SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL AEROSPACE REPORTS

A Biweekly Publication of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
VOLUME 44, ISSUE 3 - February 10, 2006

09 RESEARCH AND SUPPORT FACILITIES (AIR)
Includes airports, runways, hangars, and aircraft repair and overhaul facilities; wind tunnels, water tunnels, and shock tubes; flight simulators; and aircraft engine test stands.

Also includes airport ground equipment and systems.

For airport ground operations see 03 Air Transportation and Safety.

For astronautical facilities see 14 Ground Support Systems and Facilities (Space).

20060004150 National Nuclear Security Administration, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Nevada Test Site Decontamination and Decommissioning Program History, Regulatory Framework, and Lessons Learned

January 2005; 10 pp.; In English Report No.(s): DE2005-850324; DOE/NV/11718-1011; No Copyright; Avail.: Department of Energy Information Bridge

Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) of radiologically and/or chemically contaminated facilities at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) are the responsibility of the Environmental Restoration (ER) Project. Facilities identified for D&D are listed in the Federal Facilities Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) and closed under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act process. This paper discusses the NTS D&D program, including facilities history, D&D regulatory framework, and valuable lessons learned. NTIS

Decommissioning; Decontamination; Restoration

20060004843 Air Force Inst. of Tech., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH USA

Executable Architectures and Their Application to a Geographically Distributed Air Operations Center

Beal, Robert J.; Hendrix, Jeremy P.; McMurray, Garth P.; Stewart, William C.; Mar. 21, 2005; 177 pp.; In English; Original contains color illustrations Report No.(s): AD-A439748; AFIT/GSE/ENY/05-M03; XC-AFC2ISRC; No Copyright; Avail.: Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)

Integrated Architectures and Network Centric Warfare represent two central concepts in the Department of Defense's (DoD) on-going transformation. The true power of integrated architectures is brought to bear when they are combined with simulation to move beyond a static representation and create an executable architecture. This architecture can then be used to experiment with system configurations and parameter values to guide employment decisions. The process of developing and utilizing an executable architecture will be employed to assess an Air Operations Center (AOC).

This thesis applies and expands upon the methodology of Dr. Alexander Levis, former Chief Scientist of the Air Force, to the static architecture representing the Aerospace Operations Center (AOC). Using Colored Petri Nets and other simulation tools, an executable architecture for the AOC's Air Tasking Order (ATO) production thread was developed. These models were then used to compare the performance of a current, forward-deployed AOC configuration to three other potential configurations that utilize a network centric environment to deploy a portion of the AOC and provide reach-back capabilities to the non-deployed units.

Performance was measured by the amount of time required to execute the ATO cycle under each configuration. Communication requirements were analyzed for each configuration and stochastic delays were modeled for all transactions in which requirements could not be met due to the physical configuration of the AOC elements. All four configurations were found to exhibit statistically different behavior with regard to ATO cycle time. DTIC

Command and Control; Communication Networks; Computer Programming; Software Engineering; Systems Integration

20060005520 Federal Aviation Administration, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Comparison of a Typical Electronic Attitude-Direction Indicator With Terrain-Depicting Primary Flight Displays for Performing Recoveries From Unknown Attitudes: Using Difference and Equivalence Tests

Beringer, D. B.; Ball, J. D.; Brennan, K.; Taite, S.; December 2005; 11 pp.; In English; Original contains color illustrations Report No.(s): DOT/FAA/AM-05/23; No Copyright; Avail.: CASI: A03, Hardcopy

A study was conducted to determine if primary flight displays (PFDs) depicting terrain could be used with a level of safety equivalent to electronic attitude-direction indicators (EADIs) without terrain. Five groups of 8 pilots each flew scenarios in a flight simulator using one of three PFDs (EADI, full-color terrain, uniformly brown terrain) with or without guidance cues. Performances of recoveries from unknown attitudes using the EADI were measured first as a baseline, followed by trials with one of the experimental formats. Performance measures included initial response time, total recovery time, and both initial and secondary control reversals. Traditional 'difference' analyses found no significant performance differences between groups. Analyses using confidence intervals to assess equivalence of distributions showed that group performances were practically equivalent. Pilot preferences were examined and are reported. It was concluded that the specific terrain representations examined provided for performance at least equal to if not better than the conventional EADI. This comparative technique is recommended for situations in which one wishes to demonstrate that a proposed device or system is no worse than or roughly equivalent to something already in use. Author

Attitude Indicators; Display Devices; Flight Simulators; Terrain

Source: NASA