Aviation Community Research Articles

Exposome Signatures of Gastrointestinal Disorders Among Active Duty Service Members.

We evaluated the risk factors associated with gastrointestinal disorders (GD) among the soldiers of the Army and Marine Aviation community (AMAC) using an exposomic approach. Specifically, we aimed to determine the medical and operational factors associated with reported GD in the Military Health System. Longitudinal data were obtained from the Medical Assessment and Readiness System (MARS) housed at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Liberty, NC, for a retrospective cohort study that included 79,249 active duty United States AMAC active duty service members (ADSMs) from October 2015 to December 2019. Multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between the incidence occurrence of GD and variables including rank, service time, deployment, Armed Forces Qualification Test score, education, tobacco use, alcohol use, age, gender, race, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), and marital status. The incidence of GD included 22,813 person-years of observations with a rate of 2.2 per 100 person-years and a period prevalence of 3.2%. GD was independently associated with rank, service time, and deployment (all P < 0.05). The high-risk categories associated with GD in the AMAC included age, BMI, race (not ethnicity), marital status, and service time. Our data also show that deployment time, not geographical location, was associated with a higher risk of GD. Together, these analyses suggest that White ADSMs older than 33 years of age who have experienced marriage, longer service time, and deployments appear to have a higher risk of GDs. Our assessment shows the utility of using an exposomic approach to create a member-specific, big data-informed personalized clinical algorithm of health outcomes.

Proposals for designing the airspace management of the ATM sectors of the Ho Chi Minh City Area Control Center to increase its capacity

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Vietnam is among the countries with the rapid development of civil aviation (CA). This development is a positive sign to enhance the role and position of Vietnam civil aviation in the civil aviation community. But at the same time, the increase in flight operations poses challenges to flight safety, increases the load on airspace and airports, and pollutes the environment. The Ho Chi Minh City (HCM) airspace is one of the largest and busiest airspace in Southeast Asia. Every year, thousands of flights depart, arrive, and cross the HCM (VVTS) airspace. In addition, aviation operations in the HCM airspace are becoming increasingly complex (they include activity of state aviation, civil and general aviation), which requires the continuous improvement of airspace management. Airspace management, in turn, requires a certain flexibility and a quick response to difficulties arising in the airspace. One of the important components of the HCM airspace is the airspace of the HCM Area Control Centre (ACC1 airspace). At present, the structure of the HCM ACC airspace, which is divided into 6 sectors, shows signs of congestion, which leads to an increase in the workload of air traffic controllers (ATC). Therefore, the HCM ACC airspace redesign is imperative. In this regard, the authors of the article consider the issue of dividing the HCM ACC airspace into 8 sectors and the proposals which are necessary for its implementation. According to the authors, the HCM airspace redesign will contribute to improving air traffic management (ATM) quality, increasing airspace capacity, and reducing ATC workload.

Navigating Massive Text Reports: An Automated Approach to Aviation Safety Reporting System Safety Event Detection

In response to the increasing report intake and the need for more efficient and effective safety event detection and monitoring in the national airspace system (NAS), this work proposes an automated and sustainable workflow that collectively applies natural language processing (NLP) techniques to the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) report narratives. The proposed workflow uses latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), a probabilistic model for uncovering hidden topics within text documents, to perform topic modeling and constructs topic trajectories based on Document Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency [Formula: see text]. By applying spectral analysis to the constructed trajectories, we identify multiple periodic and aperiodic topics in unfiltered ASRS report narratives from 2011 to 2021 with minimal human input. Through validation, we confirm that the periodic and aperiodic topics detected can be linked to actual safety events trending in the aviation community and are valuable for safety improvement. Beyond existing topic modeling applications on ASRS reports, this work could deliver more relevant and practical information to safety management experts, not only filling the gap between the topic model output and practical applications but also providing safety management experts with a holistic view of the entire report intake to oversee commonalities. The proposed workflow, with appropriate modifications, has the potential to be adapted to other safety reporting systems.

