The continued development of sophisticated aircraft with high fidelity control systems will enable autonomous execution of challenging tasks such as aerial refueling and close formation flight. In order to achieve such tasks in autonomous flight, an aircraft must sense other aircraft in close proximity and position itself relative to them. For example, aerial refueling requires the follower air...

The vertical stabilizer is a primary aerodynamic surface responsible for providing directional stability of an aircraft. Directional stability is further augmented by the yaw damping capability of the rudder using feedback control. When the rudder experiences faults or the vertical stabilizer is damaged, directional stability of an aircraft will be compromised. In the worst-case scenario, the v...

This paper develops and estimates a dynamic equilibrium model of the market for commercial aircraft. Airline choices are modeled as the solution to a discrete time dynamic programming problem, where in each period, each airline chooses one or more of various models of new and used aircraft. In equilibrium aircraft prices are such that no airline would benefit from buying, selling, trading or sc...

The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) offers significant benefits to the aircraft, ship, personnel, and operational capabilities. EMALS has such advantages as high thrust, good controllability, reusable, etc., as a launching motor, a double-side plate Permanent Magnet Linear Synchronous Motor (PMLSM) can provide high instantaneous thrust. This paper presents the design and analysis...

In the field of aeronautics, shape morphing has been used to identify those aircraft that undergo substantial geometrical changes in their external shape to enhance or adapt to their mission profiles during flight. This creates superior system capabilities not possible without morphing shape changes. The objective of morphing concepts is to develop high performance aircraft with lifting surface...

The replacement of steam catapults with electromagnetic ones is becoming an overwhelming trend in aircraft launch systems. The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) offers significant benefits to the aircraft, ship, personnel, and operational capabilities. EMALS has such advantages as high thrust, good controllability, reusable, etc., as a launching motor, a double-side plate Permanent...

The problem of attitude stabilization of a fighter aircraft is investigated in this paper. The practical aspects of a real physical system like existence of external disturbance with unknown upper bound and actuator saturation are considered in the process of controller design of this aircraft. In order to design a robust autopilot in the presence of the actuator saturation, the Composite Nonli...

Measurement of aircraft attitude is a necessary step for the autonomous control of the aircraft. Autonomous aircraft are useful for a range of military and civilian purposes. A method of very low computational complexity is presented that allows the pitch and roll angles of an aircraft to be measured onboard an unmanned aircraft from real-time video of the horizon. This method can be used for m...

Previous research on civil aircraft inspection and maintenance has shown the important role teamwork plays in completing aircraft inspection/maintenance tasks. Hence, it is necessary to develop team training tools for aircraft maintenance technicians (AMT) to enhance team skills and team performance within the aircraft inspection/maintenance environment. In response to this need, this paper des...

Multiple classifier systems (MCS) are considered as one of the most significant advances in pattern classification in recent years. Numerous studies (both theoretical and empirical) have proved that MCS are effective in achieving improved classification performance for various application problems. Aircraft engine fault diagnosis plays a crucial rule in costeffective operation of aircraft engin...