It is ironic that as aircraft have gotten more sophisticated, much of their manufacture has remained manual. However, as orders for commercial aircraft have dramatically increased over the past years and are expected to remain on that trajectory, the competition has become not just about how fast new technologies can be put on the aircraft, but about how fast the aircraft can be manufactured and delivered. Enter ever increasing automation and robotics. Just as it has taken multiple years to reach the sophisticated content levels on current generation aircraft, so too has it been necessary to continually learn new ways and means to increase automation on the manufacturing floor. For both aircraft on the flight line and on the production line, safety is paramount. This book will look at a variety of topics that range from the risks and rewards of increased cooperation between humans and robots within manufacturing systems, to introducing a process that enables the determination of whether the robot or the human gets assigned a particular task, to the configuration and optimization of flexible assembly cells, all with the end goal of safely reducing time-to-market and production costs.

Airportness takes the reader on a single day's journey through all the routines and stages of an ordinary flight. From curbside to baggage, and pondering the minutes and hours of sitting in between, Christopher Schaberg contemplates the mundane world of commercial aviation to discover "the nature of flight." For Schaberg this means hearing planes in the sky, recognizing airline symbols in unlikely places, and navigating the various zones of transit from sliding doors, to jet bridge, to lavatory. It is an ongoing, swarming ecosystem that unfolds each day as we fly, get stranded, and arrive at our destinations. Airportness turns out to be more than just architecture and design elements-rather, it is all the rumble and buzz of flight, the tedium of travel as well as the feelings of uplift.

Chapter One summarises research on the seismic performance of air traffic control (ATC) towers, discusses their shortcomings and puts forward recommendations for future studies. Chapter Two covers the construction of an airport for the capital of Germany that has an erratic history dating back to the early nineties. During the long planning period, the employment impacts of a major airport played an important role in the public dialogue. This chapter sets out how a scenario technique was used to calculate employment effects related to this major airport project. Chapter Three analyses airport security in the Czech Republic regarding the Safety Risk Management (SRM) setting including the Safety Risk Assessment (SRA) with respect to economic aspects of the issue. The chapter also includes statistical backstage pointing to the topicality of this issue. Chapter Four uses the case of Atlanta Hartsfield/Jackson International Airport (ATL) to illustrate the links between airport capacity management and passenger satisfaction measured as airlines on-time performance. Chapter Five covers the potential benefits from using Linked Data technologies in emergency scenarios and presents the authors applications for improved emergency response.

BEA was formed in 1946 and took over most UK domestic and European routes under the British government's nationalisation policy. It began operations with a fleet of outdated and hopelessly uneconomic passenger aircraft that were derivatives of wartime types such as the DC-3, Avro Viking and Rapide. By the end of 1955 the airline had re-equipped with more modern types such as the jet-prop Viscount and moved into a profit for the first time. From 1960 onwards the airline introduced larger jets such as the Comet, Trident and BAC 1-11. BEA merged with the British Overseas Airways Corporation in 1974 to form British Airways. This book looks at BEA's predecessors, its formation and early operation from Croydon and Northolt and the move to the newly-opened London Heathrow. The evolving structure is explained with chapters covering engineering bases, terminals, European and domestic services, cargo services and helicopter operations. The aircraft flown are all described in detail and the book, illustrated throughout, includes anecdotes from former crew and ground-staff as well as a full fleet list.

Aviation must be safe, efficient and sustainable both at home and abroad, so the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Air Traffic Organization (ATO) is committed to playing a leading role, and working collaboratively, to ensure the success of global aviation. The United States, Europe, and other countries across the world are modernising their air-traffic management (ATM) systems. As these efforts proceed, international coordination in developing interoperable ATM systems and procedures will be necessary to support a global aviation network and ensure the seamless transition of aircraft and aviation information across national borders. This book examines selected stakeholders' views on factors that might affect NextGen's global interoperability; the extent to which the FAA has established a strategy to effectively achieve NextGen's global interoperability; and actions FAA has taken to coordinate with other countries on global interoperability.

On 8 March 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport bound for Beijing. Less than an hour after take-off, somewhere over the South China Sea the plane simply vanished. One eyewitness saw a burning object crash into the sea. But confusing radar signals trace tracked an aircraft taking an erratic course across the Malaysian peninsula, then on to the Andaman Sea. Did it crash there? Or did it fly on to land safely in disputed lands of Central Asia, or the top secret CIA 'black site' on Diego Garcia? Data from the Rolls Royce engines tracked by Inmarsat was said to indicate that it might have ditched in the furthest reaches of the South Indian Ocean. We know more about the surface of the moon than the bottom of the sea there. And the weather and currents are so bad, it may never be found. Convenient? Two years later, the Australians are still search - at the cost of billions - and have found nothing. But was the search in such a remote place part of a cover-up to distract the world's attention because the US Navy had, in fact, shot the plane down?Since the invention of radio, radar, satellite navigation and the internet, the world has become a smaller place. The answer must be out there. Or, perhaps, hidden within the pages of the secret files.

