Evaluation of Detectability and Distinguishability of Aircraft Control Element Failures using Flight Test Data

This paper examines the detectability and distinguishability of control element failures on the B-737 aircraft. We use the results of [13], [15] to define decentralized residuals from analytic redundancy relationships and the results of [14] in defining the probabilistic distance measures which provide bounds on the minimum achievable probabilities or error. The residual signals are then generated using data which was recorded during a landing approach of the NASA-Langley Advanced Transport Operations (ATOPS) transportation systems research vehicle (TSRV). The distance measures are computed using estimates of the statistics of these residual signals.