Flight

All businesses have the same history that they grow from demands or they create the needs in a market. Sometimes the demands exist in markets and some players have served them; others, service providers or manufacturers create the needs. For instances, in broadcasting business, often broadcasters should create a television program that would be an idol such as worldwide famous program, Fox’s American Idol is one example of attractive TV program that in turn creates huge and expensive advertising spots.

It also applies to catering business; entrepreneur could buy a franchise license from a well-recognize caterers or create new firm, with exceptional menu and packaging, to in markets for our products or services. Therefore, the key into breaking new market is to create unique products instead of deliver products those exactly similar characteristics to ones already in the market.

Airlines Industry

Impacts on the Global Air Traveling Industry

Economy will always become major concerns when a country experiences various disasters including ones caused by terrorism. Flash back to three and half years ago, when there was a terrorist attack on the famous building in the world, World Trade Center and Pentagon, we witness that such attack has cost the country’s economy in major reform both operational and fundamental aspects not to mention severe impact on the air travel industry. The September 11 attack (9/11 attack) have significant impact on the continuity of air traveling. This is because such attack has decreased travelers’ trusts to travel with airplanes.

Soon after the attack, Boeing and Airbus, as the leading manufacturers of airplanes, faced declining demands for new airplanes from airlines. The declining trends in air traveling during 2001 until 2003 reflect a number of economic and social issues. As said above, one big factor contributing to this declining trend during the period included the effects of the 9/11 attack, which led air travelers to choose other transportation due to an increased fear of terrorist attacks. Another factor was global weak economy and the changing in air travelers’ preference to take economy class instead of business class.

At present, although it is still early in the recovery process, fuel prices that tend to increase over years and of another terrorist attack cause another setback in the air traveling industry. However, current fierce competition in the industry causes unexpected growth in deploying small airplanes such as Boeing 737s or Airbus A320s. This appetite for smaller airplanes underscores the strength of the discount-airline model like one cast successfully by Southwest Airlines.

UK Airlines Industry

Airlines industry in UK experienced similar situation to other countries’ airlines industry since the 9/11 tragedy. However, according to one research as reported by Market & Business Development, the UK airlines industry have rebounded sometime in 2003 and achieved the peak achievement in 2004 where the industry recorded an estimated ? 17. 6 billion market and predicted that in 2009 the industry will record real term growth of 11% compared with 2004 (“UK Airlines” 2005). 3. 5 Global In-flight Catering Industry 3. 5. 1 Distribution of US$14 Billion In-Flight Catering Market

In-flight catering is considered a global industry since players in the industry usually serve a broad range of customers (airlines and airports) not only in the home country but also in the other countries. Some players are growing from regular catering companies that serve wedding, exhibitions or manufacturers; others are subsidiaries of airlines that become worldwide in-flight catering companies. According to a report, global in-flight catering market has an annual turnover over US$14 billion where the big part of the revenue comes from Asia Pacific region (“Student Fact Sheet”).

The chart below better describes the contribution of worldwide in-flight catering market. Currently, airlines industry faces two major shifts that in turn affect the in-flight catering as well. First is the passengers’ preference who likely takes economy class instead of business one. Second is on the growing competition on delivering discounted air traveling by using smaller airplanes as discussed above.

The situation renders the decline in airfares, which in turn influences the quality, and quantity of food provided in airplanes I order to minimize costs. Although the situation seems to discourage in-flight catering industry, the analysts’ estimation telling In-flight Catering industry to grow in turnover by 2%-3% per annum over the next five years at least favor the industry as a whole (“Student Fact Sheet”). According to International In-Flight Catering Association (IFCA), currently, there are approximately 600 flight kitchens worldwide in which each serves approximately between 6,000 and 7,000 meals every day.

On the average, the number of employee per unit kitchen is 150 people with some of larger kitchen might employ over 1,000 people and producing in excess of 9 million meals per year (“Student Fact Sheet”).

In-Flight Catering Industrial Structure

Like other consumer industries, the In-Flight industry also composes of several distribution channels that form larger entities. The industry composes of airline catering divisions, specialist in-flight caterers and a range of suppliers providing food, beverages and catering equipments. The situation renders most airlines in the world not to have their own flight kitchens.

Instead, they search for local in-flight catering companies and have contracts with them to provide in-flight meal based on their specific criteria.  In general, these local catering companies support and consolidate with the two largest in-flight catering companies: LSG Sky Chef and Gate Gourmet. The two companies now hold over half of the worldwide in-flight catering market share.

Below the level are regional catering companies like Alpha Flight Services that have strong position in UK and Europe with future steps to be the third largest catering companies behind LSG Sky Chef and Gate Gournet. The regional companies account for 25% of the market share while the rest is the combination of local companies in all countries worldwide. The above pie chart better describes the composition of market share in worldwide in-flight catering industry. In addition, for regional and local catering companies, it includes some airlines, which still have their own catering companies and thus their flight kitchens.

This special case still exists in the Asia/Pacific region. Usually, airlines, which have their own catering companies, also provide requests from third party airline carriers as well as their own airline needs. 3. 6 Analysis of Getting into UK In-flight Catering Market As explained in the beginning of the paper, we employ the marketing mix to help understanding what is needed in in-flight catering market, by how much we charge, whom to serve and many more to consider.

Marketing Mix of In-Flight Catering Industry

Product and Promotion It is all the same, a business has products to offer. In catering business, caterer should determine the type of food and its harmony with the type of event, time of event, number of people to be served, available equipment, number of food preparers and servers and the amount of money to be spent. According to Lastovica, Roberts, and Brochetti, caterer should provide a menu that includes a variety of foods that are acceptable to the customer and the occasion (1999). Under such circumstances, caterer will plan to include nutritious foods from each of the food groups, including meat, poultry, fish, dried beans, eggs and nuts; bread, cereal, rice and pasta; vegetables; fruits; milk and cheese.

In addition, as a caterer, one does not have to invent and make all foods by himself. Just like a supermarket or a bakery, they have special menu that they make by themselves like pancakes, black forests, and brownies; while their suppliers or partners provide other menus. Remember, world largest fast food chain restaurant, McDonalds, known for their unique burgers not the Cola or orange juice. However, Lastovica, Roberts, and Brochetti, suggest that if we decide to make all foods, consider our skills, equipment and time as you plan menus (1999).

In addition, it is important to prepare a quality product of standard consistency. Develop a quality standard for each item. Use high-tech equipment designed to produce a consistent product. As a promotion, the food product may come in fancy color and design to increase its attractiveness. Therefore, caterer should have enough skills to contrast in texture and flavor. In addition, caterer should develop an information packet that includes sample menus and prices, and list of previous customers that might increase the caterer’s capability and class.

This is imperative to enter today’s situation in in-flight catering industry where the discounted airlines, which provide low airfares to passengers, tend to provide less meal or snack only during the flight at no charge and offer additional meals at various costs. Some carriers like Southwest Airlines turn out not to offer free meal in the cabin. Isidore says that in the wake of Sept. 11, many airlines are forced to cut the amount spent on free meal service per passenger by about 10 percent to an average of $4.This is because they experience decreasing number of passengers since they fear of another terrorist attacks.

The main reason of such changing is to cut costs of delivering free meal in the cabin. Under such circumstances, in-flight catering companies should create and provide a low cost meal or snack as well to enter in-flight catering market. Another in-flight catering service that becomes trends nowadays is one that sells meal during the flight or sells it at the gate for special price. Under such circumstances, in-flight catering companies should also think about kinds of meal to be sold at the gate or in the cabin. This is imperative since the two methods pose a big difference in the delivery.

Meal that sold at the gate is less risky that one sold in the cabin. This is because meal that sold at the gate can be put in the refrigerator or oven for next flight in case that it is not sold out. On the contrary, meal that sold in the cabin will lose attractiveness since it is easy to get cold in case that it is not sold out. Therefore, any in-flight catering companies should define which meal is free meal service, which meal is sold at the cabin and the gate.  Place and Pricing To operate a profitable catering business, we need to decide by how much we price our meal.

Determining the costs of catering is the most important part of covering expenses and earning profits. Lastovica, Roberts, and Brochetti in Starting a Successful Catering Business suggest that caterers must price their services using different methods. The pricing formula that covers both costs and provides a profit is as follows: Materials + Overhead + Labor + Profit = Price In this equation, materials cover the costs of the food or beverage items and any shipping and handling costs incurred to acquire these materials.

In addition, overhead costs are the variable and fixed expenses that must be covered to stay in business. Variable costs are those expenses that fluctuate including vehicle expenses, rental expenses, utility bills and supplies while fixed costs include the purchase of equipment, service ware, marketing and advertising, and insurance. After overhead costs are determined, the total overhead costs are divided among the total number of catering jobs expected (Lastovica et al). As noted above that we can make our own food or purchase convenience foods from our suppliers and partners.

In this manner, we can compare the cost between the two options in compliance with the taste after considering skills and equipments we have. Then evaluate for cost savings and quality consistency. Labors costs include the costs of food preparation and service, vacation time, retirement and other benefits such as health or life insurance. To determine labor costs per hour, consider the following components:  Skill and reputation. Wages paid by employers for similar skills and Place where caterer conduct their business.

Other pricing factors include image, inflation, supply and demand, and competition. The last item in the formula is the profit that added to our total costs. In this scheme, caterers need to determine the percentage of profit added to each menu item or type of event. We can consider three pricing options as follows: . Charge products exactly the same as competitors do . Charge products more than competitors do or  Charge products less than competitors offer Whichever pricing scheme we take, it is important to cover all incurred costs if we want to stay in the catering business.

Business never grows if we keep maintaining losing profits and we never stay in the business if we keep maintaining high profits that make our product away from the competitors’ price for exactly the same product and quality. Above all, to be successful in the catering business, any caterers should produce delicious food that is safe and wholesome. Any mistakes in providing food services including toxic foods will destroy your reputation and business. So keep food service safe. Concerning the issue, anyone who want to enter in-flight catering market in UK should comply with UK Food Safety Legislation.

The new version of the legislation will be in effect in 2006 so ensure that catering products we want to offer in UK have complied with the newest legislation.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of In-Flight Catering Industry

At the heart of this analysis is the industry analyzing model known as Porter’s five forces model which details the threat of new entrants, power of buyers, power of suppliers, rivalry among existing competitors, and the threat of substitute products for wine industry that satisfies following diagram.