Compliance &amp; Enforcement in International Law: Achieving Global Uniformity in Aviation Safety

无人遵守且无法实施的法律与诗歌无异——虽悦耳动听，但对我们生活的现实世界鲜有影响。现有的研究并未完全把国际规范和遵守国际法律义务统一起来;甚至需要达成广泛共识来实现国际协作的领域，也没有完全达成一致。受各国固有主权、参差不齐的经济发展水平、以及种类繁多的政治优先事项影响，遵守国际义务并不是一件容易的事。本文将考察有关国际航空安全的法律法规，同时也会论及在遵守国际义务中单边及多边所做出的努力。国际商业航空提供了有价值的研究案例，让国际社会在守法的前提下，得以共同探寻互利的可能性。国际习惯法、国际组织颁布的类法律准则，以及国内法规与程序法，增进了我们对复杂国际企业的理解，比如，商业航空公司是如何在国际舞台发挥其影响力的。1944年，国际社会急待通过统一的立法来保障航空安全。这需要一个管理国际航空的组织，其不仅享有制定国际航空安全规则的准立法权，同时也有权强制让成员国通过国内法来执行这些规则。然而，除了主要成员国和国际组织所做的努力，这一目标推进得十分缓慢。因此，把航空安全作为一个典型课题，不仅可以研究国家遵守国际义务的意愿和能力，还可探索激励或强制履行国际义务的方式。这一研究之所以重要，还有一个更加现实的原因，即安全（safety）和保安（security）密切相关。对二者进行规定，除了可以避免人身损害和财产损失，最重要的是可以防止人们失去生命。不过，二者也存在区别。安全的规定用来预防意外伤害，而保安的规定则用来预防故意伤害。正如普通法中过错责任（fault-based negligence）和故意侵权（intentional torts）的区别：后者比前者的过错更大，且会面临更加严格的惩罚。2001年9月11日的悲剧后，保安成为国际航空界最为关心的目标。可实际上，乘客死于航空安全的概率比死于空中恐怖袭击的概率高出10倍。因此，研究航空安全在实践中的重要性，其意义远大于充满感情色彩的航空保安研究。在商业航空中，安全的优先级一定是最高的。统计数据表明，国际航空的安全性近年来显著提升。究其原因，一方面归功于日益进步的技术，另一方面也得益于不断完善的法律。本文关注的是后一个问题。 Law without compliance and enforcement is like poetry – it is pleasing to the ear, but has little to do with the practical world in which we live. The study of efforts to achieve uniformity in international norms and compliance with international legal obligations reveals mixed success, even in areas where there is widespread consensus for the need to have international harmony. Given the inherent sovereignty of states, the heterogeneous levels of economic ability, and the diversity of political priorities, securing compliance with international obligations is rarely an effortless task. This article addresses legal norms governing international aviation safety, as well as both unilateral and multilateral efforts to achieve state compliance with those international legal obligations. Commercial international aviation provides a useful case study of how the world community seeks to achieve mutual self-interest by securing global harmony in law. The interplay between conventional international law, quasi-legal standards promulgated by international organizations, and national laws, regulations, and procedures offers insights as to how complex international enterprises, such as commercial aviation, play on the world stage. In 1944, the world community acknowledged the need to achieve safety in international aviation through uniformity in law by establishing an organization to govern international aviation, conferring upon it quasi-legislative power to prescribe standards governing international aviation safety, and obliging member states to implement these standards through their domestic laws. Despite the efforts of major aviation nations and international organizations, those goals are only sluggishly being achieved. Thus, aviation safety can serve as a case study to inquire into the ability and willingness, on the one hand, or inability and unwillingness, on the other, of states to conform to their international obligations and the means by which they can be encouraged, or coerced, to comply. This inquiry is important for another less theoretical and more practical reason. Safety and security are two sides of the same coin. The regulation of both is designed to avoid injuries to persons and property, and the deprivation of man’s most valuable attribute – life. Yet the two are quite different, as well. Safety regulation focuses on preventing accidental harm. Security regulation focuses on preventing intentional harm. Like the common law difference between fault-based negligence and intentional torts, the latter involves more culpability than the former, and is deterred by more serious penalties. Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, security has become a paramount concern in international aviation community. Yet a passenger is ten times more likely to lose his life in an aviation safety-related accident than in an aviation terrorist event. Hence, the study of aviation safety is of far more practical importance than the more emotionally driven study of aviation security. Safety must be among the highest priorities in commercial aviation. All statistical evidence indicates that international aviation has become decidedly safer in recent decades. Though much of that positive result can be attributed to improvements in technology, much can also be attributed to improvements in the law. It is the latter subject that is the focus of this article.

