The pace of change in unmanned aviation is so rapid that the latest developments in this field become obsolete before they have passed the stage of technical design. This fate is most likely to befall the work currently being carried out in the Russian Federation on the development of unmanned air traffic control systems within the framework of the National Technology Initiative and other government programs, as they are aimed at the logistics of deliveries of relatively large (of kilograms) cargoes. However, the main challenge for unmanned aviation today is that drone delivery of small online purchases is the near future of mass retail, more than 50 percent of which is already online. This means billions of aerial deliveries per year using small drones flying on arbitrary, unpredictable trajectories, unguided by operators, with conflicts involving tens or hundreds of delivery drones. This perspective is out of step with current developments and requires new conceptual solutions. The paper suggests the main theses of the concept of unmanned air traffic control, taking into account the modern realities of the digital society. The algorithmic basis for automatic conflict resolution of small drones is formed – based on linear programming mathematical apparatus for optimal solution of the problem of safe passage of drones in areas of mass conflict.

This paper presents the methodological foundations for solving the problem of flight safety for tactical and operational aviation aircraft under the influence of coherent vortex structures in the atmosphere during the most critical flight phases: takeoff and landing at joint-use airfields (including group operations or operations from mountainous airfield), in-flight refueling, and group flight. The solution to this problem can be based on the following specific tasks: the formation of coherent vortex structures, their influence on aircraft aerodynamics, and the application of theoretical methods for assessing flight safety. The concepts of aircraft aerodynamic properties and the “Aircraft Aerodynamic Properties – Coherent Vortex Structures – Flight Safety” system are introduced. The performance indicators of the system’s components and their interrelationships within the system are specified. It is stated that the qualitative and quantitative values of these indicators are the basis for determining the conditions to ensure flight safety at an acceptable level. It has been proved that critical characteristics for tactical and operational aviation aircraft are the dependencies of the available intervention time and the roll moment reserve coefficient obtained under the influence of coherent vortex structures.

Currently, Russia has various documents, approved by government decrees, aimed at improving regional air transport connectivity and population mobility. One of the ways to address this issue could be the development of a new supersonic civil aircraft. Among the many challenges associated with the design, manufacture, and operation of such aircraft, an important place is occupied by the problem of ensuring flight safety, which is addressed through the development and implementation of flight safety management systems by developers, manufacturers, and operators of civil aircraft. This list should be based on an analysis of operational experience with supersonic civil aircraft, a study of the characteristics of supersonic flight, and familiarization with supersonic civil aircraft designs. Operational risks are inextricably linked to risks arising during the development and manufacture of the aircraft. Therefore, this paper attempts to create a basic list of hazards associated with the activities of a developer of a promising supersonic civil aircraft. An analysis of the design and operation of supersonic civil aircraft, based on open sources, revealed specific phenomena occurring during supersonic flight that must be considered when developing a list of hazards. Such phenomena include wave drag, rearward shift of the center of pressure and aerodynamic center (focus), reduced effectiveness of lifting surfaces, sonic boom, and others. When developing a list of hazards associated with the developer’s activities, it should be taken into account that the developer must ensure the release of documentation for the manufacture of an aircraft with airworthiness no lower than that specified in the Airworthiness Standards. However, the currently applicable Airworthiness Standards for transport category aircraft do not take into account the specifics of aircraft operation at supersonic speeds, which is one of the sources of hazards. Therefore, this paper proposes a tentative basic list of hazards, sources, and threats during the development of supersonic civil aircraft that directly impact its operation. Risk assessment should be performed directly within the operator’s organization using the procedures and tools approved in its Flight Safety Management System.

Modern small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) perform a wide range of missions, requiring high efficiency in various, often conflicting, flight conditions. Conventional airfoils, optimized for a single specific condition, exhibit suboptimal performance in others, limiting the overall flight capabilities of the vehicle. A promising solution to this problem is the use of a morphing wing, capable of changing its shape in flight. This paper presents a simplified method for the multi-objective optimization of an airfoil for such a morphing wing. To overcome the computational complexity of the classical Pareto front approach, especially with a large number of flight conditions, the multi-objective problem was reduced to a single-objective form. This was achieved using the weighted sum method, where the objective functions (drag coefficients for each flight condition) were normalized relative to their reference values. The weights were calculated based on a physical parameter – the Reynolds number – enabling the optimizer to prioritize the most important cruise regime. The airfoil geometry was parameterized using the Class-Shape Transformation (CST) method, and for fast and accurate aerodynamic calculations, the NeuralFoil tool, based on physics-informed machine learning, was used. The study solves two optimization problems: for two and four flight conditions. The results of the two-point optimization are in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with data obtained independently by more complex methods. Results demonstrate that employing an idealized curvature adaptation mechanism enables the compromise airfoil to achieve 82.7–87.5% of the aerodynamic efficiency of reference airfoils, each optimized for a single specific condition. The proposed method demonstrates a significant reduction in computational costs while maintaining high efficiency of the design solutions. 

