ASCI 202: Intro to Aeronautical Science

    Aviation security is an ever evolving challenge for the aviation industry. As technology continues to progress the tools of deviant actors improve but the security measures also improve to combat them. The the ever changing security risks can lead to emerging threats such as 3D printed weapons. This is a relatively new threat as 3D printers have recently become affordable and easy to acquire. The issue with 3D printed weapons is that they are made of composites and plastics which make them harder to detect on X-rays and other scanning machines. They also may pass off as replica weapon which could make it through security in a checked bag per the TSA rules but if there was an inside worker who could access after it was checked it could be used to hijack a plane by the worker or if the worker were to pass it to someone on the flight. This threat could challenge a few layers of security but there are ways to mitigate it in each of those layers which I will get into next. ...

     This week I have chosen to cover the oil system of an aircraft, how a failure in that system would effect an aircraft, and some mitigation efforts to reduce the chances of it happening. To begin, the oil system in an aircraft whether it be a reciprocating engine or a jet engine serves essentially the same function. The oil system lubricates the moving parts, cooling by reducing friction and removing heat from the engine, creates a seal between moving parts, and it carries contaminants out of the engine (PHAK, 2016). I would like to specifically address the failure of the oil pump.     The oil pump is the heart of the oil system, it delivers pressurized oil to parts of the engine that require it, below is a diagram of an oil system in an aircraft oil system (PHAK, 2016). An oil pump could fail for many reasons to include; manufacture defect, being clogged with contaminants, improper care, and improper oil le vels (Loss of Oil Pressure Is An Emergency, 2020)....

    Aircraft performance is determined by many factors, the environment being a huge one, but more specifically lets look at atmospheric pressure. Atmospheric pressure is the pressure air exerts on an object within the atmosphere(PHAK,2016). It is fluid like and changes depending on location, altitude, and it gives us vital flight information such as airspeed, vertical speed, and manifold pressure(PHAK, 2016). The one characteristic of atmospheric pressure that has the biggest effect is its density. Lets take a closer look at how density effects airplane performance.     Density directly effects an airplanes power, thrust, and lift(PHAK,2016). These are all essential for an aircraft to take flight. The density of air is determined by temperature and altitude, air becomes less dense as you increase altitude and temperature. This causes the engine to lose power, thrust and lift to decrease, because there is less air entering the engine, less air for the propeller to us...

Ethics First and Foremost Ethics to me is one of the most important disciplines for an aviation professional to have considering what is at stake .  I have 8 years of aircraft maintenance experience from serving in the US Air Force but in a broader sense I have been around aviation since I was a baby.  The foundation that we were instilled with in the military was to do the right thing no matter the consequences for the safety of yourself,  the potential passengers, and the crew that will be flying the airplane.  We are taught about human factors and how they impact the aviation profession both good and bad.  As humans, we are inherently imperfect which leads to mistakes and errors but these can be reduced in many ways if we all practice ethical discipline.  But by having good ethical discipline and identifying/reporting these mistakes and errors, even when no one else was around, is essential in the safety chain to prevent future incidents(Stanford & H...