The European Volcano Observatories and their use of the aviation colour code system

Volcano observatories (VOs) around the world are required to maintain surveillance of their volcanoes and inform civil protection and aviation authorities about impending eruptions. They often work through consolidated procedures to respond to volcanic crises in a timely manner and provide a service to the community aimed at reducing the potential impact of an eruption. Within the International Airways Volcano Watch (IAVW) framework of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), designated State Volcano Observatories (SVOs) are asked to operate a colour coded system designed to inform the aviation community about the status of a volcano and the expected threats associated. Despite the IAVW documentation defining the different colour-coded levels, operating the aviation colour code in a standardised way is not easy, as sometimes, different SVOs adopt different strategies on how, when, and why to change it. Following two European VOs and Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAACs) workshops, the European VOs agreed to present an overview on how they operate the aviation colour code. The comparative analysis presented here reveals that not all VOs in Europe use this system as part of their operational response, mainly because of a lack of volcanic eruptions since the aviation colour code was officially established, or the absence of a formal designation as an SVO. We also note that the VOs that do regularly use aviation colour code operate it differently depending on the frequency and styles of eruptions, the historical eruptive activity, the nature of the unrest, the monitoring level, institutional norms, previous experiences, and on the agreement they may have with the local Air Transport Navigation providers. This study shows that even though the aviation colour code system was designed to provide a standard, its usage strongly depends on the institutional subjectivity in responding to volcano emergencies. Some common questions have been identified across the different (S)VOs that will need to be addressed by ICAO to have a more harmonised approach and usage of the aviation colour code.

Improved protection level for the solution-separation ARAIM based on worst-case fault bias searching

The aviation community is actively pursuing advanced receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (ARAIM) to enhance the safety of aircraft navigation services. Protection level calculation is a crucial task in the solution separation-based ARAIM as it determines the availability of the ARAIM. Accurately determining the worst-case fault bias (WCFB) is beneficial in improving the bounding tightness of protection level on positioning error. Unfortunately, the WCFB determination is a challenging task that requires a time-consuming searching procedure, especially when dealing with the multi-satellite faults. The traditional ARAIM protection level is achieved by constructing a conservative worst-case positioning error bound to avoid the unacceptable time-consumption of the brute-force searching for multi-satellite WCFBs. However, this approach comes at the cost of losing the tightness of the protection level and the availability of the ARAIM. The ARAIM milestone reports have pointed out that the availability of the baseline ARAIM needs to be continuously improved in order to satisfy the worldwide localizer precision vertical 200 (LPV-200) requirements. In response, this paper proposes a novel multi-satellite WCFBs searching method for the ARAIM to improve the tightness of protection level. The method consists of determining the worst-case fault direction and constructing an efficient WCFBs searching procedure. GPS/Galileo dual-constellation simulation result demonstrates that the proposed method not only can improve the availability of ARAIM up to 9.33% when compared with the baseline ARAIM algorithm, but also achieves comparable computation efficiency.

Exposomic Signatures of Cervical Pain.

We evaluated risk factors associated with cervical pain (CP) among officers and enlisted members of the U.S. Army and Marine Aviation community using an exposomic approach. Specifically, we aimed to determine the factors associated with reported CP. This is a retrospective cohort study that utilized the Medical Assessment and Readiness System housed at Womack Army Medical Center to evaluate the longitudinal data taken from medical and workforce resources. This study included 77,864 active duty AMAC members during October 2015-December 2019. Multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between the independent variables of rank, service time, deployment, Armed Forces Qualification Test score, tobacco use, alcohol use, age, gender, race, ethnicity, body mass index, marital status, and education level and the dependent variable, incidence occurrence of CP. The total analysis included 77,864 individuals with 218,180 person-years of observations. The incidence rate of CP was 18.8 per 100 person-years, with a 12% period prevalence. Cervical pain was independently associated with rank, service time, Armed Forces Qualification Test score, and alcohol use (all P < .05). Our longitudinal exposomic signatures-based approach aims to complement the outcomes of data science and analytics from Medical Assessment and Readiness System with validations of objective biochemical indicator species observed in Army and Marine Aviation community members suffering from CP. This initial approach using parallel track complementarity has the potential of substantiating the underlying mechanisms foundational to design prospective personalized algorithms that can be used as a predictive model. Finally, a specific evaluation of occupational risk factors may provide insight into factors not readily ascertained from the civilian literature.

