Brian Baker Intro to Aeronautical Sience

Vetting Insider Threats      This week I want to talk to everyone about insider threats to the aviation industry. These are situations where crew members, maintainers, and so on pose a threat to the safety and reliability of aircraft. One of the first insider threats that come to mind is that pilots and crew members can be used as mules for a drug syndicate. Like in 2013, several British Airways cargo workers were smuggling massive amounts of cocaine through Heathrow Intl. valued at around £4.5 million each year. (Baldwin, n.d.) Insiders can also attack the airport databases collecting millions of pieces of personal data and banking information. (Baldwin, n.d.)  These are just some of the threats the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has to deal with.      While TSA already does a lot to protect the aviation industry, they also have a broad spectrum of constantly evolving security risks they have to monitor. I believe insider threats are har...

  Hydraulic Systems          One of the systems that is crucial to aircraft flight and landing is the Hydraulic system. The hydraulic system controls many of the secondary flight control systems as a primary method of use. The systems usually operate wing flaps, spoiler/speedbrakes, landing gear, and aircraft brakes. They are pressurized by pumps driven by accessory gearboxes off an engine, electrical motors, by hand, or air driven. When a hydraulic system fails, it is usually catastrophic, pouring gallons of hydraulic fluid overboard. I have attached a video of what it looks like from inside a KC-135 when catastrophic failure happens to a pressure relief valve in a system. The second picture is what the valve looked like when I removed it.      One of the biggest fears of losing a hydraulic system is losing the ability to brake once the aircraft has landed. When losing the ability to brake on aircraft, many factors have to be assessed, runwa...

      I believe one environmental factor that is detrimental to an aircraft's flight characteristics is the accumulation of ice while flying. This is dangerous for many reasons, like stuck flight controls, unbalanced engine blades, and leading-edge ice formations. The weather safety advisory from AOPA Air Safety Foundation (Steuernagle et al. 2008) talks about how ice destroys the smooth flow of air across flight surfaces, causing an increase in drag and a decrease in the ability to create lift. They also say that with this decrease in the ability to create lift, there is an increase in the Angle Of Attack (AOA). The aircraft must be able to shed this ice when it has occurred, and some aircraft are equipped with systems that do just that. There are window heat systems that use electricity to heat the window, much like the window heat in a vehicle. Some also use bleed air from engines to heat the leading edge of the wings or the engine inlet to reduce the possibility ...

I believe ethics plays a role in everyday life and it will transcend into your work whether you think about it or not. This applies to the aviation careers that take the lives of thousands of people in their hands every day. This comes down to doing the right and knowing your limits. My experience in the Air Force has taught me that failure comes in many forms but knowing that you are breaking a moral code that is entrusted to your by the people boarding an airplane, expecting a safe reliable flight is never the shoes you want to be in. I believe a big ethical situation in aviation recently was the crashes of the Boeing 737 Max. These disasters were caused by faulty designed systems and sensors not talking to each other and the lack of back systems playing off each other. In an article online by Root, Al. Barron the report read, "The design and certification of the [Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS] did not adequately consider the likelihood of loss of cont...