Mike Bromfield

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Associate) at University of Birmingham

Loss of control in flight is the primary category of fatal accidents within all sectors of aviation and failure to maintain adequate airspeed - leading to a stall - is often cited as a causal factor. Stalls occur when the critical angle of the aircraft is exceeded for a given airspeed. Using airspeed as an indicator of the potential to stall is an...

In January 2017, a business jet flew in Norway on a short repositioning flight with two pilots onboard, no passengers or cargo. Initially, the takeoff proceeded as normal but as the landing gear was retracted both pilots observed that the airspeed was rapidly approaching the flap limiting speed of 200 kts. When the flaps were fully retracted at a h...

Sixty Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle accident reports were analysed to identify possible causal and contributory factors leading to loss of control in flight and recovery actions where applicable. Manufacturing and design errors were dominant in 22 causal factors (34% of events) and 18 contributory factors (22% of events) (e.g. ingestion of precipitation)...

This paper presents the development of a robust sizing method to efficiently estimate and compare key performance parameters in the conceptual design stage for the two main classes of fully electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the powered lift and wingless aircraft types. The paper investigates hybrids of classical root-finding...

In January 2017, a business jet flew in Norway on a short repositioning flight with two pilots onboard, no passengers or cargo. Initially, the take-off proceeded as normal but as the landing gear was retracted both pilots observed that the airspeed was rapidly approaching the flap limiting speed of 200kts. When the flaps were fully retracted at a h...

By the second quarter of 2022, over 500 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft concepts have been unveiled. However, less than 30% of the concepts have achieved first flight due to the infancy of this industry. To keep track of these developments and the emerging urban air mobility landscape, a technical research database has been...

Loss of control in flight is the primary fatal accident category in general aviation. Forty six fixed-wing UK accidents from 2018 and 2019 were analyzed to identify precursors, human factors, and possible reasons for unsuccessful recovery. Most of the events were non-fatal (82.6%), and most occurred during low altitude flight phases, particularly l...

Loss of control in flight is the primary fatal accident category in general aviation. Forty six fixed-wing UK accidents from 2018 and 2019 were analyzed to identify precursors, human factors, and possible reasons for unsuccessful recovery. Most of the events were non-fatal (82.6%), and most occurred during low altitude flight phases, particularly l...

Flight dynamics modelling for a loss of control in flight event due to suspected icing

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-1931.vid Future demands for Urban Air Mobility solutions has given rise to electrically powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, also known as eVTOLs. The apparent number of these concepts in development has rapidly grown to over 500. The race between eVTOL companies to push their concep...

Objective: The present research investigated the relationship and the efficacy of two different modalities in which feedback is provided, namely “visual” and “auditory” on student pilot learning. Background: Pilot training has remained relatively unchanged for over thirty years. The syllabi for flight training contains little information about spec...

High levels of automation in future aviation technologies such as Unmanned Aircraft Systems could lead to human operators losing essential Situation Awareness and becoming ‘out-of-the-loop’. Research into Human Autonomy Teaming proposes that improved communication between the human and autonomous agents of a system can address this problem. However...

Loss of Control In Flight (LOC-I) is the most lethal type of accident in recent aviation history and the one that has experienced the least reduction in the past 20 years. These, combined with recent accidents such as Lion Air 610 and Ethiopian Flight 302, help explain the attention dedicated by several aviation stakeholders to prevent it from happ...

Human Autonomy Teaming (HAT) research has established that communication provides the key to building a teaming relationship between humans and autonomous agents (synthetic teammates). We hypothesised that a greater semblance of teaming could be achieved through more natural forms of audio-voice communication. In this study we evaluated the impact...

During the period 2003–2011, worldwide accident rates for business/corporate aviation were nearly four times that for commercial aviation. Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) or Flight Data Monitoring—the collection of real-time flight data for continuous safety improvement—has been routinely used by commercial aviation for over 50 years. Re...

In the UK, the Royal Aeronautical Society recommends the inclusion of practical flight exercises for accredited undergraduate aerospace engineering programmes to enhance learning and student experience. The majority of academic institutions teaching aerospace in the UK separate the theory and practice of flight dynamics with students attending a se...

The business aviation sector within the UK environment encompasses a diverse range of aircraft types operating across both commercial air transport (including cargo) and private sectors. NBAA statistics for the period 1990 to 2013 suggest that accident rates (accidents per 100,000 flying hours) for corporate/executive aviation (aircraft flown by tw...

In-flight loss of control (LoC-I) is the number one fatal accident category for light airplanes. The most common type of LoC-I accident involves a stall/spin and inadequate airspeed management and is frequently cited as a causal factor. An aircraft stalls when the critical angle of attack is exceeded and this may occur at any indicated airspeed, he...

This paper considers four alternative sets of actions that a pilot may use to recover an aeroplane from the stall. These actions: Those published by the UK CAA and the US FAA, as well as a power delayed sequence and a pitch delayed sequence, were evaluated on 14 single engine piston aeroplane types. In a limited number of types (five in cruise conf...

During the period 1980 to 2008 there were 359 fatal accidents involving UK registered light aeroplanes of which 36% occurred in visual meteorological conditions. In all, 216 lives were lost with accidents being attributed to the pilot'failing to maintain proper control resulting in a stall or spin'. Dissimilar fatal stallrelated accident rates are...

Flying a light aeroplane involves a combination of pilot and aeroplane performing a set task, within a specific environment. The pilot is continuously sampling and selecting available sensory cues, interpreting those cues, making decisions and manipulating the primary controls (stick and rudder) to safely achieve flying objectives. The 'feel' of an...

A quarter of all fatal General Aviation accidents in the UK during the period 1980 to 2006 involved Loss of Control (LoC) in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC). LoC – which effectively the stall/spin event, has consistently appeared in accident statistics over this period, but at very different rates for different aircraft types. This raises tw...

A description of the interface protocol is given and a method outlined to enable one way communication between the units without the necessity of additional hardware. The system can easily be adapted for processing data for other sensor types simply by modifying the computer software.

The computational modelling techniques and computer programs developed for the structural design analysis of a microexcavator digging arm mechanism understatic or quasi-static loading conditions are outlined. The computer programs allow the design engineer to analyse the forces and stresses at numerous locations on the digging arm, which can assume...

The largest cause of General Aviation Accidents is shown through an analysis of the 283 UK fatal accidents between 1980 and 2006 to be loss of control, most usually at low level. Evaluating the reasons behind this, it is shown to be due to a combination of aircraft characteristics and pilot situational awareness and response. The statistical analys...

A quarter of all fatal General Aviation accidents in the UK during the period 1980 to 2006 involved Loss of Control (LoC) in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC). LoC has consistently appeared in accident statistics over this period, but at apparently different rates for different aircraft types. This raises two important questions - why do these...