Rivalry in UK and global In-Flight Catering market is fierce since current condition the market only has two major players that has operated globally. In this report, we will discuss three major in-flight catering companies: LSG Sky Chef, Gate Gourmet, and Alpha Flight Services. LSG Sky Chef Currently, LSG Sky Chefs becomes the world’s largest provider of in-flight services including catering and procurement to equipment management. The number of airlines has risen into 270 airlines as of 2003 (“World’s Biggest”). The strong global presence in in-flight catering market has put the company to gain over 30% market share.

The competitive advantages of LSG Lufthansa Service Holding AG are their worldwide operation, reaching more than 200 catering facilities in 48 countries. In 2003 alone, the company showed significant improvement by reaching  2. 7 billion in which ? 1. 86 billion are from airline catering business (“Facts & Figures”). In order to strengthen its global presence and to boost LSG Sky Chefs production capacity, the company has agreed to buy the UK assets of airline catering operator Abela at London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow and London-Stansted airports (“Abela”).

This acquisition is important for LSG Sky Chefs to put a deeper presence in UK In-Flight Catering market. By acquiring Abela, now LSG Sky Chefs has existed in several UK airports like Heathrow, Gatwick Birmingham, Manchester and East Midlands.  Gate Gourmet Gate Gourmet is one of biggest in-flight catering company with customers are mostly biggest airlines carriers like British Airways, American Airlines and Cathay Pacific. In 2002 alone, the company turnover recorded CHF 2. 8 billion. Currently, Gate Gourmet produces over 195 million meals per year and has 115 flight kitchens worldwide (“Facts & Figures 2004”).

The company has global presence in 31 countries in all five continents and has its own divisions dealing with supply chain management and in-flight operations management (egatematrix). The fun facts about gate Gournet is its historical background in which the company grew from Swissair’s in house catering operations in 1992. Further, in order to strengthen its global operation the company has conducted several acquisitions of other caterers including Aero-Chef, SAS Service Partner, Varig flight kitchens and British Airways flight kitchens (“Innovative Move”).

In UK market, Gate Gourmet continues strengthening its presence by having joint agreement with DO & CO, a world leading premium event caterer, to develop a new premium in flight catering product. The partnership was in effect since October 2003 when DO & CO opens its new gourmet kitchen at London Heathrow (“Innovative Move”). 3) Alpha Flight Services Alpha Flight Services (AFS) if a part of Alpha Airports Group Plc, the largest UK supplier of retailing and catering services for airports and airlines. Currently AFS serves over 50 million meals a year to more than 100 airlines from 75 airports in eight countries.

AFS is the European leader of on-board sales of food, beverages and gifts. During the first semester 2004 alone, AFS sales are increased 12. 4% to ? 133. 8m (2003/4: ? 119. 0m), with UK flight catering sales up 10. 0% to ? 74. 5m (2003/4: ? 67. 7m), International flight catering sales up 3. 6% to ? 17. 4m (2003/4: ? 16. 8m) (“Results for the 6 Months”). Moreover, UK flight catering profit improved 11. 1% due to a 5. 0% increase in meal volumes, reflecting both enhanced aircraft utilization and greater consumer sales by our charter airline customers, combined with a further 7. 5% improvement in productivity. However, its international flight catering profit declined by 61. 1% due to severed condition in Amsterdam and Australian offices. In early December 2004, AFS assigns Christian Salvesen to provide warehouse and distribution services of multi temperature meals and associated airline in-cabin products through an official agreement for 5 years period (“Salvesen Offering”). At initial stage, the agreement exists in AFS’ UK facilities with possible expansion to reach all AFS operation in mainland Europe.

The cooperation with Salvesen is critical since Salvesen has well known supply chain operations in consumer and food sectors. Through partnership with Salvesen, AFS aims to optimize inventories and ensure that goods are available precisely when required. New Entrants The threat of new entrants rises as the barrier to entry is reduced in a marketplace. As more firms enter a market, we will see rivalry increase, and profitability will fall (theoretically) to the point where there is no incentive for new firms to enter the industry. One of common barriers to enter an industry is brand loyalty.

Brand loyalty is one element of brand equity that tells us the degree customers buy a specific products or services. In in-flight catering business where the industry has characterized the major players, LSG Sky Chef, Gate Gourmet, and Alpha Flight Services, to rule the industry, it is difficult to enter the market without have agreement with one of them. It means that any local in-flight catering companies that want to expand their market had better to work with one of the three biggest in-flight catering companies before deciding to fight alone.

The reason is clear that the three already have strong brand awareness in customers mind and as the three has become global player, they have already achieve economy of scale where they can offer the price per unit as low as new entrants in the market could not catch up. Another factor that makes new entrants in in-flight catering companies could not compete is the requirement to have kitchen facilities where the airlines customer has the flight route.

To cope with this matter while keeping the cost down, in-flight catering companies could rent kitchen facilities in locations they have not built the facilities yet. However, in the long-term, they should have their own kitchen facilities since renting cost in the long period will be equal to buying new facilities. License is another challenge for new entrants. In order to compete in UK food industry, we should aware that the country also has specific food safety legislation.

If we intend to enter the UK in-flight market in 2006, we must ensure that our services have complied with the new Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2005 that will come into force on 1 January 2006. Like other food regulation, the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2005 also addresses the handling process to ensure the food products are safe to consume. In the Chapter XII of the regulation, the regulator states “food business operators are to ensure that food handlers are supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity” (“Changes to UK Food Safety”).

However, if we want to enter the UK in-flight catering market prior to 2006, we do not have to do anything now except simply to ensure we comply with the provisions of The Food Safety Act 1990 and regulations such as The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995. Nevertheless, in the event that EU Regulations do become UK law then it will be responsibilities of any owners of food businesses to ensure that they comply with them. c) Products Substitution This is probably the most overlooked, and therefore most damaging, element of strategic decision-making.

It is imperative that business owners (us) not only look at what the company’s direct competitors are doing, but what other types of products people could buy instead. The products substitution in in-flight catering market is food that sold in the waiting room or any stores around the airports. This is true since there are no prohibitions of taking food into cabin. Therefore, once we decide to enter in-flight catering market and have airlines, who buy our services, we should ensure that our food (in-flight meal or snack) should completely different from ones offered in the airports.

Buyer Power

There are some factors affecting buyer power: size of buyer (larger buyers will have more power over suppliers), number of buyers (when there are a small number of buyers, they will tend to have more power over suppliers), and purchase quantity (When a customer purchases a large quantity of a suppliers output, it will exercise more power over the supplier). As discussed in the previous section, currently the airline industry faces fierce competition after the 9/11 attacks, causing phobia of air traveling for fear of being hijacked by terrorists anymore.

In the situation where airlines should cut their airfares to entice passengers to travel with them, in-flight meal becomes one element that airlines will cut the budget to bring the cost down. Under such circumstances, in-flight catering companies should prepare various options of in-flight meal or snack in order to catch up with the airlines budget. Another fact that in-flight catering companies should take into account is the recent trends where airlines are likely to eliminate free in-flight meal option and provide meal only for passengers who want to buy.

In this manner, in-flight catering companies should provide in-flight kitchen or any facilities that enable in-flight meal to get warm for a long time. Another challenge behind the trends to provide meal at a cost in in-flight industry is the inventory. Under such circumstances, there are two factors contributing to the success of delivering in-flight meal. First, the type of meal in which in-flight catering companies should make the meal as warm as passengers want. Second is to provide an exact calculation of by how many meal we should carry into cabin to minimize unsold meal gets obsolete.

Supplier Power

The power of suppliers plays a significant role in in-flight catering industry since to provide services at any places where airlines have flight route is a huge effort if we do not have local partners and sustainable supply chain that support in-flight catering companies business abroad. The supplier in in-flight catering industry composes of several elements from raw material providers, boxes manufacturers, logistics service providers to human resources that are knowledgeable of conducting in-flight catering business.

Concerning the human resources, currently airline caterers employ over 100,000 people worldwide, and supplier companies have at least the same number again responsible for provisioning the industry (“Student Fact Sheet”). Employment opportunities in in-flight caterers come in several positions. Typically, airlines seek operations and supply chain personnel for their catering divisions with skills in the marketing, logistics, finance, IT and human resources. Each element has job descriptions as following:

• Supply Management: the main task of supply management is to manage reduction in overall production costs and developing value-added supplier alliances. Some in-flight caterer manage their own supply management but other like Alpha Flight Services (AFS) decides to appoint the third party, Christian Salvesen, to handle the supply management.
• perations: the main task of people in operations department is to manage overall hygiene, quality management, food engineering and safety, HACCP implementation, waste handling and other environmental issues. This department plays significant role since it determine the quality of products.
• Marketing: the main task of marketing department is to manage relationships with customers and suppliers, to analyze competitor activity and customer needs, to plan kinds of products and their prices to comply with customers’ budget; to identify what trends will be and prepare products to match the trends. Concerning the human resources, one of school that is ready to provide human resources for in-flight catering business is the School of Management at the University of Surrey in UK.

The school is the place where the world’s first professor of In-flight Catering Research, Professor Peter Jones, develops in-flight catering courses under cooperation with the International Flight Catering Association (IFCA) (“New Look”). Other suppliers that are important to in-flight catering industry are packaging manufacturers. In the UK, one of leader in packaging is Smartboxes, a London-based company that have extensive experience of providing bespoke plastic/cardboard products and packaging for airlines industry. Its customers include Clients include British Airways, Emirates, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Korean Airways.

Bibliography

1. Changes to UK Food Safety Legislation in 2006. 2005. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Retrieved February 25, 2004 from <http://www. rbkc. gov. uk/EnvironmentalServices/FoodHygieneandStandards/foodlegislationchanges. asp>
2. “Facts & Figures: Essential Information in Brief. ” LSG Sky Chef. 2003. LSG Lufthansa Service Holding AG. Retrieved February 25, 2005 from <http://www. lsg-skychefs. com/search>

An explosion destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket belonging to Elon Musk’s SpaceX during routine test firing at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday, shaking buildings miles (km) away and sending a thick plume of black smoke pouring into the air. SpaceX said there were no injuries but that an “anomaly” during the static fire test resulted in the loss of the rocket and the Israeli communications satellite it had been due to carry into space at the weekend. The large blast shook the launch pad leased by SpaceX at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station just after 9 a.m. ET.People in buildings several miles from the facility wrote on social media that they felt the explosion, but local authorities said residents were not at risk.”There is NO threat to general public from catastrophic abort during static test fire at SpaceX launch pad,” the Brevard County Emergency Management Office said in a tweet.

