Safety management systems (SMS) are widely accepted as a way of improving safety and are currently required by the aviation regulations. Safety training and education of all professionals in the aviation safety system is vital for the success of any safety management strategy. At the same time some of the terms in the field are not uniquely and consistently defined, e.g. hazard, threat, safety issue, risk, risk area to name a few. This could be confusing for the users of the SMS who are not required to be safety experts. In addition, the abstract nature of the safety concepts and system thinking combined with the formal language of the regulations makes catching and keeping the attention of the trainees a challenge.

Echolocating bats have evolved the ability to detect, resolve and discriminate targets in highly challenging environments using biological sonar. The way bats process signals in the receiving auditory system is not the same as that of radar and sonar and hence investigating differences and similarities might provide useful lessons to improve synthetic sensors. The Spectrogram Correlation And Transformation (SCAT) receiver is an existing model of the bat auditory system that takes into account the physiology and the neural organisation of bats that emit broadband signals. In this study, the authors present a baseband receiver equivalent to the SCAT that allows an analysis of target echoes at baseband. The baseband SCAT (BSCT) is used to investigate the output of the bat‐auditory model for two closely spaced scatterers and to carry out an analysis of range resolution performance and a comparison with the conventional matched filter. Results firstly show that the BSCT provides improved resolution performance. It is then demonstrated that the output of the BSCT can be obtained with an equivalent matched‐filter based receiver. The results are verified with a set of laboratory experiments at radio frequencies in a high signal‐to‐noise ratio.

This paper studies the developments of urban air mobility by a focus on the configurations and flight mechanisms of the different vehicles in this field. This s

Echolocating bats have evolved an excellent ability to detect and discriminate targets in highly challenging environments. They have had more than 50 million years of evolution to optimise their echolocation system with respect to their surrounding environment. Behavioural experiments have shown their exceptional ability to detect and classify targets even in highly cluttered surroundings. The way bats process signals is not exactly the same as in radar and hence it can be useful to investigate the differences. The Spectrogram Correlation And Transformation receiver (SCAT) is an existing model of the bat auditory system that takes into account the physiology and underlying neural organisation in bats which emit chirped signals. In this paper, we propose a baseband receiver equivalent to the SCAT. This will allow biologically inspired signal processing to be applied to radar baseband signals. It will also enable further theoretical analysis of the key concepts, advantages and limitations of the "bat signal processing" for the purpose of target detection, localisation and resolution. The equivalence is demonstrated by comparing the output of the original SCAT to that of our proposed baseband version using both simulated and experimental target echoes. Results show that the baseband receiver provides compatible frequency interference pattern for two closely located scatterers.

This paper examines developments in urban air mobility (UAM), the configurations and flight mechanisms of different aerial vehicles. Despite the interest generated around UAM, there seems to be a gap in the literature concerning a systematic comparative analysis of different configurations, especially regarding their appropriateness for given applications, performance under fault conditions, and potential in even more foresightful but neglected designs. The other problems standing in the way of current UAM technologies are limited payload capacity, endurance, and energy efficiency, all of which work against successful commercialization. This study, therefore, considers a representation of 53 of the more prominent UAM aircraft, classified into a number of groups, paving a way for the in-depth study of important specifications such as range, speed, endurance, cargo capacity, number of passengers, and dimensions. Twelve general UAM configurations are identified, along with their advantages, disadvantages, and fault tolerance. Some underutilized designs are highlighted as worthy of more attention due to their potential. An attempt is made to link UAM configurations to specific applications, such as transportation, emergency response, and cargo delivery, in order to provide specific recommendations for each application. This work challenges standard design thinking, thus inciting designers to explore unusual avenues. The outcome is a useful analysis for researchers and engineers to look at UAM technologies in a different light while opening up possibilities for unconventional and creative designs.