Aero Engineering - Thesis Research Subjects Wanted

[Milt]

An under graduate in Aeronatical Engineering and a wanabe Flight Test Engineer wants suggestions for his thesis subject.

My mini think tank produced the following.

Thresholds of acceleration sensitivities for the standard man/woman pilot.

Effects of experience limitations being imposed on current flight test personnel.

Factors for the setting of aircraft centre of gravity limits

Hazards of upper atmosphere cold soaked fuels for aircraft

Determination of optimum tensions in manual flight control cables.

Non destructive inspection (NDI) of load bearing composites in aircraft.

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Nominate your favourites in need of additional investigation/research.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Thresholds of acceleration sensitivities for the standard man/woman pilot.

Possibly better suited to a physiologist than an Engineer?

Effects of experience limitations being imposed on current flight test personnel.

Again, I'm not sure I'd agree that this is a core engineering problem.

Factors for the setting of aircraft centre of gravity limits

An excellent FTE question (in fact the whole issue of setting flying limitations is core FTE, despite the fact that I think that some TPS still don't actually teach it as a subject). Possibly more interesting however could be to take an indigenous type (the Jabiru J400 maybe) and do a complete re-evaluation of the basis for CG limits?

Hazards of upper atmosphere cold soaked fuels for aircraft

Good subject, but almost inevitably going to stay theoretical - I'd have thought that any self respecting future-FTE would want to do things with real hardware?

Determination of optimum tensions in manual flight control cables.

Oooh, interesting - especially if it can be tied to evaluation of a particular type, so that the student can get involved in some real flight testing. If he does this, make sure he publishes the answers so we can all learn from it.

Non destructive inspection (NDI) of load bearing composites in aircraft.

A bit nebulous perhaps? People like AgustaWesland put millions into researching this, so I can't see it being other than a literature review, which isn't much fun. Also not really FT related.

There's an interesting list here, or here's a few ideas of mine.

- Take a commercial simulation (say on MS Flight Sim or X-plane) of something for which original flight test reports are available [the DC3 for example, many of the certification reports are available on the NASA document server] and conduct an evaluation of the integrity of the simulation.

- Find somebody friendly with a homebuilt aeroplane that has little documentation, and create a part 23/25 standard set of operating data for it. (Great one this, lots of flying, little risk, good technical rigour required).

- Invent and test an original method for measuring and standardising take-off and landing performance for light aeroplanes.

G

[212man]

Well I'm not going to add any more topics, but I was rather curious at the page numbering in the link GTE gave: 'page 8 of 6'

Interesting subject though, and I look forward to seeing further suggestions.

[mrsurrey]

Thresholds of acceleration sensitivities for the standard man/woman pilot.

Maybe worth getting in touch with Prof Griffin (http://www.isvr.soton.ac.uk/STAFF/staff17.htm) at the Institute of Sound and Vibration (ISVR) at Southampton university (www.isvr.soton.ac.uk). This is exactly the kind of thing they get up to, and I'd guess they'd be interested in a project applying it to aviation. Plenty of phd oppertunities available in that department for later on

Good luck,

MrS

[werbil]

Interaction of aerodynamic, hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces in a seplane.

Seaplanes have a complex interaction of aerodynamic, hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces during acceleration to take off speed.

A number of floatplanes are power limited and unable to transition from a low speed displacement taxi to high speed planing at high weights and/or high density altitudes.

The location of the center of gravity, the position of the elevators and flaps can determine whether the aircraft will accelerate through this high drag transition with the same load and wind. Different wind strengths and relative directions require different techniques.

These interactions could make for an intersting thesis.