Aviation Transport Research Articles

Research on the Efficiency of Major Airports in China’s Six Major Airport Cluster: Based on Common Frontier Super-Efficiency DEA and Malmquist Method

Airport clusters are of great significance to the sustainable development of the civil aviation transportation industry. The study utilises common frontier and super-efficiency DEA methods to assess the efficiency of China’s six major airport groups. It then employs the Malmquist index method to analyse changes in airport productivity. The results highlight regional disparities in airport efficiency. The East China Airport Group and the Southwest Airport Group consistently demonstrate excellent efficiency values, while the North China Airport Group and the Northeast Airport Group have significant room for improvement. Most airports within the groups operate at low and ineffective levels, with efficiency initially increasing and then decreasing. Moreover, the technology gap ratio (TGR) for each airport group somewhat shows a downward trend. The Malmquist index indicates that the overall factor productivity of each airport has generally remained stable, with efficiency growth primarily dependent on scale efficiency. On average, technical efficiency has increased by 1.5%. However, in terms of technological changes, most airports have experienced technological regression, indicating insufficient focus on technological improvement. Therefore, it is crucial to prioritise technological innovation and enhance management efficiency to achieve efficiency improvements in airport clusters. It is necessary to formulate strategies accurately based on the specific conditions of different regions, promote coordinated development, foster regional exchanges and cooperation, address regional disparities, ensure sustainable development of China’s airport clusters, and establish a world-class airport cluster.

Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emission Electrified Aircraft Propulsion for Large Commercial Transport

Until recently, electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) technology development has been driven by the dual objectives of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and addressing the depletion of fossil fuels. However, the increasing severity of climate change, posing a significant threat to all life forms, has resulted in the global consensus of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. This major shift has alerted the aviation electrification industry to consider the following: What is the clear path forward for EAP technology development to support the net-zero GHG goals for large commercial transport aviation? The purpose of this paper is to answer this question. After identifying four types of GHG emissions that should be used as metrics to measure the effectiveness of each technology for GHG reduction, the paper presents three significant categories of GHG reduction efforts regarding the engine, evaluates the potential of EAP technologies within each category as well as combinations of technologies among the different categories using the identified metrics, and thus determines the path forward to support the net-zero GHG objective. Specifically, the paper underscores the need for the aviation electrification industry to adapt, adjust, and integrate its EAP technology development into the emerging new engine classes. These innovations and collaborations are crucial to accelerate net-zero GHG efforts effectively.

Proceedings: Sixth International Futures of Aviation Medicine Symposium

In June 2024, leaders in aviation medicine from across the United States, Canada, and Europe met for the sixth Leonardo Helicopters/Association of Critical Care Transport: The Path to High Reliability Futures of Aviation Medicine Symposium in Miami, FL. The symposia, now held every few years, grew from the 2003 Air Medical Leadership Congress: Setting the Healthcare Agenda for the Air Medical Community. The meetings’ goal is to gather leaders to distill, debate, and synthesize the state of the science while identifying, refining, and outlining conditions facilitating favorable evolution in civilian aviation medicine. Structured as thematic panel presentations followed by interactive all-attendee roundtable discussions, the gatherings build and expand an international network of thought leaders and proven doers. Meeting attendees have a common goal—accelerating learning and practice among early and developed systems moving toward a shared worldwide agenda for the future of aviation transport medicine.

Exploring the potential carbon emissions and net-zero path of international flights: A case study in Macao

With the rapid development of aviation industry and its increasing impact on the global climate change, the contributions of carbon emissions from international flights are attracting more and more attention worldwide. This study, taking Macao as the aviation hub, established the cross-border aviation carbon emission evaluation model to explore dynamic carbon emissions and net-zero path of international flights. The aviation hub mainly covers 58 routes and five types of civil aircraft from 12 countries or regions during 2000–2022. The results show that the aviation transportation in Macao emitted about 1.44 million tons CO2eq in 2019, which is high 3.6 times that of 2000. The COVID-19 has led to a rapid decline in aviation carbon emissions in a short period of time, carbon emissions in 2020 decreased by 80 % compared to 2019. In terms of cumulative carbon emissions from 2000 to 2019, the A321 and A320 Airbus contribute to 80 % of carbon emissions. And the Chinese mainland (37 %) and Taiwan (29 %) are the main sources of emissions. In 2000–2019, the proportion of carbon emissions from China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) decrease from 91 % to 53 %, while the contribution from Southeast Asia (from 5 % to 26 %), Japan and South Korea (from 2 % to 19 %) keep the growth trends. In the optimal scenario (B3C3), net zero emissions of cross-border aviation in Macao can be not achieved, and there is still only by removing 0.3 million tons CO2eq. Emission reduction technology and new energy usage are priorities for the aviation emission reduction.

