Research papers

Emerging Technologies for Airplane State Awareness and Prediction

Loss of control in flight (LOC-I) is consistently the leading cause of fatal aircraft accidents. A study of LOC accidents and incidents, commissioned by the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) identified a growing tre…

CAST Safety Enhancement Research on Airplane State Awareness and Prediction Technologies

Loss of control in flight (LOC-I) is the leading cause of fatal aircraft accidents. A study of LOC accidents and incidents, commissioned by the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) identified a growing trend in loss of…

Microtechnology in Space: NASA's Lab-on-a-Chip Applications Development Program

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Lab on a Chip Application Development LOCAD) team has worked with microfluidic technology for the past few years in an effort to support NASA's Mission.

Crew State Monitoring and Line-Oriented Flight Training for Attention Management

Loss of control - inflight (LOC-I) has historically represented the largest category of commercial aviation fatal accidents. A review of worldwide transport airplane accidents (2001-2010) indicated that loss of airplane …

Design Considerations for Attitude State Awareness and Prevention of Entry into Unusual Attitudes

Loss of control - inflight (LOC-I) has historically represented the largest category of commercial aviation fatal accidents. A review of the worldwide transport airplane accidents (2001-2010) evinced that loss of attitud…

Probabilistic Design Analysis (PDA) Approach to Determine the Probability of Cross-System Failures for a Space Launch Vehicle

Quantifying the probability of significant launch vehicle failure scenarios for a given design, while still in the design process, is critical to mission success and to the safety of the astronauts.

Analyzing a Mid-Air Collision Over the Hudson River

On August 8, 2009, a private airplane collided with a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River near Hoboken, New Jersey. All three people aboard the airplane, the pilot and two passengers, and all six people aboard t…

NASA study of an automated Pilot Advisory System

A Pilot Advisory System (PAS) concept for high-density uncontrolled airports is discussed where the general aviation pilots will be provided with automatic audio voice airport and air traffic advisories within two minute…

The jumbo jet and public safety.

Safety of jumbo jet aircraft, accident reduction, traffic control, systems safety engineering, landing approach, midair collision prevention and crash survival

NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System

A comprehensive study of near midair collisions in terminal airspace, derived from the ASRS database is presented. A selection of controller and pilot reports on airport perimeter security, unauthorized takeoffs and land…

Development of Possible Go-Around Criteria for Transport Aircraft

This paper adds data to help with the development of possible go-around criteria for transport category aircraft. Presently, airline procedures state that pilots make a go-around decision using multiple criteria at 1000 …

Stabilized Approach Criteria: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice

Approach and landing is the most common phase of flight for aviation accidents, accounting annually for approximately 65 percent of all accidents.

Hybrid Verification of an Interface for an Automatic Landing

Modern commercial aircraft have extensive automation which helps the pilot by performing computations, obtaining data, and completing procedural tasks.

Enhanced/Synthetic Vision and Head-Worn Display Technologies for Terminal Maneuvering Area NextGen Operations

NASA is researching innovative technologies for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) to provide a "Better-Than-Visual" (BTV) capability as adjunct to "Equivalent Visual Operations" (EVO); that is, airp…

Real-Time Integrity Monitoring of Stored Geo-Spatial Data Using Forward-Looking Remote Sensing Technology

Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems (TAWS) and Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) provide pilots with displays of stored geo-spatial data (e.g. terrain, obstacles, and/or features).

Human factors in equipment development for the Space Shuttle - A study of the general purpose work station

The results of a human factors test to assay the suitability of a prototype general purpose work station (GPWS) for biosciences experiments on the fourth Spacelab mission are reported.

The General Purpose Work Station, a spacious microgravity workbench

The General Purpose Work Station (GPWS) is a laboratory multiuse facility, as demonstrated during the Spacelab Life Sciences 1 (SLS-1) flight.

TCAS Alerts from Simulated Urban Air Mobility Flights Along FAA Helicopter Routes in Dallas-Fort Worth

This is a presentation of the current state of a TCAS study being conducted by the ATM-X project. This study examines the rate at which an urban air mobility vehicle flying along existing helicopter routes near DFW will …

Pilot performance research for TCAS

Three separate studies have been conducted to ascertain pilot responsiveness to advisories generated by the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II).

Avoiding a maneuvering aircraft with TCAS

The present investigation was carried out in NASA's Man-Vehicle Systems Research Facility B 727 simulator because of the need for veridical aircraft response.

A TCAS-II Resolution Advisory Detection Algorithm

The Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) is a family of airborne systems designed to reduce the risk of mid-air collisions between aircraft.

Modelling and performance analysis of four and eight element TCAS

This semi-annual report describes the work performed during the period September 1989 through March 1990. The first section presents a description of the effect of the engines of the Boeing 737-200 on the performance of …

Rocket engine failure detection using system identification techiques

The theoretical foundation and application of two univariate failure detection algorithms to Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) test firing data is presented.

Engine System Loads Analysis Compared to Hot-Fire Data

Early implementation of structural dynamics finite element analyses for calculation of design loads is considered common design practice for high volume manufacturing industries such as automotive and aeronautical indust…

Operation and Development Status of the Spacecraft Fire Experiments (Saffire)

Since 2012, a series of Spacecraft Fire Experiments (Saffire) have been under development by the Spacecraft Fire Safety Demonstration (SFS Demo) project, funded by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Division.