Exposomic Signatures of Tinnitus and/or Hearing Loss.

We evaluated the risk factors associated with tinnitus and/or hearing loss (THL) among active duty (AD) members of the U.S. Army and Marine Aviation Community (AMAC) using an exposomic approach. Specifically, we aimed to determine the factors associated with the reported THL in the Military Health System. Longitudinal data were obtained from the Medical Assessment and Readiness System housed at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, NC, for a retrospective cohort study that included 78,546 AD AMAC members from October 2015 to December 2019. Multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between THL and numerous variables to include rank, service time, deployment, tobacco use, alcohol use, age, gender, race, ethnicity, and body mass index. Our analysis included a total of 220,044 person-years of observations. The THL incidence rate was 6.7 per 100 person-years, with an 8.1% period prevalence. THL was associated with age, gender, body mass index, race, deployment, service time, marital status, and tobacco use (all P < .05). Service time greater than 16 years had the greatest odds ratio of THL (4.46, 95% CI: 3.58-5.55, P < .001). Our assessment shows the utility of using an exposomic approach to create member-specific personalized clinical algorithms for health outcomes. We examined individuals with THL diagnoses and identified a combination of risk factors from biomedical, lifestyle, environmental, and stochastic sources. Taken together, the risk factors identified across the four exposomic domains could help understand the etiology of THL. Our exposomic methodology could be the foundation for generating predictive models. Finally, a specific evaluation of occupational risk factors may provide insight into aspects not readily available from civilian literature. In upcoming years, as the Medical Assessment and Readiness System matures, we will expand our analyses to include prospective, untargeted metabolites and biomarker data.

Aviator Healthcare Hesitance: An Examination of Healthcare Avoidance, Pilot Mistrust, Presenteeism, &amp; Risk

Safe aviation operations require pilots to maintain constant physical and psychological well-being. While the FAA and pilot advocacy organizations encourage aviators to discuss health concerns with their medical providers, studies demonstrate continued healthcare hesitance behaviors. This article explores possible factors impacting aviator healthcare hesitancy, including pilot personalities, financial considerations, and pilot mistrust. After providing a background of these areas, the article turns to research into the impact of presenteeism within the community, along with its associated personal and operational safety risks. Ultimately, this article seeks to prompt and aid future research by providing an overview of the current literature on the prevalence and implications of healthcare hesitance in the aviation community.

Ionospheric Effect on Global Navigation Satellite System Performance - A Review

Satellite-based Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) systems have been adopted by the international aviation community to meet the challenges of continuously rising global air traffic. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been prescribed for the provision of navigation services to the air traffic. Performance of GNSS depends upon many factors including refraction and scintillation effects of ionosphere on the satellite signals. Severity of this effect depends largely upon the geographical location of the navigation receiver, the time of the day, the month of the year and the year on the 11-year solar cycle. This paper studies ionosphere mechanism and discusses its effect on the performance of GNSS. The paper also predicts the performance during solar cycle maximum expected in 2013-2014 [Jensen, Anna B.O., Mitchell, Cathryn 2011]. It touches upon the preparations going on to face the adverse effects of increased solar activity during the cycle maximum and recommends coordination/cooperation between various relevant organizations/institutions in the processes of data collection and development of a model.

Assessing the performance of Public Service Obligations air routes in Greece: A two-stage DEA approach

This study aims at evaluating the performance of the Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes by selecting Greece as a case study since this country makes extensive use of the PSO program mainly due to the geographic discontinuity and remoteness of the islands. The research methodology engaged a two-stage approach. First, DEA models were applied to assess the technical efficiency of the Greek PSO routes. Subsequently, regression analysis was applied to the DEA scores to define the performance determinants. The analysis of the high-performance routes revealed that they either connect densely populated islands to major Greek cities or serve mainland points that are far apart. On the other hand, routes that recorded the lowest scores are those originating from secondary hubs, connecting small islands and/or serving multiple destinations. The regression results point towards more competition. It seems that open routes perform better than restricted ones and subsidies do not have a significant contribution to PSO efficiency. The results of this study may offer useful insights to the academic and aviation community, as well as practical implications to a broader spectrum of stakeholders interested in the evaluation of the EU air transport policies.