Robin Seemangal, a space reporter with the Observer newspaper, quoted a source at the facility who told him it felt like the building they were in had been hit by lightning.”We actually thought the building was collapsing, it shook us so bad,” Seemangal wrote in a tweet, quoting his source. SpaceX had been due to launch its 29th Falcon 9 rocket before dawn on Saturday, carrying into orbit the AMOS-6 communications satellite owned by Israel’s Space Communication. Facebook would have been among the customers for bandwidth on that satellite. The social media network said last year that, in partnership with Eutelsat Communications, it would boost data connectivity to large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Spacecom spokesman said in an email that the company “does not have a comment yet on the situation in Florida.”Beijing Xinwei Technology Group has agreed to buy Spacecom for $285 million, the companies said last week. The companies had said the deal is contingent on the successful launch of the AMOS-6 satellite, and the completion of its in-orbit tests.

Tesla, solarcity shares down

It was not immediately known to what extent SpaceX’s launch pad was damaged or what the impact would be on the dozens of NASA and commercial satellite missions on its launch schedule.”NASA still is assessing what impacts, if any, the incident will have on future missions,” spokesman Michael Curie said in an email.Shares of Musk’s companies Tesla Motors and SolarCity were down 4 percent at $203.65 and 5.5 percent at $19.50 respectively in morning trade.SpaceX said on Wednesday it had signed its first customer to use a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket, but that launch was not due until later this year and the rocket that exploded on Thursday had never been flown before.SpaceX had recovered from a June 2015 launch accident that destroyed a load of cargo headed for the International Space Station.The pad where SpaceX’s rocket was being prepared for launch is one of two operated by the company. Its other site is at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.SpaceX also has leased one of the old space shuttle launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center, adjacent to SpaceX’s current launch site. A fourth U.S. site is under construction in Texas.Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of slashing launch costs to make travel to Mars affordable. The company plans to fly its first unmanned spacecraft to Mars in 2018 and send humans to Mars as early as 2024.Musk is expected to unveil details of his Mars program at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, next month.SpaceX’s major competitors are United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, and Europe’s Arianespace.

ABSTRACT

Airfoil is the main part of the airplane which contributes the lift required by the airplane to fly in the air. By varying the wing’s area and the angle of attack, different lift can be created and can be used to fly the airplane. This program named XFLR5 is used for determining the airfoil characteristics.

It will help them to save a lot of time on computing the equations and on the trial and error method. The program can also be used as basic tool to show the users what will happen when some variables like Reynolds number, the AOA of the wings and the speed of the aircraft are changed and how it will affect the results and lift generated. This project report deals with the analysis of widely used airfoils in the modern aircrafts. In this analysis, the lift, drag, pressure profiles and their coefficients of the airfoils are been calculated using xflr5 program.

These are obtained in the form of graphical representation by feeding data such as Reynolds number, Mach number, Angle of Attack and dimensions of the airfoils to the program. The results such as maximum lift coefficient, stalling angle, maximum lift to drag ratio and such parameters are obtained and are been compared with each other.

INTRODUCTION

Airfoils are the primary shapes which allow streamlined flow over it when it is driven through air. These shapes do not produce much drag compared to other shapes as so it is used in all aircraft structural parts which is subjected to airflow. Basically airfoils can be divided into many types by slightly varying their thickness, length, camber area and so on without after the shape.

In this analysis we deal with airfoil shapes known as NACA airfoils. The NACA airfoils are just shapes of airfoils used for aircraft wings, which is developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The shape of the NACA airfoils is determined using a series of digits followed by the word “NACA. ” The series is divided using digits from 1-8. We only deal with the 4-digit series of airfoils in this analysis. The 4 digit airfoils we are going to discuss in this analysis are 0004, 0008, 0012, 0016, 0020, 0312, 1312, 2312, 3312, 2112, 2512 and 2712.

In this 4 digit series, 1st digit denotes the maximum camber as percentage of the chord, 2nd digit denotes the distance of maximum camber from the airfoil leading edge in tens of percent’s of the chord and this last 3rd and 4th digits denotes maximum thickness of the airfoil as percent of the chord. The key features we are going to discuss about in this analysis are the effects of Angle of Attack, Reynolds number, Mach number, Camber and Thickness. The basic aerodynamic design is to obtain maximum lift and minimum drag which will be expressed in terms of coefficient of lift (Cl) and coefficient of drag (Cd).

Using this program known as XFLR5, we are going to compare the characteristics of all the airfoils. As the operating valves such as Angle of Attack, Mach number, Reynolds number are to be fed in to the program and this will give us the required graph of the parameters such as Cl, Cd, alpha, Cp and so on. Using these results achieved from the program, it will be easier to find out the airfoil with highest Cl at various angles of attack, which has got highest stalling angle and the airfoil with best glide ratio and so on.

OBJECTIVES

This report is basically done to find out airfoils with maximum lift to drag ratio by comparing many airfoils each other and allowing their camber area, thickness and the location of the camber to deviate to the small percentage of the chord. By doing this, we can achieve a best airfoil design that can be used in live aircrafts.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction:

If an aircraft has to fly, force has to be counter balanced by the weight as it must be opposite to its magnitude. This force is known as lift. Lift plays a major factor on the airplane flight.

The main plane (wings) generates more lift as it is the important load carrying member. * The aerofoil sections have been started to get developed in late 1800’s. In 1884 H. F. Phillips with the help of wind tunnel, tested and made series of airfoils. At the same time Otto Lilienthal with the help of the bird’s wings, designed airfoil shapes. It was found that the key factor is that the wing curvature or camber. The early airplanes were biplanes because, the airfoils were thin and cambered as shown in figure 2. 1. Figure 2. 1: Hanson http://www. biplanefun. om/assets/Image/Hanson_215217_001. jpg Nowadays these types of aircrafts are not used, as all airfoils are made by trial and error method. Airfoils used in 1920’s (NACA). ( http://www. desktop. aero/appliedaero/airfoils1/images/sections1. gif) Figure 2. 2: Ancient development in airfoils For the project, the NACA 4 digit airfoil format will be use for the program which is generating the airfoil’s shape and the thin airfoil theory will be use for computing the important parameters of the wing.

Terminology for Airfoil and Airplane:

Basic parts of an airfoil that must be known before getting in to the chapter of NACA 4 digit series. The diagram below describes the parts of an airfoil from which series are determined. Figure 2. 3: Airfoil Terminology airfoil (http://www. copters. com/aero/pictures/Fig_2-10. gif) Figure 2. 5: Plane Axes (http://www. allstar. fiu. edu/aero/images/fig25. gif)

Definitions: The line drawn midway between the upper and lower surfaces of the airfoil is known as mean camber.

The straight line joining the leading and trailing edges of the airfoil is known as chord. Leading edge is the front of the airfoil. Trailing edge is the end of the airfoil. The angle between the chord and the line representing the relative airflow is known as the angle of attack (AOA). Camber of an airfoil is the upper and lower surfaces curvature. The airfoil’s thickness and amount of lift the airfoil will generate is determined by the cambered area. When the term upper camber is used, it is referring to the upper surface of the airfoil. When the term lower camber is used, it is referring to the lower surface of the airfoil.

Span is the distance from a tip of the wing to the other tip of the wing.

The Four Forces on the Airplane Figure 2. 6: Forces on an airplane (http://anjungsainssmkss. files. wordpress. com/2011/09/plane_forces. jpg) The four main forces that maintain the aircraft in steady flight and helps fly are Lift, Drag, Weight and Thrust. Thrust is a forward pulling which is generated by the engine(powerplant). Thrust opposes the drag. Thrust depends upon the power of the engine as high power engines produce more thrust and the type of the engines with respect to their mounted location.

Drag is a force which opposes the thrust as when the aircraft moves in high speed the air passes over and below the surface produce drag. It is a resistive force. The weight is a force of an airplane which is acting downwards due to the force of gravity. This force pulls down on the plane and opposes the lift force. This force mainly depends upon the weight of the aircraft and so it depends upon how much we load and the total weight we use to build the aircraft. Lift is an important force in the aircraft which tends the aircraft to fly.

It is generated as aircraft moves at high speed and is generated below the airfoil surface of the main plane. At this time, there will be low pressure acting over the wing and high pressure under the wing. The four forces act on any airplanes in flight and are interconnected. In order for the airplane to take off, lift must overcome weight and thrust must overcome drag. During landing, thrust must be reduced below the level of drag and lift must be reduced below the weight of the airplane.

Theory of Lift:

Lift is an important force as it sustains an airplane in ir and enables it to manoeuvre. The theory of lift has been debated for a long time and currently still debating. However this project is not about debating the theory of lift but to design the airfoil. Therefore to cover the theory of lift, the 2 more popular explanations which are the Newton’s Law and the Bernoulli’s Principle will be discuss briefly. * Principles of Physics such as the principle of conservation of momentum, the principle of the conservation of mass and the principle of the conservation of energy are the basic principles to be known and to be considered to understand lift force.

The principle of the conservation of momentum is covered by Newton’s Law. And the principle of the conservation of energy is covered Bernoulli Principles. Both can be use to explain the basics principles on how lift is form and are compatible with each other. In the following explanations, air is assumed as an ideal fluid and therefore 3 major assumptions about the physical properties of the airflow are made: * The airflow over a wing is incompressible. The airflow is inviscid which means the viscosity of air is approaching zero. The airflow around the wing is steady.

Newton’s Law Explanation:

Lift is generated by a wing as it moves through the air at an angle of attack. This will turn the airflow downward and the wing itself will have the force acting in an upward direction. In order to make use of the Newton’s Law, we need to know a theory known as the Coanda Effect. Coanda Effect stated “A moving stream of fluid in contact with a curved surface will tend to follow the curvature of the surface rather than continue travelling in a straight line. ” This states that, when the air hits the wing when it is subjected through air, the angle changes the wing dimension as it is tilted to an extent.

