Changing of Aviation Technologies - Research Paper Example

Technology in aviation is continually changing Submitted to Your Prof For on On Declaration I understand the nature of plagiarism, and I am aware of the University’s policy on this. I certify that this paper represents original work by me except where for the purpose of illustrating a viewpoint; some quotes have been taken from previous research/reports which are presented in the paper with proper citation and within quotes. All the sources used for writing this paper have been cited in the end. Signature Date 1. Introduction The recent decades have seen significant advances in civil aviation technology for both ground and airborne elements. The aircrafts have become more fuel efficient, more aerodynamic, lighter, bigger, faster, and with more features for both pilot control and passenger comfort. At the same time, ground handling, airport management and services have also evolved with more focus on safety, reliability, efficiency, and passenger comfort. All these technological advances have helped the civil aviation industry grow over the years. As this growth in passenger volumes continues, the need and scope for innovation in the aviation sector also continues to remain large. Thus, the coming years are likely to see more technological advancements. While some may bring about relatively small changes, others could be capable of changing the dynamics of the business in civil aviation industry, and could be adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in its future framework. 2. Technical advances in Airborne elements Recent technological advances in the airborne elements of the aviation industry include breakthroughs in all aspects of the aircrafts – aircraft body design, control and electrical systems, safety, engines, and cabin design. There have been a large number of technical advances in each of these areas, so we now look at some of the major advancements for each of these systems, and some of the technological advances that might be possible in future. 2.1 Aircraft Body The aircraft body has undergone several important technological advancements over the years. Some of the key changes included were in wing design, body material, fuselage design, and front mirrors. The longer and slimmer wings reduce the drag and help the aircraft glide better in the air thereby reducing fuel consumption. For a long time aluminium was used to make the fuselage as it was light and strong. New technological advances have produced composite materials that are even lighter and stronger than aluminium. The fuselage design has evolved from being a simple toothpaste tube to being curved and shaped to provide more internal space, better aerodynamics, and more strength. Front mirrors in the aircraft have also undergone technical advances to increase the pilot vision (front and side) especially at the time of parking an aircraft, and to prevent glare during flights. Further design improvements that seem possible in future include the blended wing body (BWB) where the aircraft has a flattened and airfoil shaped body. This design allows a high wing-lift thereby reducing fuel consumption. This means that the aircraft is able to carry more payload as it can generate more lift. The key future implication of this design would be more aircraft capacity. It might also mean a design adoption at the airports to be able to park the aircrafts, and for embarking and disembarking of passengers. 2.2 Aircraft Controls The area of aircraft control includes elements both inside and outside the aircraft. From the era of simple lever based controls in the cockpit, the technological advancements now allow for taking the aircraft from one point to another using the auto-pilot at virtually all times. Today, almost all aircraft controls are electronically/semi-electronically operated. For perfect control of the aircraft, the flaps, slats, spoilers, ailerons, elevators, rudders, and trim tabs must all be at accurate positions during the flight. Technological advancements have made sure that these control surfaces function effortlessly to ensure better handling of the aircraft, and reduce in-cabin vibrations and jerks during turbulence. Also, Measurement and control instrumentation systems development now allows the pilot to keep an eye on virtually every single component of the aircraft. Future designs in control systems that seem likely possible include improved displays for the pilot. One likely possible feature in the future seems to be the Head-up Display (HUD) where the pilot has all data displayed at their usual viewpoints rather than having for look away or down to the instrument panel. Research has shown that the HUD allows for reduced visibility takeoff and landing, and also reduces lateral deviation from centre line in all landing conditions (FAA, 2004). Adoption of this system could mean lesser fatigue for the pilots and lower reaction time in case of emergencies. Another future possibility could be flights without pilots! Although this technology seems far today in terms of implementing for civil aviation, recent research does seem to suggest that it is possible. Today, auto-pilot systems can manage most of the flight and it would be no wonder when auto-pilot could fly through the entire flight without any need for human intervention. The implication could be immense for aviation. Turnaround time of flights would reduce drastically and airlines could save a lot of cost incurred due to requirement of pilots to rest before flying. This cost saving could be passed on to the customers making future air travel cheaper. Although it seems unlikely that this would be included in the ICAO framework as such, there could be a strong case for removing the requirement of 2 pilots in flights. 