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Flight accidents with modern aircraft are often a result of complex dynamics of the “pilot (automaton1) - vehicle - operational environment” system. When a “critical mass” of the system’s complexity exceeds a certain level, a “chain reaction” of irreversible cause-and-effect links can be spontaneously triggered in the system behavior leading to a catastrophe. An affordable, practically tested technique is proposed to complement current methods of flight accident analysis. A generic situational model of the system behavior and a computer are employed as a virtual test article. This model includes a six-degree-of-freedom non-linear flight dynamics model, a generic situational pilot model (“silicon pilot”), models of anticipated operational factors (conditions), and a tool for flight scenario planning. Available flight recorder data are used to tune the model and reconstruct the accident.

An affordable technique is proposed for fast quantitative analysis of aerobatics and other complex flight domains of highly maneuverable aircraft. A generalized autonomous situational model of the “pilot (automaton) – vehicle – operational environment” system is employed as a “virtual test article”. Using this technique, a systematic knowledge of the system behavior in aerobatic flight can be generated on a computer, much faster than real time. This information can be analyzed via a set of knowledge mapping formats using a 3-D graphics visualization tool. Piloting and programming skills are not required in this process. Possible applications include: aircraft design and education, applied aerodynamics, flight control systems design, planning and rehearsal of flight test and display programs, investigation of aerobatics-related flight accidents and incidents, physics-based pilot training, research into new maneuvers, autonomous flight, and onboard AI.

A generic situational model of the “pilot (automaton) - aircraft - operational environment” system is employed as a ‘virtual safety test article’. The goal is to identify a priori potentially catastrophic, safe and interim developments in the system behavior in complex (multi-factor) flight situations. Distinguishing features of the technique include: affordability and autonomy of experimentation (a pilot and special hardware are not required), easy planning and fast-time simulation of a large number of non-standard flight scenarios on a computer, and automated assessment and classification of ‘flights’ using formalized safety criteria. A software tool called VATES, which implements this technique, is demonstrated. Several new graphic-analytical formats designed for system safety knowledge mapping are introduced using realistic situation examples.