International air transport has grown at a staggering rate over the last 50 years and the industry which supports it, now bears little resemblance to that which existed even twenty-five years ago. As the number of operators and the size of their respective fleets have increased, so too have the pressures on the infrastructure which support them. Particularly affected are the major airports where runway, apron and terminal capacity are limited. Unlike other elements of the aviation infrastructure, airport capacity is physically constrained and therefore capacity increases can only be obtained through further development or through more efficient uses of existing resources. As the first option is politically controversial and the latter only provides for incremental increases, the air transport industry, through IATA, has developed an allocation mechanism to distribute available capacity based on historic precedence. This thesis reviews the main issues surrounding the current regime. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) represent a significant potential for growth in the aerospace industry. Their use in military operations has increased exponentially in the last decade alone, requiring a corresponding increase in training airspace in the United States. In addition to military usage, UAS have the potential to fulfill a myriad of roles for both the public and private sectors. However, the use of UAS has been limited in the National Airspace System (NAS) to military and public applications and only under fairly restrictive Certificates of Authorization or Waiver (COA). The only way to truly realize the potential of UAS is to fully integrate them into the NAS. The desire to integrate UAS was recently codified into law with the 2012 FAA Modernization Act, mandating integration by specific, fairly short timelines. There are several challenges currently preventing the full integration of UAS that range from technological to procedural areas. However, the one common theme in all of these challenges is Safety. Across the literature on this topic there is no consensus on how safe UAS need to be to achieve integration, whether UAS can currently meet specified safety targets, and if not, what is the best way to achieve the safety goals. The purpose of this effort was to demonstrate a comprehensive framework for analyzing UAS integration efforts using a Target Level of Safety (TLS) approach. Using reliability tools, aircraft encounter models, and data from a wide variety of sources ranging from manned aircraft safety, explosives, falling debris and earthquake damage, the primary outcome of the effort was a better understanding of the risk to second and third party persons as a result of UAS operations in the NAS. This framework and associated models are validated using reliability and casualty data from manned aircraft operations. The framework is then applied to several relevant and specific cases to demonstrate the impact of policy decisions on UAS reliability and allowed operational areas. The supporting research and analysis can serve as a baseline for future integration analysis and decision-making efforts, and was designed to allow stakeholders and decision makers in this field to assess UAS safety, and set minimum system reliability requirements and mitigation system effectiveness standards.

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It soon becomes apparent to any student of the Government Regulation of Air Transport that most countries have rules appertaining to the maximum number of hours during which a member of the flight crew of an aircraft may be on duty on the ground and in the air, and the minimum number of hours' rest which shall be accorded such a member. [...]

In conformity with the principles laid down in article 26 of the Chicago Convention and its Annex 13 concerning technical aircraft accident investigations, the United States and France respectively set up and developed their own investigation Boards, the NTSB and the BEA, which may be different by their organization and functioning but both aim at the same objective: the promotion of Air Safety. / To fulfil their complex mission in the best possible conditions and despite eventual pecuniary constraints, the pressure of the media, or the occasional tensions which may arise in case of concomitance with other investigations, the NTSB and the BEA rely on the renowned professionalism and high technical skills of their employees as well as on the participation in the investigation of members of the aeronautical industry who bring their expertise and contribute to the improvement of air safety.

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Recently, air transportation has been increasing considerably. If that trend continues, there could be a major accident once a week by the year 2010. European States first joined their aviation policies for geographical and economical reasons. To that end, following the American deregulation, they started liberalizing their air transport. Today, they also work on the safety aspects of this activity. Together with the European Community and the DGCA's, three organisations have a relevant function in the regulation of safety: they help States to coordinate new preventive actions. Furthermore, in order to unify the measures that are currently implemented, a discussion on a single European aviation safety authority has been raised in the last few years. / In the course of this thesis, the above-mentioned topics will be studied, whereby a preliminary chapter will focus on the origin of the unification of European air transport and the liberalization aspects, and the three following chapters will review the institutional and legal aspects of the safety of European air transport.

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No description available.