A QFD-BASED DECISION MODEL FOR APPLICATION OF ITS TECHNOLOGIES TO COCKPIT WEATHER INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR GENERAL AVIATION

One area of NASA's Aviation Safety Program involves investigation of the feasibility of advanced Aviation Weather Information Systems to reduce accident rates. An element of this program involves integrating weather information systems into the general aviation cockpit. Since the automotive and trucking industry currently use intelligent transportation systems (ITS), this study investigates the possibility of applying similar systems in the cockpit of general aviation aircraft. For this reason, important characteristics of these systems are identified. Customers' needs for cockpit weather information systems are also determined based on a conducted survey, expert opinions, and previous studies. These customer and technical requirements, then, are used in a quality function deployment model that predicts product success in terms hardware, cost and performance characteristics. The aviation industry has transferred technology to the automotive industry in the past. However, in today's market, rapidly developing intelligent transportation systems (ITS) from cars and trucks have the potential to impact the aviation industry. This research studies various ITS technologies, and investigates the possibility of applying them to general aviation (GA) cockpit systems. Cockpit weather information systems are information systems located in the cockpit of the GA aircraft, which inform the pilot about the weather conditions in the area, by communicating with the ground via various data links. There is general agreement that improved cockpit weather information can reduce general aviation accidents and injuries. Consumers suffer from the inadequacy of current systems, and need new advanced products. There is also strong belief in the GA industry that there are thresholds of cost and performance that must be met to make these systems successful in this market. However, it is unclear how to identify the most promising technological systems to provide the needed consumer requirements and technical characteristics and achieve market success. A product development decision support system is considered the solution for this. A quality function deployment (QFD) model is developed specifically for this problem, to be used by the managers of information system companies in the GA market (1, 2). Therefore, the first half of this study examines the candidate ITS technologies that are potentially transferable to cockpit weather information systems. The second half explains the QFD-based product development decision model proposed to reduce market failures for the information system providers.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full Conference Proceedings available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  ITS America

  1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • Sireli, Y
  • Ozan, E
  • Kauffmann, P
  • Gupta, S
  • Kachroo, P
• Conference:
  • 9th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems
  • Location: Chicago, Illinois
  • Date: 2002-10-14 to 2002-10-17
• Publication Date: 2002

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 12p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aviation; Aviation safety; Cockpits; Consumers; Functional analysis; General aviation; Information systems; Intelligent transportation systems; Quality control; Road weather information systems; Technological innovations; Weather forecasting
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00960273
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 8 2003 12:00AM