The Sortie Generation Game: An insight into the engineering support of flying training at station level in the Royal Air Force.

Abstract

The Sortie Generation Game is introduced against selective Defence, Economic, and Royal Air Force backgrounds. Recent Service history reveals that the timely flow of trained fast jet pilots for front-line squadrons is frequently stemmed by the failure of Units to generate the sorties required to fulfil their training commitments. Shortages of Tradesmen, mainly for ground handling and maintenance of aircraft, is a recurrent root cause of such failure. This thesis provides an insight into the system of engineering support of flying training at Station level in the Royal Air Force. The many and variable elements constituting the system are defined, analyzed in detail, and then synthesized into a simulation model of the real world system. A deterministic manual simulation precedes the construction of a dynamic, stochastic, computer simulation model, designed with the objective of exploring the relationships between the elements (inputs) of the real world system and its responses (outputs) such as sorties generated per day. Evaluation of the computer model is considered in three stages - verification, validation, and analysis. Model verification mainly involves; debugging and refinement of the program and the model's internal structure; deriving realistic starting conditions and stable running conditions; and determining the minimum sample size of simulated full flying days required to achieve statistically significant results. Model validation is accomplished by using a suitable sample of processed real world input data to generate model responses for statistical comparison with corresponding outputs of the real world system simulated. The results of planned simulation experiments are then analysed and used to depict the relationships explored. Several major points are made about the real world system, with some educed from its simulation; other conclusions relate to the model and to the research objective. The thesis ends with suggestions for farther research and development and with some recommendations.

Date of Award	1980
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath