Aircraft Carrier Research Articles

Low-Cost Satellite Launch System—Aerodynamic Feasibility Study

In recent decades, the rapid development of alternative methods for launching satellites into space has been observed. The main purpose of this work is to obtain reliable information about aerodynamic properties, which will be useful in the preliminary design of a low-cost satellite launch system based on a system consisting of a carrier aircraft and a space rocket orbiter. The numerical geometry of the aircraft carrier was developed as a result of the digitization process of the external surface of a real aircraft. Aerodynamic analysis was performed using specialized software based on solving partial differential equations using the finite volumes method. The results of the aerodynamic analysis were presented in a quantitative and qualitative manner. Furthermore, in order to confirm the correctness of the chosen method, the obtained results were compared with the results of experimental tests carried out in a wind tunnel. This will also prove that the adopted method is sufficient for solving this type of problem. The main advantage of the presented method is obtainment of reliable results in a relatively short time, which is extremely important during the preliminary design stage. The results presented in this paper will certainly be helpful for all researchers involved in the development of new and low-cost methods for launching small satellites into LEO.

Advanced Base Defense Doctrine, War Plan Orange, and Preparation at Midway: Were the Marines Ready?

Abstract Many of the books written about Midway focus on the battle itself, specifically the naval battle between the US and Japanese fleets. Most of the emphasis is placed on understanding and critiquing the decision-making of the leaders of the US and Japanese fleets and aircraft carriers. Aside from discussing the contributions of the air forces flying from Midway itself, many overlook the preparedness and contributions of the Marine defenders stationed there. Other than the occasional shelling by Japanese naval vessels, Midway was only ever attacked a single time on the morning of 4 June 1942 and never faced the invasion force the Japanese sent to take the atoll. The lack of information on the actual defenders on Midway has left unanswered the question of how prepared the Marine forces were to defend Midway from the Japanese. War Plan Orange and US leadership placed significant importance on Midway and directed the Marines to defend it. Advanced Base Defense doctrine of the time had seen significant development in the interwar years and was used when the Marines fashioned the defense of Midway. This article will examine the development of Midway as a base and the doctrine for the defense of advanced bases in effort to determine if the Marines were properly prepared to defend Midway from the Japanese.

Langley’s Great Escape

Abstract The year 2022 will mark the centennial of the commissioning of the US Navy’s first aircraft carrier USS Langley. In late 1936, the ship was converted to become a seaplane tender and in 1939 is deployed to Manila. Following news reaching Admiral Hart and the Asiatic Fleet of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the arrival of Japanese bombers over Manila is imminent and the Langley is determined to be vulnerable to air attack. Departing Manila on December 9, Langley’s skipper Capt. Felix Stump served as the officer in tactical command of a convoy that also included the oilers Trinity and Pecos and is able to work his way through the archipelago, meeting up with the cruisers Houston and Boise which pick up the escort duties. Reaching Darwin before the end of the year, Stump turns over command to his executive officer Cdr. Robert McConnell to join the staff of the newly formed America British Dutch Australian combined command (ABDACOM) combined command under Vice Adm. William A. Glassford. Unfortunately, Langley will be lost on February 27, 1942, during a desperate attempt to transport Army P-40 pursuit planes to support Dutch efforts to defend Java.

Dynamic fracture toughness and damage mechanism of 38CrMoAl steel under salt spray corrosion

Under the environmental conditions of the aircraft carrier surface, the structure of the carrier aircraft has to withstand the interaction between the takeoff and landing impact load and the corrosion of the marine environment. 38CrMoAl steel is the main material of a carrier aircraft structure which is frequently subjected to impact load. In order to obtain its dynamic fracture toughness under corrosive conditions, it was tested by a experimental–numerical method. The dynamic constitutive model parameters of the corroded 38CrMoAl steel were obtained through dynamic mechanical tests, which were imported into the established finite element model to obtain the dynamic fracture factor time history curve of the material under corrosive conditions. Then, the dynamic crack initiation time of the corroded 38CrMoAl steel was obtained by the three-point bending dynamic fracture toughness test device. Combined with the dynamic fracture factor time history curve, the dynamic fracture toughness of the corroded 38CrMoAl steel was determined. Finally, the fracture mechanism of 38CrMoAl steel under the interaction between corrosion and high strain rate loading was analyzed according to the fracture morphology and EDS energy spectrum of specimens with different loading rates and corrosion cycles. This method provides a new idea for testing the dynamic fracture toughness of corroded materials.