AVIATION IN INDIA: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

The history of commercial aviation transport in India started under British rule in the late 1920s. Soon an Indian entrepreneur J.R.D. Tata ventured into commercial aviation to promote Tata Airlines in 1932. In the inter-war period between World War I and World War II, the British Imperial Government viewed air transport as a strategic asset and enterprising promoters (both Europeans and Indians) saw an opportunity for profitable investment. The interests of imperial state and finance capital converged in the emergence of air transport in Asia as elsewhere. After India’s independence from colonial rule in 1947, there was a shift in government policy toward economic protectionism to shield Indian aviation industry from foreign competitions. Republican India nationalized the aviation industry in 1953. In so doing, this study adds to the existing scholarship related to the business history of South Asia and transport history.

THE EUROPEAN UNION’S AVIATION SECURITY POLICY EVOLUTION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS TO INDONESIA

Advances in aviation transportation have increased threats to security, prompting the European Union (EU) to take decisive actions. This research examines the evolution of the EU’s aviation security laws and their implications for Indonesia. Using a normative legal research approach, the study finds that EU aviation security measures have been significantly influenced by external and internal factors. Key developments include the integration of aviation security post-9/11 with Regulation (EC) No. 2320/2002, its replacement by Regulation (EC) No. 300/2008, the near-ban on liquids after the 2006 Trans-Atlantis liquid bomb plot, the installation of security scanners following the 2009 underwear bomb plot, and the ACC3 system post-2010 Yemen incident that revoked Regulation (UE) No. 185/2010. Cyber threats are also a growing concern. This research is important as these EU measures impact Indonesia’s national aviation security standards.

Economic concentration in the Russian leasing market

Aim. To determine the degree of concentration of the leasing market in Russia.Objectives. To calculate the leasing market concentration index; to assign the level of monopolization to each of the leasing market segments and justify the difference in the obtained levels; to formulate promising directions for further study of the leasing market concentration.Methods. The author used empirical and analytical methods of research. The author calculated the Herfindahl-Hirschman index to determine the level of concentration of the market as a whole and in terms of segments to verify the hypotheses put forward in the research about the presence of monopolization in the market of leasing services in Russia and different levels of concentration in the segments of the leasing market.Results. The market of leasing services in Russia is not highly concentrated, despite the presence of major players that occupy a significant market share: the top-3 account for about half of the market volume, the top-10 — 80%. In segments that do not require large amounts of financing, such as special equipment, buses and trolleybuses, and trucks, there is insignificant market concentration. Segments with larger deals, such as real estate, aviation transport, ships (sea and river), are highly concentrated.Conclusions. Contrary to the opinion of some market participants about strong concentration of the leasing market, there is no such concentration in the Russian market. High concentration exists only in the segments in which the average transaction check exceeds the capacity of a number of small lessors to provide financing.

Technological Processes in the Production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Abstract Air transport expansion in recent decades has been continuous. The main aviation fuels used so far are mainly petroleum products, the annual consumption of which (2017) amounts to approximately 300 Mt. The gases emitted by the aviation industry (carbon dioxide CO2, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide) exert a powerful pressure on the environment. The development of the aviation industry will also provoke a growing demand for fuels, and the fuels used will deepen the environmental, social and economic effects. This necessitates the implementation of the concept of sustainability of aviation transport and the replacement of conventional with sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). In the coming years, the production of aviation biofuels will increase as part of the use of renewable energy and the development of the circular economy-bioeconomy. This report briefly presents the current status of developed and deployed bioreactive fuels in aviation; certified technologies; the potential raw materials that can be used and an assessment of the economic and environmental characteristics of biokerosenes. The report also indicates global initiatives and policies to promote the use of biofuels, as well as the commitments made by the airlines.