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Air Traffic Organization (ATO) provides air traffic control (ATC) services within U.S. and certain international airspace. U.S. airspace is the most expansive in the world, covering roughly 30.2 million square miles that make up more than more than 17 percent of the world's airspace.3 Within that airspace, FAA air traffic controllers handle roughly 50,000 operations daily.4 As the demands on the air traffic system have changed over time, Congress and several presidential administrations have sought reforms to improve safety and efficiency and to accelerate modernisation projects. Over the past two decades, U.S. aviation stakeholders have debated whether the FAA should be the entity in the United States that operates and modernises the ATC system. During this period, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported on challenges FAA has faced in operating and modernising the ATC system. FAA reorganised several times in attempts to improve its performance and implement an initiative to modernise the ATC system, known as NextGen. Recent budgetary pressures have rekindled industry debate about FAA's efficiency in operating and modernising the ATC system. This book provides perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders on the performance of the ATC system and the NextGen modernisation initiative and any challenges FAA may face in managing these activities and potential changes that could improve the performance of the ATC system, including the NextGen modernisation initiative.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), within the Department of Homeland Security, screens or oversees the screening of over 650 million air passengers annually at over 450 airports nationwide, and attempts to balance its aviation security mission with the freedom of movement for people and commerce. In 2011, TSA began developing new security procedures intended to strengthen security and improve the passenger experience by shortening lines and wait times. These new procedures apply risk-based, intelligence-driven screening concepts and enhance the use of technology to determine passenger risk prior to travel. As part of its responsibilities for securing civil aviation, TSA ensures that all passengers and their accessible property are screened and prohibits individuals from carrying onto aircraft items that it determines to be a threat. TSA maintains a public list of such items, known as the Prohibited Items List (PIL), and updates it as necessary. This book examines, among other things, how TSA has developed, implemented, and used expedited screening; how TSA assesses passenger risk; and the extent to which TSA has determined the Managed Inclusion system's effectiveness. Furthermore, the book examines on what basis TSA modifies the PIL and the extent to which TSA assessed risk when considering recent modifications to the PILl; and the extent to which TSA involved stakeholders when considering these modifications.

Almost all commercial service airports in the United States are owned by local and state governments, or by public entities such as airport authorities or multipurpose port authorities. In 1996, Congress established the Airport Privatization Pilot Program (APPP) to explore the prospect of privatising publicly owned airports and using private capital to improve and develop them. In addition to reducing demand for government funds, privatisation has been promoted as a way to make airports more efficient and financially viable. Privatisation refers to the shifting of governmental functions, responsibilities, and sometimes ownership, in whole or in part, to the private sector. With respect to airports, "privatisation" can take many forms up to and including the transfer of an entire airport to private operation and/or ownership. This book examines the issues and options for Congress with airport privatisation. It describes the experience with the APPP; examines the challenges airport owners and investors face to full airport privatisation; describes the potential effects of airport privatisation; and, discusses reasons why airport privatisation is more prevalent outside of the U.S. and stakeholder views on the APPP.

The Airport Improvement Program (AIP) has been providing federal grants for airport development and planning since the passage of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982. AIP funding is usually spent on projects that support aircraft operations such as runways, taxiways, aprons, noise abatement, land purchase, and safety or emergency equipment. The funds obligated for the AIP are drawn from the airport and airway trust fund, which is supported by a variety of user fees and fuel taxes. This book provides an overview of airport improvement financing, with emphasis on AIP and the related passenger facility charges. It also discusses some ongoing airport issues that are likely to be included in a future FAA reauthorisation debate; the potential effects of Passenger Facility Charges (PFCs) cap increases; how well the current PFC collection process works; and alternative PFC collection methods.

"Rockets and Revolution" offers a multifaceted study of the race toward space in the first half of the twentieth century, examining how the Russian, European, and American pioneers competed against one another in the early years to acquire the fundamentals of rocket science, engineer simple rockets, and ultimately prepare the path for human spaceflight.

