Airspace Users Research Articles

Visualization of Air Traffic Flow for Modeling and Control Applications

A safe and efficient aviation industry is vital to the global economy. The growing traffic demand, rise in oil prices, delays in building new runways and security issues are imposing pressures on the system to evolve from the current procedure-based human-centered system to a more flexible system with higher levels of automation. Air Traffic Management (ATM) involves several layers of decision-makers scattered between the service providers (Airports and the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States) and users of airspace (Airlines, General Aviation, Cargo Carriers). Several types of uncertainties are pervasive in the system. ATM needs major overhauling in the United States of America and Europe and traffic demand is growing at a rapid rate in Asia. The transformation of ATM requires both policy and technological changes.

Performance Metrics for Oceanic Air Traffic Management

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA’s) Oceanic and Offshore Integrated Product Team is developing a set of performance metrics and identifying methodologies for calculating them. These metrics will be used to benchmark and measure how well the FAA’s Oceanic Air Traffic Control Centers are meeting their goals and priorities, and delivering oceanic air traffic services and benefits.There are many challenges that must be addressed to meaningfully measure and evaluate the oceanic system performance. Some of these challenges are the same as those for measuring the performance of the National Airspace System (NAS) as a whole. However, since many oceanic flights start or end in other countries, there are additional challenges in obtaining the data necessary to calculate the oceanic performance metrics.The FAA’s Air Traffic Services (ATS) organization identified a set of system performance outcomes in the areas of safety and operation efficiency (e.g., predictability, flexibility, delay, and access). Oceanic airspace users indicated their priority areas as safety, on-time performance, fly as filed, flexibility, and fuel consumption. The oceanic performance metrics have been developed to measure the ATS outcomes and the users’ priorities. In addition, environmental factors (e.g., flight count, aircraft avionics equipage) that affect the service delivery are included to provide a proper context for the metrics.The oceanic metrics are collected in a “dashboard” to provide a general picture of the overall service quality provided to oceanic airspace users. A dashboard is generated for each of the New York and Oakland Oceanic Centers, as well as for sub-regions in each Center to account for the air traffic characteristics unique to that sub-region.This paper presents example analyses and results obtained for environmental and performance metrics for New York and Oakland Oceanic Centers, and shows how the metrics can be used to monitor the performance of air traffic management services provided to oceanic airspace users.

CRCT (Collaborative Routing Coordination Tools) and TFM (Traffic Flow Management) Decision Support Tool Prototyping

This paper summarizes several years of Traffic Flow Management (TFM) R&D work. The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) has been engaged in a longterm research program to define and refine decision support concepts and capabilities for TFM, the branch of Air Traffic Management that manages the strategic aspect of air traffic by balancing airspace capacity with demand, especially during severe weather or heavy traffic. This paper describes CAASD's work on the concept of Collaborative Routing, in which all affected parties — Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aircraft operators - can share in realtime a common picture of TFM problems and potential solutions. The Collaborative Routing Coordination Tools (CRCT) refers to a set of functionalities that support Collaborative Routing, and also to a software platform developed and used by CAASD to conduct the R&D. In this paper, the Collaborative Routing concept is described, and sample user interfaces supporting the concept are presented. Evaluations with operational personnel are described at a high level. Capabilities developed and refined via this work include the FCA (Flow Constrained Area), and the reroute modeling capability. These functions allow the user to evaluate the impact of a rerouting solution to controllers and airspace users (airlines and other pilots), before implementing that solution. Finally, ongoing research on future TFM decision support capabilities is described.

Yield management for privatised air traffic control?

Air Traffic Control (ATC) ensures the safe and expeditious passage of all aircraft in controlled airspace, usually, airspace above 5000–7000 ft or around main airports. Serious airspace congestion has led to demands for more cost-effective ATC and to plans to privatise air traffic services in the UK. These trends offer numerous opportunities to apply Operational Research in the 21st century, especially to improve information management. In a context of ATC privatisation, this paper investigates how applicable yield management (YM) policies are to European ATC. Necessary conditions for the use of YM are examined and difficulties in using YM for ATC are identified. Following this, possible YM solutions are outlined. Finally, the implications of YM for airspace users are addressed.

An experimental approach to measuring the effects of a controller conflict probe in a free routing environment

The unstructured traffic environment that is gradually evolving in the National Airspace System may necessitate decision aiding tools to help controllers manage aircraft traffic efficiently and within acceptable safety and workload levels. An experiment was designed to assess the effect of conflict detection and trial planning resolution aids and traffic conditions on the performance of controllers and the efficiency of flight. Twelve controllers participated in a high-fidelity simulation study in the Indianapolis Center dynamic simulation facility using the user request evaluation tool (URET). Study results indicated that URET clearly improves the acceptability of operations and may enhance safety, particularly in the unstructured environment. In addition, the study findings strongly support a shift toward more strategic air traffic control with conflict probe as well as a significant increase in the contribution of the D controller to the primary sector tasks. Because of study limitations, it was not possible to associate any quantitative estimates of airspace user benefits with the potentially more efficient resolution strategies. The results and experimental approach are discussed in terms of their contribution to measurement methods and issues in the evolutionary progression toward a free flight-based air traffic system.

Customers and actors of ATM: military users

Abstract The airspace users community encompasses a wide range of quite different interest groups involved either in Commercial Air Transport Operations, Military Operations, General Aviation & Aerial Work Operations or Test Flights & Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Operations. Military Aviation plays a special role among these airspace users because of its specific needs related to the type of ATM services requested and the priority of access to airspace.