At this stage air do not reflect back as it stays over the wing. From Coanda Effect, we know that the wing is changing the direction of the airflow and also changing the velocity. Since lift is a force, according to Newton’s 2nd law of motion: Force = mass x acceleration (F=ma)  Acceleration is a change in velocity with respect to time and force will be:  Force = mass x (change in velocity / change in time) Therefore a change in velocity will generate a force and a force will cause a change in velocity.

Velocity has both a magnitude called speed and a direction is associated with it. It is a vector quantity. Therefore by changing the direction of the airflow, the wing is also causing an increase in velocity which results in an acceleration. This change in velocity also generates a reaction force on the wing acting in an upwards direction. * This principle of Newton’s 3rd law which states “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction” helps to explain the nature of lift. The reaction force experienced by the wing is the total reaction. Figure 2. : Forces on an airfoil (http://www. free-online-private-pilot-ground-school. com/images/forces_airfoil. gif) * 1. vii Bernoulli’s Principle: Bernoulli’s Principle can be referred to as the law of conservation of energy and the total energy in a moving mass of fluid consists of potential energy, kinetic energy and the fluid’s pressure energy. It states that sum of all energies result in a constant value for the steady flow of an ideal fluid. Bernoulli’s Principle shows that as the velocity of a fluid flow changes, the pressure will change as well.

This means that when the fluid’s velocity increases, the pressure will decrease and vice versa. Using this principle of pressure variation with velocity change, lift force developed by the wing can be accurately predicted in the same way as Newton’s Law. Figure 2. 8: Example of Bernoulli’s Principle (http://images. rcuniverse. com/magazine/reviews/455/bernoulli. jpg) Using Bernoulli’s Principle, the kinetic energy of the air will be highest where the pressure energy is the lowest and lowest where the pressure energy is the highest.

This will result in an increase of the airflow for the upper surface of the wing and decreases for the lower surface of the wing. Therefore there will be a lower pressure on the upper surface of the wing and a higher pressure on the lower surface of the wing. This will result in a force acting in an upwards direction. Using equation: Force = Pressure x Area The lift force will be proportional to the pressure differential across the wing multiplied by the wing’s surface area. For Bernoulli’s Principle, it does not provide any explanation on why the airflow is faster on the top surface of the wing.

The Newton’s Law also did not explain why the air deflects downward. Both theories only explain how lift is created. * 1. viiiThe Factors affecting Lift: Lift is the main source of force which enables the airplanes to fly. In order to generate enough lift, several factors have to be taken into consideration as they affect the amount of lift the airplane can generate. The general equation for lift is Lift = lift coefficient x {(air density x velocity2)/2} x wing area Where the lift coefficient is given by: Lift coefficient = 2 x pi x (AOA – calculated AOA at zero lift) Therefore the factors affecting lift are: The Angle of Attack (AOA).

• The airfoil shape.
• Airspeed.
• Wing size.
• Air density.

The air density depends on the height which the airplane is flying. As the height of the airplane decreases, the air density will increase which will also result in higher lift generated. Therefore to generate the same amount of lift when the air density increases, the velocity of the airplane must increase. The Angle of Attack (AOA) of the airplane’s wing which is denoted by the Greek letter alpha ?. AOA is the angle between the oncoming air or relative wind and a reference line on the wing which in this case is the chord.

It is one of the important parameters for handling and designing of a plane as a typical wing only has a limited range of angles of attack As the AOA increases, the lift generated by the airfoil is also increased. However, once the AOA reaches a certain angle known as the Critical Angle, the airplane will stall as the airflow will separate from the upper surface, resulting in a loss of lift which means the airplane will stall. This will result in cavitations and lose in lift force. It will also produce drag force as shown in figure 2. 9. Figure 2. 9: Diagram of how AOA affects the air flow (http://www. ero-mechanic. com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/2-8-283×300. jpg) The lift depends upon the airfoil and the force the air flows over it. Thus when airflow is more, lift produced is maximum. Comparing a cambered airfoil and a symmetric airfoil, a cambered airfoil produced more lift than a symmetric airfoil. Even a flat plate subjected to the air will produce lift. Thus the airfoil should be designed in such a way that it produces high lift to drag ratio. * 1. ix NACA 4 series: In the 1930s, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) developed several sets of airfoils and camber lines.

The “Characteristics of 78 Related Airfoil Sections from Tests in the Variable Density Wind Tunnel” report was published by the NACA. In this report, the authors discovered that the airfoils that are successful had many similarities. The two primary variables that affected the airfoil shapes are the slope of the airfoil mean camber line and the thickness distribution above and below the line. Many of this airfoil shapes have been in use as tails and wings of airplanes over the years. The first family of airfoils designed using this approached is the NACA 4 series.

In the NACA 4 series, the 1st digit indicates the maximum camber (m) in percentage of the chord, the 2nd digit indicates the position of the maximum camber (p) in tenths of cord and the last 2 digits provide the maximum thickness (t) of the airfoil in percentage of chord. For example, the NACA 2412 airfoil will have a maximum camber of 2% located at 40% from the leading edge with maximum thickness of 12% cord. 4-digit series airfoils by default have a maximum thickness of 30% of the chord from the leading edge. Therefore with the first 2 digits 00, it indicates that there is no camber and is a symmetrical airfoil.

To find the mean camber line, it can be calculated using: To calculate for the thickness distribution, equation 2. 3 is used. Currently in the market, there are several NACA 4 series airfoil generators. These generators calculate the coordinates of the airfoil shape. However, it does not take into consideration of the load that the airfoil will be taking, meaning the surface area of the wings are not taking into consideration. There is also not much program which enables the user to calculate the whole wing surface area and the lift generated by the wing with different airfoil design. 1. x Thin Airfoil Theory: For this project, the Thin Airfoil Theory will be use to compute the model airplane’s airfoil thickness and wing dimension as the thickness for the model airplane’s wing is not very thick. Thin airfoil theory was devised by German mathematician Max Munk and further refined by British aerodynamicist Hermann Glauert and others in 1920s. It is a simple theory of airfoils that relates the angle of attack to lift. The theory idealizes the flow around an airfoil as a 2 dimensional flow around a thin airfoil.

At low angles of incidence, the boundary layer growth on an airfoil is thin and remains attached to the airfoil. Therefore the airflow is assumed to be inviscid and irrotational. Since the thickness of any lifting airfoil is less than a fifth of its chord length, the effect of the airfoil’s thickness can be neglected and the airfoil will be represented by its mean camber line. A mathematically conceived function in the form of a vortex sheet is then placed along the length of the camber line to simulate the airfoil. This essentially makes it a streamline of the flow.

By applying the circulation theory of lift to this streamline, the aerodynamic properties of the airfoils are obtained. The airfoil is considered as having zero thickness and infinite wingp. This the reason why the theory does not take into consideration the induced drag that arises from the wing tips of an airfoil. Therefore it is only good for approximating an airfoil with medium and large aspect ratio and only up to the stall angle which is usually 10 to 15 degree for typical airplane configuration. Any angle beyond 15 degree, the thin airfoil theory cannot be used to calculate the coefficient of lift.

Thin airfoil theory is important as it provided a theoretical basis for the important properties of the airfoils in 2 dimensional flows: * The centre of pressure lies exactly ? of the chord behind the leading edge on a symmetric airfoil. * The aerodynamic centre lies exactly ? of the chord behind the leading edge for cambered airfoil. * The slope of the lift coefficient versus angle of attack line is 2? units per radian. There are many formulae that states the derivation of the thon airfoil theory, but we don’t require those for our project and so its neglected. xi Flat Plate Airfoil Theory:

Flat plate theory is applied to airfoils as the thickness is also the constituent of drag in the airfoil. The flat plate when it is subjected to airflow the drag minimum as compared to the other shapes with reasonable thickness. Thickness cannot be neglected as it also plays a vital role in the camber surface as it produces lift. The transition point can be pushed back as we reduce the drag in an airfoil by which we can get a good lift curve for higher degrees. In case of boundary layer, the drag in a flat plate will be laminar for a certain period of time and it then become turbulent.

There is no unique valve where the stream gets turbulent, but by keeping the laminar surface clean and free stream, one can delay the renolds number. Figure 2. 10: Velocity profiles for laminar and turbulent boundary layer EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE AND ANALYSIS Introduction: These experiments below are done using xflr5 program. NACA 4 digit series airfoils are been used in the analysis. In the final analysis, NACA airfoils ranging from 0 to 9% of camber magnitude, 10 to 70% of camber location and 3% to 30% of thickness airfoils are analysed to get an airfoil of better performance with high to lift to drag ratio.

Maximum lift is at 14 degrees and thus stall occurs. Cl max is 1. 36. It is consistent as Bernoulli’s approach on analysis. Part 2: In this part, the angle of attack is varied from -4 degrees to 18 degrees. Re and M is same as above. The lift curve passes through the origin, so zero lift is at origin (0 degrees). Max Cl is at 1. 36 where the stall angle is at 4 degrees. The maximum glide ratio is 75. 86 and at this point the values of Cl is 0. 8685, value of Cd is 0. 0115 and the value of alpha is 7. 5 degrees. Exercise B: Effect of Reynolds number Airfoil = NACA 0012 Alpha (AOA) = 4 degrees M = 0. 00

Part 1: In this part, we discuss about the effects due to change in Reynolds number in NACA 0012 airfoil. Re number = 100000 to 2. 1 million with an increment of 400000 Figure 3. 6: Pressure profiles plot Part 2: In this part, we discuss about the effects due to change in Reynolds number and Angle of attack in NACA 0012 airfoil. Re number = 100000, 500000, 900000, 2100000, 4000000. AOA (alpha) = -4 to 20 degrees with a step of 0. 5 degrees. Figure 3. 7: Glide ratio and alpha plot Figure 3. 8: Drag coefficient and alpha plot Figure 3. 9: Lift coefficient and alpha plot Figure 3. 10: Lift and Drag polar

Part 2: In this case, the transition point is brought backwards as there is an increase in the boundary layer. It just pushes the stall angle further towards the leading edge. For Re= 100000, drag is increased more at high angle of attack. For high Re number, lift coefficient is more than low Re number and the drag is minimised at high angle of attack in high Re number curves. Exercise C: Effect of Mach number Airfoil = NACA 0012 Re number = 2 million Part 1: In this part, we are discussing about the effects in forces due to change in Mach number. Alpha (AOA) = 4 degrees M = 0. 00, 0. 1, 0. 02, 0. 03 Figure 3. 11: Pressure plot of M=0. 00 Figure 3. 12: Pressure plot of M=0. 01 Figure 3. 13: Pressure plot of M=0. 2 Figure 3. 14: Pressure plot of M=0. 3 Part 2: In this part, we are going to see the difference in the curves for different Mach numbers mentioned in part 1 and also with Angle of attacks from -4 to 30 degrees with a step of 0. 5 degrees.

