Freighter operators' choice of airport: a three‐stage process

With increasing levels of congestion at the major cargo hubs and further restrictions on noise and night‐time flying, freighter operators' airport choice is a complex and important issue. The aim is to identify the factors that affect the airport choice of freighter operators through a review of the published literature. The literature reviewed includes work relating to passenger hub location, airport quality and airline network configuration, and other works relating to airport choice to paint a full picture of the current research in this area. The literature shows that freighter operators initially choose a shortlist of possible airports based on geography and then investigate any restrictions in place, such as capacity caps or noise limits that might block operations from that airport. Only when these hurdles have been cleared do freighter operators consider attributes of airport quality such as charges and terminal facilities, as well as other influences such as freight forwarder presence and airport marketing. Of particular prominence is the impact of legislation on airport choice.     

Model-Based Failure Detection on Nonlinear Systems: Theory and Transition

Failure detection is an active area of Navy research due to its many important applications. Recently, an approach for multi-model identification and fault detection in the presence of bounded energy noise over finite time intervals has been introduced. This family of algorithms was originally designed to work on linear systems that can be modeled analytically. In this paper, efforts made toward extending this algorithm for fault detection to nonlinear systems along with efforts in testing this family of algorithms on real systems are discussed.     

The Art of Successfully Applying Human Systems Integration

This paper reviews developments in human factors and then draws from a number of "best practice" cases in studying how best to apply behavioral science principles, knowledge, and analytical tools to the engineering design or improvement of systems. Government and other commercial experiences are examined with a focus on the Navy human system integration (HSI) process. Included are discussions facilitated at a workshop session sponsored by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. There is general consensus that in addition to using a well-designed or proven process and doing the right things, success is dependent upon attending to a prioritized short list of critical elements. Continued focus on these elements is necessary to successfully apply human behavioral sciences effectively during design, construction, and operation of systems to improve safety, reliability, effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of life.