In other words, screech can literally shake planes apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now a team of Air Force engineers is working with a combination of sophisticated sensors and advanced algorithms to detect and fix screech before it becomes a problem. It\u2019s testing a system known as Screech Wave Analysis Methodology (SWAM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou get strong pressure gradients pushing on the hard surfaces, and those surfaces can be broken, whether it\u2019s a fuel line or a holder or a liner, or any of the other various components,\u201d said Alan Hale, an analyst at Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), an Air Force Materiel Command facility. \u201cIf I have fuel coming in through a fuel line into an augmenter, and that fuel line gets broken, that engine no longer works properly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, the Air Force has some capability to detect the presence of screech, but better sensors and advanced analytics tools may allow engineers to fine-tune their understanding and deliver targeted fixes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCurrently, we can detect a screech event. With this analysis tool, we can now see what that event actually did: How it is happening, what is happening. That allows us to come up with different methods to offset that event,\u201d said Josh Osborne, senior engineer for test capabilities integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s no small trick to tease out a meaningful signal from among the tumult of jet noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen things burn there is a lot of complexity in the chemistry, and when that coincides with pressure pules, then you have an amplifying effect. So it\u2019s hard to get your hands around it,\u201d Hale said. \u201cThings behave very differently at different temperatures and different pressures. There are a lot of unknowns in the equation, and we are trying to put all these together simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to get that coherent picture, the engineers have been experimenting with a variety of advanced pressure sensors, paying special attention to the location of those sensors on the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are certain locations where you need to have the sensors in order for the analysis tool to get the information it needs,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cYou want your sensors located at a place that is active, where the waves are strong and are giving you a lot of information. You don\u2019t want sensors at a node where waves cross and cancel out, where there is no new information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the right sensors feeding the right analytics, the team has been able to read into screech with a new level of understanding, giving pilots new ways to avoid potentially hazardous flight conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Certain flight patterns for instance can be shown to trigger screech in certain aircraft, and pilots can be trained to fly around such conditions. If you know the how and the why of a likely screech event, \u201cyou can try not to fly in a certain way. You avoid certain flight situations that are known to cause this problem,\u201d Osborne said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The team envisions implementing its screech analysis as a ground-test capability that could be applied to any new or existing jet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If SWAM can be proven in the lab, it could have a widespread impact on how the Air Force flies. \u201cWe\u2019ll be able to accurately predict screech so that we can design in change and mitigate cost before it ever sees flight,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cWe will make the problem not exist by catching it early on and developing solutions early on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A team of Air Force engineers is working with a combination of sophisticated sensors and advanced algorithms to detect and fix screech before it becomes a problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":39459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":42,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,29,15,32,42],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2063],"class_list":["post-12704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-intel-geoint","category-newsletters","category-sensors"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FBRCG4MCY5DFBLGQT3UZ4A5IEQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/intel-geoint\/sensors\/2018\/06\/13\/a-sensor-to-eliminate-jets-screeeeeeeeeeech\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/171208-F-RS654-013.JPG.jpg\")