Final Year Project Ideas

[champair79]

Hello guys (and gals),

I'm about to start my final year of uni (Aviation Technology - as such the topics up for consideration are broad so I could choose a more business, operational or engineering type of project - I'm not tied to one faculty) and of course I have to do a final year project. I've been looking at different topics for study but I'm finding it difficult to come up with a suitable title which combines both some research but also allows me to add my own opinions and to add an element of problem solving. I'm sure you all agree that it's very easy to come up with a purely research-based project but the top marks are awarded when you include your own ideas rather than just getting information from books and the internet.

I'm trying to come up with an idea that few people have actually researched and investigated as I think that there's very little point in doing one of the 'standard' titles that some people do every year. Ideally, I don't want it to incluce much (if any) maths as that is my weakpoint.

So what are the main issues or changes that will affect aviation in the future or that need investigating?

So far I've had a think about:
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Air Traffic
Implementation of NextGen airspace/Single European Sky

Aircraft Design and Environment
Alternative fuels
Fuel savings (aerodynamics - i.e. winglets, reduced weight, engine improvements etc)
Fuel savings (operational procedures e.g. CDA's, single-engine taxi etc)
Carbon-trading

Crew
P2F Schemes
Crew Fatigue
Increased use of automation and its effects on crew and operating procedures

Airlines
The future of LCC's
How 'full-service' airlines are competing with LCC's

Airport Design
How the design of airports is changing due to changing passenger habits and different aircraft and how are they likely to change in the future

Aircraft Accidents
Alternative ways of recording and storing data to enable better aircraft accident investigations (thinking here of the problems with the Black Box and AF447 and how that could have been avoided)
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Those are just some of the ideas whizzing around my head. Some of them are pants I agree but if anyone can think of anything else, feel free to add it in. I'm sure I've missed some important issues.

I hope you can help.

Regards,


Champ

[cdtaylor_nats]

How about Air Traffic Control as related to Unmanned aircraft?

What powers should ATC authorities have over UAVs?

[grizzled]

I agree with the two previous posters; UAVs will become more and more of an issue with regard to air traffic ops and safety.

Having said that I believe that Safety Management Systems (SMS) is a topic that, though in vogue as a terminology, is little understood by the aviation community. Many jurisdictions that have embraced the notion of SMS as the future basis of aviation safety improvement are now running into problems in terms of what it really means, how it works, and most importantly, is there an argument that manadatory SMS programs (as proposed by Transport Canada for example) can actually be a detractor to heightened levels of safety.

As SMS is still in its infancy, there is significant room for your own opinions in your dissertation.

Whatever subject you choose, Good Luck to you!

grizz

[Ancient Observer]

It does depend on what you want to do in Aviation. If you want to be a pilot, you might want a broadly technical topic. If, however, you want to be an engineer, then something closer to that makes more sense.
If your interest is more in the aviation management area, then the SMS idea is a good one.
I personally rather like your idea about how the "full"- service Co.s (or, in the jargon, "Legacy" carriers) compete with LCC...............

I once read a fascinating paper by the UK CAA's Economics team on exactly how Aviation in the UK has developed over the last 10 years, and which had lots of stuff on who actually competes with who. (Their answer was not at all obvious.................the LCC took all the growth, both from Legacy and, more importantly, from charter carriers. They did not see much direct competition between legacy and LCC, but left that open for the future) The paper was on the UK CAA website, but I have no idea where it was - I was looking for something else!

[Vasconav]

Hello Champ

How about adding into your aircraft design heading new and potentially revoluntionary designs such as the 'flying wing'?

Boeing are already doing studies on this

What about automation reducing the flight deck crew to 1 'monitoring pilot', would this scenario ever 'fly with the public. other than potentially on cargo flights, another scenario being considered by the design/scientific community.

Embrear's new design will be 'convertible ' from 2 to 1 pilot I read somewhere recently.

How would 'straight away solo captains' be trained?

Good luck with your project

Vince Oliver - [email protected]

[champair79]

Hello All,

Thank you so much for your replies, that has opened up some ideas in my head. I do particularly like the single-pilot ops that has been mooted for the last few years. I seem to remember a certain Mr. O'leary saying that he wanted single-pilot operations as the aircraft can easily be flown with one pilot. It would be interesting to see what safety features would have to be implemented mostly in case of pilot incapacitation but also during periods of high-workload. Another way to look at it is that GA aircraft and some VLJ's are single-pilot ops so why can't much larger aircraft. Is it due to complexity? Passenger trust? I think that would be interesting to find out.

I'll let you know what project I pick very shortly but if anyone has any other ideas or wants to expand on a topic, then please go-ahead.

From a very grateful,

Champ

[malika]

hi there champ..i came across this forum. im in desperate search for a title...in relation to human factors in the aviation industry...u have some really interesting titles there..

as for now..i too thought of something to do with fuel saving...

i hope u can help me? may i know what title u did for your research?

thank u so much