2.3 Aircraft Safety Safety is of paramount importance in air travel. It is incorporated into each and every aspect of the aviation industry for both on and off ground services. Consequently, a lot of technological advances have been made on aircraft safety to ensure minimum possibility of occurrence of an unfortunate event from takeoff to landing. Technological advancements have focused on both accident prevention and accident mitigation (minimizing the effect of an unfortunate event). Real-time control data, systems, and auto-pilot have helped increase accident prevention and advancements in materials used for body, emergency safety features like oxygen masks in case of depressurization have helped in accident mitigation. A likely possibility in the future for advancement of aviation safety is the synthetic vision. According to Michael Lewis, director of the NASA Aviation Safety Program, “Limited visibility is the single greatest contributing factor in the most fatal worldwide airline and general aviation crashes.” One of the developments in this area is then the synthetic vision (SV). The SV is a virtual reality display system for cockpit that captures terrain data in real-time and projects it on the display. Thus, even during zero visibility, the pilot is able to see electronically what is ahead outside the window (NASA, 2011). The implication of this would be safer air travel with chances of accidents reduced by a large factor. 2.4 Aircraft Engine The engine is the heart of an aircraft. It is also one of the biggest “cost centres” of the aircraft from purchase cost and operating cost point of view. Naturally then, a significant amount of research and technological development has happened in this field over the years. The engines have become faster, lighter, more fuel efficient, and even safer. From propeller based engines, today we see turbojet engines in operation that are capable of achieving speeds more than that of sound. The aviation industry is often criticized for its high contribution to Green House Gases (GHG) release due to burning of aviation fuel. At the same time, corporations and individuals are becoming more and more environment conscious. Therefore, some of the likely developments that might become possible in future include using alternative fuels (engines that run on hydrogen or other greener fuels like bio fuels) or even completely solar powered aircrafts using no engines at all. An example of recent experiments on solar powered aircrafts is the Solar Impulse which recently flew non-stop for just over 26.5 hours using solar energy only (Solarimpulse, 2011). The implication of this technology becoming a possibility for transporting several passengers could be immense in reducing the environmental impact of aviation today. However, as it stands today, the cost of this technology seems high. 2.5 Aircraft Cabins The cabin is the section of the aircraft where the passengers travel. Over the years, several technological advancements have been made in order to make the journey more comfortable for passengers by changing cabin design and/or adding features/components in the cabin. From simple seats for all passengers, airlines now offer several classes for travel with services, passenger comfort, and cost of travel increasing at each level. Technology has today allowed passengers to do several things to do during the flight including watching the favourite movie or making a phone call during the flight. At the same time, cabins have become bigger and wider to increase space and comfort for the passengers. A recent innovation in the Boeing 787 also replaces bulbs with LEDs in the cabin with 128 colour combinations for changing the colour of cabin lights (Diehl, 2010). Further, a lot of research and technological advancement has been made in reducing the noise inside the cabin – today, aircrafts come with advanced active noise control systems that “generate an anti-sound capable to be combined with the original sound in such a way that the resulting sound is lower” (Paonessa, 1994). These systems are able to significantly reduce the noise level inside the cabin with some research suggesting reduction of up to 28dB (Zimcik, 2004). Another one of the latest technological advancements in cabin features is the internet onboard the aircraft (Delta, 2011). A future technological advancement that might become a possibility is the transparent cabin wherein passengers travelling in the aircraft get a full unrestricted view of what is outside the aircraft – on all sides including above the aircraft. The implication of this could be a more joyful ride for the passengers. On the other hand, however, this might increase the cost due to new material to be used and due to technology to be used to prevent glare in the cabin. Another technological advancement that seems likely to make way in the future is the internet on-board where passengers would be able to surf the internet during the flight. 3. Technical advances in Ground elements Ground elements in the aviation industry include everything to do with airport management. The scope of ground elements in aviations is rather wide. The main elements include ground control and runway management, airport capacity – passengers and aircrafts, passenger check-in services, baggage handling etc. Over the years the airports around the world have undergone significant changes as a result of technological advancements. Some of the changes came as innovations to increase capacity, while others came to address the security and safety concerns for both passengers and aircrafts. The technological advances have been made in each of the ground services areas - efficient baggage handling systems, de-icing allowing planes to take-off even during heavy snow, and the Category-III Instrument Landing Systems that allow planes to land