Task 1 To satisfy the appropriate handling characteristics, designers have looked at the layouts of components such as the engine,

wing, tail and control systems design. You are required to describe the motion of aircraft and the factors that influence the static stability and control of an aircraft and relate them to various cases. The use of diagrams is advised. When engineers design aircraft there are one factor that control the aerodynamics of the structure, stability. An aircraft can vary anywhere between highly stable, to highly unstable although there are limits within reason and no aircraft will be designed to either of these extremes. Stable aircraft are designed in specific ways to resist the effect of external forces, this usually means any force from natural occurences such as cross winds has little or no effect on the straight and level flight path. This effect goes the opposite way when aircraft are designed to be unstable. Judgin the intended stability for an aircraft is ital for the designers as the relationship between stability goes hand in hand with menouvorability or agility. Unstable aircraft are designed to be this was as the more unstable they become, the more agile they are, and haing superior agility can give a pilot the edge in a dog fight which is why military aircraft are commonly designed to follow this. Alternativly commercial aircraft follow more stable aircraft as it gives much better comfort for the passengers, and as the agility is not needed for this application, being stable is more appropriate. There is a downside to both of these limits. Having an aircraft that is too stable would make it impossible to land as the aircraft would only ever fly straight. An aircraft being too unstable would be impossible to fly, and would be severly affected by the slightest external force. So it is vital for designers to know the limits of technology and how far a system can go before it becomes inaffective. Thankfully there are ways to increase the limits, as one of the biggest problems in this area is the pilot, an aircraft can only ever be as agile as the pilots skills. With the development of computer technology, designers hae been able to push the agility of an aircaft far beyond the level of skill any pilot has. This also creates an easier job for the pilot and all they have to concentrate on is where the jet goes and what its current status is, all control surfaces will be governed by the aircrafts computer system.

There are two types of stability, static and dynamic. Static stability is the immediate response to an external force, there are three types of static stability. These are:

Positive Negative Neutral

Positive static stability: when the aircraft responds positively to an external force, for example if an external force pushes the aircraft down, its immediate response would be to aim the aircraft up. Negative static stability: when the aircraft responds negatively to an external force, for example if an external force pushes the aircraft down, its immediate response would be to aim the aircraft further down. Neutral static stability: when the aircraft responds neutrally to an external force, for example an external force pushes the aircraft down, its immediate response would be to aim the aircraft on that same path downwards. Positive dynamic stability: when the aircraft responses positively over time to an external force, for example if an external force pushes the aircraft down, its response over time would to aim for straight and level flight. Negative dynamic stability: when the aircraft responses negatively over time to an external force, for example if an external force pushes the aircraft down, its response over time would be to have an increased amplitude in oscillations. Neutral dynamic stability: when the aircraft responses neutrally over time to an external force, for example if an external force pushes the aircraft down, its response over time would be to have no change in oscillations.

Task 2 You are to remove, examine and refit an aileron from a Harrier T4. Effective planning is required with a particular emphasis on health and safety. You will have access to Air Publications (A.P's) (the RAF equivalent of Aircraft Maintenance Manuals (AMM)) that detail how the aileron is to be removed and refitted. You will work as part of a five man team, so teamwork, responsibility, delegation and a degree of self-criticism is essential. Once refitted, the aileron will be checked for correct locking, assembly, function, sense and range of movement. You are to write a report about the overall experience showing:

the health and safety aspects the tooling involved how the aileron was removed and refitted a detailed examination of the aileron post-fitting checks how the aileron connects and is controlled by the airframe flying control system what went well in the process what did not go well what could have gone better

Health and Safety Aspects: Requardless of the work space, all practical applications have a standard set of rules and regulations that were set in place by the Health and Safety at Work act(s). These are here to ensure workers work efficiently and reduce the chance of any unnessasery accidents, with common rules such as protective clothing must be worn, no running, goggles must be worn ect. As these are generic rules for all workspaces, yet there are more relevant risks that are involved with this aspect and have to be analyised acording to the task, such as:

Determining possible fire hazards Sharp edges Mechanical moving parts Falling objects Oil spills

All of these can differ depending on where the work is being carried out. Fire hazards are by far the biggest issue with work on aircraft. Due to the highly explosive fule stored in the craft it is vital that the correct actions are taken. Large tasks such as dimanteling sections of the aeroplane would have a much higher fire risk as sensetive parts of the system become exposed it is therefor much safer to empty the fuel tanks, althought there is still a fire risk, it greatly reduces the risk of explosion. For smaller jobs it would be enough to ensure that fule systems are shut down and all protocals are known (fire extinguisher systems, fire escapes ect.). In our task with the Harrier T4 the aircraft had been already emptied of fule, and the relavent safety aspects, such as fire escapes had been explained to us by the supervisors. Also hydraulics are a hazard where great care should be taken to avoid puncturing the system as hydraulic fluid is corrosive and highly irritant to the skin, aswell as being flamable, so they can be treated in the same way as the fuel system. Another risk explained to us was the structure of the Harrier, being a fighter jet the general profile of the aircraft has thin aerofoils and sharp corners, as well as probs, like pitot tube which are easily missed when concentrating on specific areas. To help avoind injury these sharp edges and probes are covered in a high viz foam sleeve. This made hazards like these much easier to avoid. As we were working on the ailerons it was also important to ensure they had been disconnected, we know that these control surfaces work in opposites to each other, as one goes down the other goes up. This could be a problem to our team mates as any unexpected movement could trap someones hand, so before any work began we had to make sure that both ailerons had been disconnected. There is never much of a risk with falling objects when working with the ailerons, but it was still important to make sure precautions were taken. To be able to carry out the work it was important that all of the team had steel toe-cap boots, this was to ensure no injury could occure if something was dropped, although the components wernt heavy to handle, it would still have been heavy enoough with the sharp sides to break someones foot. One of the teams that we had been split into had been assigned to remove the rudder, this meant they had to work above us, which again is a risk.