Study on Environmental Regulation of Aqueous Film Forming Foam and Use of C4-Based Eco-Friendly Aqueous Film Forming Foam

The C8-based aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) was developed by 3M in 1960, initially for military purposes, and was then used in all U.S. Navy vessels until the late 1960s. The U.S. Department of Defense used the AFFF for fuel fire suppression in all military facilities in the 1970s. The AFFF was classified as a special fire extinguishing chemical used for an airplane hangar or an aircraft carrier. Despite its strong fire extinguishing capacity, the AFFF is not commonly used by civilians, mainly due to the cost factor and environmental issues. In particular, the main organic chemical component of the AFFF is resistant to degradation; it tends to persist in the ecological system and in the human body, consequently having grievous effects. The paper describes the causes and measures of the AFFF use regulations by the Stockholm Convention concerning persistent organic chemicals. The manuscript also introduces the C4-based eco-friendly AFFF, a fire extinguishing chemical developed in China, as a part of the measure and addresses the meaning of “C4-Based.” Moreover, the study verifies that the representative regulation targets for perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are not detected in the C4-based eco-friendly AFFF fire extinguishing chemical, as revealed by a test on “the method for analyzing PFOS/PFOA” in the chemical product based on the National Standard Test KS M 9722:2017. Accordingly, various fire extinguishers using the C4-based eco-friendly AFFF with strong and extensive fire extinguishing capacity are proposed, and the other use methods.

Research on Mechanism of Building Synergistic Competitive Advantages of Industries in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is positioned as the most active bay with a high technological level and the strongest innovation capabilities in the global market. As the cities in the Greater Bay Area are pursuing the integration of management, technology, and enterprise innovation, and emphasizing the development of collaborative innovation, it is important at present to effectively promote the high-quality development of the regional economy and industry. Thus, we apply the basic concepts of industrial theories in the methods of research and summarize four aspects to explore the research topic. We find that leading companies need to be given the responsibility of building an industrial ecosystem and realizing self-evolution through digital transformation in creating a niche for disruptive innovation and development. Furthermore, enterprises need to form industrial chain clusters through the extensional development method of investment and M&A. In addition, enterprises need to build a new industrial aircraft carrier through collaborative competition to realize the expansion of the industrial ecology of the Greater Bay Area in the future.

The Navy and Newport News: A Case Study of a Monopoly-Monopsony Duet

The U.S. Navy and Newport News Shipbuilding have between them created an unusual – probably unique – monopoly-monopsony duet, in this case for construction and refueling of nuclear aircraft carriers. Monopoly-monopsony dynamics captured a modest amount of theoretical attention, beginning with Francis Y. Edgeworth in the late 19th century. These analyses generally agreed such markets required a kind of collaboration between buyer and seller unlike the usual dynamic of competitive or monopoly-multiple customer markets. This conclusion is tested and confirmed through a story of the history of the formation of the Navy-Newport News monopoly-monopsony duet.

Experimental and computational investigation of airwake aerodynamics of the generic aircraft carrier with ski-jump

A comprehensive experimental and computational investigation of flow past over a generic aircraft carrier with ski-jump is presented in this paper. The study has been performed to gain a deeper understanding of the airwake aerodynamics past such an aircraft carrier for different crosswind conditions. An experimental investigation is carried out in a wind tunnel on a prototype model of having a length of 1.1 m (1:250 scale). The prototype model was conceived from the various aircraft carriers existing in the world. A five-hole cobra probe is used to measure all the three velocity components along the 3° aircraft's landing slope for validation purposes. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based computational investigations are conducted to predict the overall airwake aerodynamics over the flight deck. Subsequently, a detailed parametric study has been conducted to examine the effect of relative wind conditions on the aircraft's landing slope. Detailed comparisons of velocity variations along the aircraft glide slope are discussed along with the experimental data. Results show that the top deck island structure and the oblique wind conditions are the two main contributors for adverse airwake aerodynamics over the flight deck.

