Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / A 12-inch diameter, 1.5-inch span crossflow fan test apparatus was constructed and tested using the existing Turbine Test Rig (TTR) as a power source. Instrumentation was installed and a data acquisition program was developed to measure the performance of the crossflow fan. Performance measurements were taken over a speed range of 1,000 to 7,000 RPM. Results comparable to those measured by Vought Systems Division of LTV Aerospace in 1975 were obtained. At 6,000 RPM, a thrust-to-power ratio of one was determined; however, at 3,000 RPM twice the thrust-to-power ratio was measured. Flow visualization was conducted using dye-injection methods. Performance and flow visualization results were compared to predictions obtained from 2-D numerical simulation conducted using Flo++, a commercial PC-based computational fluid dynamics software package by Softflo. A possible design for a light civil V/STOL aircraft was suggested using a similar crossflow fan apparatus for both lift and propulsion. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

An ultralight aircraft based airborne geophysical system was developed and operated by the Council for Geoscience during the period 1997-2004. The aim of this project was to collect geophysical data at lower cost and higher resolution than was possible using conventional airborne systems. This dissertation describes the development of the radiometric systems used in the ultralight airborne survey project. During the course of the study, a number of obstacles to the successful collection and processing of radiometric data with the ultralight-mounted systems were encountered. These are described and solutions proposed. To facilitate the development hardware systems and processing methods, a Monte Carlo simulation method was developed to produce spectra containing realistic signal and noise components. This method was applied to the selection of detector materials and the specification of detector sizes as well as being used to simulate large spectral data sets for the development and testing of processing and calibration procedures. Radiometric data follow a Poisson Distribution, with the signal to noise ratio being dependent on the count rate recorded, which, in turn, depends on the size of the detector used. The ultralight aircraft were capable of carrying a detector one eighth the size of that used in conventional systems. To allow for the use of the smaller detector, the noise adjusted singular value decomposition (NASVD) processing technique was employed. While this technique is commonly applied in noise-reduction, the original application, namely the determination and mapping of spectral components was also utilised. iii During the course of the study no suitable calibration facilities were available inside South Africa. This necessitated the development of a spectral stripping method, utilising a technique generally applied to much higher resolution spectral data collected under laboratory conditions. Simulation studies and practical application showed that this method performs well, in some cases outperforming the conventional stripping method. The method is also applicable to the study of anthropogenic radionuclides, where suitable calibration facilities are generally unavailable. An alternative to the conventional method of altitude correction was also applied to the radiometric data collected with the ultralight-mounted systems. Using simulated data, a spectrometer based on a bismuth germanate (BGO) detector was designed and constructed. This material is significantly denser than the more usual thallium activated sodium iodide used for detector fabrication and has a higher effective atomic number, giving it a greater photopeak efficiency. However the poor light production of this scintillation material results in a poorer energy resolution than a conventional detector. Initial tests using small BGO detectors were promising and a larger detector was acquired and tested. Unfortunately the poor energy resolution and high cost of BGO detectors led to the conclusion that they did not offer the advantages initially hoped for. Nevertheless a number of successful surveys were flown using the BGO detector. Ultralight-mounted systems were found to be ideal for small surveys where high spatial resolution is required. The ultralight systems were successfully applied to the detection of radioactive pollution on a number of sites in the Witwatersrand and related gold fields and one site where anthropogenic radionuclide contamination was present. In some cases, the data could be compared to data collected using a conventional airborne radiometric system. Here the ultralight- mounted systems were found to perform satisfactorily, albeit with a poorer signal to noise ratio except where adverse flying conditions necessitated flying at high altitude. The strengths, weaknesses and potential applications of ultralight-mounted airborne radiometric systems are discussed.

How does waging war effectively fade into the background for most Americans, even as it is one of the most defining aspects of the United States’ actions and priorities, both domestically and internationally? This dissertation takes up one dimension of this question by ethnographically engaging with a particular mode of contemporary US war making that involves the deployment of drones, large and high-altitude aerial vehicles, remotely controlled from within the United States. Based on fieldwork conducted over fourteen months between 2010 and 2015 within the US with communities involved in the deployment, planning, or assessment of Air Force drone operations, a primary contribution of the dissertation is to refocus critical discourses around drones through the lens of labor and the work entailed in war. By examining the divisions of labor implicated in ongoing drone warfare, a wider set of questions and implications takes shape about the nature of contemporary American war and where different kinds of responsibilities and modes of normalization lie. The dissertation begins by arguing that the distributions of action and control that characterize drone operations are neither obvious nor necessary, but rather have taken hold only in the context of specific historical conditions of possibility. These conditions are what enable drone operations to be seen as an effective and ideal form of US military engagement, and involve interwoven developments in post-World War II military command and control theory, digital data, global information networks, and a reliance on legal frameworks that render state violence justified. The dissertation also examines the discrepancies between the imagined capacities of “unmanned” and “autonomous” drones and the current practices that constitute and maintain these technologies, which must be continually managed and constructed as effective and legitimate actors through professionalized military discourses and practices. The second half of the dissertation, more ethnographic in focus, examines how drone operations are implicated in changing conceptions of military service and military-civilian distinctions. Through an examination of the tensions and controversies that have arisen around drone pilots, the dissertation presents how Air Force pilots and commanders involved in drone operations construct and position the value of drone operations as meaningful and honorable military service. The analysis demonstrates that while officers put forward the value of their work as professional and altruistic service, at the same time, an irreconcilable tension exists because the military labor of drone operations bears increasing similarity to other forms of contemporary civilian work, characterized by the language of compensation, flexibility, and in/security. The dissertation concludes by proposing the concept of the warzone as a way to encompass all the places in which war occurs, its consequences on the battlefield, but also its sites of execution and the range of people, places, and practices that are implicated in the ongoing conduct of war. The dissertation demonstrates that the increasing deployment of drone operations is a contributing factor to the seeming invisible state of war for the majority of Americans. However, this is not necessarily because war is being conducted at a distance, as most journalists and scholars propose. Rather it is because war is being conducted, sometimes literally, in Americans’ backyards, close-by in the United States, in ways that are obfuscated or rendered merely mundane.