Part 2: In this part, the angle of attack is also changed with the Mach number. We can see the effect of lift and drag from the values in the table given above in part 2. At the highest AOA the Cl value is increased. As the Mach number increases, the value of Cl max and the stalling angle drops down as it tends to stall soon in high ach number. Exercise D: Effect of Thickness In this exercise, various airfoils of different thickness are used. The values are taken from the program and compared with each other. Re = 2000000, M = 0. 00, AOA(alpha) = -4 to 20 degrees with a step of 0. Airfoils = NACA 0004, NACA 0008, NACA 0012, NACA 0016, NACA 0020 Figure 3. 19: Drag coefficient and Alpha plot Figure 3. 20: Glide ratio and Alpha plot

Symmetrical airfoil is that in which upper and lower surface are same and asymmetrical has various shapes in it. In these two types, the symmetrical airfoil produces less lift-drag ratio than asymmetrical airfoils. Due to the camber in the airfoil, in NACA 1312, NACA 2312 and NACA 3312 has started producing lift at negative angles as other two produces only after 0 degrees. Hence the lift is acquired soon and as angle increases, the drag produced is also less than in airfoils NACA 0012 and NACA 0312. Exercise F: Effect of camber, location

There are minor deflections in the stalling angle as that cannot be accurately calculated. Thus changing the camber location increases lift to some extend as further increase in camber value may cause drag. Exercise G: Finding the best values of a NACA airfoils In this section of analysis, we are using the airfoils of wide range with about 0-9%c camber magnitude, with 10-70%c of camber location and with 3-30% thickness range. We are yet to find the best airfoil with Cl max, largest stalling angle and Cl/Cd(Glide ratio). Re = 2000000, M = 0. 00, AOA(alpha) = -4 to 20 degrees with a step of 0. degrees. Graphs: Figure 3. 30: Lift coefficient and Alpha plot Figure 3. 31: Glide ratio and Alpha plot Figure 3. 32: Glide ratio and Alpha(Re= 200000) Analysis: From the graph 3. 30, we can figure out the maximum Cl value is given by NACA 9318 of about 2. 3. And maximum Cl value when alpha(AOA) is 0 is given by NACA 9718 as per the figure. And hence the airfoil with largest stalling angle also can be seen, as it is NACA 9718. This airfoil though it has less Cl max, it stalls late compared to other airfoils. Its stall angle is going more than 20 degrees.

Many animate beings if non all will in some point in be transporting a burden which is an add-on to normal organic structure weight either through transporting one of their immature like most Primatess. Or necessitating to transport excess organic structure weight for migration which is seen in many birds which do so to last the long distances that they must go without feeding. The energetic costs on the animate beings is the sum of energy that is required to transport the excess burden around with them and how much of a disability it is on the animate being if any. E.g. how it affects the animate being ‘s velocity, the animate being ‘s ability to travel ( mental dexterity ) and how it affects the animate being ‘s behavior. This energetic cost may change with relevancy to weight or it may be influenced by the manner in which an animate being carries a weight e.g. in Primatess is it more energetically feasible to transport the immature on the dorsum or forepart of the parent.

Different species of animate beings have evolved different methods of transporting tonss which is influenced by their morphology, the manner in which they move and how the carnal interacts with its environment. Bumble Bees ( Bombus ) for illustration collect pollen on their legs in pollen baskets to convey back to the settlement whilst other animate beings like emperor penguins ( Aptenodytes forsteri ) will transport nutrient in their tummies and regurgitate it for the immature. Load transporting may give an animate being an advantage whether it is more protection for the immature e.g. Marsupials have evolved a pouch to transport immature, or being able to transport resources back to the settlement which is seen in most species of emmets in which some species like the Leafcutter emmet ( Atta cephalotes ) can transport loads manner over their ain organic structure weight. Load transporting can hold a large affect on an animate being ‘s organic structure, some will increase their organic structure weight dramatically during certain times like the silvertip bear ( Ursus arctos horribilis ) which must construct up its organic structure mass during the summer months in order to last hibernation during the winter. An animate being ‘s organic structure must be capable of digesting the excess weight without for good damaging the animate being ‘s organic structure.

Permanent harm is sometimes caused in worlds ( Homo sapiens ) from inordinate burden transporting even when antecedently warned which can take to deductions subsequently in life. It seems that some animate beings like A cephalotes can transport tonss that are much heavier than themselves for long distances of clip without any foreseen harm to the carnal whilst others like H sapiens may bring down hurts on themselves making so. It is certain that some animate beings are much better at transporting tonss than others nevertheless the forfeits that they make for this ( if any ) may detriment the animate being in another facet of its abilities as an animate being can non be good at everything. A cephalotes may hold a strong organic structure design in footings of transporting tonss nevertheless they may be hapless swimmers as a consequence of their design for transporting tonss. Another animate being that has a strong design in being able to raise and tunnel through things is the Rhinoceros Beetle which is portion of the household Scarabaeida and are one of the largest species of beetles around making 6cm in length. [ 2 ] When a male encounters another male the two beetles will contend, it is done by the two beetles meshing their horns together and utilizing their strength to seek and raise their opposition up and throw them aside. For an animate being to raise a equal and throw them aside with such easiness it must hold a batch of strength in proportion to organic structure size. Rodger Kram wanted to see whether the metabolic rate of Rhinoceros Beetles increased as the burden that the beetles carried increased.

The experiment consisted on the beetle walking in a respirometer chamber whilst on a treadmill carry weights up to 30 times is body mass. Kram found that the beetles could transport the tonss cheaply and that the energy ingestion had doubled merely when the beetle was transporting a burden that was equal to 10 times its organic structure mass . R Kram argues that this may hold been down to the manner in which the beetle moves and its limb position during walking nevertheless Kram finds no grounds for this. This difficult to believe as the beetles legs and motion must hold undergone some natural choice force per unit area for burden carrying and the life manner of the beetle. Kram assumes that the beetles ‘ life manner of tunneling through decomposing stuff such as wood and combating other males for couples may hold had generated natural choice for the ability to transport heavy tonss and exert strong forces. Should this be considered for all arthropods and that all are really good burden bearers, capable of transporting tonss past their ain organic structure weight. For illustration cockroaches are besides capable of transporting tonss equal to their ain organic structure mass and this lone increases their metabolic rate by 50 % .

However some orders like Hymenoptera would be unable to transport weights greater than themselves particularly in the air as they are so finely balanced in flight. Martin Burd found that leaf-cutting emmets do non maximise single energetic efficiency and that they try to rate-maximize and increase the sum of fragments that enter the settlement. The emmets think like the settlement that they are and look at the overall settlement energetic efficiency and seek to maximise it which is non through taking the largest foliage fragments.

Hermit pediculosis pubis ( Coenobita compressus ) are another arthropod and possibly hold to bear a greater burden than most animate beings as they carry their shells around with them. Hermit pediculosis pubis will travel from shell to blast as they get larger to better accommodate their size. Herreid II, C. F. and Full, R. J. step the energy needed for anchorite pediculosis pubis to travel with and without shells at different speeds. The experiment showed that when the pediculosis pubis had no shell and were resting at that place was no significance difference between the 1s with shells. However when the pediculosis pubis were running pediculosis pubis with shells required significantly more energy than unshelled 1s. It was besides found that anchorite pediculosis pubiss are particularly good at transporting tonss that were four times the mass of the crab and that the volume of O used did non increase. No unequivocal reply could be made for this nevertheless it was noticed that the pediculosis pubis that carried big shells shifted their leg places to let them to on occasion drag the shell. This intern allowed the pediculosis pubis to bear the excess weight without utilizing inordinate sums of energy. Clyde, Herreid and Robert besides looked at how the sum of limbs a anchorite crab had affected the energy needed to travel with and without a shell by cut offing a certain figure of legs off several pediculosis pubiss. They found that the volume of used increased when running nevertheless they were non satisfied with the consequences as instability may hold had affected the pediculosis pubis which would be corrected over clip.

When animate beings carry a burden they may follow a different position to counterbalance for the excess weight to do it more energetically efficient, this could be in the form of the organic structure or in the leg motion and the manner in which they move with the weight. J. R. Grote carried out and experiment looking at the consequence of motive power on spiny lobster. He classified a laden spiny lobster as being out of the H2O and an unloaded spiny lobster being in the H2O and so looked at how the place of the legs changed. When the spiny lobster were out of the H2O the legs moved into the organic structure this made the distance of each measure shorter letting the same force to be used nevertheless over a shorter distance counterbalancing for the excess weight. The spiny lobster are more at place in the H2O where the burden of their organic structures does non impact them nevertheless they are capable of accommodating to the state of affairs with alterations in its position to expeditiously transport themselves.

The weight of a burden is non ever every bit of import as the type of burden that an carnal carries, one type of burden may be well more hard to transport than another or a burden may hold a stimulation on the bearer in some manner triping it to utilize more energy for illustration. An experiment looking at the consequence of lading on honey bees Apis mellifera found that the when a bee would lade itself with either pollen or nectar that the bees flight metabolic rate would increase but merely at a little degree in comparing to the sum of burden that was carried. However when the bees were vibrating the bees that were scrounging for pollen were on mean 10 % more metabolically active than bees looking for nectar. The survey could happen no biomechanical ground behind this and proposed that the forage bees are more actively stimulated by the pollen forage than the nectar forage bees. The survey concluded that the bees find the aggregation of pollen a more rewarding resource and work harder to roll up it or that pollen foragers have a higher metabolic rates to roll up pollen in the colder forenoons when it is most likely done ( based on J. Fawells observations ) .