South Korea's Aircraft-carrier Debate

Since South Korea announced its plan to build an aircraft carrier, the country’s politicians, defence analysts and opinion leaders have engaged in heated debate. Supporters argue that Seoul’s new carrier will provide better protection of South Korea’s maritime interests and serve as a more credible deterrent against North Korea. Critics have raised concerns about the carrier’s cost, its strategic utility and the risk of entanglement in a US–China confrontation. The fate of South Korea’s carrier programme is likely to be determined by its level of parliamentary support, the outcome of the country’s presidential election and Seoul’s grand strategy.

Man-Machine Modeling and Safety Analysis Method for Landing Process Based on SysML and Simulink

The large-scale system’s mission process and the interaction within the system are becoming more complex with the improvement of the integration and intelligence, and the complex interactions among multiple factors, such as the unsafe behavior of personnel, equipment failures, and environmental interference, make safety analysis a greater challenge. Aimed at the safety of carrier aircraft, an integrated system modeling and safety analysis method for aircraft landing process were proposed based on System Modeling Language (SysML) and Simulink. First, the SysML models were built according to the analysis of the mission process, including system structure and behavior process, using multiple diagrams. Second, the SysML models were transformed into and integrated with the Simulink platform to build entity models with continuous dynamic characteristics and to perform safety analysis through simulation. Finally, an example of aircraft attitude control during landing was given to demonstrate the proposed method, and the safety states were analyzed and assessed under different disturbance conditions.

An Improved Simulated Annealing-Based Decision Model for the Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling of Aviation Ordnance Handling.

Aviation ordnance handling is critical to the firepower projection of the time-critical cyclic flight operation on aircraft carriers. The complexity of the problem depends on the supply and demand features of ordnance. This paper examines the scheduling of aviation ordnance handling of an operational aircraft carrier under the framework of hybrid flow shop scheduling (HFS) and derives a method based on the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm to get the HFS problem's solution. The proposed method achieves the minimum possible flow time by optimizing the ordnance assignment through different stages. The traditional SA algorithm depends heavily on the heuristic scheme and consumes too much time to compute the optimal solution. To solve the problem, this paper improves the SA by embedding a task-based encoding method and a matrix perturbation method. The improved SA remains independent of the heuristic scheme and effectively propagates the local search process. Since the performance of SA is also influenced by its embedded parameters, orthogonal tests were carried out to carefully compare and select these parameters. Finally, different ordnance loading plans were simulated to reveal the advantage of the improved SA. The simulation results show that the improved SA (ISA) can generate better and faster solution than the traditional SA. This research provides a practical solution to stochastic HFS problems.

A fitness sharing based ant clustering method for multimodal optimization of the aircraft longitudinal automatic carrier landing system

With the flight envelope becoming larger and larger, the Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS) is becoming a complex large-scale system, and the corresponding control parameter design has been the most important key link to ensure the safety and flight quality of aircraft carrier landing missions. In this paper, a Fitness Sharing based Ant Clustering (FSAC) method is presented for use in multimodal optimization of the longitudinal ACLS and to reveal the hidden properties of the solution space. In doing so, first, the lattice rule based space sampling strategy is used to create the individual ant sequences. Then a fading memory fitness sharing function is applied to modify the clustering strategy and regroup the ants for multimodal optimization of the search space. An adaptive learning strategy is developed to dynamically adjust the search scope of the ant colony. Moreover, an online health monitor is used to replace the weak ants with new ones in a timely manner in order to keep robustness of the FSAC. Finally, the multimodal feasible solutions which are good candidates for the ACLS design are presented and the characteristics of the solution space are also analyzed. The result shows that many large solution sets are located at the bottom of the solution space, whereas on the upper side of the solution space, the number of feasible solutions decreases sharply. An F/A-18 model is used as a test bed and the simulations are carried out in various wind conditions to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.

Sustained generation of peroxide from the air by carbon nano onion under visible light to combat RNA virus.

Graphical abstractCarbon nano onion (CNO) from dried grass has been synthesized by carbonization in the size range, 20 to 100 nm. This shows catalytic property to transform aerial oxygen under visible light to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). A concept has been presented herein to show that this CNO even under room light generates hydrogen peroxide which inhibits WSN influenza virus (H1N1). The advantage of introducing CNO, synthesized from a cheap source to cater to the global need, is to sterilize infected hospitals indoor and outdoor, aircraft carriers, air conditioner vents due to its sustained conversion of air to ROS. Thus, CNO use could prevent frequent evacuation as used by conventional sanitisers to sterilize infected places from other RNA virus and hospital pathogens under COVID-19 pandemic.Carbon nano onion (CNO) under aerial oxygen on exposure with visible light generates ROS which is capable to rupture the lipid envelope of SARS-CoV-2 followed by disintegrating its RNA.