No description available.

No description available.

A considerable amount of research effort has, and continues to be invested into technologies and algorithms for capabilities which are forecast to be needed in future uninhabited vehicles. Much of this research is conducted with the aim of increasing the level of autonomy of these vehicles. However these technologies and capabilities provide only a part of the total system solution and must be integrated into an architecture that covers the entire vehicle system. This total system approach is particularly relevant since this is how airworthiness regulators consider Uninhabited Aircraft Systems. Airworthiness of uninhabited aircraft has been addressed by Australian aviation regulators. While the regulations may be in place, technical challenges still remain for the suppliers of these systems. For example, one of these unresolved technical challenges is the capability of uninhabited aircraft to

The purpose of the study was to examine the existence of an association between child blood pressure (BP) and exposure to domestic jet aircraft noise in the context of the construction of a new parallel north-south runway at Sydney (Kingsford-Smith) Airport. The baseline study was commissioned and funded by the Federal Airports Corporation (FAC), with measurements conducted in 1994 and 1995. A follow-up longitudinal component to the study was subsequently commissioned and funded by the FAC in 1997, and measurements conducted in the same year. As the same individuals were measured and re-measured over changing conditions of exposure to aircraft noise, the quasiexperimental nature of the study allowed inferences to be made regarding exposure to aircraft noise and child BP. The main hypotheses for testing were that BP, and within-subject longitudinal changes in BP, are positively related to domestic jet aircraft noise exposure and longitudinal changes in domestic jet aircraft noise exposure respectively. Subsidiary hypotheses tested for evidence of short- and long-term BP adaptation effects where BPs were related to prior changes to aircraft noise exposures. A sample of 75 primary schools within a 20 km radius of Sydney Airport under various noise exposure conditions, both existing and those projected with the advent of the new runway, participated in the study. The baseline cohort comprised 1,230 Year 3/4 children attending the schools in 1994 and 1995, and the follow-up participants comprised 628 of the original baseline sample re-measured in 1997. Study participants were enrolled by active parental consent. The baseline response rate was approximately 40% of children in the participating schools. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure readings of the children were taken using automated BP measuring equipment along with anthropometric measurements (heights, weights, skinfold thicknesses and waist measurements). Parental surveys captured items pertaining to the child�s ethnic background as measured by the country of birth of the child and parent(s), residential address and housing structure, child eating habits and activity levels, along with family and child history of high blood pressure. Aircraft noise exposure data were collected by the National Acoustic Laboratories and processed into the energy-averaged noise metric used in Australia for aircraft noise exposure assessment called the Australian Noise Exposure Index (ANEI). Mean exposures for a given calendar month were used in the analysis. ANEI values were geocoded to exact geographic locations using digitised street maps from which values for each house and school address, also geocoded, were interpolated. A child BP measured in a given month was matched to a aircraft noise exposure value both at their school and residential address for that month for analysis. After adjusting for confounding and other factors, the cross-sectional relationship between BP and aircraft noise exposure was found to be inconsistent. SBP was nonsignificantly negatively associated with school aircraft noise exposure at baseline (0.05 mmHg/ANEI, cluster-sampling-adjusted p&gt0.05), but positively and non-significantly associated with school aircraft noise exposure at follow-up (0.05 mmHg/ANEI, p&gt0.05). As for SBP, baseline DBP was significantly negatively related to school aircraft noise exposure at (0.09 mmHg/ANEI, p&lt0.001) and non-significantly positively associated with school aircraft noise exposure at follow-up (0.05 mmHg/ANEI, p&gt0.05). Within-subject BP changes, occurring from baseline to follow-up, regressed on corresponding longitudinal changes in aircraft noise exposures produced inconsistent results. SBP change was positively and non-significantly (0.027 mmHg/ANEI, p&gt0.05) associated with corresponding school aircraft noise exposure change, while SBP change was negatively associated total aircraft noise exposure change (statistically nonsignificant, 0.06 mmHg/ANEI, p&gt0.05). DBP changes were similarly and nonsignificantly related to corresponding aircraft noise exposure changes. Some evidence for short-term BP adaptation to recent changes in aircraft noise exposure was found. Consistent negative associations between systolic and diastolic BP and recent changes in school aircraft noise exposure were found. This association was statistically significant at study baseline (SBP: 0.19 mmHg/ANEI, p&lt0.001; DBP: 0.12 mmHg/ANEI, p&lt0.001), and of similar magnitude although not statistically significant at follow-up (SBP: 0.14 mmHg/ANEI; DBP: 0.10 mmHg/ANEI, p&gt0.05). In the presence of inconsistent cross-sectional BP-aircraft noise exposure associations, this finding is consistent with evidence of a homoeostatic BP response to recent changes in aircraft noise exposure, where resting BP returns to pre-existing levels unrelated to aircraft noise exposure. The public health implication of this finding appears to be benign.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-134). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Systems)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Haga, William J. Second Reader: Zviran, Moshe. "September 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on December 21, 2009. DTIC Identifier(s): Management Information Systems, Naval Operations, Data Bases, Instructional Materials, Decision Aids, Aviation Accidents, Antisubmarine Warfare, Naval Training, Local Area Networks, Theses. Author(s) subject terms: Case Studies, Database Management Systems, Local Area Networks, Decision Support. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Isaac I. Kaminer, Oleg A. Yakimenko. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103). Also available online.