For animate beings to be able to migrate they must hold a beginning of nutrient for the journey whether this is pit Michigans along the manner or conveying their nutrient along with them on the journey as excess organic structure weight which can be used as energy. Or an animate being may take to make both and non turn down the chance of nutrient along its migratory path The Red Knot ( Calidris canutus ) is one bird that migrates long distances during different times of the twelvemonth. The Red Knot will construct up energy militias in organic structure mass before it migrates. How transporting big fuel tonss affects sustained flight Red Knots was investigated in a survey [ 11 ] which found that the metabolic power used increased in proportion to organic structure size. It besides found that the flight musculus efficiency increased besides to counterbalance for the weight. The Red Knott adjusts its musculus size to give maximal efficiency in relation to its weight and helps them to keep maneuverability and the velocity which they can take off important for avoiding marauders such as Peregrine Falcons.

Depredation is a twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours concern for most animate beings and all have their ways of get awaying being eaten for birds go uping every bit high as possible above the marauder and winging fast to derive the advantage or doing for screen where it can non be reached with easiness. Many birds have their ain person schemes nevertheless this is what the black raspberry [ 13 ] ( Sylvia atricapilla ) uses. A survey looking at how body fat affects the black raspberry found that as the sum of weight increased the return off speed decreased being hampered by the excess weight gained. Besides the angle of speech pattern decreased with weight both holding a negative consequence on the birds ‘ public presentation.

However the black raspberries could digest the excess weight up to around 30 % of the original organic structure mass without holding a excessively greater consequence on the public presentation. Merely when burden reached about 40 % was the affect great on the bird ‘s speed and angle of accent . The survey suggest that migratory birds transporting big fat toss will hold a hampered ability to get away marauders and with mention to is the ground why passeriform bird birds with 50 % or more organic structure weight are merely found when they are fixing to do a big journeys in their migration, necessitating them to hold the excess fat. In order for person to understand the effects of lading on an animate being ‘s public presentation they need to look at the interior workings of the animate being so that a better apprehension of what is go oning to the animate being can be seen at different degrees.

David J. Ellerby and Richard L. Marsh decided to look into how blood flow, cardiac end product and O ingestion alteration in a guinea poultry ( Numida Meleagris ) leg musculus and how the different types of musculus behave. The experiments consequences were non surprising and found that blood flow to the musculus increased when the burden was bole loaded or distal limb loaded and the animate being was running. Resulting in a 15 % addition in metabolic power above the control which was unloaded. Cardiac end product and net O ingestion besides increased, with both tons organ blood flow was besides step and was found to drop significantly when the animate being was loaded ( bole & A ; Limb ) and running. At the same clip there was a decrease blood flow to flight musculus. This supports most modern theories that blood is taken off from countries around the organic structure which are non in the greatest demand for it and are given to countries which are. Depending on where the burden was on the guinea poultry affected the blood flow, if the burden was positioned on their dorsum ( bole ) the musculus that are used for stance had an increased blood flow and more so than the musculus used in the swing stage of leg motion. If the burden was so moved to the distal Load ( lower leg ) the blood flow increased in both stance and swing musculus nevertheless less stance musculus had increased blood flow and more swing musculus did. Looking at the finer inside information of how load carrying effects an animate being ‘s allows us to better understand the internal alterations that an animate being makes when bearing a burden instead than merely looking at the external effects.

Load bearing itself varies in so many ways from the carrying of immature to the excess weight needed to last migration for some animate beings it is a affair of endurance. The manner in which transporting a burden affects the energetic cost on an animate being and how it affects its organic structure or head is different for each species. To some animate beings load transporting can be a large hinderance ( e.g. birds ) which rely on being light weight for flight. An animate being ‘s environment and life style must be the selective force per unit area behind its ability to bear weight as seen in Rhinoceros Beetles. It is clear that some animate beings are better at bearing a burden than others like the Rhinoceros Beetle capable of transporting a weight up to 30 times its ain organic structure mass it is obvious that other species like H sapiens would be unable to bear such a weight. Is this down to what sort animate being it is e.g. are arthropods better than chordates at bearing tons? It is difficult to state by looking at merely a smattering of animate beings which animate beings are better as there will ever be exclusions of the groups. If animate beings are better than other animate beings what is it that makes them better is it the design, motion manner, transporting method, blood flow, stronger musculus ECT. One thing that is evident is that there is no individual ground or account behind bearing a burden and the ground for the energetic costs of burden transporting are many and complex.

Robbery Tanisha Barkley, Desiree Brickles, LaTosha Call, Kimberly Clark, Robin Crumble, Tammara Dimond and Keith Dostie Everest University Introduction to Interviews and Interrogations Professor David Farrow March 16, 2013 Robbery Crime Scenario There was a diamond heist at Brussels Airport involving two suspects, one male and one female. The female had the diamonds hidden on her purse, when she passed through security. The male suspect was actually one of the pilots. The female took the flight attendant hostage until the plane was on the ground in Detroit, Michigan.

The female and the male were able to get off of the plane. The two suspects were caught after they got off of the plane and trying to get out of the airport. The two suspects were the last ones to get off the plane and they did not realize that some of the passengers on board contacted the police via cell phones. Interview Preparation The suspects were identified based on the information that was given from the passengers and crew on the airplane. Since the female suspect, Alexis Johnson, took the flight attendant, Lisa Williams, hostage she could then identify the suspect in detail.

Since the suspects were caught after they got off the plane and before they left the airport. The officers can set up interviews at the airport to help obtain all necessary information. In these interviews they will ask the witnesses what happened and for identification of the suspects. Before interviewing the suspects, the officers should try to obtain their background information (Gosselin, 2007). During these interviews there should be other officers that are looking at the scene to ensure that they collect all evidence and information from the plane where all this happened at (Gosselin, 2007).

Interviews For the interview process of the witnesses, a structural interviewing will be used. “Structural interviewing approach builds on the traditional interview by adding the following components: rapport building, narrative description, and an ample interviewee response opportunity” (Gosselin 2007, pg. 71). Witness: The interview for the witness, Ms. Pastor is first set up the day after, so she is able to gather her thoughts as well as get over the shock she experienced. While interviewing Ms. Pastor, she seemed more relaxed as if she only needed sleep.

The interview session was set up in a comfortable space, with comfy chairs 4-6 feet away from each other with a table in the center of them. The room was painted a soft color to relax the interviewee. The first thing the officer does is ensure that she had not been injured and she is stable enough to be questioned. After ensuring her condition, the officer established a rapport by using a first name basis. Next, the officer asked Ms. Pastor if the interview could be videotaped or voice recorded. Ms. Pastor decided it would be best to go with voice recording.

At this time, the officer feels that Ms. Pastor is comfortable enough to start the interview. The officer begins to ask Ms. Pastor a series of questions beginning with personal information and Ms. Pastor seemed comfortable answering them. Next, the officer asks Ms. Pastor about what happened onboard the aircraft. Ms. Pastor stated: “I boarded that plane fine, everything was normal, I put my things above me, and sat in my seat, that flight attendants, came and asked if me and others if we wanted anything to drink or eat before takeoff.

The flight attendants performed the safety procedures before the plane took off, and told us to fasten our seat belts as the plane was about to depart. As soon as we took off, a lady came out from the bathroom area, telling us to be seated and don’t move or else we will get hurt. I stayed seated and kept my mouth shut, sitting there observing everything she was doing. I was amazed, a women was pulling this off. She and another man were talking up ahead where the pilots are when flying, about something in a purse. After the plane landed they left, I guess they got what they were looking for.

The man came from the front of the first class area. They met up in the center then started looking for what they came for. They tried not to talk too much but the girl was a dumb, and I guess wanted to hurry up and find it. She got the man mad and that’s when I heard them say something about “find it in the bag. “” After the interview with the witness was completed, the officer thanked her for the information she provided as well as her time. The officer also gave Ms. Pastor her contact information. The officer also informed Ms. Pastor that if she can remember anything else that she feels would be beneficial, to please call.

Victim: For the interview of the victim, Lisa Williams, the officer conducted a traditional interview. The traditional interview because she is upset and the officer wants to get the immediate facts as fast as possible (Gosselin, 2007). Lisa Williams was the flight attendant who was taken hostage by the female suspect, Alexis Johnson. The interview room was set up in the security area, a quiet part of the airport with no disturbances, with the chairs facing each other approximately four feet apart; the officer does not sit between the door and Ms.

Williams because of the assumption of her not thinking she could leave (Psychological Principles: Interview and Interrogation, 2009). The interview began with asking Ms. Williams for permission to videotape her statement, in which she agreed. In order to establish rapport, the officer and Ms. Williams agreed to address one another by using first names. The officer first began the questions regarding personal information, in order to keep her at ease. Next, the officer began to ask questions regarding what happened on the aircraft.

Lisa stated: “I wasn’t expecting anyone to be behind me. It was right after takeoff; she grabbed me by the back and pulled the back of the flight attendant break area. She said she had a gun. She blindfolded me and bound my hands. To cooperate I would get hurt but if anything went wrong or anything interfered with the plane landing she wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. ” After the interview with the victim was completed, the officer thanked her for her time and answering questions. The officer also gave Ms. Williams her contact information.

The officer informed Ms. Williams that if she can remember anything that would be beneficial to the case, to please call. The officer walked Ms. Williams to meet with her family. Interrogation There were a few techniques during the interrogation of the pilot, Francis Drebin. The officer started with a subjective interview technique in order to establish rapport and to get him comfortable. The officer wanted him to think that he was in the clear and that they were friends in order to get him to open up and share information.

The officer began to ask open-ended questions that allowed him to discuss his typical flight and some of the operations that happened on a regular basis. Upon sharing the names of the flight attendants, his demeanor changed and he began to display signs of nervousness. From here, the officer’s co-investigator switched to the Reid technique for interrogation. This is a nine step technique to obtain a confession to a crime. Mr. Drebin was confronted about the facts of the case and a theme was developed on the events of the incident (Layton, 2013). He was read his Miranda Rights and officially arrested for his role in the crime.

Male Suspect: From the information already provided by the witnesses and victim, the pilot of the aircraft was commonly identified by both parties. In light of the details of the incident, the officer uses the structural interviewing technique with the pilot of the plane. This way, he can discuss the narrative of the events of the incident (Gosselin, 2007). Because of the nature of the incident, the interview of the pilot was conducted in the security office of the current terminal of the airport. This room was chosen because of the privacy and the comfort feel of the room. Mr.

