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New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022

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A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Aeronautics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 25186

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Miroslav Kelemen

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Guest Editor

Department of Flight preparation, Technical University of Kosice, Rampova 7, 041 21 Košice, Slovakia
Interests: transport; aeronautics education; flight training; aviation engineering; decision-making processes; safety and security; impacts of aviation activities on the environment and health; interdisciplinary research on environmental aspects and public health, human performance, criminology in air transport
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Peter Korba

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Guest Editor

Dean of Faculty of Aeronautics, Technical University of Košice, Rampova 7, 041 21 Košice, Slovakia
Interests: transport; innovative tools to ensure the technical safety of aircraft components; industrial revolution and aerospace industry; use of computer-aided systems and reverse engineering for digitization and 3D visualization of aircraft design elements; simulations and experiments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Wenjiang Yang

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Guest Editor

School of Astronautics, Beihang University, B115, New Main Building, 37, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China
Interests: aerospace propulsion theory and engineering; experimental measuring technology for rocket engines; electromagnetic launch; electric propulsion; application of superconducting technology in astronautics; plasma-based energy conversion technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Edition aims to present recent advances in aeronautics and aerospace technology, or an interdisciplinary agenda including a selected contribution from the New Trends in Aviation Development International Scientific Conference “NTinAD 2021” https://ntad.lf.tuke.sk/#about, but also papers from other researchers that fit into the topics of this Special Issue.

A goal is to provide an international forum for presentation of recent progress in air traffic management and operations, aircraft design, and aviation technologies, as well as issues of education, management, policy, planning, and the aviation market affecting the future direction of the aviation industry, challenges for the renewal of air transport, the development of tourism, and international cooperation in the post-COVID-19 period, within the framework of eco-innovative technologies for the protection of the environment and public health, with the support of IT technologies for decision-making processes.

The topics of this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

Avionic systems;
Aircraft design and construction;
Alternative aircraft power systems, alternative fuels, and oils;
Aerodynamics, vibroacoustic issues;
Air traffic management and operations;
Air transport management;
Flight safety, airport security, safety management;
Aircraft propulsion systems;
Sensors;
Unmanned aerial systems;
Airport operations, big data;
Space systems; spacecraft on-orbit services, assembly, operating safety, constellations establishment and space traffic management, space debris problems, hazards, control, and removal; plasma simulation and technology; utilization and protection of space resources;
Skydiving and testing;
Interdisciplinary research on environmental aspects and public health;
Smart mobility and transport; COVID-19 virus issues in transport, and society.

The keywords listed suggest just a few of the many possibilities.

Prof. Dr. Miroslav Kelemen
Prof. Dr. Peter Korba
Prof. Dr. Wenjiang Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

aeronautics and aerospace technologies, dual-use applications
aircraft design, maintenance and services, certification
UAV/UAS
photogrammetry and GIS
avionics
aeronautical meteorology
aerodynamics, vibroacoustic issues
space systems, sensors, application of superconducting technology in astronautics
numerical modeling, multicriteria decision processes, big data
aeronautics education and training
human factors and performance
reliability, safety and security, risk assessment

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 7217 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Narrowband Interference on DME System Operation

by Milan Džunda and Lucia Melníková

Aerospace 2023, 10(8), 663; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10080663 - 25 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 662

Abstract

Within the new air traffic management concept, using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), it is assumed that distance measurement equipment (DME) will be retained. The results of research carried out by several authors have confirmed that global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) can be put out of operation in cases of interference. Therefore, it is very timely to investigate the accuracy and resistance to interference of DME systems. The presented work contains the results of research in the field of assessment of the accuracy and resistance of a DME system, which works in conditions of narrowband interference, using modeling and simulation. Based on the derived model of the DME measurement signal, its parameters, and narrowband interference, algorithms for processing the measurement signals of a DME system in conditions of narrowband interference were derived. A quasi-optimal nonlinear filtering method was used in the derivation of the measurement signal-processing algorithms. A quadratic loss function was used as an optimality criterion, which allows us to obtain the results of measuring the parameters of the DME measurement signal as a minimum of the a posteriori mean error. Within this method, Gaussian approximation and large and small parameter methods were used. Simulation of the operation of the DME system confirmed that the measurement accuracy of this system depends on the stability of the frequency of the DME support generator, and also depends on the signal-to-noise ratio and the signal-to-interference ratio of the DME receiver input. Comparing the results of the DME system receiver designed by us with the parameters listed in in published works that discuss the accuracy of this system, we can conclude that its accuracy is much better. The simulation results confirmed that the potential accuracy of the distance measurement is equal to 2.2 m. However, the mentioned algorithms require substantial simplification to be used for real-time signal processing. This will be our next research direction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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24 pages, 1085 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Hybrid Model for Evaluating the Outcomes of Student Pilots within the Didactic System of Aviation Education

by Miroslav Kelemen, Volodymyr Polishchuk, Martin Kelemen, Jr. and Jozef Sabo

Aerospace 2023, 10(3), 281; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10030281 - 12 Mar 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1712

