New Aviation Technology - Necessity or a Whim - Research Paper Example

number New Technology: A Necessity with a High Price or a Whim for Simpli in Aviation? The United States budget for the fiscal year 2013 is estimated to be $16,202.7 billion as per GDP. 14% of this – the third largest share; is allotted for Defense. (Chantrill,) According to the report given by the Comptroller of the Department of Defense, $46.6 Billion was used for Aircraft procurement, maintenance, and improvements (2013). The trends in expenses for commercial aircraft procurement, maintenance and upgrades are also on the rise. Global passenger traffic has risen from about 1.7 billion in the year 2000 to about 3 billion in 2012 with only two dips in the trend happening in the year 2011 due to the 9/11 attack, economic downturn, and the SARS Epidemic, and also in the year 2010 caused by the financial crises and global recession (International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) (as cited in Beynon). The reasonable response of airline companies with the greater influx of passengers is to add new planes to its fleet. A report by the Airline Monitor (2012) compiled the total air craft deliveries per year by Boeing and Airbus, two of the largest aircraft manufacturer (as cited in Beynon). The report shows that there will be a total of 1,300 new aircrafts delivered by the end of 2013 and as much as 1,600 additional aircrafts by 2019. The cost of procuring an A350 (Airbus) is about $320 million while a B777 (Boeing) costs about $315 million. (Rothman and Walid and AircraftCompare.com) It is evident from these statistics that a huge chunk of the tax payers’ money are channeled to the improvement of aircrafts used by our armed forces and there’s also a lot of money being poured out into the commercial airline business. However, we are just recovering from the effects of the Global recession and the financial crises that’s why we need to take in perspective the amount of money that we spend as well as the government spends on buying and improving our aircrafts. Two of the changes that aircraft manufacturers infuse in their new fleets are better fuel efficiency and replacement of gauges in the cockpit with Multifunction Electronic Display Systems (MEDS). The MEDS are essentially cathode-ray tube (CRT), active-matrix liquid-crystal display (AMLCD) (tannas.com) or LED monitors that display the information once seen from the different gauges in the cockpit. Better fuel consumption is highly beneficial for cost reduction and lessening the impact of flight to the environment however, there is a question on why we need to upgrade the gauges to panels and monitors when the mechanical gauges works just fine? Is this upgrade a necessity that we are willing to pay high prices for or just a whim to make things simpler in aviation? I. The Need for Electronic Flight Displays The “glass cockpit” as NASA names it is a new configuration in the airplane and space shuttle cockpit design using CRT, LCD, or LED screens in place of the old electromechanical displays, gauges and instruments that have worked for so long in the aviation industry. Instead of having multiple knobs, buttons, switches, indicators, gauges and symbols that cluttered the cockpit, the screens now display all the relevant information for the pilot to safely take-off, fly and land the plane (NASA, 2000). Lane Wallace, a correspondent of the “Airborn Trailblazer” said that before the 70s there really was no need for computerized electronic flight displays; however, with the increasing complexity of aircrafts, the improvement of digital systems and ballooning air traffic prompted the need for displays that could process raw in-flight and aircraft-systems data and integrate is so as the displayed information contains the position, situation and progress of the aircraft within the three dimensions and with regards to speed and time. (NASA) The developers of this technology say that cockpits that are fitted with these displays are safer and easier to control compared to the ones that have the old gauges and instruments. The glass cockpit was developed by Boeing and is now the standard cockpit configuration for new aircrafts for use in both military and commercial flights. Another aspect in technology that is being added to new aircrafts is the feature of Electronic Flight Bags and Electronic Log Books. In older aircrafts, flight bags are a compartment in the cockpit that contains the airplane’s blue print, Flight manual, weather and air flow charts, and everything else that will be needed in flight. Now these are integrated in the computer that monitors the flight data and is becomes more convenient for pilots and assistant pilots to access with just one key stroke. Log books are essential in every flight. They are the records of aircraft and crew performance. The promoters of adding this technology in aircrafts say that this is needed to streamline the processes on every flight. There is a move towards a paperless cockpit. II. The Cost of the Trade-off The transition from electromechanical gauges and instruments to electronic displays is a big adjustment for the pilots at that time and until today. Many planes that still use the old gauges are still running while the newer models are almost completely digitized and the trusty instruments replaced with displays. In the Air Force, the average age for their airborne fleet, may it be fighters, freighters, or bombers, is 23 and this creates a disparity in pilots that operate the different planes of the Air Force. Pilots cannot switch planes that easily because they won’t be familiar with the controls and displays from one aircraft model to the next. This is also a reality for commercial airlines because they need to have different pilots for the different planes that they have in their fleet (tannas.com). The financial cost of hiring, training, and retraining pilots for flying different aircraft models takes a toll on the budget of our Air Force and also for commercial airlines. Another cost is the hiring, training, and retraining of the aircraft mechanics and ground support staff for different aircraft models that the Department of Defense and the commercial airline companies have. The maintenance cost for the newer planes are higher compared to the older planes because not only the hardware should be checked but also the software that makes the whole MEDS function. With regards to the Electronic Flight Bags and Electronic Log Book technologies, there are also drawbacks that need to be taken into