Dual Engine application of the Performance Seeking Control algorithm

The Dual Engine Performance Seeking Control (PSC) flight/propulsion optimization program has been developed and will be flown during the second quarter of 1993.

Identification and dual adaptive control of a turbojet engine

The objective of this paper is to utilize the design methods of modern control theory to realize a dual-adaptive feedback control unit for a highly nonlinear single spool airbreathing turbojet engine.

Turbine bypass engine: A new supersonic cruise propulsion concept

Engine performance and mission studies were carried out for a single-spool Turbine Bypass Engine concept. Comparisons were made between the TBE, a conventional single-spool turbojet, and the Pratt & Whitney Variable Stre…

Turbine bypass engine - A new supersonic cruise propulsion concept

Engine performance and mission studies were carried out for a single-spool turbine bypass engine (TBE) concept. Comparisons were made between the TBE, a conventional single-spool turbojet, and the Pratt and Whitney Varia…

Combined Contamination and Space Environmental Effects on Solar Cells and Thermal Control Surfaces

For spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO), contamination can occur from thruster fuel, sputter contamination products and from products of silicone degradation.

Acid electrolyte fuel cell technology program

The development of an acid electrolyte fuel cell was investigated to provide a cost effective electrical power system for the space shuttle orbiter.

The Emergency Landing Planner Experiment

In previous work, we described an Emergency Landing Planner (ELP) designed to assist pilots in choosing the best emergency landing site when damage or failures occur in an aircraft.

Wind modeling and lateral control for automatic landing

For the purposes of aircraft control system design and analysis, the wind can be characterized by a mean component which varies with height and by turbulent components which are described by the von Karman correlation mo…

Control logic to track the outputs of a command generator or randomly forced target

A procedure is presented for synthesizing time-invariant control logic to cause the outputs of a linear plant to track the outputs of an unforced (or randomly forced) linear dynamic system.

Wind Tunnel Testing of Powered Lift, All-Wing STOL Model

Short take-off and landing (STOL) systems can offer significant capabilities to warfighters and, for civil operators thriving on maximizing efficiencies they can improve airspace use while containing noise within airport…

Performance limits for optimal microburst encounter

An effort has been made to ascertain the envelope-edges for uneventful aircraft penetrations of microburst windshears on the basis of optimal aircraft control strategies.

Aircraft performance in a JAWS microburst

Attention is given to the detailed features of a servere microburst event, the flight behavior of a 727 airliner in such an event as predicted by a numerical simulation, and several low level wind shear detection and war…

Assessment of microburst models for downdraft estimation

The effectiveness of three microburst models in estimating the downdraft from horizontal velocity measurements is assessed. The development of the models and their characteristics are discussed.

Windshear detection and avoidance - Airborne systems survey

Functional requirements for airborne windshear detection and warning systems are discussed in terms of the threat posed to civil aircraft operations.

Airborne Doppler radar detection of low altitude windshear

As part of an integrated windshear program, the Federal Aviation Administration, jointly with NASA, is sponsoring a research effort to develop airborne sensor technology for the detection of low altitude windshear during…

Windshear avoidance - Requirements and proposed system for airborne lidar detection

A generalized windshear hazard index is derived from considerations of wind conditions and an aircraft's present and potential altitude.

Windshear detection radar signal processing studies

This final report briefly summarizes research work at Clemson in the Radar Systems Laboratory under the NASA Langley Research Grant NAG-1-928 in support of the Antenna and Microwave Branch, Guidance and Control Division,…

Windshear detection and avoidance - Airborne systems perspective

The generalized windshear hazard index presently defined is derived from aircraft-position wind data and remotely sensed data obtained along the extended flight path by such candidate sensor technologies as microwave Dop…

Thunderstorm hazards flight research: Storm hazards 1980 overview

A highly instrumented NASA F-106B aircraft, modified for the storm hazards mission and protected against direct lightning strikes, was used in conjunction with various ground based radar and lightning measurement systems…

Operational evaluation of thunderstorm penetration test flights during project Storm Hazards '80

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is conducting a research project called Storm Hazards '80 in order to study the prediction, detectability and avoidance of the hazards of severe storms for aircraft opera…

Estimation of Reduction in Airspace Capacity Due to Convective Weather

Severe convective weather routinely disrupts normal flow of air traffic in the United States' National Airspace System (NAS). Over the last decade, severe weather has been the most significant cause, accounting for over …

Pilot Convective Weather Decision Making in En Route Airspace

The present research investigates characteristics exhibited in pilot convective weather decision making in en route airspace. In a part-task study, pilots performed weather avoidance under various encounter scenarios.

Time Relevance of Convective Weather Forecast for Air Traffic Automation

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is handling nearly 120,000 flights a day through its Air Traffic Management (ATM) system and air traffic congestion is expected to increse substantially over the next 20 years.

Some Measured Characteristics of Severe Storm Turbulence

Measurements of atmospheric turbulence obtained from airplane flights through severe storms in connection with the National Severe Storms Project will be discussed.

Severe Turbulence and Maneuvering from Airline Flight Records

Digital flight records from reported clear-air turbulence incidents are used to determine winds and turbulence, to determine maneuver g loads, and to analyze control problems.