Modern RNAV Procedure Design Capabilities

Abstract

The demand for safe and useful procedures is increasing in the National Airspace Sy stem (NAS) to meet the needs of airlines and Air Traffic (AT) service providers. Area navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigational Performance (RNP) capabilities within the U.S. air carrier fleet continue to increase as airlines retire older aircraft and r eplace them with new more capable ones . Utilization of these avionics capabilities to execute new procedures is essential for more efficient use of airspace and as an enabler of op erational benefits . During the past three years , there has been a collabor ative effort by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airli nes, and industry to develop new procedures for the terminal area. As part of this effort, The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) worked with stakehol ders to capture the process for the design and development of procedures . Lessons learned have been incorporate d as more FAA facilities have used the process . The process has gained wider acceptance am ong stakeholders and has become the preferred guideli nes for procedure development with the primary benefits of fewer mistakes, less rework, and reduced time for implementation. Tools and automation , when strategically incorporated as part of the process, are a key method for workload reduction, elimination of paper, and elimination of inter -organizational stovepipes. This paper discusses a collaborative RNAV procedure tool developed by CAASD for the FAA and industry called Terminal Area Route Generation, Evaluation, and Traffic Simulati on (TARGETS) . The TARGETS application combines the science , engineering , and best business practices needed for procedure design. The functionality of TARGETS include s a geographic information system (GIS) tailored to procedure design, flyability assessment, protected airs pace surface generation, obstacle assessment, noise assessment, seamless data exchange with centralized databases and other applications , and simulation of t he operational environment. This paper discusses the role of each of these capabilities and relate d technical issues within the context of RNAV procedure development.