This two-part report on pilot-computer interface problems in automated aircraft starts with coverage of accidents/incidents and related design issues and continues next week. The second installment will cover the results of recent simulator studies by human factors researchers, findings in Air Line Pilots Assn. studies, training issues, how military transports are being designed and how accidents involving glass-cockpit aircraft are being investigated. This report was prepared by a team of editors led by David Hughes in Boston, who worked closely with Michael A.
Bombs, structural failure and impairment of control cables have essentially been ruled out as factors in the crash of a USAir Boeing 737-300 last September, according to testimony at a National Transportation Safety Board public hearing.. NTSB OFFICIALS heard from 30 witnesses about what may have caused Flight 427 to crash near Aliquippa, Pa., killing all 132 persons on board. Witnesses included experts from Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, the FBI, NASA, USAir, the FAA and suppliers for the 737 aircraft.
G&H Technology, Inc., Sellersville, Pa., has named William N. Jackomis (see photo) vice president-marketing and sales. He was director of government programs and marketing for AlliedSignal Aerospace.
BOEING IS STUDYING further production rate cuts of its narrow-body 737 and 757 transports due to weak airline demand. Manufacture of 767s, however, is being increased from three to four a month. Boeing currently makes 8.5 of its 737s a month and is moving to a previously announced rate of completing four 757s a month. Boeing forecasts it will deliver about 230 new transports in 1995, 40 fewer than in 1994 and 100 fewer than in 1993.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology team of researchers has analyzed 184 mode awareness incidents and found that 74% involve confusion or errors in vertical navigation while only 26% are related to problems in horizontal navigation.
The Barracuda PCI/486 passive-backplane central processor board combines the advantages of industry standard architecture technology with the high speed of the local bus peripheral component interconnect interface. The Barracuda can utilize either 3.45-v or 5-v. 486-compatible processors, including the 486SX2 at 50 MHz., the 486DX2 at 50 or 66 MHz., the 100 MHz. DX4 or P24T Pentium. The 256-kilobyte or 512K on-board cache can be configured as write-back or write-through.
A PROTOTYPE INFRARED target system could help the U.S. military better evaluate the performance of munitions using IR-based automatic target recognition systems. The functioning, 15 X 15-in. target board is covered with a mosiac of small, commercially available thermoelectric heat pumps. A digital control system varies individual heat pump temperatures. If developed, much larger target boards covered with heat pump ``pixels'' could be used in the lab and field to simulate the heat signatures of a library of typical targets.
Daimler-Benz Aerospace and Thomson-CSF will attempt to reinvigorate their missile component and armament sales through new business links in France and Germany. As part of the initiative, the two companies have signed a broadly based agreement to merge their armaments business under a new organization to be known as TDA. The TDA organization is being established as a Franco-German company incorporated under French law. But it also has a mirror-image Daimler/Thomson subsidiary designated TDW incorporated under German law.
Human factors specialists and other industry experts now believe auto flight systems should have fewer modes and that automatic transitions from one mode to another should be avoided so crews are not caught off guard. Human factors researchers also believe the man-machine interface can be a problem when automatic systems are given too much authority, work in ways that are not intuitive to the pilot and provide little feedback to the crew.
The 1994 Gold Medal went to Michael R. Williams for work on the development of gas turbine engines, in particular the Rolls-Royce RB211 and Olympus. Alistair Cumming won the Wakefield Gold Medal as engineering director of British Airways. Robert M. McKinlay won the British Gold Medal for engineering, management and international business expertise, for the success of Airbus Industrie and British Aerospace's partnership in that consortium.
SEXTANT AVIONIQUE will deliver additional helmet-mounted display systems to Eurocopter this year for testing in connection with the Tiger attack helicopter program. The fourth Tiger prototype flew in late December with its crew wearing the binocular helmet-mounted display systems for the first time. Initial testing involves turning the Tiger's cannon and roof-mounted sight while displaying firing symbology and weapons modes to the crew. Sextant Avionique delivered two flight units and two ground test helmet-mounted systems to the Tiger program in 1994 .
