Simulated flight through JAWS wind shear

The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) Project was designed to investigate low altitude wind shear of the type believed to have caused several recent air carrier accidents, including the crash of Pan Am Flight 759 in New Orleans in 1983 Approximately 70 microbursts and numerous gust fronts have been identified by Doppler radar, the primary instrument used in JAWS, and several have been chosen for high-resolution, three dimensional wind field reconstruction using multiple Doppler radar techniques Of these, one case in particular has been investigated with a six degree of-freedom piloted numerical aircraft model Several approach to landings and takeoffs were made through this case to investigate landing and takeoff phase aircraft flight dynamics through the different wind shears Results indicate that apparently similar wind structures within the same weather feature, separated by only a few hundred meters, can produce radically different flight paths Methods of incorporating these data into training and research flight simulators are presented and discussed