This study examines the main problems associated with passenger survival and evacuation in survivable aircraft fire situations under current regulatory safety requirements and assesses current and alternative strategies to combat cabin fire, and assist evacuation, with a view to identifying a best alternative strategy. The technical and management findings associated with a research programme which was conducted into passenger smoke hood protection are then described. The survival/evacuation/pathology aspects associated with 10 selected accidents to public transport aircraft which involved fire are reviewed at the outset of this study in order to set forth the attendant problems of survival in such situations. The pathology and toxicological findings associated with these accidents are then discussed. The assembled information is then analysed with a view towards identifying the key problems inherent in survival and evacuation from aircraft fires, including those which stem from survivable in-flight fires. The current regulatory requirements and associated strategies relating to occupant survival/evacuation are then critically reviewed against the key problems identified. A review of alternative strategies is then conducted and an assessment made of technical potential, related cost-benefit data, problems still to be resolved and possible timescales for implementation. A'best-strategy'is then selected. The potential benefits of this strategy are then set forth in terms of its relevance to the survival/evacuation problems identified, associated cost-effectiveness, potential synergy with existing, and possible future, requirements and implementation timescale. A review of data on aircraft fires is then conducted, including that associated with the thermochemical characteristics of such combustion atmospheres and related effects on animals and humans. Using this data, the approach used to develop a set of acceptance criteria for aircraft passenger smoke hood designs is described. In addition, the way in which a challenge combustion atmosphere model was developed, and against which filter-type smoke hoods could be tested, is described. The organisation and implementation of a research programme to evaluate the performance capability of a range of breathable-gas and filter-type smoke hoods is then described in terms of the technical and management aspects, and the results set forth- Finally, the results of the study are analysed from both a technical and management perspective and appropriate conclusions and recommendations presented.

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Aviation represents a complex socio-technical system in which a strong emphasis is placed upon safe operation. Advances in this area have traditionally been reactive following particular incidents or accidents. As the traditional accident causes (predominantly technical engineering factors) have become better understood, the need for proactive solutions to counteract the increasing proportion of human performance related accidents has grown. This thesis proposes and utilises case-study research methodology to examine the reasons behind Australia's good record for airline safety. At the time of writing, no lives have been lost in an Australian jet passenger aircraft accident. The methodology is designed to advance the application of systemic safety investigation in order to avoid the traditional "primary-cause focussed safety investigations" which are generally used following accidents. Having established the safety record for commercial jet RPT (regular public transport) operations to be above average, a number of factors which may have an effect on that record are reviewed. The analysis is divided into three main sections, namely the human, operational and natural environments. Evidence used comes from a variety of sources so as to ensure validity. Data collection methods included primary data obtained through expert witness interviews and attitude surveys of 2,600 Australian and British flight crew and air traffic controllers. Secondary data came from extensive literature reviews which have attempted to bring together existing micro-level research work in a systems context. Initial conclusions point to the existence of a number of natural environment factors which are perceived to have a major effect on flight safety. However, deeper examination has suggested that there are a number of cultural factors within the human and operational environments which exist at professional, corporate, industry and national levels. These have contributed to the quality and quantity of risk countermeasures which have been instrumental in creating the good safety record. This thesis explores the importance of these influences and how they may be changing in the current and future aviation environment.

Thermal anti-icing systems are commonly used to protect aircraft leading edges from a potentially hazardous build-up of ice. Such systems have proven reliable in service and are relatively cheap and efficient. Typically, hot air is tapped from the engine compressor and ducted (via a regulation and control system) to the surface to be protected. Ideally an optimisation process should be employed at the design stage in order to ensure adequate anti-icing capability with minimal use of engine bleed air, since the latter represents a performance penalty. Following submission by the author of an MSc thesis concerning thermal modelling of a hot air anti-icing system for a civil turbofan intake (Wade 67 ), it became clear that extension of the studies was necessary to enable systematic accounting of the factors which limit ice accretion. An experimental programme was therefore carried out to investigate primarily: various exhaust geometries (through which spent anti-icing air is emitted to join the main engine inlet airflow and provide heating of the downstream surface; various cowl internal configurations on a full-scale model section of a large civil turbofan Nose Cowl. The internal geometry affects the effectiveness of the cowl lipskin heating, and the spent anti-icing exhaust air limits the quantity of unevaporated water which runs back along the intake acoustic surface downstream of the directly heated area and freezes. The Computational Fluid Dynamics package PACE (Prediction of Aerodynamics and Combustor Emissions) was used to model the internal, freestream and exhaust airf lows to determine the program's potential and usefulness for predictive purposes in this type of application. PACE is capable of modelling two or three dimensional, recirculating or non-recirculating flows for simple rectangular or polar geometry. It encompasses a suite of sub-programs to generate meshes and to create and solve the set of coupled linear equations representing the fluid flow. Various parameters, including heat transfer coefficients, were predicted in two regions: downstream of the exhaust plane to model the mixing of the spent anti-icing air and the freestream main engine inlet flow; inside and outside the Nose Cowl highlight area to predict skin temperature distributions for the three internal geometry configurations tested. This thesis describes the experimental work and compares the results with the Computational Fluid Dynamics predictions. Agreement was generally found to be good, and it was concluded that PACE may provide a useful modelling (design) tool, albeit with some reservations.

Modem control methods have often been advocated by academics as able to solve fairly complex control engineering design problems in the aircraft industry. However, evidence suggests that practicei s still gearedt owardsu sing classicalt echniques,e ven on the most modem fighter aircraft which are open-loop unstable. This thesis stems from a need to understand the reasons for this. Modem methods are examined in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses when applied to industrial problems. As a representative situation, a modem control method, eigenstructure assignment, is examined. One objective of the research described in the thesis is to improve the application oriented aspects of the methodology of eigenstructure assignment. The purpose of this is that every facet of the method can then be explained in terminology that is familiar to the aircraft control engineer. Furthermore, the theory is developed such that it is compatible with easily understandable controller structures and control design strategies, to provide a control system with good performance and robustness characteristics. The design of a robust controller for a civil aircraft model developed by the GARTEUR (Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe) demonstrates the utility of eigenstructure assignment and culminates in suggestions as to when and where the method has its greatest strengths and weaknesses.

Academic researchers and practitioners are always keen to know more about organizational practices. Some experts even claim that academic researchers are ignorant about organizational knowledge. Given that the study is an attempt to provide an exemplar from real life in order to increase the organizational awareness of the academic community and practitioners. The objective of the study is to understand and learn the experience of a radical change initiative that took place within the Military Aircraft division of British Aerospace over the period 1993-98. The emphasis is on the effectiveness of the change methodology applied in the process of change. Open-ended interviews and documents were the major sources of the data used in the case study. The interviews reflected the actual experiences of those who were involved, while the documents provided contextual data and information on the key themes of the change. Nine change projects were examined which were introduced during five-year period. Analysis showed that there was a huge gap between the organization's practices and those of the benchmark companies. This gap is what BAe sought to lessen/remove through radical change initiative. The study postulates that the qualitative paradigm can shape the analysis of such a change initiative by contextualizing the phenomenon. Pettigrew et al's (1989) framework has beena pplied to assessth e change,w hich consistso f the context, the content and the process. The change programme was a successful attempt to increase internal efficiency, developing business partnerships and strengthening customer satisfaction. The study concludes that there is a strong relationship between the extent of management sponsorship, employees involvement, a flatter organizational structure, efficient use of technology, an effective change methodology and the success of such radical change initiatives. The experience of this company can be used in other organizations provided that their drivers for change are similar to those of the company investigated.

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