Layout analysis of the RCEP international airline network based on hub identification using improved contribution matrix

The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement brings new opportunities for the development of international air transportation. Faced with fierce competition, it is worth studying how hub airports should enhance competitiveness, and how low-cost carriers and full-service carriers should optimize the RCEP international airline network layout for better development. Aiming at providing suggestions for the development of hub airports, low-cost and full-service carriers in the RCEP international airline network, this paper identifies the hub airports, analyzes the layout of the RCEP international airline network, and the multi-layered characteristics based on an improved contribution matrix using data from 2010 to 2019 collected from the Official Airline Guide (OAG). This method comprehensively considers attributes of hub airports and the multi-layered characteristics of the airports and routes. The layout analysis indicates that the RCEP international transportation market presents a more open environment for competition and cooperation where base carriers are often the biggest supporters of hub construction. The multi-layered characteristics analysis reveals that low-cost carriers contribute more towards opening up new RCEP routes than full-service carriers. It is advised that carriers newly entering the RCEP international aviation transportation market and low-cost carriers dedicate to establishing new routes around their hub airports to monopolize this market and enhance their market share, whilst full-service carriers consolidate existing routes and increase route density to achieve economic benefits.

Малая авиация в Российской Федерации: текущее состояние, проблемы и пути их решения

Today, it is general aviation that influences the development of the regions of the Russian Federation, taking into account its territorial characteristics. General aviation can be used for the development of many fields of activity, such as: training military and civilian pilots, fire monitoring, emergency medical care, environmental monitoring; obtaining weather forecasts; combating poachers, use for the construction of unmanned aircraft and solving many other tasks. Moreover, unlike commercial aviation, general avitation increases transport mobility and increases the attractiveness of regions for investors and entrepreneurs. This article discusses the main problems and methods of their solution for the development of the civil aviation transport system.

Domestic and international aviation emission inventories for the UNFCCC parties

Global aviation emissions have been growing despite international efforts to limit climate change. Quantifying the status quo of domestic and international aviation emissions is necessary for establishing an understanding of current emissions and their mitigation. Yet, a majority of the United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC)-ratifying parties have infrequently disclosed aviation emissions within the international framework, if at all. Here, we present a set of national aviation emission and fuel burn inventories for these 197 individual parties, as calculated by the high-resolution aviation transport emissions assessment model (AviTeam) model. In addition to CO2 emissions, the AviTeam model calculates pollutant emissions, including NOx, SOx, unburnt hydrocarbons, black carbon, and organic carbon. Emission inventories are created in aggregated and gridded format and rely on Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast combined with schedule data. The cumulative global fuel burn is estimated at 291 Tg for the year 2019. This corresponds to CO2 emissions of 920 Tg, with 306 Tg originating from domestic aviation. We present emissions from 151 countries that have yet to report their emissions for 2019, which sum to 417 TgCO2. The improved availability of national emissions data facilitated by this inventory could support mitigation efforts in developed and developing countries and shows that such tools could bolster sector reporting to the UNFCCC.

YOLO-SAD: An Efficient SAR Aircraft Detection Network

Aircraft detection in SAR images of airports remains crucial for continuous ground observation and aviation transportation scheduling in all weather conditions, but low resolution and complex scenes pose unique challenges. Existing methods struggle with accuracy, overlapping detections, and missed targets. We propose You Only Look Once-SAR Aircraft Detector (YOLO-SAD), a novel detector that tackles these issues. YOLO-SAD leverages the Attention-Efficient Layer Aggregation Network-Head (A-ELAN-H) module to prioritize essential features for improved accuracy. Additionally, the SAR Aircraft Detection-Feature Pyramid Network (SAD-FPN) optimizes multi-scale feature fusion, boosting detection speed. Finally, Enhanced Non-Maximum Suppression (EH-NMS) eliminates overlapping detections. On the SAR Aircraft Detection Dataset (SADD), YOLO-SAD achieved 91.9% AP(0.5) and 57.1% AP(0.5:0.95), surpassing the baseline by 2.1% and 1.9%, respectively. Extensive comparisons on SADD further demonstrate YOLO-SAD’s superiority over five state-of-the-art methods in both AP(0.5) and AP(0.5:0.95). The outcomes of further comparative experiments on the SAR-AIRcraft-1.0 dataset confirm the robust generalization capability of YOLO-SAD, demonstrating its potential use in aircraft detection with SAR.

