Benefit analysis and feasibility of ground collision avoidance systems on United States Air Force aircraft

This thesis examines a specific type of USAF aircraft mishaps - Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) mishaps. The thesis presents data on CFIT mishaps, causes, and efforts to reduce CFIT mishaps through the development and adoption of Ground Collision Avoidance Systems (GCAS) or similar designs - Ground Proximity Warning Systems (GPWS). GPWS exist today on some USAF aircraft, but many times these systems are inadequate (as evidenced by the continued occurrence of CFIT mishaps). Both ongoing and future initiatives by the USAF to adopt and develop better GPWS/GCAS systems were studied. An analysis was performed which studied the cost to the USAF (and the U.S. taxpayer) as a result of CFIT mishaps, and compared with an analysis of the cost to develop and implement improved GPWS/GCAS systems. The results show conclusively that installing GCAS/GPWS on a majority of USAF aircraft is cost effective. Technology exist today which could improve existing GPWS performance, and although efforts to improve GPWS are moving forward, some resistance does exist. Possible reasons for resistance of GCAS/GPWS adoption were studied and several recommendations were made on how to improve the adoption of these systems within the USAF.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1995

Author dc:creator

• Scofield, Jan W. (Jan William)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael A. Rappa.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41801

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/41801