Development of an Active Flight Envelope Warning Method for General Aviation Aircraft
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Date
2015-03-25
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Abstract
Loss of control incidents in flight are the primary cause of fatal general aviation accidents. By definition, a loss of control event is a preventable occurrence where a pilot should have maintained or regained control of their aircraft. Giving a pilot sufficient warning to correct dangerous situations is crucial in preventing loss of control. Existing warning methods are based on physical margins of aircraft limitations and do not directly consider how much time is left to act before loss of control. This research focuses on the development of a method that uses real-time inertial and aerodynamic data to calculate and improve warnings of flight envelope limitations. X-Plane 10, a realistic flight simulator, has been used to simulate the flight of a Cessna 172, a common general aviation aircraft. The flight model of X-Plane has been compared to empirical data with favorable results thus far, indicating X-Plane is a reasonable platform on which to investigate an active warning system. Development of a software plugin for the warning system is underway. The plugin uses live flight model and aircraft data from X-Plane to consider proximity to a potential loss of control event before issuing a warning. Preliminary results suggest significant (>1 second) improvement over traditional stall warnings. With careful consideration of the physical state of the aircraft, the system is meant to always give the pilot at least 2 or 3 seconds to correctly react to a dangerous situation. This type of "constant time" warning is a novel approach to preventing loss of control and offers distinct advantages over more traditional methods, which can leave pilots with very little time to react. A proof-of-concept for this warning technique opens possibilities of more capable yet less costly loss of control mitigation systems that can greatly reduce general aviation fatalities.
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Engineering: 4th Place, Honorable Mention (The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research Forum)
Keywords
general aviation, stall warning, loss of control, flight simulation, Cessna 172