Collaborative Development: How Linguists and Aviation SMEs can Best Serve the Aviation Language Community

For the purposes of safety in aviation and in accordance with the ICAO recommendations, all pilots and controllers must follow a prescribed set of rules in order to communicate effectively within the worldwide aviation community. Therefore, they must be trained in their use of aviation language. It seems, after research conducted in this context, that the training provided solely by SMEs does not suffice as they do not draw attention to proper articulation and pronunciation, nor drill grammar and vocabulary sufficiently. On the other hand, language instructors deliver on such issues on a regular basis, though, not being experts in aviation themselves, may leave out important elements of aeronautical communication. Hence, the only way to deliver the training is the collaborative development of both specialists. We suggest here one model of such cooperation. The generation of sample language and conceptual examples to place the use of this structured communication in the proper context, should be initiated by the SME. However, language instructors should be available to participate in such exercise building sessions to continuously keep the linguistic goal of the exercise in clear focus, as they would be best suited to that role. Using such a model to develop outcome-based language exercises embodies several advantages over developing study material produced by only one half of this suggested collaborative team. This paper will seek to elaborate on the different models which may be used in such endeavours as well as narrow the focus to the model suggested above, with a more detailed explanation of this model, to include sample language lessons (or lesson plans) generated in this way.

Aircraft overrun warning systems capabilities and disadvantages

Currently, attention of the aviation community and authorities is being increasingly focused on flight safety in the landing phase. It is accounted for the increased frequency of incidents in the final phase of flight and significant threats associated with the consequences of these events. The statistics of aviation accidents reveals that from 1959 to 2019, 55% of aircraft crashes in the world occurred in the phases of landing and takeoff. The given crashes resulted in 51% of all fatalities on board aircraft. In most cases, causes of these aviation accidents are involved with some kind of human error. Off-design conditions at an aerodrome also have a significant adverse effect on the aviation accident potential and severity. The increasing intensity of flights, airspace congestion, strict ATC-imposed restrictions, the necessity to perform a variety of procedures and general flight crew stress in conjunction with dynamically changing external conditions can disorient a flight crew and lead to a landing with a flight envelope overrange. The search for a solution in terms of preventing aircraft overruns is actively being conducted both by aviation authorities and aircraft manufacturers and operators. Within the framework of this review, the major external and operational factors, affecting the dynamics and the nature of the aircraft roll via the runway, are analyzed, including the context of several accidents that have occurred in recent years. In addition, the article emphasizes the methods to prevent and anticipate aircraft overruns based on the principles of active protection. In particular, the article examines the main operation aspects of onboard avionics systems installed on Boeing and Airbus aircraft and highlights the focus areas of their upgrading. Special attention is paid to the influence of the pilot and the possibility of taking his actions into account to predict an outcome of landing.

Research on Deep Integration of the “Belt and Road” Aviation Network Based on Community Structure from the Perspective of China

Air transport has broad development potential along the “ Belt and Road” by owing to its fast, direct, and comfortable advantages, and the community structure is an important factor determining the efficiency and service functions of the aviation network. The community detection and community structure analysis of the “Belt and Road” aviation network would help to understand the internal relationship of the “Belt and Road” aviation network spatial structure and better integrated and optimized the network. Based on the data of international routes between 522 airports along the “Belt and Road” in 2019, this paper establishes an aviation network model and calculates the degree, average path, clustering coefficient, and centrality index of the “Belt and Road” aviation network. Through Louvain community detection method, 522 airports in the aviation network were divided into four communities, and the structural characteristics and geographical distribution characteristics of the community network were analyzed. The key node identification model in the community is constructed, the hierarchy of each community network is analyzed using the k-core decomposition method, the core node set of the community network is found, the core boundary node set of four aviation community networks is identified, the core node set and core boundary nodes are analyzed repeatedly, and the key node set of the whole network is obtained. Finally, from the perspective of China, a deep integration scheme between Chinese airports, their communities, and other key node sets was proposed. The research found that there are four associations in the “Belt and Road” aviation network: West Asia and North Africa, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and China and Southeast Asia. Chinese and Southeast Asian societies rank third among the four societies in terms of scale. They not only have the largest number of key nodes but also the lowest repetition rate of the key nodes. The international airline links in the “Belt and Road” aviation network are more complex. A total of 118 key nodes were identified, of which 83.1% were in the top 20% of overall network centrality.