Drebin was asked if the interview could be videotaped, in which he agreed as well as including another officer in the room. The chairs were at an angle located about five feet apart from one another. Both parties agreed to use first names while conducting the interview. The officer began the questioning with asking personal information in order to keep the suspect at ease. Next, the officer asked Mr. Drebin about his flight. Mr. Drebin stated: “It started as business as usual. We were ahead of schedule. When I fly the plane, I am isolated from everyone else and only communicate with the tower.

I can’t really tell what is going on in the cabin unless I am notified by an attendant about a situation through the two-way intercom. I didn’t communicate with the flight attendants or the cabin until we hit flight altitude, where I told them the length of the flight. ” Next, the officer asked Mr. Drebin what he meant by the communication with Ms. Johnson. After approximately thirty seconds, Mr. Drebin stated: “I am sure that I was just giving the crew some flight plans and times for service. ” The officer observed his body language because he was becoming agitated with the questions.

His non-verbal’s made it easy to see this. Then he seemed to be nervous and to fidget. Mr. Drebin was informed that he was a suspect in the robbery heist and was placed under arrest. The officer read Mr. Drebin his Miranda Rights. When the officer began to question Mr. Drebin, he decided to lawyer up. Female Suspect: At the scene of the robbery a female suspect was captured. She was then asked what her name was; she refused to speak. The arresting officer then proceeded to read the woman her Miranda rights and placed her in the police cruiser.

Once we arrived at the police station the female was then place in a small room for questioning. When the officer entered the room to begin questioning, she established a rapport with the female. Both parties sat at opposite ends of the table. The officer asked her what her name was and she refused to answer. The female was suspect was informed was caught by another officer and the jewels were found in her purse at the time of arrest, there is more than enough evidence to put her away and that she is going to get one more chance to tell your side of the story.

She still refused to speak. The officer proceeded to inform her that the male suspect in custody and he is already placing blame away from him; if she doesn’t want to take all the heat, she needs to start talking. She then proceeded to say that she was part of the robbery. The cognitive technique was used in order to gain rapport and start with easy questions to help get and keep her relaxed. However as the questions seemed to become harder, she was not happy and would not continue with the questions (Heuback, 2010).

The female suspect was asked her name, in which she replied Alexis Johnson. Ms. Johnson was then asked personal questions in order to get her at ease. Ms. Johnson was reminded of her Miranda rights and she informed the officer they were already read and understood them. When asked why she robbed the plane, Ms. Johnson stated: “I felt that I could use the extra money and buy everything that I have ever wanted. ” Ms. Johnson then decided that she wanted a lawyer present. Summation In this crime scene we found out how two individuals worked together to steal some diamonds off an airplane.

These two people were very intelligent, and they did manage to get the diamonds off the airplane. However, the suspects were not able to make it out of the airport before they got caught. The police met them at the door. Both suspects were found guilty of their crimes and arrested. Bibliography The officers can set up interviews at the airport to help obtain all necessary information. In these interviews they will ask the witnesses what happened and for identification of the suspects. Before interviewing the suspects the officers should try to obtain their background information (Gosselin, 2007).

During these interviews there should be other officers that are looking at the scene to ensure that they collect all evidence and information from the plane where all this happened at (Gosselin, 2007). For the interview process of the witnesses, a structural interviewing will be used. “Structural interviewing approach builds on the traditional interview by adding the following components: rapport building, narrative description, and an ample interviewee response opportunity” (Gosselin 2007, pg. 71). The traditional interview because she is upset and the officer wants to get the immediate facts as fast as possible (Gosselin, 2007).

The interview room was set up in the security area, a quiet part of the airport with no disturbances, with the chairs facing each other approximately four feet apart; the officer does not sit between the door and Ms. Williams because of the assumption of her not thinking she could leave (Psychological Principles: Interview and Interrogation, 2009). Drebin was confronted about the facts of the case and a theme was developed on the events of the incident (Layton, 2013). In light of the details of the incident, the officer uses the structural interviewing technique with the pilot of the plane.

This way, he can discuss the narrative of the events of the incident (Gosselin, 2007). The cognitive technique was used in order to gain rapport and start with easy questions to help get and keep her relaxed. However as the questions seemed to become harder, she was not happy and would not continue with the questions (Heuback, 2010). References Gosselin, D. (2007). Smart Talk Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation. Upper Saddle River: Person Prentice Hall. Heuback, J. (2010). Suspect Interrogation: Communication Strategies and Key Personality.

Retrieved from ACTR Advances in Communication Theory and Research: http://www. k-state. edu/actr/2010/12/20/suspect-interrogation-communication-strategies-and-key-personality-constructs-jessica-heuback/default. htm Layton, J. (2013). How police interrogation works: The Reid Technique. http://people. howstuffworks. com/police-interrogation. htm Psychological Principles: Interview and Interrogation, (2009). Interview and Interrogation Rooms. http://www. social_engineer. org/framework/Psychological_Principles:_Interview_and_Interrogation

Essentials of MIS Additional Cases 1 BUSINESS PROBLEM-SOLVING CASE JetBlue Hits Turbulence In February 2000, JetBlue started flying daily to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Buffalo, New York, promising top-notch customer service at budget prices. The airline featured new Airbus A320 planes with leather seats, each equipped with a personal TV screen, and average one-way fares of only $99 per passenger. JetBlue was able to provide this relatively luxurious flying experience by using information systems to automate key processes, such as ticket sales (online sales dominate) and baggage handling (electronic tags help track luggage).

Jet Blue prided itself on its “paperless processes. ” JetBlue’s investment in information technology enabled the airline to turn a profit by running its business at 70 percent of the cost of larger competitors. At the same time, JetBlue filled a higher percentage of its seats, employed non-union workers, and established enough good will to score an impressive customer retention rate of 50 percent. Initially, JetBlue flew only one type of plane from one vendor: the Airbus A320. This approach enabled the airline to standardize flight operations and maintenance procedures to a degree that resulted in considerable savings.

CIO Jeff Cohen used the same simple-is-better strategy for JetBlue’s information systems. Cohen depended almost exclusively on Microsoft software products to design JetBlue’s extensive network of information systems. (JetBlue’s reservation system and systems for managing planes, crews, and scheduling are run by an outside contractor. ) Using a single vendor provided a technology framework in which Cohen could keep a small staff and favor in-house development of systems over outsourcing and relying on consultants. The benefit was stable and focused technology spending. JetBlue spent only 1. percent of its revenue on information technology, as opposed to the 5 percent spent by competitors. JetBlue’s technology strategy helped create a pleasing flying experience for passengers. As president and chief operating officer Dave Barger put it, “Some people say airlines are powered by fuel, but this airline is powered by its IT infrastructure. ” JetBlue consistently found itself at the top of J. D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction surveys. JetBlue believed it had learned to work lean and smart. The big question was whether JetBlue would be able to maintain its strategy and its success as the airline grew.

By the end of 2006, the company was operating 500 flights daily in 50 cities and had $2. 4 billion in annual revenue. Along the way, JetBlue committed to purchasing a new plane every five weeks through 2007, at a cost of $52 million each. Through all of this, JetBlue remained true to its formula for success and customers continued to return. February 14, 2007, was a wake-up call. A fierce ice storm struck the New York City area that day and set in motion a string of events that threatened JetBlue’s sterling reputation and its stellar customer relationships.

JetBlue made a fateful decision to maintain its schedule in the belief that the horrible weather would break. JetBlue typically avoided pre-canceling flights because passengers usually preferred to have a delayed arrival than to camp out at a terminal or check into a hotel. If the airline had guessed correctly, it would have kept its revenue streams intact and made the customers who were scheduled to fly that day very happy. Most other airlines began canceling flights early in the day, believing it was the prudent decision even though passengers would be inconvenienced and money would be lost.

The other airlines were correct. Nine JetBlue planes left their gates at John F. Kennedy International Airport and were stranded on the tarmac for at least six hours. The planes were frozen in place or trapped by iced-over access roads, as was the equipment that would de-ice or move the aircraft. Passengers were confined inside the planes for up to ten and one-half hours. Supplies of food and water on the planes ran low and toilets in the restrooms began to back up. JetBlue found itself in the middle of a massive dual crisis of customer and public relations.

JetBlue waited too long to solicit help for the stranded passengers because the airline figured that the planes would be able to take off eventually. Meanwhile, the weather conditions and the delays or cancellations of other flights caused customers to flood JetBlue’s reservations system, which could not handle the onslaught. At the same time, many of the airline’s pilots and flight crews were also stranded and unable to get to locations where they could pick up the slack for crews that had just worked their maximum hours without rest, but did not actually go anywhere.

Moreover, JetBlue did not have a system in place for the rested crews to call in and have their assignments rerouted. The glut of planes and displaced or tired crews forced JetBlue to cancel more flights the next day, a Thursday. And the cancellations continued daily for nearly a week, with the Presidents’ Day holiday week providing few opportunities for rebooking. On the sixth day, JetBlue cancelled 139 of 600 flights involving 11 other airports. 2 76 Part I: Information Systems in Hits Digital Age JetBlue the Turbulence

JetBlue’s eventual recovery was of little solace to passengers who were stranded at the airport for days and missed reservations for family vacations. Overall, more than 1,100 flights were cancelled, and JetBlue lost $30 million. The airline industry is marked by low profit margins and high fixed costs, which means that even short revenue droughts, such as a four-day shutdown, can have devastating consequences for a carrier’s financial stability. Throughout the debacle, JetBlue’s CEO David G. Neeleman was very visible and forthcoming with accountability and apologies.

He was quoted many times, saying things such as, “We love our customers and we’re horrified by this. There’s going to be a lot of apologies. ” Neeleman also admitted to the press that JetBlue’s management was not strong enough and its communications system was inadequate. The department responsible for allocating pilots and crews to flights was too small. Some flight attendants were unable to get in touch with anyone who could tell them what to do for three days. With the breakdown in communications, thousands of pilots sand flight attendants were out of position, and the staff could neither find them nor tell them where to go.

