| RELATED INFO |
| * NextGen |
| * Purdue Department of Aviation Technology |
July 7, 2008
Two Purdue professors helping to improve country's air transportation system
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - |
Timothy Ropp, an assistant professor who specializes in aircraft maintenance, and Brian Dillman, an associate professor who teaches flight technology, have been selected to serve as members of the working group on safety for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (known as NextGen).
The central mission of the project, which is being directed by the multi-agency Joint Planning and Development Office and supported by the Federal Aviation Administration, is to modernize the national airspace system. The system will be implemented gradually through 2025.
The NextGen project's goal is to assure that the air transportation system is able to safely and efficiently handle the increasing number of passengers that are projected in the future.
Ropp and Dillman, who have been involved in several
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"The air-traffic control system is being updated from its original 1950s and 1960s technology in order to accommodate an increasing number of aircraft, and we have to change the way we do things," Dillman said. "Our role will be to make sure the new plan maximizes efficiency but also maintains - and even improves upon - our system's safety record."
One major focus of NextGen is moving the air-traffic control industry's ground-based technologies, which rely on radar, to satellite-based technologies, such as global positioning systems (GPS) and advanced avionics systems, which are better able to manage traffic and prevent gridlock in the skies and at airports.
Ropp and Dillman will be looking at ways to implement a businesslike approach to safety in conjunction with these advances in order to improve on the way the various players within the air-traffic control system interact.
One idea is to implement a continual-descent approach for landing aircraft. Dillman said that at many airports the airspace is so crowded that aircraft must circle or "stack" and hover at a low altitude before reaching the runway. Flying at a lower altitude increases fuel consumption, he said, so the NextGen group will be looking at ways to keep aircraft flowing smoothly on the descent from high altitudes to the runway.
"This decreases the amount of time it takes to land and improves fuel efficiency," Dillman said.
Ropp said their specific role in the safety working group, which meets monthly in Washington, D.C., will be to help improve what they call the safety culture of the air transportation system.
"The basic components of safety are very simple on paper, but the problem is that while safety tools are usually in place in most organizations, they are not always linked and used effectively throughout to rapidly identify and communicate hazards and risk," he said. "A key element is communication, specifically the way the industry identifies and communicates risk. If someone sees something they know is not right, whether that occurs in the production line or in the air, there needs to be a clear and consistent way to report and assess these incidents and to make sure corrective actions are taken aggressively enough to effectively resolve the problem, not just that the problem is documented."
Ropp said better communication and standardized measures of risk need to happen not just in the United States but on a worldwide basis.
"The air transportation system is not separated by countries or continents - it is global," he said. "In order to keep it safe, safety data must be shared and tools for managing risk put in place for front line workers. The current safety structure needs to grow and evolve along with the industry, pursuing a common 'safety language' and the way we view risk.
"The fact is that public perception of safety affects aviation growth and stability of the entire industry. Public perception is affected every time there is an accident or problem anywhere in the world. A crash in China causes people in the United States to think the system is less safe, even if there is no connection to the U.S."
Ropp and Dillman recently led safety management system workshops for the Flight Safety Foundation in Taiwan and conducted research on two of the country's major air carriers that have implemented safety management systems into their operations. Their goal was to compare different airline management styles and varying methods of using system safety tools to manage daily risks. They will use the data they collected in their role on the NextGen safety committee.
Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu
Sources: Timothy Ropp, (765) 494-9957, tropp@purdue.edu
Brian Dillman, (765) 494-9978, dillman@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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