Improved space weather observations and modeling for aviation radiation

In recent years there has been a growing interest from the aviation community for space weather radiation forecasts tailored to the needs of the aviation industry. In 2019 several space weather centers began issuing advisories for the International Civil Aviation Organization alerting users to enhancements in the radiation environment at aviation flight levels. Due to a lack of routine observations, radiation modeling is required to specify the dose rates experienced by flight crew and passengers. While mature models exist, support for key observational inputs and further modeling advancements are needed. Observational inputs required from the ground-based neutron monitor network must be financially supported for research studies and operations to ensure real-time data is available for forecast operations and actionable end user decision making. An improved understanding of the geomagnetic field is required to reduce dose rate uncertainties in regions close to the open/closed geomagnetic field boundary, important for flights such as those between the continental US and Europe which operate in this region. Airborne radiation measurements, which are crucial for model validation and improvement, are lacking, particularly during solar energetic particle events. New measurement campaigns must be carried out to ensure progress and in situ atmospheric radiation measurements made available for real-time situational awareness. Furthermore, solar energetic particle forecasting must be improved to move aviation radiation nowcasts to forecasts in order to meet customer requirements for longer lead times for planning and mitigation.

4D Trajectory Conflict Detection and Resolution Using Decision Tree Pruning Method

The aviation community develops Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) as an advancement in Air Traffic Management (ATM). There is still the need for an efficient scheme to present the trajectories, manage their associated data, and further detect and resolve the conflicts (CDR) that should eventually occur. In this research, we develop a CDR framework for managing predicted 4-Dimensional Trajectory (4DT). Using Not Only SQL (NoSQL) database (Cassandra and MongoDB), the 4D trajectories of related routes are presented, and the possible conflicts are detected using the strategy of Computing in NoSQL Database. Compared with other conflict detection algorithms, usually by the pairwise method with O(n2) at least, the proposed Decision Tree Pruning Method (DTPM) effectively treats massive data sets. The 4DT data are collected by Trajectory Predictor (TP) concerning 58% of the whole Brazilian air traffic. The comparison results between Cassandra and MongoDB from the case studies show the effectiveness of the proposed methods for conflict detection. In addition, we prove that the conflict resolution approach is viable for application in real scenarios, finding near-optimal solutions for the conflicts identified by the framework. Finally, we also demonstrated the development of sustainable artificial intelligence in intelligent air transportation to improve safety in air traffic management.

Implementation and analysis of fault grouping for multi-constellation advanced RAIM

The aviation community is pursuing multi-constellation Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM) to offer safe aircraft navigation services. The computational issue of ARAIM becomes critical when multiple constellations are involved and Fault Exclusion (FE) is enabled. This paper proposes an implementation of fault grouping to improve the efficiency of multi-constellation ARAIM and to benefit navigation performance. To potentially accommodate most ARAIM services, we consider both ARAIM Fault Detection (FD) and ARAIM Fault Detection and Exclusion (FDE) scenarios. In addition, given the difference between Vertical ARAIM (V-ARAIM) and Horizontal ARAIM (H-ARAIM), the implementation steps of fault grouping for V-ARAIM and H-ARAIM are respectively described. More importantly, unlike most of the prior approaches that were limited to dual-constellation scenarios, our implementation can support up to four constellations. The implementation of fault grouping is evaluated using multiple sets of simulations, which are carried out as a function of the number of constellations, prior fault probabilities, error models, and operational services. The results suggest that in most cases, the proposed implementation of fault grouping can effectively reduce the ARAIM computational load while benefiting or maintaining the navigation performance.