One of the most important parts of aircraft repair is not the repair itself but also checking you have the right equipment and that it is all accounted for. If an aircraft has loose repair equipment or tool components still inside it could cause damage to the surrounding area,this is a high risk and could prove fatal if an uncheacked component jammed one of the control systems in flight. Therefore a tool check must be completed every time a repair is done, all missing equipment must be logged. When there are more than one tool kits used the equipment should be tagged with different colours. This is to prove that if anyone loses equipment they cannot take other tools from other tool kits and replace them without anyone noticing to shift the responsibility.

Operational Method Of Removing and Refitting An Aileron:

1. Tool check: all tools were logged and accounted for, anything that was missing had to be recorded to let us know at the end when all tools were collected in 2. Set up the work space to make sure there was easy access and no trip hazards 3. Cover plates were removed to expose the actuator rods. These were screwed to the aileron using cresant shaped sloted screws, these required a special head for the screwdriver. 4. Once these plates had been removed the actuator linkage could be disconnected, these were locked in place with a nylon locknut, all that was required to remove the bolt and nut was the correct size spanner. 5. Once the ailerons had been disconnected the only component holding the ailerons in place were the hinges, these were mounted on the underside of the wing. A socket and rachit were all that was needed. The bolt had a special cresant head which locked onto a tab attached to one side of the hinge. As these were the last supports to the wing we needed one of out team mates to hold the aileron up to prevent it from falling. 6. Now the aileron had been removed it could be examined 7. As we didnt have the equipment to hand we only gave the component a visual inspection, but the various types of NDT were explained by the supervisors. 8. Once the aileron had been inspected whe had to examine the connections and internal components had to be analised in the same way to check for cracks and ware. Also ajustment parts such as the aileron rod was at the correct length. 9. Once these checks had been confirmed the aileron could be re attached in the reverse order 10. Everything had to be carefully placed in, to prevent damage to the components and to ensure that all locking components were place in the correct way around. 11. Once the aileron had been replaced, post-fitment checks had to be made to ensure the job had been done properly, also another tool check was issued to inform us if any tools were missing which could have possibly been mixed up or left inside the Harrier.

Here are some of the NDT examples which would normaly be carried out on a component:

Visual inspection Liquid penetrant inspection Magnetic particle inspection Radiographic inspection (X-ray and gamma ray)

Visual inspection: This is simply where an authorised personal looks at the plane for any cracks or signs of fatigue. Often they will wash over the areas sensitive to dirt like the pitot tubes to ensure that the instrument isn't faulty after take off. Liquid penetrant inspection: Liquid penetrant inspection is an advanced method of visual inspection in the fact that the liquid shows your eyes where any cracks are. This is done by cleaning the surface of any dirt, then the liquid is placed on the surface for approximately 20 minutes, any remaining liquid is removed leaving only the liquid within the cracks. A UV light is then aimed at the area you are looking it and the UV light shows you the cracks. (http://www.twi.co.uk/content/ksijm001.html) Magnetic particle inspection: Magnetic particle inspection is when magnets are placed over the structure to cause a change of magnetic flux, this change shows an image which can tell if there are cracks or not. As such magnetic particle inspection is used only to detect near surface cracks and faults because the magnetic fields don't extend a great distance. (http://www.focusndt.co.uk/mageneticparticleinspection.html) Radiographic inspection: Radiographic inspection is when X-rays or Gamma rays are shone through the structure into a photographic plate, the resulting image shows if there are cracks. As the rays are shone through the structure some of the rays are absorbed showing a normal picture. When there is a crack there is less structure for the rays to be absorbed by, therefore a bright area where the crack is situated is shown up on the photographic plate.
This is probably the best known and most widely used method of non-destructive

testing. Developed over the course of many years, radiography provides a reliable method of detecting flaws in a wide range of product types including welds, castings, structures and composites. Source: (http://www.ndt.ltd.uk/radiographicinspection.html)

What went well: For this task Dan Floyd and I had teamed up, this already gave us an advantage as we both have a lot of practical skill and knowledge of tools. There were many things that went well for us with the removal of the aileron, we were well organised and had made sure we had the right tools for the job. Before we began we carried out a full tool inspection and were the team to get everyone together to make sure the ailerons had been diconnected. We picked up on faults that had previously been made by other groups, such as incorrect bolts, misused locknuts, loose connections ect. And corected them as best as we could. As this was only an exercise we didnt have the correct nuts and bolts to replace the faulty ones, but the information had been logged that these faults were there. The tool check came out with 100% no loss of tools, as we made sure only the tools needed for each step were out at any one time. Also no damage was infilcted to any of the components or tools. This was a very enjoyable task.

What did not go well

There was only one small problem that arised when we carried out this practical task. When we reconnected the actuator to the aileron it was increadibly difficult to stop the actuator retracting into the wing, while lining it up to the holes. It was not so much something going wrong, just an awkward job.

What could have gone better

To be honist everything went aswell as it could have done, considering it was our first time working on a real life aircraft. It would have been nice to replace the bolts and nust wich were incorrect and to actually use some of the NDT equipment.

Sources
Information from: Sources:
1. http://www.ndt.ltd.uk/radiographic-inspection.html

Pictures:
1. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_23/art04_23/0423_sup

er_aerodynamics.jpg
2. http://www.sportpilot.org/images/aircraft_index-1.gif 3. http://www.twi.co.uk/content/ksijm001.html 4. http://www.focusndt.co.uk/mageneticparticleinspection.html