The TT1200 Turbine Temperature Tester features selectable resolutions of 0.1C or 1C and can measure temperatures up to 1,200C (2,192F). Temperature information can be presented in terms of equivalent microvoltage. The TT1200 also has significantly better resistance and insulation than its TT-1000A predecessor. The device is packaged in a high-impact, shock-resistant plastic case. The self-contained unit operates on four AA batteries that can be replaced without disassembly. Barfield, P.O. Box 025367, Miami, Fla. 33102-5367.
FAA HAS CERTIFICATED the first Boeing 777-200 full flight simulator at Boeing's new Seattle training center. The simulator, built by CAE Electronics, Ltd., Quebec, represents the earliest certification of a comparable simulator in a new transport program. The simulator also is the first to use CAE's new 5-channel, 210-deg. Maxvue visual system.
A RECENT SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES STUDY determined that existing eddy current inspection techniques used by major airlines and maintenance organizations reliably detect cracks of 0.1 in. or longer, but performance levels vary significantly among inspectors and facilities. More than half the inspectors evaluated at nine major U.S. airlines and maintenance sites successfully detected small cracks in a 23-meter-long simulated fuselage section 95% of the time.
Pilots and engineers involved in the certification of highly automated aircraft are divided in their assessments and perceptions of technology's impact on flight safety. Their opinions range from ``dangerous'' to ``no problem.'' However, most of these experts admit being concerned to some degree that the combination of new system complexity, pilot understanding of automated aircraft operations and today's training philosophies might be contributing to several incidents and accidents.
SCIENTISTS at Oregon State University's Center for Advanced Materials Research are fine-tuning a concrete solar cell. As envisioned, the inexpensive device could be cast in the surface of cement structures to provide a rugged, reliable, vandal and theft-proof DC power source at remote locations such as emergency runways. Targeted efficiency is about 100 w./sq. meter in direct sunlight. The solar cell is manufactured by combining macrodefect-free cement and silicon sawdust waste.
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has named Dick Robshaw director of national advertising sales for Aerospace America. He is founder and owner of R3 Communications.
ANDRE LEBEAU has been nominated as president of the French CNES space agency by the government of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. Lebeau, who heads the board of Eumetsat, would replace Rene Pellat, who has held the CNES political appointment since 1992. Lebeau also is vice president of the World Meteorological Organization.
Planning Technology, Inc., Tampa, Fla., has appointed Chase C. Stockton (see photo) senior project manager. He was director of the Center for Aviation Research and Education in Washington.
Boeing Sikorsky has mated the forward and aft assemblies of the first RAH-66 Comanche helicopter. The assemblies were joined at Sikorsky's Stratford, Conn., facility. The aft fuselage was manufactured by Boeing, while Sikorsky produced the forward assembly. During the next several months, the aircraft will undergo final assembly, including the installation of LHTEC T800 engines. First flight of the helicopter is scheduled for November.
U.S. and Russian flight controllers have established communications links between space centers in Houston and Moscow and tested them in three joint simulations. The com links are relatively spartan, and the rehearsals have been minimal, but NASA officials insist they are adequate for the shuttle/Mir rendezvous.
MARTIN MARIETTA Astro Space will build two additional National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration polar orbiting meteorological satellites under a NASA contract. The space agency made the noncompetitive award as a $151-million cost-plus-award-fee supplemental agreement under an existing contract. The two spacecraft will be designated NOAA-N and NOAA-N-prime. They will be similar to the NOAA-K, -L and -M satellites being procured under the basic contract.
ARIANE 5 HAS yet to fly, but the European Space Agency is considering a $2-billion package of upgrades to the launch vehicle. The proposal, to be discussed at a special ESA Council meeting in March, includes changes that would increase the big launcher's performance for payloads going to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). First and second-stage propulsion and tankage improvements could add 2,420 lb. of capability, while solid rocket booster changes could add another 1.9 tons of payload to transfer orbit.
