This paper considers the main issues related to the training of specialists for civil aviation at the higher educational institutions of Russia, which are caused by the reorganization of the national education system. Based on an analysis of the scientific publications and discussions among professionals regarding contemporary higher education, contradictions in the stated priorities and disagreements on the sequence of solutions to the tasks set for higher education institutions have been revealed. It has been established that there is a lack of substantiated criteria for assessing the quality of the educational process and training of specialists. An urgent need has been formulated to regulate the role of the state in evaluating the state of education as a whole and educational institutions in particular, in terms of its legal and supervisory functions. The example of Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation (MSTU CA) illustrates the specifics of sectoral professional training, which uniqueness, resilience to new challenges and success are confirmed by half a century of high competitiveness of its graduates in the Russian and international labor markets, thus maintaining their attractiveness for applicants. In light of the initiative announced by the Ministry of Education and Science at the beginning of 2025 to build a new model of higher education, factors that hinder the development of the sectoral education system have been identified, along with conceptual approaches to overcome them. Furthermore, the feasibility of maintaining the civil aviation training system within the structure of Rosaviatsia has been substantiated, which will ensure: the integrity of the educational-production vertical; compliance of the educational process with ICAO international standards; continuity and high quality of aviation personnel training; and fulfillment of the state tasks in the field of aviation mobility and flight safety.

Humanitarian demining is a pressing issue today. This paper examines various technical means used in engineer reconnaissance to detect mines and substantiates the need for radar support for humanitarian engineer reconnaissance. An airborne engineer reconnaissance radar system based on a side-looking P-band radar, intended for deployment on unmanned aerial vehicles, is proposed as the main information link. The physical principles of radar image formation using aperture synthesis are described. The application of the radar relief function in describing the radio-reflective properties of a surface and the use of the superposition principle in radar signal processing are demonstrated. The main mathematical expressions used in calculating radar images of a surface using the aperture synthesis method are presented, consisting of the application of correlation signal processing independently by the coordinates of the ground and slant ranges. The features of using the decimeter range of electromagnetic waves in constructing radar images for the purpose of detecting mines on various underlying surfaces are analyzed and a comparison with the centimeter range is made. The demonstrated advantages include a significant increase in the contrast of metal objects against the background of reflection from the underlying surface and an increase in the penetration depth into the underlying surface. Disadvantages are also identified, including increased requirements for the stability of the flight of the carrier, the need to increase the size of the aperture to achieve comparable detail and take into account the migration of range channels. The software architecture is demonstrated, comprising an onboard unit for acquiring radar images and a graphical interface for a ground-based automated operator-decipherer workstation for solving the problem of mine detection during humanitarian demining. A sample system and the results of its testing on various carriers, including quadcopter and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles, are presented.

With the growth of air traffic, the implementation of environmentally friendly and cost-effective technologies in civil aviation becomes increasingly important. One promising solution is the Continuous Descent Operations (CDO) mode, which ensures an optimal descent trajectory, reducing fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions, and noise near airports. This work develops an analytical model to evaluate the effectiveness of CDO implementation in the Moscow Flight Information Region, taking into account the optimization of air traffic control and airspace organization. The methodology includes mathematical modeling, expert evaluation, and simulation analysis. Algorithms are proposed for multifactor assessment of the impact of traffic density, air traffic control features, and weather conditions on CDO application. The results can be used to develop regulations and air traffic schemes in the Moscow area, contributing to fuel savings and environmental improvements in line with ICAO’s 2016–2030 plan.

A serious problem in the Russian Arctic, which can be solved through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) given the lack of year-round road access, remains the delivery of goods and the patrolling of forests to identify and monitor the development of wild fires. This article is devoted to the development of methods for optimal forest area patrol route plotting based on solving a generalized traveling salesman problem (GTSP) with precedence constraints. The implementation of route optimization methods is based on dynamic programming combined with a special decomposition-based framework for two variants of cost aggregation: additive and a variant corresponding to a minimax formulation; the mentioned approach allows for finding a compositional extremum in a fully acceptable time for a “two-cluster” (in terms of decomposition) problem. The first part of this article explores the possibilities of its application in model tasks focused on the problems in general aviation, as the first step in building methods and algorithms for solving practical UAV route optimization problems, which are of interest for organizing air transport operations in the Arctic Zone and for radical improvement wild fire monitoring. The research results showed that using dynamic programming to solve a problem with an additive criterion, complicated by a precedence constraint, requires significant time costs—in the model variant, the computation time was 29 hours, 24 minutes, and 49 seconds. Therefore, the second part of the article will consider a variant for solving the additive problem by setting the initial and final tasks, where the object of study will be a compositional mathematical programming (MP) model.

Due to the widespread use of composite materials in the designs of helicopter main rotor blades (MRB), special attention should be paid to monitoring the obtained stiffness characteristics at all stages of their development and operation. The available experimental control methods have inherent limitations and can only be used at the late stages of blade development, as well as at the stage of mass production. This paper proposes the methods for determining the stiffness properties of a composite blade based on the results of a computational experiment, performed on the basis of the finite element method (FEM) in the MSC.Laminate Modeler submodule of the MSC.Patran/Nastran computing complex and numerical processing of the obtained deformations of the model blade suitable for use also during the design and development stages of the MRB. Numerical processing of the results is performed according to the ratios obtained as a result of the transition from the initial equations of bending and torsion of a cantilevered beam of variable cross-section, modeling the blade to their discrete matrix notation. For this purpose, the calculated sections are selected based on the blade length, the number and location of which depend on the features of its design. In this case, the values of the higher derivatives (curvature and relative twist angle) included in the specified equations are calculated by formulas representing their difference approximations. The proposed methods have been tested on the FEM MRB of the Mil-34 (NATO reporting name: Hermit) helicopter. The estimates of the quality of the coincidence of the calculated and experimental stiffness properties are obtained.

The development of mathematical models of the combat functioning of army aviation aircraft complexes is the most important task in the field of researching the prospects for the development of aviation technology and substantiating requirements for it. One of the main requirements for these models is their objectivity and adequacy to the real combat process, which is achieved by choosing the appropriate mathematical apparatus and clarifying the content of designed combat tasks when studying the experience of modern wars and armed conflicts. The paper proposes a statistical model for the combat functioning of the system of aircraft complexes of the army aviation (SAC AA) while performing a typical calculated strike mission – the destruction of a single small-sized mobile ground target. A distinctive feature of the developed model is that it takes into account the specifics of helicopter combat use under current conditions (operations within battle helicopter groups, flights at extremely low altitudes, carrying out missions amidst intense enemy air defense counteraction), as well as random elements within the scope of the considered task. A description of the procedure for statistical modeling of the combat functioning of the SAC AA during execution of this calculated task is provided. The result of the modeling was an assessment of the probability of a random event – execution of a calculated task with a given accuracy and reliability by the SAC AA. Expressions for calculating indicators of combat effectiveness and combat properties of SAC AA based on modeling results are proposed. Based on the method of limit points, the adequacy of the developed model has been verified. Using the proposed model, studies have been conducted on the influence of the values of the helicopter technical specifications and their air weaponry complexes on changes in the combat effectiveness and combat properties of SAC AA while executing the calculated task. The developed model can be used to construct a system of combat functioning models for the army aviation airborne complexes, taking into account the contemporary concept of application, thus enabling further investigations aimed at substantiating the tactical and technical requirements for modern military helicopters in shaping their technical design features.