even during very little visibility. However, as the passenger volumes and aircraft volumes continue to increase globally, there is need to capacity up-gradation at most airports around the world. This is generally not easily feasible everywhere, which means that technology would have to play an important role in increase airport efficiencies and reducing the turnaround time for planes. Also, there are still several cases where planes miss their landings or where accidents occur at the airports due to faulty landing and even during taxing due to debris and collisions. Again technology can help reduce the chances of these events. Today even the best landing systems in operation for civil aviation do not allow takeoff and landing in zero visibility – here again technology has a role to play in the future. While there are several researches being conducted to address many of these issues, some seem quite promising and could likely be adopted in the future. One of these important areas is the landing systems where there are several promising technologies including the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS). The previous version of the precision landing technology was the Microwave Landing System (MLS). The MLS employs special transmitters at the landing place which send scanning beams towards the approaching aircraft. An aircraft that enters the scanned space uses a special receiver that calculates its position by measuring the arrival times of the beams. However, in 1994 the US stopped use of MLS and shifted to (Wide Area Augmentation System) WAAS system which uses the GPS technology. The WAAS however, does not allow precision landing needed for near zero visibility range. New technological advancement in this field is the LAAS. The LAAS uses real-time correction of the GPS signal thereby significantly increase the accuracy of positioning and allowing planes to take-off and land even in zero visibility. The adoption of this system could mean lower cost of implementation and of course, an all-weather flights operation. The drawback of this system, however, is the unintentional jamming and signal deterioration leading to reduced accuracy of the system or signal fading. Therefore, before adoption, these technologies need to be made risk-proof against these risks. With increasing air traffic, most of world’s key airports are running at full/over capacity. Therefore, ground guidance to aircrafts becomes very important from security, safety and efficiency point of views. In this regard, an up-coming technology that could be adopted as an international standard is the Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS). This system allows the air traffic controllers to “safely direct aircraft and service vehicle movements on runways and taxiways” (Plazza, 2002). The system gives controllers a clear view of the airport during low visibility, provides active monitoring of runway intrusions, and it can even control lead-on and lead-off lights and automatically activate stop bars at runway entry points. If adopted, the system can greatly increase the efficiency of air travel and increase timely take-off and landing of planes. With the high number of passengers that fly around the world, baggage handling naturally is an important issue. The cost of a lost baggage can run into thousands for an airline. Estimates suggest that the airline industry annually spends $4 billion globally on lost baggage (Levy, 2008). New technological advancement that could likely be adopted in the future worldwide is the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The RFID has been in existence for sometime but not been taken up widely yet as the price of implementation on all baggage is prohibitively high. Further development in this technology to reduce the cost per baggage of the RFID system in the future is likely to come in and solve this problem. The benefit from this implementation is of course a large reduction in the current $4 billion cost for airlines, but also much more hassle free air travel for the passengers. Another likely innovation that might come into existence with further research and development in RFID is the passenger tracking. Today, sometimes airlines have to wait for a considerable time waiting for their last few passengers to arrive. A likely solution to this could be a tracking system inside the boarding card issued to the passengers. Just like the RFID on baggage systems, the boarding passes could come with RFID to locate the last few missing passengers while boarding. The adoption of this technology could lead to much faster boarding and lower waiting time for aircrafts at bays. 4. Summary Technological advancement is a constant in the aviation industry. The scope and possibilities of innovation in the aviation industry is immense and from the look of it, we may have only discovered the tip of the iceberg yet. Given that several research projects on several subjects related to aviation are on simultaneously all around the world, the ICAO will need to keep on making choices on what new technologies to accept as standard. However, the broad framework that he ICAO might encourage would be one that best enables the aviation industry more eco-friendly, more efficient, and safer. References Airbus. (2011). Technological advances featured in The Airbus Concept Plane. Retrieved September 21, 2011, from Airbus: http://www.thefuturebyairbus.com/future-solutions/the-airbus-concept-plane-details/the-airbus-concept-plane-(in-detail)/technological-advances.aspx. Web. Delta. (2011). In-flight Wi-Fi Access. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from Delta: http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/inflight_services/products/wi-fi.jsp. Web. Diehl Aerosystems. 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