consideration. Airplanes need to be light so as it can fly efficiently, however, Electronic Flight Bags and Electronic Log Book data is huge and add that to the flight data that is stored and processed also by the plane, and you will be thinking that the storage space for these data should also take space and the processors that handle the display and computation for the raw data would not just take space, but also generate a lot of heat. Computers are delicate and they will only function in certain temperatures and conditions. Army aircrafts may be equipped with very computer carts that function in temperature and condition extremes but for commercial aircrafts these may not come as a standard package. The government as well as the commercial airlines will have to shell out lots of cash so as to get this type of hardware inside their planes. In the case of the Electronic Flight Bag, aren’t we enabling lazy pilots in doing this? The flight bags are there just for reference purposes. The pilots have been trained to have this information or a working knowledge of this information inside their heads. Pilots may be moved to complacency and utter reliance to technology if the flight bag is digitized. There is also that danger with the Electronic Log Book, and they can also be a threat to the privacy of pilots and the crew, as well as the passengers because these data, like all kinds of data can be hacked and used for unbeneficial purposes by malevolent characters. III. Is the switch necessary? Many experienced pilots would tell that the fancy displays are not really necessary for safe flight. Pilots are trained to make decisions based on the measurements that are indicated on the gauges and for decades, these measurements have not failed considerably. Air travel safety actually was not really impacted that much by these digital displays. In a ten year study by Air Safety Foundation in the US from 1994 to 2003, the total number of accidents in the US per 100,000 flight hours has lowered from 9.06 to 6.71 and the number of fatal accidents also went down from 1.82 to 1.36 (2005). The total number of accidents was reduced but the change in the occurrence of fatal accidents did not lower that much. Airplanes as a commodity really have long life spans. They do not need to be replaced often for they are built to last. Military planes are designed even to withstand harsh flying conditions that commercial aircrafts cannot. With proper care, maintenance, and restoration work, even very old planes, those that have been in use for more than 30 years, can still be flown and be of service. The gauges can be fixed by the pilot himself however, if there will be a problem in the screens, it would be hard for the pilot to handle both the hardware and software repairs and updates that the precision instruments need. There will also be scenarios wherein power fails inside the plane during lighting storms and heavy turbulence, and since these displays work with the power on, then the pilot and assistants will have a hard time to keep the flight status stable when their virtual eyes, ears, and sense of balance are not working. IV. Conclusion Man is different from the rest of the animal kingdom because we have the proven capacity to rationalize and use tools. The technological advancements in aviation is amazing and they can be very helpful and will make the life of pilots that much easier. But, in my opinion, the high regard for technology should not be the sole focus in advancement in aviation; rather, the competencies of the pilots, crews, and ground people should be increased so that they will be prepared for anything that may happen. This is especially true for the Air Force, it may be wise to just upgrade the implements in their aircraft fleets and train the pilots even more rather than procure new aircrafts every year. There is a reason why even though unmanned aircrafts have been used by the government in surveillance and counterterrorist efforts for decades it has not been used at large for commercial situations. There are still a lot of aspects in a flight that can only be addressed by actual pilots. Even though the technology for artificial intelligence has advanced a lot and autopilots can now do take-offs and landings on its own, an actual pilot is still needed in flight because some decisions cannot really be made by computers and people trust their own kind more than computers. Not opting for technological advancements that can be foregone might is not just a matter of saving a few million dollars; it may also be a way of asserting and cultivating our intelligence, decision making capacity and nature-given capability. References AircraftCompare. Boeing 777 300ER. Web. http://www.aircraftcompare.com /helicopter-airplane/Boeing-777-300ER/23. Retrieved 24 April 2013 AOPA Air Safety. FoundationGeneral Aviation Accidents 10-Year Trend. Web. http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/topics/gatrend.pdf. (2005). Retrieved 24 April 2013 Beynon, Rob. Advancements in Aircraft Technology. InterVISTAS Consulting Group. Web. http://www.intervistas.com/downloads/Advancements_in_ Aircraft _Technology _ IAAE_06Jun12.pdf. 6 June 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2013 Chantrill, Christopher. United States Federal State and Local Government Spending Fiscal Year 2013 in $ billion. US Government Spending. Web. http://www. usgovernmentspending .com/piechart_2013_US_total. 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Glass Cockpit. Web. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Glasscockpit.html. June 2000. Retrieved 24 April 2013 Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller). Department of Defense Budget Fiscal Year 2014. Web. http://comptroller.defense.gov/budget.html 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013 Rothman, A., & Walid, T. Airbus Loses Another A350-1000 Order as 777 Successor Looms. Bloomberg. Web. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-07/airbus-loses-second-batch-of-a350-1000-orders-from-etihad.html. 8 May 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2013 Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (SITA). New Generation Cockpit IT Integration. Retrieved from http://www.sita.aero/file/2951/ New _ generation _cockpit_IT_integration_position_paper.pdf. 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2013 Tannas Electronics Displays. Laws for the Design of the Universal Cockpit Displays. Web. http://www.tannas.com/what-is-resizing/laws-of-design/ Retrieved 24 April 2013 Read More