JetBlue had grown too fast, and its low-cost IT infrastructure and systems could not keep up with the business. JetBlue was accustomed to saving money both from streamlined information systems and lean staffing. Under normal circumstances, the lean staff was sufficient to handle all operations, and the computer systems functioned well below their capacity. However, the ice storm exposed the fragility of the infrastructure as tasks such as rebooking passengers, handling baggage, and locating crew members became impossible. Although Neeleman asserted in a conference call hat JetBlue’s computer systems were not to blame for its meltdown, critics of the company pointed out that JetBlue lacked systems to keep track of off-duty flight crews and lost baggage. Its reservation system could not expand enough to meet the high customer call volume. Navitaire, headquartered in Minneapolis, hosts the reservation system for JetBlue as well as for a dozen other discount airlines. The Navitaire system was configured to accomodate up to 650 agents at one time, which was more than sufficient under normal circumstances.

During the Valentine’s Day crisis, Navitaire was able to tweak the system to accomodate up to 950 agents simultaneously, but that was still not enough. Moreover, JetBlue could not find enough qualified employees to staff its phones. The company employs about 1,500 reservation agents who work primarily from their homes, linking to its Navitaire Open Skies reservation system using an Internet-based voice communications system. Many ticketholders were unable to determine the status of their flights because the phone lines were jammed.

Some callers received a recording that directed them to JetBlue’s Web site. The Web site stopped responding because it could not handle the spike in visitors, leaving many passengers with no way of knowing whether they should make the trip to the airport. JetBlue lacked a computerized system for recording and tracking lost bags. It did have a system for storing information such as the number of bags checked in by a passenger and bag tag identification numbers. But the system could not record which bags had not been picked up or their location.

There was no way for a JetBlue agent to use a computer to see if a lost bag for a particular passenger was among the heap of unclaimed bags at airports where JetBlue was stranded. In the past, JetBlue management did not feel there was a need for such a system because airport personnel were able to look up passenger records and figure out who owned leftover bags. When so many flights were canceled, the process became unmanageable. JetBlue uses several applications provided by outsourcing vendor Sabre Airline Solutions of Southlake, Texas to manage, schedule, and track planes and crews and to develop actual flight plans.

Sabre’s FliteTrac application interfaces with the Navitaire reservation system to provide managers with information about flight status, fuel, passenger lists, and arrival times. Sabre’s CrewTrac application tracks crew assignments and provides pilots and flight attendants access to their schedules via a secure Web portal. JetBlue uses a Navitaire application called SkySolver to determine how to redeploy planes and crews to emerge from flight disruptions. However, JetBlue found out during the Valentine’s Day emergency that SkySolver was unable to transfer the information quickly to JetBlue’s Sabre applications.

And even if these systems had worked properly together, JetBlue would have probably been unable to locate all of its flight crews to redirect them. It did not have a system to keep track of off-duty crew members. Overtaxed phone lines prevented crew members from calling into headquarters to give their locations and availability for work. JetBlue’s response to its humiliating experience was multifaceted. On the technology front, the airline deployed new software that sends recorded messages to pilots and flight attendants to inquire about their availability.

When the employees return the calls, the information they supply is entered into a system that stores the data for access and analysis. From a staffing standpoint, Neeleman promised to train 100 employees from the airline’s corporate office to serve as backups for the departments that were stretched too thin by the effects of the storm. Chapter 2:of MIS AdditionalBusinesses Use Information Systems Essentials E-Business: How Cases 77 3 JetBlue attempted to address its customer relations and image problems by creating a customer bill of rights to enforce standards for customer treatment and airline behavior.

JetBlue would be penalized when it failed to provide proper service, and customers who were subjected to poor service would be rewarded. JetBlue set the maximum time for holding passengers on a delayed plane at five hours. The company changed its operational philosophy to make more accomodation for inclement weather. An opportunity to test its changes arrived for JetBlue just one month after the incident that spurred the changes. Faced with another snow and ice storm in the northeast United States on March 16, 2007, JetBlue cancelled 215 flights, or about a third of its total daily slate.

By canceling early, management hoped to ensure that its flight crews would be accessible and available when needed, and that airport gates would be kept clear in case flights that were already airborne had to return. In the wake of its winter struggles, JetBlue was left to hope that its customers would be forgiving and that its losses could be offset. Neeleman pointed out that only about 10,000 of JetBlue’s 30 million annual customers were inconvenienced by the airline’s weather-related breakdowns.

On May 10, 2007, JetBlue’s Board of Directors removed Neeleman as CEO, placing him in the role of non-executive chairman. According to Liz Roche, managing partner at Customers Incorporated, a customer relationship management research and consulting firm, “JetBlue demonstrated that it’s an adolescent in the airline industry and that it has a lot of learning and growing up to do. ” Sources: Doug Bartholomew and Mel Duvall, “What Really Happened at JetBlue,” Baseline Magazine, April 1, 2007; “JetBlue Cancels Hundreds of Flights,” The Associated Press, accessed via www. nytimes. om, March 16, 2007; Susan Carey and Darren Everson, “Lessons on the Fly: JetBlue’s New Tactics,” The Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2007; Eric Chabrow, “JetBlue’s Management Meltdown,” CIO Insight, February 20, 2007; Jeff Bailey, “Chief ‘Mortified’ by JetBlue Crisis,” The New York Times, February 19, 2007 and “Long Delays Hurt Image of JetBlue,” The New York Times, February 17, 2007; Susan Carey and Paula Prada, “Course Change: Why JetBlue Shuffled Top Rank,” The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2007; Coreen Bailor, JetBlue’s Service Flies South,” Customer Relationship Management, May 2007; Thomas Hoffman, “Out-of-the-Box Airline Carries Over Offbeat Approach to IT,” Computerworld, March 11, 2003; and Stephanie Overby, “JetBlue Skies Ahead,” CIO Magazine, July 1, 2002. Case Study Questions 1. What types of information systems and business functions are described in this case? 2. What is JetBlue’s business model? How do its information systems support this business model? 3.

What was the problem experienced by JetBlue in this case? What people, organization, and technology factors were responsible for the problem? 4. Evaluate JetBlue’s response to the crisis. What solutions did the airline come up with? How were these solutions implemented? Do you think that JetBlue found the correct solutions and implemented them correctly? What other solutions can you think of that JetBlue hasn’t tried? 5. How well is JetBlue prepared for the future? Are the problems described in this case likely to be repeated? Which of JetBlue’s business processes are most vulnerable to breakdowns? How much will a customer bill of rights help?

Relevant facts/ Background Avianca Flight 52 touched the ground for a final time on January 25 1990, 16 miles from JFK airport in Cove Neck, Long Island, N. Y. , completely out of fuel. The Boeing 707-321B was carrying 158 people coming from Medellin, Columbia, in which 85 people survived. The crash of Avianca Flight 52 was the largest rescue operation in New York prior to 9/11. There was a severe blizzard on the north-east coast of the U. S. causing bad weather with a low pressure system and wind shear.

JFK airport authorities had been told to keep a higher landing rate than safe at 33 planes attempting to land per hour, on one runway – the typical rate being 52 in good weather, with all runways open. The airport was experiencing a rate of 27% missed approaches, with 39 planes waiting in holding patterns for clearance to land and dozens waiting to take-off. Sequence of events The 707 had been placed in holding patterns for a total of 1 hour and 17 minutes during three separate occasions over the U. S. east coast.

There were 6 different air traffic controllers that had communicated directions to Flight 52 after they entered U. S. airspace, adding confusion and un-transmitted messages, yet at the same time not providing any more crucial information such as weather conditions. The Flight Engineer failed to communicate the urgency of the low fuel situation to the pilot and co-pilot after they passed the point of no return and had to remain committed to JFK –by not having enough fuel to get to their alternate airport at Boston, 342km away from JFK.

He also failed to emphasize the importance of landing in their first attempt because they would not have enough fuel to loop around and try again. Another discrepancy was how the co-pilot used the words “Low Fuel” and “Priority” rather than “MAYDAY” and “Minimum Fuel” while communicating to ATCs. There was a lot of crucial information left out or misinterpreted and not so important information repeated, which could have easily been avoided without the language barriers in place.

In terms of the Swiss Cheese model there were many holes in the conversations between ATCs and the flight crew, similarly between the flight crew and passengers, where they weren’t even given a warning. Causes and factors During the chase to point the blame on someone, Avianca stated to investigators that the phraseology used by their pilots was correct as per their training -whether it matched the standard English phraseology used by IATA countries or not they were only following what they thought to be proper protocol.

Investigation by the NTSB found many holes in the events leading up to the crash, due to both active and latent failures by the crew, ATCs, and airport management. The leading causes can be attributed to airport mismanagement, inconsistent training for pilots that should have English proficiency, and overall poor communication between ATCs and the flight crew. Repetitive flaws in a system run by human beings shows a clear link in the lack of Risk Management, causing communication gaps referred to as holes in the Swiss Cheese model for human error.

CRM stipulates training crew in assertiveness, inter-personal communication, leadership and decision-making, to name a few key attributes these pilots were in need of addressing prior to the incident. There was no problem of experience as both the pilot and co-pilot had flown that route before, and the pilot had 27 years of experience flying for Avianca. The implementation of Crew Resource Management techniques in the previous years must not have been as streamlined as intended, at least not for the American ATCs and those training under Avianca in Columbia.

If one lesson would be learned from this it would be that had the crew received effective and efficient CRM training on time, they could have saved 73 people from an almost completely preventable death by human error. References AskCaptainLim. com {comments}. Aviation, Air Crash. Avianca flight 52: why the pilots failed to use proper phraseology. (Last updated October 19, 2008). Retrieved from: http://www. askcaptainlim. com/-air-crash-aviation-34/830-avianca-flight-52-why-the-pilots-failed-to-use-the-proper-phraseology. html Cushman Jr. , John H.

New York Times, Archives, Collections, Fuel. Avianca flight 52: the delays that ended in disaster. (February 5, 1990). Retrieved from: http://www. nytimes. com/1990/02/05/nyregion/avianca-flight-52-the-delays-that-ended-in-disaster. html? pagewanted=all&src=pm National Geographic, Cineflix Productions. Air Crash Investigation series, Episode S02E05 – Missing Over New York. Retrieved from http://natgeotv. com/ca/air-crash-investigation/videos/deadly-delay Wikipedia. org, Avianca Flight 52. (Last updated March 22, 2013). Retrieved from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Avianca_Flight_52