Posted on 06/19/2006 7:40:07 PM PDT by BenLurkin
EDWARDS AFB - NASA engineers are working on a means of training pilots in new methods to successfully fly and land airplanes in emergencies.
The project, a joint effort with the Department of Homeland Security and United Airlines, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is meant to study the effectiveness of using an aircraft's engines to control its flight when the usual flight controls are ineffective.
In a technique known as throttles-only control, pilots of an aircraft in which the flight surfaces are inoperable instead use the aircraft engines to direct the airplane. For instance, increasing the power to engines on one side of the aircraft and decreasing the other will cause the aircraft to turn.
"This controls an aircraft exclusively using just the engines," said Jennifer Cole, chief engineer for the project at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.
The technique came to light following the crash of a United Airlines DC-10 in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989. In that incident, the engine mounted at the airplane's tail came apart and destroyed the hydraulic flight controls, making a safe landing seemingly impossible.
However, the pilots were able to use the thrust of the engines to bring the aircraft to a landing from which more than half the passengers on board survived - a survival rate higher than what would normally be expected for an out-of-control airliner.
Those pilots "learned throttles-only control real time," Cole said.
Dryden engineers and pilots conducted tests of this method of control in the early 1990s, using a computerized autopilot to make constant adjustments to the engine thrust. Thumbwheels were installed for the pilot to use to control pitch and bank (turning the aircraft left or right). The computer translated the pilot's input with the thumbwheels into the necessary engine adjustments.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
For the engineers and pilots out there.
All one ever needs to know about this should have talked to Captain Haynes and his crew of United Flight 232
Flightcrew performance
In subsequent reconstructions of the circumstances of the accident in flight simulators, no pilot of any seniority has succeeded in reproducing Fitch's achievement of maneuvering the aircraft as far as the runway, generally losing control in mid air.
http://www.answers.com/topic/united-airlines-flight-232
Hell of a pilot!
The crew of the C-5 that crash landed in Vietnam in 1975 also did pretty well. I believe the ratio of survivors/non-survivors was similar.
How history repeats itself!!
This technique is old, yes OLD!! We used this process with the B-36 when they lost a vertical tail control surface (rudder).
Reference: Travis AFB, California, 1957, plus others.
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