Boeing 737 Max 8 has become a hot topic after the plane crash involving Kenya / Ethiopian Airlines.
On the subject of man-machine interface, industriatialiana.it has collected information on the made in Italy software solution that could avoid such incidents.
In the article you can read at this address in its entirety, Marco Scotti and Chiara Volontè contacted Leopoldo Verde, head of the on-board systems unit of Cira, the Italian Aerospace Research Center in Capua.
In the interview published, Verde together with Pierpaolo De Matteis – head of the aeronautics sector for the same structure – explain the reasons why the tragedy of the Ethiopian flight crashed on March 10 last does not mean that flying is less secure than it used to be, in fact.
According to the surveys, it seems to have been a misreading by the sensors of the so-called “attack angle”, which is a fundamental measure during take-off to calculate the speed of ascent compared to that of the air.
Cira has recently developed and patented a software that measures the angle of attack based on the integration of other measures that come from the aircraft in addition to inertial sensors and GPS. In this way the data obtained from different sensors not subject to the same possibility of error are certainly more reliable than those used on the Boeing 737 Max8.
«We have developed this software – concludes Verde – for a specific need born in the USA. On small aircraft, such as ultralights, there is no obligation to mount an angular attack speed meter, although it would be preferable. The problem is that a device of this type has a very high cost, up to 20% of the price of the aircraft. If, in fact, an ultralight aircraft can cost 50-60,000 euros, a sensor capable of recording the angle of attack can reach 10,000.
Instead, the software we developed is sold in the US for $ 100. Our application works as a medical exam that allows you to make a diagnosis by taking a series of parameters and arriving at a “hidden” disease. We can derive the basic measurement and extract it without having to implant invasive and expensive devices. Now, after these tragedies, the interest could also come from big companies “.