Between 1903 and 1953, Russia matured in radical and dramatic ways as the tensions and expectations of the Russian revolution drew it both westward and spaceward. European and American industrial capacities became the models to imitate and to surpass. The burden was always on Soviet Russia to catch up--enough to achieve a number of remarkable "firsts" in these years, from the first national rocket society to the first comprehensive surveys of spaceflight. Russia rose to the challenges of its Western rivals time and again, transcending the arenas of science and technology and adapting rocket science to popular culture, science fiction, political ideology, and military programs.
While that race seemed well on its way to achieving the goal of space travel and exploring life on other planets, during the second half of the twentieth century these scientific advances turned back on humankind with the development of the intercontinental ballistic missile and the coming of the Cold War.

Until recently, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had applied relatively uniform methods to screen airline passengers, focusing primarily on advances in screening technology to improve security and efficiency. TSA has recently shifted away from this approach, which assumes a uniform level of risk among all airline travellers, to one that focuses more intently on passengers thought to pose elevated security risks. Risk-based passenger screening includes a number of initiatives that fit within a broader framework addressing security risks, but specifically emphasizes the detection and management of potential threats posed by passengers. This book examines changes to the Secure Flight program since 2009; TSA's efforts to ensure that Secure Flight's screening determinations for passengers are implemented at airport checkpoints; and the extent to which program performance measures assess progress toward goals.

Nearly 1 million people and $1.5 billion of trade entered the United States through 328 POEs on an average day in fiscal year 2013. CBP, within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has four trusted traveller programs -- Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, and Free and Secure Trade (FAST) -- to provide for expedited travel through dedicated lanes and kiosks at POEs. This book addresses trends in enrolment and program use over the past 5 fiscal years; the extent to which CBP has designed and implemented processes to help ensure consistent and efficient enrolment of applicants; and the impacts of the programs on travellers and CBP. GAO analysed data on enrolment and POE operations from fiscal years 2009 through 2013, reviewed documents, and visited nine POEs selected based on traveller volume and location.

This book is composed of thirteen chapters. Chapter 1 provides a short overview of the Air Transport System, from both the micro- and macro-level structure. It covers the descriptions and definitions of the main system elements: air carriers, airports and air navigation service providers, as well as personnel, equipment, procedures and the environment. Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the basic concepts in air transport risk and safety. This chapter covers the definitions of safety, hazards, risk, incidents and accidents. It further explains safety criteria, safety barriers, safety regulatory requirements, and finally it compares Safety I and Safety II concepts. Chapter 3 covers the field of Air Transport Safety Metrics and Records. Here safety metrics, accident statistics and safety records are explained and illustrated. Finally, a safety comparison of transport modes is made. Chapter 4 presents Sources of Accident/Incident Information. Explained here is how safety-related events (incidents and accidents) are investigated and what the phases of the investigation process are, as well as how safety information is collected. Chapter 5 describes the main safety issues in contemporary air transport. They are grouped into three sets: airport, air navigation service providers and air carriers' safety issues.

With air travel a regular part of daily life in North America, we tend to take the infrastructure that makes it possible for granted. However, the systems, regulations, and technologies of civil aviation are in fact the product of decades of experimentation and political negotiation, much of it connected to the development of the airmail as the first commercially sustainable use of airplanes. From the lighted airways of the 1920s through the radio navigation system in place by the time of World War II, this book explores the conceptualization and ultimate construction of the initial US airways systems.

The daring exploits of the earliest airmail pilots are well documented, but the underlying story of just how brick-and-mortar construction, radio research and improvement, chart and map preparation, and other less glamorous aspects of aviation contributed to the system we have today has been understudied. "Flying the Beam" traces the development of aeronautical navigation of the US airmail airways from 1917 to 1941. Chronologically organized, the book draws on period documents, pilot memoirs, and firsthand investigation of surviving material remains in the landscape to trace the development of the system. The author shows how visual cross-country navigation, only possible in good weather, was developed into all-weather "blind flying." The daytime techniques of "following railroads and rivers" were supplemented by a series of lighted beacons (later replaced by radio towers) crisscrossing the country to allow nighttime transit of long-distance routes, such as the one between New York and San Francisco.

Although today's airway system extends far beyond the continental US and is based on digital technologies, the way pilots navigate from place to place basically uses the same infrastructure and procedures that were pioneered almost a century earlier. While navigational electronics have changed greatly over the years, actually "flying the beam" has changed very little.