Landing on an Aircraft Carrier

Landing on an Aircraft Carrier

Meditation on the Fall of Icarus

Lieutenant (j.g) Karl W. Kirchwey, Jr., 1944 Meditation on the Fall of Icarus KARL KIRCHWEY I. all my life, I have been fascinated by aviation and the history of human flight. It is possible that this interest is genetic. The uncle for whom I am named, my father’s younger brother by two years, was a Navy fighter pilot flying off the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise in World War II. He was a Lieutenant (junior grade) killed at the age of twenty-two during the first day of the invasion of the island of Saipan, in the Northern Marianas. He was a member of Fighting Squadron Ten, called “The Grim Reapers,” the logo for which was a skeleton in a steep dive wearing a flying helmet and goggles, holding a blood-stained scythe. On June 15, 1944, his plane was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire—or it may have been brought down by friendly fire from a U.S. Navy ship bombarding the island—and crashed into the sea. His body was never recovered. He was, according to the usual custom, listed as missing for a year, and then he was declared dead. He died twelve years before I was born, but he has paid me posthumous visits every fifteen or twenty years. His present visit may be his last, for although he lives now in a world beyond time, I do not. In Greek mythology, after having murdered his nephew Talos in a fit of jealousy, the celebrated inventor Daedalus took refuge on the island of Crete and made his skills available to King Minos. When he later wished to escape from Crete with his son Icarus, Daedalus devised wings for both of them, feathers sized just like the coverts of birds’ wings and held together with stitching and wax. Arthur Golding’s 1567 translation of the passage from Ovid’s Metamorphoses describes both the miraculous moment of first flight and the specificity of Daedalus’ parental concern: arion 29.3 winter 2022 2 meditation on the fall of icarus As soon as that the worke was done, the workman by and by Did peyse his bodie on his wings, and in the Aire on hie Hung wavering: and did teach his sonne how he should also flie. I warne thee (quoth he) Icarus, a middle race to keepe. For if thou hold too low a gate, the dankenesse of the deepe Will overlade thy wings with wet. And if thou mount too hie, The Sunne will sindge them. Therefore see between them both thou flie. (Golding 8.270–6) Daedalus’ emphasis on the importance of following his instructions and on steering a middle course echoes that of the sun god Helios to his son Phaëthon in the other great Greek myth about a father-son flying team. “I will guide thee right,” says Daedalus in Golding’s account, and: In giving counsel to his sonne to order well his flight, He fastned to his shoulders twaine a paire of uncoth wings. And as he was in doing it and warning him of things, His aged cheekes were wet, his hands did quake, in fine he gave His sonne a kisse the last that he alive should ever have. (Golding 8.282–5) The detail of Daedalus’ tears is poignant: Icarus’ doom seems foreordained, the child’s inability to follow his father’s advice . And it is characteristic of human aviation that, even in this early instance, it is neither an entirely solitary pursuit nor an entirely communal one. It is both. The operational ceiling of my uncle’s F6F3 Hellcat fighter plane was 38,000 feet, approximately that of a modern commercial airliner, although he had no heated, pressurized cabin, and had to breathe oxygen through a mask. The planes climbed well and were highly maneuverable but, being heavily armored, they dove “like falling safes” (Stafford, 380). On the day he was shot down, my uncle was closely followed by another pilot called his wingman. The idea was that planes flying in pairs had a better chance of surviving in the disorientation of combat: The acrid smell of gunpowder filled their cockpits as...

Development of algorithmic support for detecting an aircraft carrier using machine vision technology for automatic landing of UAV

The problem of detecting an aircraft carrier to measure the position and orientation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is considered. An algorithm for selecting ROI regions by using motion detection and significance analysis via the spectral residual method is proposed. Based on the BoW model, a classification algorithm is constructed that combines SIFT feature extraction, K-means clustering, and the SVM classifier. The test results confirmed the high performance and adequate accuracy of aircraft carrier detection by using the proposed set of algorithms. Keywords aircraft carrier landing, UAV, object detection, motion detection, spectral residual method, SIFT feature, K-means clustering, support vector method

