Software may ensure safer landings.Hydraulic failure: The words provoke anxiety in the bravest of jet pilots. In these rare accidents, pilots have almost no control of their aircraft and a disastrous crash landing becomes nearly unavoidable. New computer programs may one day prevent such catastrophes in multi-engine jets, NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. engineers reported last month at a meeting of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of four earlier societies: the American Rocket Society (ARS), founded in 1930 as the in Sacramento, Calif. Instead of manipulating the aircraft's rudder rudder, mechanism for steering an airplane or a ship. In ships it is a flat-surfaced structure hinged to the stern and controlled by a helm. When the ship is on a straight course, the rudder is in line with the vessel; if the rudder is turned to one side or the other , ailerons, and elevators to land as they normally do, pilots with disabled hydraulic controls would rely on engines to land safely. Activated after hydraulic failure, computer software would translate the pilot's control-stick movements into engine throttle commands. Thrusting the engines at different speeds would allow a plane to turn, climb, descend and land, explain the system's developers at NASA's Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility in Edwards, Calif. Several recent crashes involving hydraulic failure -- particularly a 1989 accident in Iowa -- motivated NASA to develop the software. Though pilots of the United Airlines plane managed to steer their mammoth DC-10 to the Sioux City Sioux City, city (1990 pop. 80,505), seat of Woodbury co., NW Iowa, at the junction of the Big Sioux and Floyd rivers with the Missouri; inc. 1857. It is a shipping, wholesale trade, and industrial center for an extensive agricultural and livestock area (including runway by manually controlling its engines, they were unable to land safely. The resulting crash left 111 passengers dead. The new software system has been tested on various flight simulators flight simulator, device providing a controlled environment in which a flight trainee can experience conditions approximating those of actual flight. A simulator generally consists of an enclosure housing a working replica of the interior of the cockpit of an , including ones for the McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. It merged with Boeing in 1997 to form The Boeing Company. F-15 and Boeing 720. These simulations showed that with only manual control of the engines, crews could maneuver their planes but would have great difficulty landing. With software-controlled engines, however, pilots repeatedly simulated safe landings -- even in turbulence and crosswinds. |
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