estimation technique

Obtaining accurate development cost estimation results of general aviation aircraft is crucial for companies to adopt the best strategy in the development process.To address this problem,this paper proposes a combination of three commonly used single prediction methods.The optimal weight values of the three single prediction methods are determined by utilizing the shortest ideal point method.Ten cost datasets collected from literature are utilized for fitting and testing the combined prediction method,and the weight coefficients of the three individual prediction methods are calculated as 0.6859,0.0035 and 0.3106,respectively.The results of this study indicate that the developed method has better fitting and estimation accuracy than that of the three individual methods,with average fitting and predicting error values of 2.60%and 6.43%,respectively.Additionally,the cost data of military and civil aircraft development from literature are collected for verification.The results further confirm that the proposed method is not only superior to the single prediction methods in terms of high precision but has wider applications.More importantly,this research can provide important reference for general aviation aircraft companies in term of product cost planning and corporate sales strategies.

Aerodynamic/mechanism optimization of a variable camber Fowler flap for general aviation aircraft

A conventional Fowler flap is designed to improve the take-off and landing performances of an aircraft. Because the flight states of general aviation aircraft vary significantly. A Fowler flap with a double-sliding track has been designed, which is ca- pable of changing airfoil camber while cruising and climbing as well as meeting low-speed performance requirements. The aerodynamic characteristics of the variable camber Fowler flap were studied by computational simulation, and cambering was found to be beneficial for improving the lift-to-drag ratio when the lift coefficient was larger than the critical value, below which decambering was more effective; this critical value differed somewhat under different conditions. Taking the mecha- nism into account, the take-off and landing configurations were optimized on the basis of the GA （W）-1 airfoil with a 30% chord Fowler flap. Compared with reference configuration, the maximum lift coefficient of optimized take-off configuration was increased by 6.6% as well as the stalling angle and the lift-to-drag ratio were increased by 1.3° and 7.58%, respectively. Moreover, the maximum lift coefficient of the optimized landing configuration was increased by 6.3%, and the stalling angle was increased by 1.1°; however, the nose-down pitching moment of both configurations increased. Similar results were at- rained on a general aviation aircraft wing/body combination nism was established in a computer-aided design system, achieved by the double-sliding track. A 3D model of the variable-camber Fowler flap driving mecha- and the results showed that all design configurations could be