Abstract

The agenda of the international community is focused on the global problem of aviation in the lack of pilots while maintaining the quality of their professional education. The trend is to explore the potential of students and help increase resistance to obstacles on the way to results, but especially on the way to the creation of the required competencies, knowledge, and skills. The main goal of this paper is to develop a hybrid expert model evaluating the results and risks of student (pilot) outcomes to improve the quality of individual results in the didactic system of aviation education (study results from theoretical subjects, evaluation from training on flight simulators, and from practical flight training) within one information platform. The model is based on the modern theory of intellectual knowledge analysis, fuzzy set theory, and a systems approach. Information from the repository of 696 individual results of undergraduate students (pilots) from the total number of 2682 undergraduate students of all specializations in aviation education in the period 2005–2022 was used in the creation of the model. The results were tested on the examples of five undergraduate students (pilots) and demonstrated the applicability of the expert methodology for evaluating the quality and risks of individual results in aviation education for individual study counseling within one information platform. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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14 pages, 4689 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact Analysis of Solar Cells on Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Fixed-Wing UAV

by Magdalena Peciak, Wojciech Skarka, Krzysztof Mateja and Maik Gude

Aerospace 2023, 10(3), 247; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10030247 - 03 Mar 2023

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2001

Abstract

A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) is a type of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that allows for flight in harsh weather for surveillance and access to remote areas. VTOL can be performed without a runway. As such, VOTL UAVs are used in areas where there is limited space and in urban locations. The structural endurance of VTOL UAVs is limited and is further reduced in the case of fixed-wing UAVs. Long-endurance aerial vehicles allow for continuous flight, but their power supply systems must be able to harvest energy from external sources in order to meet the guidelines. The wings of these UAVs are often covered with solar cells. This article presents the extended range and flight time of a tail-sitter VTOL that incorporates solar cells on the UAV structure. A VTOL powered by solar cells can perform aviation missions with fewer landings, allowing for the performance of such UAVs to be increased and for their flight time to be extended several times over those without solar cells. Simulations accounting for the use of PV panels on the UAV structure show that depending on the scenario and flight date, VTOLs can double the flight time on the spring equinox and increase the flight time by more than six times on the summer solstice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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21 pages, 1351 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Needs Analysis of Aircraft Mechanics’ English Language Skills

by Peter Korba, Ingrid Sekelová, Branko Mikula and Martina Koščáková

Aerospace 2023, 10(2), 189; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10020189 - 16 Feb 2023

Viewed by 2933

Abstract

English is used in all parts of aviation, especially in aircraft maintenance, where all documentation and various manuals are written in this language. However, there are no formal requirements for aircraft mechanics to have a certain level of English. Nevertheless, aircraft mechanics must master their English language skills, since they are needed for managing their work tasks. This study deals with the issue of insufficiency of standardized English courses, and determines the English language needs of aircraft maintenance in the Slovak Republic, using a triangular approach. The gathered data from 80 respondents for this paper were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics, which were calculated by the means of Jamovi statistical software. The results revealed that aircraft mechanics engage most often in communication situations that require their knowledge of the reading skill. The importance of all language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) is proven by the determination of the most-common communication activities of aircraft mechanics, which should be included in specialized English courses. The results of this study are useful in the creation of language courses which increase the level of English in aircraft maintenance, thus, increasing safety in aviation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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18 pages, 2570 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dimensioning the Optimal Number of Parallel Service Desks in the Passenger Handling Process at Airports Considered as a Queueing System—Case Study

by Edina Jenčová, Peter Koščák and Martina Koščáková

Aerospace 2023, 10(1), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10010050 - 04 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1388

Abstract

Queueing theory is currently a widely used method for optimizing activities not only in air transport but also in other sectors, in both production and the use of personnel. Using this theory, it is possible to simulate in advance various scenarios that may arise during aircraft handling, handling of passengers and their luggage, cargo, or in production lines. This article aims to point out the possibilities of modeling queueing systems in air transport using a simulation model. It applies the measured data from the airport to the created simulation model, analyzes the knowledge gained from the simulations, and then proposes improvements or elimination of problems that may arise during the process in order to dimension the most favorable number of parallel service desks. During this process, we chose to evaluate the criteria of the efficiency of service check-in desks in the passenger handling process at the international airport in Košice and Prague. The handling process at the airport in Košice for weekly flights to Warsaw and at the airport in Prague also for flights to Warsaw during one week in the summer of 2019 was analyzed in more detail. During modeling, five efficiency criteria were monitored, which were focused on the probability of passengers waiting and their time spent waiting for their handling at the check-in desk. However, in these experiments, only the time spent at the check-in desk was taken into account; the following security, passport, and other checks were not included. As part of the evaluation of the efficiency of the passenger handling process, it was concluded that the critical point in the optimization of the handling process is dimensioning the optimal number of check-in desks, which had the greatest impact on the speed and possibility of processing all requests that entered the system. Therefore, it is advisable to first choose the most suitable number of desks and then work with other parameters that are adapted to the individual requirements for optimizing the handling process at airports. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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27 pages, 3629 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sizing Methodology and Energy Management of an Air–Ground Aircraft with Turbo-Electric Hybrid Propulsion System

by Mingliang Bai, Wenjiang Yang, Jianwei Li, Marek Kosuda, Ladislav Fozo and Miroslav Kelemen

