Browse Topic: Fatal injuries
Rotorcraft continue to experience higher fatal accident rates compared to fixed-wing aircraft, primarily due to low altitude flight operations and reduced situational awareness in complex environments. A critical factor is the limited availability of accurate, up-to-date information on helipads and surrounding obstacles - such as trees, poles, and buildings - that pose significant risks during takeoff and landing. Existing resources, including the Federal Aviation Administration's heliport registry, are often outdated and incomplete, particularly for private or state-operated sites, and fail to report nearby obstacles. This lack of up-to-date data is largely due to privacy restrictions at certain locations and the high cost associated with comprehensive obstacle surveys. To address this challenge, we develop a deep learning (DL) framework that automatically detects helipads and nearby obstacles from high-resolution satellite imagery. Our approach combines Mask R-CNN for precise pixel
Prior to 1950, use of the helicopter for evacuation was extremely limited, as military top brass often considered it a worthless contraption; thus, rescue was uncertain at best for downed pilots and wounded soldiers stranded behind enemy lines. However, this all changed in Korea, where twelve U.S. Army helicopters from three detachments, working in tandem with seven, newly created Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) units, would fundamentally change the Army's medical-evacuation doctrine forever. Using several models of the Bell H-13, the Hiller H-23, and the Sikorsky H-5 and H-19, this small band of courageous pilots pushed themselves and their aircraft to their limits, transporting 21,212 critically wounded soldiers for life-saving surgery to various MASH units, cutting the fatality rate from World War II in half. Adopting the 3rd Air Rescue Squadron's motto, "That Others May Live," these pilots and their helicopters were affectionately known to the wounded as "Angels of Mercy."
The hippocampus plays a crucial role in brain function and is one of the important areas of concern in closed head injury. Hippocampal injury is related to a variety of factors including the strength of mechanical load, animal age, and helmet material. To investigate the order of these factors on hippocampal injury, a three-factor, three-level experimental protocol was established using the L(3) orthogonal table. A closed head injury experiment regarding impact strength (0.3MPa, 0.5MPa, 0.7MPa), rat age (eight- week-old, ten-week-old, twelve-week-old), and helmet material (steel, plastic, rubber) were achieved by striking the rat's head with a pneumatic-driven impactor. The number of hippocampal CA3 cells was used as an evaluation indicator. The contribution of factors to the indicators and the confidence level were obtained by analysis of variance. The results showed that impact strength was the main factor affecting hippocampal injury (contribution of 89.2%, confidence level 0.01
ABSTRACT
Rotorcrafts are generally subject to a higher fatal accident rate than other segments of aviation, including commercial and general aviation. The safety improvement for rotorcrafts would directly improve the efficiency of air traffic control, since rotorcrafts operate primarily within low-level airspace; an area that is becoming increasingly complex with new entrants, such as unmanned aircraft systems and urban air mobility. The recent impact of artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms on various aspects of our lives has led to the investigation of the application of these algorithms in the aviation domain; as it may offer a prime opportunity to enhance safety within the aviation community. In this research, we explore the efficacy, reliability, and, more importantly, the explainability of modern deep learning algorithms. We use machine learning models to predict the attitude (pitch and yaw) of rotorcrafts using video data recorded with ordinary cameras. The cameras were
Rotorcraft with a teetering rotor design are susceptible to a phenomenon known as "mast bumping" or “excessive flapping” which can lead to severe shaft structural damage followed by total separation of the rotor from the vehicle and a potential incursion of the rotor blade into the fuselage. Mast bumping accidents are nearly always fatal and are generally unavoidable once specific flight conditions are met. Certain teetering rotor vehicles are prohibited from specific maneuvers that may lead to mast bumping events. However, specific incidents indicate that certain causes of mast bumping may have not yet been determined, and the extreme danger of the phenomenon makes studies using flight testing impossible. This research uses the Rotorcraft Comprehensive Analysis System (RCAS) to create a physics-based, parameterized model of a nominal teetering rotor helicopter to simulate and assess the mast bumping risk of various level flight conditions and specific maneuvers. This data is used to
As the premier agency for promoting and insuring aviation safety, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to promote and highlight the importance of participating in aviation Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) programs to improve flight safety and operational efficiency. Indeed, recorder safety is one of the agency's top 10 most wanted list of safety improvements in 2017-2018. The FAA, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and the United States Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) are strong proponents of recorder use. These organizations and other industry partners are working together to implement a helicopter safety enhancement that promotes the use of flight data recorders as a mechanism to reduce the helicopter fatal accident rate. However, despite these best efforts to reduce the fatal accident rate with this lifesaving technology, barriers to implementation exist. These include initial costs of flight data recorders which can range from 9,000 - 50,000, on average. These
Safety features introduced in recent rotorcraft designs have not made their way into the bulk of the rotorcraft flying fleets around the world in spite many of them have been firstly introduced many years ago in newly certified platforms. The longevity of the current rotorcraft population has proved to be exceeding all the expectations and forecast that were made when these features were introduced. However the flat trend in accident rates and fatalities verified in these years especially in some sectors is urging the regulators and many other stakeholders to take action. Hence the need to define a method able to establish rational priorities to push the new safety features into the market, by using quantitative and qualitative criteria.
At 1414 hours on 11 September 1970 John W. C. "Pee Wee" Judge lost control of a Wallis WA-117 autogyro and plunged to his death in front of the viewing stand at the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) air show at Farnborough. From loss of control until the fatal impact was less than 7 seconds, and as the aircraft was the center of attention (including HRH Queen Elizabeth II), it was photographed from different angles by high quality cine film cameras which enabled extensive analysis. The official accident report would not be issued for 3 and half years, essentially confirming Wing Commander Ken Wallis' own conclusions based on a frame-by-frame viewing of the films - the end result was that Wallis, the most famous autogyro pilot and popularizer since his stellar performance with his WA-116 autogyro "Little Nellie" in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, exited from public life and pursued “the autogyro as a working aircraft” for the next 42 years. Although he would
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