Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MEng (Technology Management))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / unrestricted

Task Management (TM) refers to the function in which the human operator manages his/her available sensory and mental resources in a dynamic, complex, safety-critical environment in order to accomplish the multiple tasks competing for a limited quantity of attention. There is reason to believe that the level of automation on the commercial aircraft flight deck may effect TM, however to date there has been little research that directly addresses this effect. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to begin evaluating the relationship between TM of commercial airline pilots and the level of automation on the flight deck by determining how automation affects the frequency of Task Prioritization errors as reported in Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) incident reports. The secondary objective of this study was to create a methodology that modeled an effective way to use ASRS incident report data in an inferential analysis. Two samples of ASRS incident reports were compared. The first sample was composed of 210 incident reports submitted by pilots flying advanced technology aircraft and the second sample was composed of 210 incident reports submitted by pilots flying traditional technology aircraft. To help avoid confounding effects, the two samples were further divided into three sub-samples each made up of 70 reports submitted during a specified time period: 1988-1989, 1990-1991, and 1992-1993. Each incident report was analyzed using an incident analysis form designed specifically for this study. This form allowed the analyst to classify the incident report as either containing a Task Prioritization error or not based on the narrative of the report. Twenty-eight incident reports from the advanced technology sample and 15 from the traditional technology sample were classified as containing Task Prioritization errors. Using the Chi Square (x��) test and a significance level of 0.05, this difference was found to be statistically significant. / Graduation date: 1998

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 420-497). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Advances in air technology have resulted in increased cartridge performance requirements which are crowding the present "state of the art" design performance. Process control, which would seem mandatory, is not implemented by contractors for several justifiable reasons. Further, because production lots are small and infrequent, and because destructive testing is involved; the problem of confidence level and minimum sample size becomes paramount in acceptance tests. The use of control charts in production acceptance tests by the Government can provide: 1. additional confidence in lot acceptance because additional information is available 2. valuable information feedback to the design engineer and contractor for the resolution of design and production problems 3. partial lot acceptance. Control charting could be readily incorporated into current cartridge production lot acceptance procedures where MIL-STD-IOSD is employed with variables datao Cartridge serialization and production records would be the only additional requirements. / Master of Science

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 57-[59]).

In the summer of 1940 around five thousand aircraft clashed during several months for control of the skies over Britain. The fighter aircraft used by the German Luftwaffe and British Royal Air Force were, for the most part, very similar. They were monoplane airframes made with a metal structure and covered with fabric or metal skin, their engines produced around 1,000 h.p., and the aircraft themselves achieved speeds of around 350 to 370 m.p.h. They had retractable undercarriages and were bristling with armaments. These aircraft stood in stark contrast to those used just over twenty years earlier in the First World War. Those machines were biplanes, almost exclusively made from wood, covered in a doped fabric, their engines produced around 400 h.p., with speeds at around 120 m.p.h., they had fixed undercarriages, one or two machine guns and were largely un-armoured. In a little over twenty years the basic form of fighter aircraft had changed, and the materials used in their construction had changed. The engines, guns, interior structure and even the operational roles to which they were assigned had been altered to greater or lesser extents. The period 1918-1939 was, therefore, very important in the development of British fighter aircraft, as it was in aviation technology more generally. The inter-war period suggested itself for several reasons. Firstly, the historiography upon which part of this thesis is hinged deals largely with its latter years and the years leading to World War Two. Due to this concentration on the mid-late 1930s, there is no real sense of what was going on in the 1920s, or attempts to understand the changes that the technology, and the institutions behind them, went through over the years. Secondly, following the First World War, the British aircraft industry was possessed of some considerable degree of competence and experience. To study the development of aviation technology before the war would be to catalogue the efforts of a number of pioneers each doing their own thing and following their own beliefs. To look at such development during the First World War would be to look at what happens when money is no serious object to research and development, production space, labour, management and so on. In looking at the inter-war years, we can examine a new industry that has just come out of a very considerable baptism of fire (in the case of Britain this baptism came just five years after her first successful flight was conducted). We can examine an industry that had to deal with enormous cutbacks, governmental micromanagement and lacking, for a long time, a fertile market in which to operate. Furthermore, the twenty years of the inter-war period allows us to look at a protracted period of technological change enabling us to account for the many varied and changing factors influencing the development of British fighter aircraft. Finally, the approach of the Second World War, the danger of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism and the proliferation of the Luftwaffe was not lost on policymakers and so this period also allows us to examine the effects of wider international events on technology. As it will be shown in the section dealing with historiography there has been plenty of work examining the British aircraft industry, individual aircraft and even the technologies which appeared over the twenty years that this thesis covers. However, there has been a great scarcity of work attempting to explain how such technologies appeared, how they linked together and how aircraft technology changed over the period. These are important questions, not only in terms of providing comprehensive explanations for their creation, development and existence but also in providing crucial context when attempting to pass judgement (as many historians have done) on the industry and the technology it created, and the politics and bureaucracy involved in shaping the technology. Using the example of British fighter aircraft during the 1920s and 1930s, this thesis will look at how the pace of technological change was set. How and why did British fighter aircraft develop the way they did and at the pace that they did? In particular, it will address the central issue of how the shift from the wooden biplanetype fighter of 1918 to the metal monoplane-type of 1939 came about. And can this change be conceptualised as a ‘paradigm shift’ from one ‘technological paradigm’ to another? This is particularly interesting because many consider that aviation now needs to carry out another paradigm shift, due to concerns about environmental impacts, especially as regards climate change.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

The aircraft industry is viewed as a prestigious industry by many countries. Emerging economies regard the establishment of aircraft production capabilities as contributing to their competitiveness and technological development. Therefore, in the defence aircraft industry, politics play a key role in competitiveness. Governments can strategically trade market access for technological development, often in the form of offset business. “Offset” is defined as an agreement in which a large system is bought and the seller assumes obligations that both benefit the buying nation and have long-term effects on the development of the buyer’s national industry. When the offset obligations are directly connected to the product or system sold, they are called “related offsets”. The realization of an offset agreement is in most cases including some form of technology transfer. Technology transfer is the transfer of technology from a sending company, to a receiving company, where it is implemented and adapted to use. The empirical data presented in this thesis were gathered through six in-depth studies performed at the unit for aircraft production at the Swedish company Saab. The findings from the studies are presented in six appended papers. The objective of this thesis is to extend the current understanding of technology transfer realization connected to related offsets within the defence aircraft industry. The research objective is fulfilled through the addressing of two research questions. The first research question aims to identify factors that can have a major effect on technology transfer realization in the research context. As an answer to the first research question. Following factors were identified: Capability gaps, Knowledge transfer, The purpose of related offset business, Seller’s fulfilment of offset obligations before contract termination, Related offset business include hierarchical levels, Related offset work package identification to meet the buyer’s request, and Assessment of the receiver in two steps, and finally Cultural and communication challenges. These factors set the basis for research question two. The second research question addresses how to manage future related offset technology transfer realization connected to aircraft production. As an answer to the second research question, a structured related offset process and facilitation tools for managing capability gaps between the sending and the receiving company was presented. The purpose of the suggested structure is to maintain the link between the negotiated related offset agreements and the employees, working to achieve the agreement within the realization of the technology transfer.

The specific purpose of this investigation is to compile selected case problems for use in teaching human relations by the case method. This investigation will include those case situations that involve many of the factors that cause differences of opinion and friction between individuals or groups. The cases selected are limited to those that actually became the subject of a grievance in the aircraft industry of the Dallas-Fort Worth area of North Texas.