Outcome of the 41st Session of the ICAO Assembly: Some Legal Issues

The forty-first session of the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was held from 27 September to 7 October 2022. This session was significant when viewed from a legal perspective as it heralded the seventy-fifth anniversary of the ICAO Legal Committee; its service to the legal community; and its importance in initiating work on legal issues, which were formally recognized by the Assembly with the adoption of a Resolution. Additionally, the Assembly addressed three areas of contention outside the legal sphere of the consolidated statement of continuing ICAO policies in the legal field which prompted the Assembly to adopt new resolutions.(A 41-1: Infraction of the Convention on International Civil Aviation by the Republic of Belarus; A 41-2: Infractions of the Convention on International Civil Aviation by the Russian Federation and A41-3: Unannounced missile launches by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)) These Resolutions brought to bear current legal issues that confront and affect international civil aviation, together with the need to look at the role that ICAO can play in enhancing the capacity of states to comply more effectively with the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention), its Annexes and regulations. The Assembly also focused on encouraging states which have not already done so to ratify amendments to the Chicago Convention and multilateral treaties on international civil aviation. Furthermore, the Assembly provided the international aviation community with the opportunity to take another look at state sovereignty over the air space of its territory; the application of the Chicago Convention in times of war and a state of emergency; ICAO’s jurisdiction over unannounced military activity; and state responsibility. This article will discuss the resolutions adopted by the Assembly in the legal field and the nuances they present. ICAO Assembly, resolutions, Legal Committee, amendment and ratification, infraction of treaties, Vienna Convention, Chicago Convention

Sex comparisons in physiological and cognitive performance during hypoxic challenge.

Within the tactical aviation community, human performance research lags in considering potential psychophysiological differences between male and female aviators due to little inclusion of females during the design and development of aircraft systems. A poor understanding of how male and female aviators differ with respect to human performance results in unknown potential sex differences on aeromedically relevant environmental stressors, perchance leading to suboptimal performance, safety, and health guidelines. For example, previous hypoxia studies have excluded female participants or lacked a sizeable sample to examine sex comparisons. As such, progress toward sensor development and improving hypoxia familiarization training are stunted due to limited knowledge of how individual differences, including sex, may or may not underlie hypoxia symptoms and performance impairment. Investigating sex differences bridges the gap between aerospace medicine and operational health, and addressing hypoxia is one of many facets yet to be studied. In the current study, we retrospectively examined N = 6 hypoxia studies with male-female participant samples (total, N = 189; male, n = 118; female, n = 71). We explored sex as a predictor of physiological response, sensory deficits, the severity of cognitive performance declines, and symptom manifestation via linear and binary logistic regression models. We found that the female sex predicted lower peripheral oxygen saturation and the likelihood of headache reporting in response to hypoxic challenge, yet explained little variance when combined with age and body mass index. The sensory and cognitive performance models did not converge, suggesting high intra-individual variability. Together, sex, age, and body mass index were not the most robust predictors in responses to hypoxic challenge; we cannot infer this for sensory deficits and cognitive performance within an experimentally induced hypoxic environment. The findings have implications for improving hypoxia familiarization training, monitoring sensor development, and emergency response and recovery protocols in case of a hypoxia occurrence suitable for all aircrew. We recommend continuing to elucidate the impact of sex and intrapersonal differences in hypoxia and other aeromedically relevant stressors in tactical aviation.

Sound Pressure Level Measurements with Standard and Low Noise Propellers on a Phantom 4 Pro+

One environmental issue regulated by the FAA is the noise created by aircraft. Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Title 14 Part 36 deals specifically with sound pressure levels (SPL) according to aircraft type when the aircraft are in close proximity to the ground. Minimizing aircraft noise helps to maintain positive relationships between the aviation community and the general public. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are a very rapidly growing segment of the aviation industry within the National Airspace System (NAS); however, there is currently no regulation for UAS SPL. The UAS are regulated, as of August 29, 2016, such that they are mandated to be in close proximity to the ground (no higher than 400 ft). As with manned aircraft, UAS produce high levels of SPL, much of which is due to the rotors. The combination of close proximity to the ground, high SPL, and increasing UAS density will most certainly result in a negative public reaction. In order to minimize the audible impact of UAS, the author seeks to minimize the SPL of small UAS propellers/rotors via experimental rotor modifications. These modifications were inspired by the characteristics found on the flight feathers of certain owls. The modifications were evaluated individually and optimized on two-bladed rotors on thrust stands. The most recent phase of the project collected SPL data from a DJI Phantom 4 Pro+ UAS in flight with standard and low noise