If you are an aerospace engineer, you may have encountered situations where you need to explain the concepts of aviation safety and reliability to non-experts, such as clients, stakeholders, or the general public. How can you do that effectively and clearly, without using too much jargon or technical details? Here are some tips and examples to help you communicate better.
Safety and reliability are two related but distinct aspects of aviation engineering. Safety refers to the ability of an aircraft or system to operate without causing harm or damage to people, property, or the environment. Reliability refers to the ability of an aircraft or system to perform its intended functions without failure or degradation over time. Both safety and reliability depend on the design, testing, maintenance, and operation of the aircraft or system.
Reliability is math while safety is a human feeling. Reliability can be modeled using statistics and knowledge of the physics driving the part/system/product failure modes. Safety is managing the failures so that an outcome does not happen that will cause the users of that product to feel unsafe. Acceptable safety targets used in System Safety Analyses, etc go out the door after an accident as target shifts towards zero or as close to mathematically to zero you can get because the next failure, even for benign outcomes, will further erode the feeling of safe by the user
Aviation safety ensures secure flights through strict regulations, pilot training, and meticulous aircraft maintenance. Reliability is achieved by designing resilient planes, rigorous testing, redundant systems, real-time monitoring, and regular inspections. Think of it like well-maintained roads, skilled drivers, and cars with backup features, ensuring safe and dependable air travel for everyone.
Rigorous Maintenance: Aircraft are subject to stringent maintenance. Every part of an aeroplane, from engines to electrical systems, undergoes regular inspection and servicing. Professional Training: Pilots & engineers alike undergo extensive and continuous training, including handling emergency situations. Redundancy in Systems: Aircraft are designed with multiple backup systems. For example, commercial aircraft typically have multiple engines, redundant hydraulic systems, and several navigational aids. Cars, on the other hand, often don’t have this level of redundancy. So, while no form of transport is risk-free, statistically and from an engineering perspective, flying is far safer than driving.
Aviation reliability is the effectiveness of an approved maintenance programme ; it is the basis of engineering and maintenance safety. For example , an effective and reliable programme of aircraft maintenance leads to an aircraft that is technically safe to operate.
Safety - not just aviation safety is very straight forward. Everybody who comes into work in the morning - goes home at night in the same condition. Whatever it takes to achieve this -- is safety! It was indelible - 19 year helicopter pilot. We are sitting on the "cuffs" of the GP Tiny tent "in the field" to keep it from blowing away. We get the call and an aircraft is missing. I can vividly remember early morning search -- seeing the UH-1 embedded in the pine trees - tailboom sticky out of the trees. Two fatalities. There is no compromise for risk aversion.
One way to make complex concepts more understandable is to use analogies and comparisons with familiar or everyday objects or situations. For example, you can compare an aircraft to a car, and explain how the different components and systems work together to ensure safety and reliability. You can also use examples of common failures or risks, such as flat tires, engine stalls, or bad weather, and how they are prevented or mitigated in aviation engineering.
When I discuss aerospace safety with other people I make some comparisons. 250k people die each year in the US due to medical errors or 230 people die each day due to type 2 diabetes, a treatable condition. The 737 has flown more than 200M flights, carrying 2x the world population, and only 5500 people have died in a 737 crash over its entire life span. I then go into detail how aerospace engineers think through problems, using very detailed examples, and contrasting that to other industries.
To discuss the importance of the Aerospace safety, most simple comparison which I make is as follows 1. If cycles fails, you carry to mechanic. 2. If bike fails, you can push to mechanic. 3. If vehicle fails, you can push to side and get the mechanic. 4. If ship fails, you can get the tow ship and bring to harbour for repairs. 5. If Aircraft fails, you can only prey. Not only for people inside the aircraft but for the people where it could fall. That's the reason Aerospace Safety is most critical.
In the aviation industry, achieving a balance between safety and reliability is critical. Safety measures are in place to prevent accidents and protect passengers, while reliability efforts focus on maintaining aircraft in a condition where they can consistently operate without unexpected failures. This synergy ensures that air travel remains one of the safest and most reliable modes of transportation
Safety and reliability drive the complete aircraft architecture. It has to be taken into account at the very beginning of each project. Everyone working in aeronautical has an impact on those, from the designer to the maintenance and repair, from the biggest system to the smallest screw installation. And of course human factors have a significant role in ensuring each flight safety. Safety ensure the good probability every passenger has to fligh and land peacefully.