Since the early 1990s, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have operated on a limited basis in the National Airspace System (NAS). Until recently, UAS mainly supported public operations, such as military and border security operations. The list of potential uses is now rapidly expanding to encompass a broad range of other activities, including aerial photography, surveying land and crops, communications and broadcast, monitoring forest fires and environmental conditions, and protecting critical infrastructures. UAS provide new ways for commercial enterprises (civil operations) and public operators to enhance some of our nation's aviation operations through increased operational efficiency and decreased costs, while maintaining the safety of the NAS. This book focuses on the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace system; provides an unmanned aircraft systems comprehensive plan; and discusses the final privacy requirements for the unmanned aircraft system test site program.

The NEW edition of Aviation and the Role of Government, by Harry Lawrence of the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, features revisions of almost all chapters, several completely rewritten chapters, as well as new statutes and cases added throughout. Aviation and the Role of Government includes: updates to cover all significant aviation related government actions and transportation events including NextGen, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Treaties, Alliances, Space Developments and others. an expanded history of Pratt & Whitney and its contribution to American world air superiority by the development of the radial engine. the ongoing contest over slot allocations and ownership between the government and the airlines. patent litigation history and resolution during WWI by the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss. Aviation and the Role of Government chronicles the involvement of government in the evolution of air transportation, including passing mention of early governmental involvement in prior modes of transport, such as the maritime and railroad industries, which formed the foundation of aviation.

This book celebrates the aviators, astronauts, airline executives, and other innovators who have made Texas an influential world leader in the aerospace industry over the past century. Tracing the hundred-year history of aviation in Texas, aviator and historian Barbara Ganson brings to life the colorful personalities that shaped the phenomenally successful development of this industry in the state. Weaving stories and profiles of aviators, designers, manufacturers, and those in related services, Texas Takes Wing covers the major trends that propelled Texas to the forefront of the field. Covering institutions from San Antonio's Randolph Air Force Base (the West Point of this branch of service) to Brownsville's airport with its Pan American Airlines instrument flight school (which served as an international gateway to Latin America as early as the 1920s) to Houston's Johnson Space Center, home of Mission Control for the U.S. space program, the book provides an exhilarating timeline and engaging history of dozens of unsung pioneers as well as their more widely celebrated peers. Drawn from personal interviews as well as major archives and the collections of several commercial airlines, including American, Southwest, Braniff, Pan American Airways, and Continental, this sweeping history captures the story of powered flight in Texas since 1910. With its generally favorable flying weather, flat terrain, and wide open spaces, Texas has more airports than any other state and is often considered one of America's most aviation-friendly places. Texas Takes Wing also explores the men and women who made the region pivotal in military training, aircraft manufacturing during wartime, general aviation, and air servicing of the agricultural industry. The result is a soaring history that will delight aviators and passengers alike.

Although the U.S. aviation system is one of the safest in the world, hundreds of fatalities occur each year in general aviation, which includes all forms of aviation except commercial and military. The general aviation industry is composed of a diverse fleet of over 220,000 aircraft that conduct a wide variety of operations, from personal pleasure flights in small, piston aircraft to world-wide professionally piloted corporate flights in turbine-powered aircraft. According to the 2011 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) data, 92 percent of that year's fatal accidents occurred in general aviation. The majority of general aviation accidents are attributed to pilot error. This book examines the characteristics and trends of aviation accidents from 1999 through 2011 and recent actions taken by the FAA to improve general aviation safety.

In Full Upright and Locked Position, former FAA chief counsel and senior aviation policy official Mark Gerchick unravels the unseen forces and little-known facts that have reshaped our air travel experience since September 11, 2001.

With wry humor and unique insight, Gerchick takes us past the jargon, technicalities, and all-is-well platitudes to expose the new normal of air travel: from the packed planes and myriad hassles of everyday flying to the alchemy of air fares, the airlines endless nickel-and-diming, and the elusive hope of escape from steerage. We find out what pilots do in the cockpit, what s really worth worrying about when it comes to airline safety, and why we get sick on planes. Meanwhile, Gerchick ponders the jarring disconnect between our quaint expectations of "service with a smile" and the grim reality of cramped seats, no-free-lunch, and "watch-yer-knees."

With sympathy for both fliers and airlines, Gerchick shows how the new "business-all-business" airline industry has finally learned to make money, even in the face of crushing fuel costs, and get millions of travelers where they re going every day safely and quickly.

From his singular vantage point as former aviation regulator and policymaker, Gerchick gives us a straightforward insider s view of how hard it is for government to improve the traveler s lot by explaining the vagaries of consumer protection rules as well as the political realities and the economic forces at work. While Gerchick offers reasons to hope for a better future in air travel, he presents an unvarnished look at what we can expect good and bad when we take to the skies. Some of it will reassure you, some will make you cringe, but all will open your eyes to what it means to fly today."