Integrated Air/Ground System: Trajectory-Oriented Air Traffic Operations, Data Link Communication, and Airborne Separation Assistance

Abstract

Trajectory-oriented, time-based air traffic operations, data link communication, and airborne separation assistance systems (ASAS) can play an important role in the transformation of the airspace system. This article reviews several years of research conducted primarily at NASA Ames Research Center. The research promotes an integrated air/ground system combining trajectory-orientation, data link communication, and airborne separation assistance as complementary components of a modernized airspace system, rather than viewing them as competing approaches to modernization. The integrated air/ground system promises capacity, efficiency, and security benefits through trajectory-oriented air traffic management and control. It uses data link to communicate aircraft states and trajectories between pilots and controllers, and it utilizes airborne separation assistance to improve throughput at traffic bottlenecks. This paper highlights benefits of this approach and provides recommendations and guidelines for controller tool and data link implementation as well as a near term concept of ASAS integration. Funding for this work was provided by the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) project and the NextNAS project of NASA’s Airspace Systems Program.