The paper considers the urgent task of detecting zero-day attacks in corporate information systems of aviation enterprises classified as critical information infrastructure (CII). It is shown that traditional signature-based protection tools, including classical intrusion detection systems (IDS), have fundamentally limited effectiveness in conditions of previously unknown and targeted cyberattacks, which is confirmed by real incidents in the aviation sector. The search for effective methods of detecting zero-day attacks, as well as advanced persistent threats (APT) remains an urgent task, since their secrecy and uniqueness minimize the effectiveness of signature-based detection methods. In this paper a neural-network intrusion detection model is proposed, focused on application in aviation security operation centers (SOC) of aviation enterprises and based on deep unsupervised learning methods. The model is implemented in the form of a deep autoencoder trained exclusively on legitimate network traffic, which makes it possible to form a stable representation of normal behavior of the system and identify statistical deviations without prior knowledge of attack signatures. Experimental validation was performed on the CICIDS2018 dataset using the metrics F1-score, ROC-AUC, precision, and recall. The proposed approach demonstrated the F1-measure of 0.81 and a ROC-AUC of 0.844, exceeding the performance of classical unsupervised algorithms for uncontrolled anomaly detection (Isolation Forest and OneClass SVM). The results obtained confirm the applicability of the developed model as a proactive analytical component of hybrid intrusion detection systems and its potential to increase the cyber resilience of aviation-sector information systems. The model can be integrated into existing SOC platforms of aviation enterprises to complement signature-based analysis with a behavioral context. 

The paper considers the application of a simulation model of the hydraulic system and actuation devices of the flight control system during aircraft operation. The relevance of using simulation models in aircraft operation or design is formulated. The results of developing Simulink-models of the hydraulic system supply circuit and the consumers in the roll and pitch channels are presented, intended for analyzing changes in aircraft flight parameters under deviations from nominal operating conditions of system components. The development process of a simulation model for external loads on the actuator rod is considered. The integration of the simulation model of the hydraulic system and control actuators into a model of aircraft spatial motion is presented. The process of generating a control action based on the PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controller is examined. The results of simulation modeling of the isolated operation of the control actuators and hydraulic system are presented, based on which the external and internal factors affecting control surface deflection are identified, and the load characteristic of the actuator under various hydraulic system operating modes is determined. A simulation of the “combat turn” maneuver was performed under different hydraulic system operating modes, and the results are used to draw conclusions regarding the impact of system failures on aircraft flight parameters. An analysis was made comparing the simulation results with and without accounting for the hydraulic system model functioning. The conclusion is drawn about the feasibility of applying the developed simulation model of the hydraulic system and control actuators both during aircraft operation and at the design stage. 

The range of subsonic speeds is considered. The research of interference of the front and rear load-bearing surfaces is focused on the assessment of two factors: the degree of lift increasing of the wing-canard system due to the positive canard surface lift force and the role of this force in the total normal force. The discrete vortex method is used. The analysis is carried out for the wing and the canard surface of a rectangular shape. The pitch of the span division is assumed to be the same for the canard surface and wing. This allows us to avoid distortion of the results obtained. All wing and tail panels are considered as a unified vortex system, and the position of the calculated points is determined in a single reference plane. The vertical displacement of the vortex descending from the canard surface relative to the wing is taken into account. A single system of equations is formed. The difference in the angles of attack of the canard surface and wing is taken into account. The distribution of the lift load along the wingspan is analyzed. The values of the coefficients of lift force for the isolated wing and for the wing, taking into account interference with the canard surface, are determined. This is reflected both in the magnitude of the lift force generated by the wing and in the wing’s contribution to the overall normal force of the wing-canard system. A strong influence of the relative wingspan of the empennage on the distribution of lift force over the wingspan is noted. At the same time, the aerodynamic layout acquires the characteristics of a “rotary wing” scheme. It has also been established that in all cases studied, the empennage makes a significant contribution to the total normal force.