Aviation Safety: Imagine aviation safety as a precise dance—regulations set steps, training rehearses, maintenance ensures costumes, and communication synchronizes, preventing accidents. Aviation Reliability: Picture an aircraft as a tuned instrument. Technology composes, testing rehearses, monitoring conducts, and data fine-tunes—ensuring reliable flights. Analogies: Think of aviation reliability like a dependable smartphone. Safety measures, like theme park ride safeguards, ensure secure and thrilling air travel.
Another way to make your explanations more accessible is to simplify numbers and statistics, and use visual aids or graphs to illustrate them. For example, instead of saying that the probability of a fatal accident in commercial aviation is 0.00001 per flight hour, you can say that it is equivalent to one accident in 100 million flights, or show a picture of a large crowd of people and point out how many would be affected by an accident. You can also use ratios, percentages, or fractions to show the relative magnitude or frequency of events or outcomes.
Show them deaths per passenger seat miles across all transportation systems. Nothing comes close to aviation's safety record.
This is ideally true but a lot of important figures and data are provided in engineering as dimension-less, which are really useful may be a concept that regular population may not be familiar with. Our mind is "trained" to think in dimensions and physical concepts. A better asset would be to increase the overall mathematical knowledge of population (which is fairly low compared to other disciplines) so that no extreme simplifications may be done to explain accurately things. With all the simplifications to explain concepts, people may get a wrong idea or understanding.
It is powerful to show graphics comparing the actual accident rate for the different types of aviation, e.g. commercial, business ops, private aviation, recreational aviation, helicopter ops, etc. Each has its own "accepted level" of safety, yet all innovations are often held to one standard set of expectations for software, system safety, likelihood, etc. The relative magnitude of accident statistics should be driving where we focus the most innovative solutions to improve safety as commercial accidents get closer and closer to zero.
A third way to make your explanations more engaging is to highlight the benefits and challenges of aviation safety and reliability, and how they affect the users and the society. For example, you can explain how safety and reliability contribute to the efficiency, comfort, and sustainability of air travel, and how they create value and opportunities for various sectors and industries. You can also explain how safety and reliability pose technical, operational, and regulatory challenges for aviation engineering, and how they require constant innovation and improvement.
Seguran?a e confiabilidade nunca foi nem nunca vai ser uma possibilidade na avia??o. Seguran?a e confiabilidade s?o obriga??es na avia??o. A falta delas termina em acidente.
1. Passenger Safety: includes rigorous aircraft inspections, maintenance procedures, and adherence to safety regulations. 2. Accident Prevention: includes thorough training for pilots and crew members, strict adherence to safety protocols, and continuous monitoring of aircraft performance. 3. Environmental Protection: Modern aircraft are designed to be more fuel-efficient and emit fewer pollutants, and prevent accidents that could lead to environmental damage. 4. Economic Impact: When passengers feel confident in the safety of air travel, air traffic increased creates job opportunities. 5. Global Connectivity: maintaining efficient air travel networks and ensuring the smooth flow of passengers and cargo.
A fourth way to make your explanations more clear is to avoid acronyms and jargon, or at least define them when you use them. For example, instead of saying that an aircraft has a FMS, TCAS, and ADS-B, you can say that it has a flight management system, a traffic collision avoidance system, and an automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast system, and explain what they do and why they are important. You can also use plain language and simple terms to describe concepts and processes, such as lift, drag, thrust, or turbulence.
N?o tem como evitar as siglas, o próprio fabricante cria e usa em larga escala as siglas. Simplificar a linguagem n?o é cabível, o proficional da avia??o se n?o está, necessita conhecer os termos usados aqui como exemplo: arrasto, empuxo, turbulência. Termos simples na avia??o é comparável a você ao invés de dizer sapato, dizer "objeto para ser colocado nos pés, que pode ser feito em couro ou plástico, com ou sem cadar?o, bom cores variadas e solado de borracha ou couro"
ADS-B stands for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. It is a surveillance technology used in aviation that allows aircraft to determine their position via satellite navigation and periodically broadcast it to other aircraft and air traffic control (ATC) ground stations. ADS-B provides real-time information about an aircraft's position, altitude, speed, and other data, which enhances situational awareness and improves air traffic management. TCAS stands for Traffic Collision Avoidance System. It is an aircraft collision avoidance system that uses radar technology to detect and track nearby aircraft, and providing pilots with timely alerts and instructions to avoid potential conflicts.
