Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2005. / Also available online.

Thesis--University of Minnesota. / Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1991. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-109). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis--University of Minnesota. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-174).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-107). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Also available in print.

Although runways are critical components that make up an airport, few studies have examined their orientations and operations. This is further compounded by the fact that runway layout design and/or configuration are so complex yet they play a vital role in the airport's daily operation, capacity, and safety. In this study, I wish to apply GIS techniques, a wind rose model, and a noise distance decay model to achieve two specific objectives: (1) to determine the effectiveness of runways in terms of its orientation, design, and physical layout; and (2) to analyze any socioeconomic and environmental impacts associated with the use and development of O'Hare Chicago International Airport (ORD). The economic impact of this airport that was reviewed includes job employment, annual development, movement of goods and services and tourism. The study highlights the environmental impacts such as noise, lake effects, compatible land use, and other significant factors in relation to the airport and surrounding communities. The noise distance-decay model shows that aircraft noise levels decompose at about 800 feet (243m) from the O'Hare runways. Areas close to the airport have a 70db noise level and there are non-homogenous patterns between the day and night sound levels and the distance from the runways. The wind rose model shows that the wind blowing at O'Hare airport has a southern directional bias only two of the eight runways meet the criteria of a northeast/southwest direction. The directions of the winds are predominantly southerly headings and wind speeds are greater than 7 m/s. The integration of rule-based runway networks and the wind rose model results allowed for a visual analysis and comparison of runway networks. The integration enabled the analysis of the wind direction in relation to the landing or takeoff of aircrafts. The final interpretation of this result requires caution as it suggests that the use of daily wind events would provide a better outcome. Although this study has suggested a GIS-based strategy and wind rose model with key four elements it still requires further refinement. Future work should plan to include more analytical models/optimization methods that accounts for most factors that determine the effectiveness utilization of runways. Keywords: GIS, O'Hare Modernization Program, runways, wind rose, noise, economy

In this thesis, a methodology is proposed for the conceptual design and optimisation of twin-turboprop Commuter & Regional aircraft suitable for operation over a specific short-haul route. Using this methodology, the optimum configuration and flight profiles of such aircraft for operation over various stage-lengths can be obtained. By significantly modifying an existing computer code for synthesis and trajectory optimisation of commuter aircraft (CASTOR), a new code (CRAGER) has been developed to estimate the generalised cost of travel incurred by a passenger for air-travel between two cities. A new sub-module has been developed for the geometric sizing of a suitable airport as per ICAO/FAA recommendations, and estimation of the airport cost, i.e. the cost associated with setting-up and operating this airport at one of the two cities. This module is incorporated into CRAGER. Generalised cost is assumed to consist of the access cost, flight cost, time cost and the airport cost, and is proposed as a new objective function to be minimised. In an exploratory case study, the efficacy of two stochastic optimisation methods viz. Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) was demonstrated for handling complicated objective functions related to aircraft conceptual design. In particular, the SIMANN SA code was found to be quite robust and easy to implement, and came up with better solutions compared to conventional gradient based optimisers for multi-modal objective functions. As an example of the application of the proposed methodology, several case studies were carried out for business travel in India, using both CASTOR & CRAGER. Based on a survey of existing regional airports in India, the airports were classified under three levels, enabling estimation of airport cost associated with operating a specific aircraft. A model was developed for predicting the demand for business travel in India between a metropolitan city (hub) and another city located near-by (spoke). The case studies revealed the non-linear nature of the airport sub-module, due to the airport classification system followed by ICAO & FAA. It was seen that when the annual travel demand is low, the generalised cost is dominated by the airport cost and the time cost. With increase in annual travel demand, however, the flight costs dominate the generalised cost, hence larger aircraft have lower generalised costs. High-capacity aircraft were seen to have a low flight cost, but this advantage was more than overcome by the excessively high airport and time costs associated with them. Compared to pressurised aircraft, the un-pressurised commuter aircraft suffer from severe penalties due to limitations imposed on their cruising altitude and descent profile. Finally, the optimum 50 seater aircraft obtained by CRAGER had better or marginally lower DOC and generalised cost compared to existing aircraft.