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Safer Skies: Scanning For Cracks

November 16, 1998|By WILLIAM H. MCMICHAEL Daily Press

NASA Langley wants to create a system that can automatically monitor nonstructural systems, and do so during flight. At this point, there's no way of knowing whether such a system could find a problem as fine as worn insulation on a wire, or what sort of sensors would be required; the system is still in the conceptual stage.

But if successful, it would give air crews another layer of protection.

"We're looking for the system itself to do the diagnosis - to recognize that something's gone wrong, and give the pilot the information to do the right thing, particularly during a critical phase of flight, like landing," said John White of NASA Langley's Aviation Safety Office.

But the system - a "health management technology," NASA terms it - would also predict failure, White said, "by sensing temperatures or trends and comparing that trend against a model of how the system is supposed to act."

In addition, NASA envisions monitoring the skin of the aircraft, possibly with a fiber-optic cable network of some sort.

If all else fails, NASA is designing a virtual airborne safety net - a system that combines technology and training software to enable pilots to land in the event of catastrophic failure. That program is aimed more at smaller commercial and private aircraft, and helicopters, White said.

William H. McMichael can be reached at 247-7862 or by e-mail at bmcmichael@dailypress.com

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