Numerical and Experimental Study on Vertical Takeoff and Separation of the Compound Aircraft

The traditional technical solution to achieve vertical take-off of the fixed-wing aircraft is adding power components, which will inevitably increase the weight of the aircraft. This paper proposes a compound flight scheme to achieve vertical take-off for the fixed-wing aircraft, using the carrier aircraft with vertical take-off capability to carry the target aircraft. Compared with the vertical take-off performance of a single aircraft, the present scheme enables the target aircraft to have a larger carrying capacity and longer flight distance. In order to verify the feasibility of the current scheme, this paper first investigates the steady aerodynamic performance of the compound aircraft and the dynamical separation process by computational fluid dynamics simulation. The steady lift coefficient of the compound aircraft during the acceleration stage and the unsteady aerodynamic force during the separation stage are obtained and analyzed. Next, an unmanned aerial vehicle (with vertical take-off and horizontal acceleration capabilities) is designed specifically, and the flight experiments of the vertical take-off and separation processes are conducted. Successful separations are achieved many times in the flight tests, which validate the feasibility of the present scheme.

THE IMPACT OF LONG HAUL, LOW COST FLIGHTS: LINKING THAILAND TO JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA

Purpose - Since the success of low-cost airlines in Thailand in 2014, the low-cost airline industry has expanded the market for long-haul flights. The objective of this study is to determine the impact of long-haul low-cost carriers (LHLCs) on tourism demand and aircraft movements between Thailand and two East Asian countries. Design/Methodology - The study includes the total number of air travellers (AIR) as the dependent variable and the explanatory variables are the total number of full service carrier (FSC) aircraft movements, long-haul low cost airline (LHLC) aircraft movements, inbound travellers from Japan and South Korea (ITOR), and outbound travellers from Thailand to Japan and South Korea (OTOR). Approach - To examine the long-run relationship between the variables, this study employed the pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag model using 96 monthly data between 2012 to 2019 (8 years) of air traffic and tourism data between Thailand and Japan, and Thailand and South Korea. Findings - The results of the study conclude that LHLC airlines have been motivating demand for travel between Thailand, Japan and South Korea. LHLC airlines have attracted travellers from Japan and South Korea to Thailand and also serviced Thai travellers travelling to Japan and South Korea. The LHLC airlines have given travellers more options to choose from. The reduced airfares have made travel more affordable, which has motivated travel intentions. However, questions relating to the sustainability of the LHLC airlines’ operations remain as the services have lower cost efficiency and rate of aircraft utilisation compared to the short haul business. Originality of the research - LHLC airlines are relatively new operations in the Asia-Pacific market. This study contributes to the knowledge of these airlines in the aviation industry by identifying whether they increase tourism demand in a country.

Study on the influence of structure shape of semi armour piercing warhead on vertical armour piercing efficiency

In order to evaluate the impact of different warhead shapes on the damage efficiency of semi armour piercing warhead effectively, four common semi armour piercing warhead models are established based on Solidworks, and the deck model is established with reference to the deck data of an aircraft carrier. And then the material setting and grid division are carried out based on Ansys so as to construct the explicit dynamic simulation model. The credibility of the model is verified based on the residual velocity theory after the model being established. Finally, based on the established model, the simulation research on the influence of warhead shape on vertical armour piercing ability is carried out. The results show that under the same velocity, the armour piercing ability of sharp oval and conical warheads are better and their residual velocity are higher.

Photorealistic simulation platform for autonomous landing of fixed-wing aircraft

To investigate the vision-based autonomous landing of fixed-wing aircraft, we propose a photorealistic simulation platform that leverages ROS, Unreal Engine, and Pixhawk 4. This platform adopts a software-in-the-loop model consisting of rendering, control, communication, and sensor modules. To achieve realistic rendering control, the seawater hydrodynamics and fixed-wing aircraft dynamics are modeled. Based on the platform, we create simulation scenarios under different weather and disturbance conditions for autonomous landing of the aircraft carrier. The platform solves the problem that datasets of related scenes are difficult to collect and experiments are difficult to carry out. To verify the developability of the platform, we design and implement a runway line feature point extraction method (vision-based pose estimation algorithm), and evaluate the performance of the method under various conditions. Experiments show that our software-in-the-loop platform enables vision-based algorithm verification and supports simulation research for the autonomous landing of fixed-wing aircraft.