Aerospace 2022, 9(12), 764; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9120764 - 28 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2020

Abstract

This paper proposes a distributed turbo-electric hybrid propulsion system (TEHPS) architecture for high-power and large-load air–ground aircraft (AGA). The composition of the turboshaft engine, hybrid energy storage system (HESS) as the power unit, distributed electric drive ducted fans, and wheels as the propulsion unit is determined. Firstly, the modeling of each component in the TEHPS is carried out, and system power, energy, and weight analysis are conducted under the different operating modes. Sizing parameters of main components are selected based on a genetic algorithm to obtain the optimal total weight and propulsion efficiency, and the energy management framework from the upper level to the lower level is completed by adopting an equivalent consumption minimum strategy and fuzzy logic control. Under the air–ground amphibious mission profile, the simulation results indicate that the TEHPS can achieve a 21.80% fuel consumption and

{CO}_{2}

emission optimization rate at the cost of 10.53% increase in the whole aircraft mass compared to the oil-only powertrain. The HESS can account for up to 29% and 33.56% of the energy and power ratios in the TEHPS, and reduce mass by 8.1% and volume by 3.77% compared to the single energy storage, which may provide theoretical insights for the powertrain composition form, sizing, and energy management of future hybrid air–ground aircraft. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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22 pages, 1055 KiB

Open AccessArticle

ASRS-CMFS vs. RoBERTa: Comparing Two Pre-Trained Language Models to Predict Anomalies in Aviation Occurrence Reports with a Low Volume of In-Domain Data Available

by Samuel Kierszbaum, Thierry Klein and Laurent Lapasset

Aerospace 2022, 9(10), 591; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9100591 - 11 Oct 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1973

Abstract

We consider the problem of solving Natural Language Understanding (NLU) tasks characterized by domain-specific data. An effective approach consists of pre-training Transformer-based language models from scratch using domain-specific data before fine-tuning them on the task at hand. A low domain-specific data volume is problematic in this context, given that the performance of language models relies heavily on the abundance of data during pre-training. To study this problem, we create a benchmark replicating realistic field use of language models to classify aviation occurrences extracted from the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) corpus. We compare two language models on this new benchmark: ASRS-CMFS, a compact model inspired from RoBERTa, pre-trained from scratch using only little domain-specific data, and the regular RoBERTa model, with no domain-specific pre-training. The RoBERTa model benefits from its size advantage, while the ASRS-CMFS benefits from the pre-training from scratch strategy. We find no compelling statistical evidence that RoBERTa outperforms ASRS-CMFS, but we show that ASRS-CMFS is more compute-efficient than RoBERTa. We suggest that pre-training a compact model from scratch is a good strategy for solving domain-specific NLU tasks using Transformer-based language models in the context of domain-specific data scarcity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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16 pages, 1579 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design of a Half-Bridge Current-Source Inverter Topology for Avionic Systems

by Eralp Sener and Gurhan Ertasgin

Aerospace 2022, 9(7), 354; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9070354 - 01 Jul 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2485

Abstract

This paper analyses a new half-bridge current–source inverter for avionic systems. In the circuit, two 28 V batteries are used as inputs. These voltage sources are connected to inductors which create a constant current source. Then only two high-frequency switches are used to waveshape the positive and negative half-cycles. The SCR-based half-bridge allows positive and negative current flow properly. The inverter output uses a CL filter to remove PWM components and to obtain 400 Hz sinewave output. Simulation and HIL experiment results are provided with feedback control to prove the concept of the proposed topology. The study shows that the new current–source topology provides promising results while complying with aviation standards. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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13 pages, 963 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Increasing the Efficiency of Aircraft Ground Handling—A Case Study

by Stanislav Szabo, Marek Pilát, Sebastián Makó, Peter Korba, Miroslava Čičváková and Ľubomír Kmec

Aerospace 2022, 9(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9010002 - 21 Dec 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4959

Abstract

This research was focused on increasing the efficiency of aircraft ground handling at the airport. The main goal of the research was to improve the individual processes that are part of the aircraft ground handling in order to speed up this operation, as well as improve the turnaround time between individual flights to enhance the overall throughput of airport stands. The objective of the research was to measure the times of standard airport processes that are part of the aircraft handling, measure the turnaround time between individual flights at the selected airport and increase the efficiency of each process that was measured. After the measurements had been taken, changes were introduced, and the times were measured again. The changes were mainly focused on the following aspects: the position of ground handling equipment before the arrival of the aircraft, the deployment of staff, and the routes taken by ground handling equipment. The measurements were taken during the summer on a fixed stand, with a standard number of employees and with the same type of aircraft. In total, 78 measurements were taken in which 2340 partial times were measured during the entire course of aircraft ground handling before departure to the next destination. After the changes were implemented, the same measurements were taken again to see if the changes that had been implemented could speed up the overall process of the aircraft ground handling. Subsequently, all data were evaluated using statistical methods. All measurements were done at the Košice airport. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Aviation Development 2021-2022)

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