Моделирование скругления острых кромок наклонных охлаждающих отверстий лопаток турбин методом электроэрозионного фрезерования на многоосевых станках с ЧПУ

The article views efficiency improving issues, quality and accuracy of sharp edge smoothing for numerous angular fans in the turbine blades of gas turbine engines made of heat-resistant nickel alloys and used in modern growing passenger aviation transport based on the development of ED milling new technology for modern multi-axis CNC machines with a rotating hollow electrode and a high-pressure fluidsupply of a special flush through the electrode body. An automated process for sharp edge machining has been developed for the production of more than 200 differently placed angular fans with a diameter of 0,45…0,6 mm in one blade instead of labor-intensive manual benchwork, where various needles, abrasive and metal rotary files are used. It is found that modeling and the development of special software resulted in a uniform radius of smoothing with high accuracy due to automatic ED milling operation along the entire trailing edge of each angular hole in the turbine blades at a multi-axis machining electro discharge center. The use of a rounded edge of the outlet ports provides more efficient cooling of the turbine blades and higher performance of gas turbine engines. At the same time, it is found that with a significant efficiency improving in blade sharp edge machining, a higher quality of the rounded edge surfaces in the holes is ensured. The results of the conducted research are recommended for the adoption of technologies in the aircraft engine industry.

Air cargo load and route planning in pickup and delivery operations

In the aerial pickup and delivery of goods in a distribution network, transport aviation faces risks of load imbalance due to the urgency required for loading, immediate take-off, and mission accomplishment. Transport planners deal with trip itineraries, prioritization of items, building up pallets, and balanced loading, but there are no commercially available systems that can integrally assist in all these requirements. This enables other risks, such as improper delivery, excessive fuel burn, and possible safety issues due to cargo imbalance, as well as a longer than necessary turn-around time. This NP-hard problem, named Air Cargo Load Planning with Routing, Pickup, and Delivery Problem (ACLP+RPDP), is mathematically modelled using standardized pallets in fixed positions. We developed a strategy to solve this problem, considering historical transport data from some Brazilian hub networks, and performed several experiments with a commercial solver, five known meta-heuristics, and a new heuristic designed specifically for this problem. By using a portable computer, our strategy quickly found practical solutions to a wide range of real problems in much less than operationally acceptable time.

A fuzzy track-to-track association algorithm with dynamic time warping for trajectory-level vehicle detection

Multi-source track-to-track association (TTTA), which identifies trajectories from multiple sensors or data sources of the same dynamic vehicle, is an important data fusion technique widely applied to vehicle detection in the fields of road, marine, and aviation transportation. However, issues such as time asynchrony, heterogeneous sampling intervals, and random sensing errors have posed considerable challenges to the accuracy and robustness of TTTA. Aiming to address these issues in an integrated manner, this paper proposes a TTTA algorithm that comprehensively calculates the similarity between trajectories using multiple trajectory features through dynamic time warping and Cauchy distribution degree of membership function. Multiple experimental datasets were generated by randomly sampling real AIS trajectory data into two trajectory data sources and adding random errors. The average association accuracy of all scenarios and error levels of the proposed method reached 97.33%, far higher than other benchmark methods. Experimental results demonstrated the advantage of the proposed algorithm in various TTTA scenarios, especially its robustness in intricate trajectory situations. The results also indicated that more features can maintain the stability of associations in the presence of larger random errors, and dynamic time warping can improve association accuracy in intricate scenarios. This study provides a practical solution for the problem of time asynchrony, heterogeneous sampling intervals, and random errors in multi-source trajectory data fusion, showcasing promising applications across diverse domains.

Individual response trends to urban air mobility noise in a laboratory study

Advanced Air Mobility, of which Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a subset, presents new opportunities for more dynamic aviation transportation systems. It is essential to understand the human response to the noise of these vehicles for sustainable operations. This research aims to investigate the relationship between the noise level and number of events on individual human annoyance to UAM vehicle noise. A “noise and number” laboratory psychoacoustic study was conducted in the Exterior Effects Room at NASA Langley Research Center in January 2023. A total of 38 participants listened to 4-minute audio clips of UAM vehicle flyover noise and provided their annoyance response on an 11-point numerical scale. A test hypothesis was that annoyance to multiple flyovers can be found by adding the annoyance responses to individual flyovers. Results for the overall test subject pool suggest that annoyance grows faster than hypothesized as the number of aircraft events increases. This trend of faster annoyance growth only seems to hold when the individual flyovers are heard as distinct events. Parsing the data down to individuals provides further insight into the mechanisms contributing to the increased annoyance with number of events.

REGARDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE AVIATION INDUSTRY IN THE ENERGY ASPECT

The article defines that Ukraine is a transit country, which gives it opportunities for development and obliges to constantly develop the transport industry at the national level. To date, hostilities are taking place in Ukraine on part of its territories, and in the rest of the territory, the transport infrastructure is in a dilapidated state and needs modernization, and in some places, complete replacement. Meanwhile, vehicles, including aviation, are gradually switching to new alternative types of fuel, which in turn requires the development of the corresponding infrastructure. It should be noted that if we consider aviation transport, in addition to traditional types of fuel, which are currently consumed by the vast majority of aircraft, alternative types of fuel are gradually being introduced. Among them, hydrogen technologies and electric power technologies should be singled out. Therefore, the question of researching the development of the energy component of the air transport infrastructure, including in the aspect of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, is relevant. The article analyzes the peculiarities of the development of the energy infrastructure of aviation infrastructure during the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. In order to increase the reliability of power supply to aviation facilities, the authors proposed the use of electric power generating units based on hydrogen technologies, which require relatively small storage volumes, have high maneuverability, are environmentally friendly and do not depend on the topography of the area, which allows them to find wide application, especially in interaction with sources of distributed generation with stochastic modes of operation.

ОЦІНЮВАННЯ РІВНЯ ЕНЕРГОЕФЕКТИВНОСТІ АВІАЦІЙНИХ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ ТА АВІАЦІЙНОГО ТРАНСПОРТУ ДЛЯ ПІСЛЯВОЄННОГО ВІДНОВЛЕННЯ УКРАЇНИ

The article emphasizes that the question of researching the place of air transport in the aspect of multimodal transportation in the aspect of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine is relevant. An analysis of the pre-war dynamics of the development of the transport industry of Ukraine is presented, which showed the insufficient level of development of the transport infrastructure and the organization of transport operations for both the transit country. Directions and approaches to the implementation of elements of a multimodal transport system using air transport are presented. It is proposed for further implementation on the territory of Ukraine, the schemes of multimodal transportation with the involvement of air transport, which are popular in the world practice. The proposed directions for the use of air transport in relation to cargo transportation in the aspect of multimodal transportation in the conditions of Ukraine have been determined. The study identifies the peculiarities of the integration of air transport into the transport system during the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. For the development of aviation transport in the context of the development of transportation on the territory of Ukraine, it is necessary first of all to determine the strategic directions of the post-war development of the transport industry of Ukraine and potential resource opportunities for their solution. A method of increasing the energy efficiency and reliability of the power supply of aviation enterprises is proposed, which will allow performing a high-quality reconfiguration of the existing energy networks of aviation enterprises and performing a high-quality design of new modern infrastructure networks of the aviation industry.

A Review of Transportation Aviation Operational Safety Research in China and the United States

According to relevant data from ICAO and China's civil aviation, the global aviation industry is in a gradual recovery phase. As the world's first and second largest aviation markets, China and the U.S. have extensive cooperation in a number of fields such as aircraft and airborne equipment manufacturing, pilot training, air traffic management, energy conservation and emission reduction. Working together to address challenges and accelerate economic recovery is the main theme of the world today, and is a common priority for the global civil aviation industry. China and the United States have the responsibility to cooperate in all aspects under the framework of ICAO's Global Development Initiative and play a greater role in the recovery and development of global civil aviation.

Robust Trajectory Prediction Using Random Forest Methodology Application to UAS-S4 Ehécatl

Accurate aircraft trajectory prediction is fundamental for enhancing air traffic control systems, ensuring a safe and efficient aviation transportation environment. This research presents a detailed study on the efficacy of the Random Forest (RF) methodology for predicting aircraft trajectories. The study compares the RF approach with two established data-driven models, specifically Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Logistic Regression (LR). The investigation utilizes a significant dataset comprising aircraft trajectory time history data, obtained from a UAS-S4 simulator. Experimental results indicate that within a short-term prediction horizon, the RF methodology surpasses both LSTM and LR in trajectory prediction accuracy and also its robustness to overfitting. The research further fine-tunes the performance of the RF methodology by optimizing various hyperparameters, including the number of estimators, features, depth, split, and leaf. Consequently, these results underscore the viability of the RF methodology as a proven alternative to LSTM and LR models for short-term aircraft trajectory prediction.