Cuando se habla con personas no entendidas, es fundamental alinear nuestro lenguaje con ellas para evitar distancias léxicas. Evitar acrónimos y siglas, así como tecnicismos hace que parezcamos más entendidos pero nos alejamos de nuestra misión de hacernos entender. En cambio el uso de explicaciones y similitudes/analogias hará que esta sea mucho más comprensible. Explicar el FMC como si fuera Google Maps, o el ECAM como si fuera el ingeniero de vuelo son ejemplos de como las siglas pueden ser explicadas de otra manera que todos los publicos puedan entender
A fifth way to make your explanations more effective is to invite questions and feedback from your audience, and adjust your level of detail and complexity accordingly. For example, you can ask your audience if they have any questions or comments, or if they want to know more about a specific topic or aspect. You can also use interactive tools or activities, such as quizzes, games, or demonstrations, to test your audience's understanding and interest. By doing so, you can make your explanations more interactive and responsive, and build rapport and trust with your audience.
Está técnica apresentada neste tópico é o básico do básico no ensino em qualquer lugar inclusive na avia??o na educa??o em qualquer uma das suas divis?es, alfabetiza??o, ensino fundamental, ensino médio, superior, etc...
Una de las cosas que más me gustaba era realizar formaciones y capacitaciones a equipos de rescate y emergencias y hacer preguntas abiertas y discutir sobre ellas. De esta práctica suelen desprenderse conversaciones muy interesantes. Otra buena práctica es hacer exposiciones a ni?os, ya que son estos los que gracias a su ingenio e inocencia hacen preguntas creativas que hacen enfrentarnos a explicarles de manera sencilla y para este segmento de publico particular, algo tan complejo como es esta industria.
En mis foros y grupos de interés estas preguntas son frecuentes y yo insisto siempre en la idea de que todo se prueba antes y se hacen muchos “experimentos con gaseosa” hasta dar con la forma adecuada y conocer cuándo y porqué para anticiparnos antes de que las consecuencias se vuelvan adversas.
It would be interesting to ask about perception of risk and expectations for safety for different types of flying, show those actual safety statistics, then compare those values to everyday activities audience members offer as being "safe". It would be particularly entertaining to compare to extreme sports, or other behaviors that some perceive as being worth the risk, yet are exposing them to higher residual risk than aviation.
I think that one of the most effective way to explain safety and reliability in aviation is to highlight how redundant aircraft sistems are. When people get ot know that every aircraft is designed to hold its own even when some failures occour, they will approach flight more easly. Moreover, if you explain to them how maintainance is carried out, with its high standards of repeatability and traceability, they will get more confidence in taking airplanes.
Adding to the above, you may also apporach the topics using examples in aviation such as incidents and accidents history telling in which safety was jeopardized and the chain of events leading to them or even examples of everyday life activities, which are not necessarily happening in aviation. If you are dealing with aviation students then you may use analitical data and more rekated topics to explain what you mean by safety and reliability. In both cases using the training aid material such as short films will definitely help them understand the insight of the topics more clearly.
Adding to the above, you may also apporach the topics using examples in aviation such as incidents and accidents history telling in which safety was jeopardized and the chain of events leading to them or even examples of everyday life activities, which are not necessarily happening in aviation. If you are dealing with aviation students then you may use analitical data and more related topics to explain what you mean by safety and reliability. In both cases using the training aid material such as short films will definitely help them understand the insight of the topics more clearly.
Aviation safety involves many sectors in the industry: the regulatory bodies, the air crews, the maintenance & engineering team, the air traffic controllers, etc. By explaining (in simple) how these sectors work individually & as a team to ensure aviation safety is achieved will give a bigger picture and better understanding of the aviation industry (as a whole). Cheers.
I also break down how reliability is engineered. Even the simple concept of taking risk and breaking it into 1) Probability of failure 2) Consequence of failure Engineers evaluate every failure mode, using this framework. And then build redundant systems around high consequence failure. Even in some of the worse failures, the redundant systems save lives, even if plane is lost.