The Impact of CTAS Information on Airline Operational Control

The continued growth of air traffic, together with increased air carrier economic pressures, have created a need for greater flexibility and collaboration in air traffic management. The ability of airspace users to select their own routes through so-called “free-flight,” and the ability to more actively manage their fleet operations for maximum economic advantage are both receiving great attention. A first step toward greater airspace user and service provider collaboration is information sharing. In this work, arrival scheduling and airspace management data generated by the NASA/FAA Center/Terminal Radar Approach CONtrol (TRACON) Automation System (CTAS) and used by the FAA service provider is shared with an airline with extensive “hub” operations within the CTAS operational domain. The design and development of a specialized airline-CTAS information exchange system is described, as well as the results of the impact and benefits of this information on the air carrier’s operations. FAA controller per-aircraft scheduling information, such as that provided by CTAS, has never before been shared in real-time with an airline. Results show that CTAS information sharing leads to improved predicted time of arrival accuracy, improved strategic fleet arrival planning, and improved divert/no divert decisions of aircraft to alternate airports when faced with uncertain airborne delays. No adverse impact on FAA air traffic control operations was found to have resulted from this experimental data exchange.

The “Smart” Tool: Impacts on An Airline Operations Control Center

SMART (Self-Managed Arrival Resequencing Tool) is an automation capability which allows airspace users to manage their own arrival flows. Through the interventions of ground delay and airborne speed-control, users may affect the timing and sequencing of arrival flights. New procedures for coordination with Air Traffic Control are not needed. However, some changes in the procedures in the airline Operations Control Center (OCC) are required. Proper training and coordination among the dispatcher and pilot are needed. This article describes the experience in installing a demonstration version of SMART and the changes in the roles and responsibilities of the OCC.

Future air traffic management: technology, operations, and human factors implications

The NASA, the FAA and Eurocontrol have initiated programs of research and development to provide flight crew, air line operators and air traffic managers with automation aids to increase capacity in enroute and terminal areas, to support the goals of safe, flexible, predictable and efficient operations, and to ensure, and to enhance the safety of operations in the response to demands for capacity enhancement. Achievement of these goals is enabled by increased precision of knowledge of aircraft and asset position in space and time, by increased density and bandwidth of transmitted information among the airspace assets and users, and by increased service and information to the flight deck, ATC and airline operations centers. These aiding technologies are intended to support exploitation of timely and dynamic information on atmospheric hazards, traffic fluctuations, and airspace utilization. These systems are intended to support the human operators who maintain the authority and responsibility for safe, efficient operations through cognitive aiding technologies, to serve as cognitive orthoses (Reason, 1988) [12].

Evolutionary Concepts for Decentralized Air Traffic Flow Management

Alternative concepts for modifying the policies and procedures under which the air traffic flow management system operates are described, and an approach to the evaluation of those concepts is discussed. Here, air traffic flow management includes all activities related to the management of the flow of aircraft and related system resources from “block to block.” The alternative concepts represent stages in the evolution from the current system, in which air traffic management decision making is largely centralized within the FAA, to a more decentralized approach wherein the airlines and other airspace users collaborate in air traffic management decision making with the FAA. The emphasis in the discussion is on a viable medium-term partially decentralized scenario representing a phase of this evolution that is consistent with the decision-making approaches embodied in proposed Free Flight concepts for air traffic management. System-level metrics for analyzing and evaluating the various alternatives are defined, and a simulation testbed developed to generate values for those metrics is described. The fundamental issue of modeling airline behavior in decentralized environments is also raised, and an example of such a model, which deals with the preservation of flight bank integrity in hub airports, is presented.

National Airspace System demand and capacity modeling

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has undertaken an effort to model and analyze the performance of the National Airspace System (NAS), a system that encompasses the nationwide airport and airspace network in the United States. This effort and the resulting capability, called the National Airspace System Performance Analysis Capability (NASPAC), are based on operations research and computer-modeling techniques. The authors provide a detailed description of a discrete-event simulation model of the NAS developed as part of the NASPAC project. Special emphasis is placed on the model's representation of the airport and airspace entities that constitute the NAS and the airspace user demand. The authors present the results of an initial analysis of the possible impact of a proposed new airport at Denver, CO, and conclude with a discussion of the potential future direction of NASPAC.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Setting navigational performance standards for aircraft flying over the oceans

Aircraft operating over the oceans are not tracked by air traffic control radars. Separation between aircraft in oceanic airspace is maintained by assigning each a block of airspace within which it is expected to remain without benefit of realtime monitoring to detect and correct navigational errors. A collision could occur of one aircraft deviates from its assigned course sufficiently to violate the airspace of another. To keep the risk of collision acceptably low in the heavily travelled North Atlantic region, the frequency of large course deviations is controlled by imposing navigational performance requirements on airspace users, together with separation minima. This paper describes the process by which a minimum navigational performance specification was developed and implemented for this region.

Fuel Economies Effected by the use of FMS in an Advanced TMA

The title of this paper could possibly be misleading in that it suggests that we already have a solution for a problem which is still open or at least a conclusion from an investigation which is still under way.Accordingly, we should define straight away, subject to subsequent elaboration, (a) what we mean by an ‘advanced terminal area’, (b) what in such a context could be envisaged in terms of advantages for the aviation community, namely both the airspace users and the air traffic authorities, and finally (c) what new tools, both in the air and on the ground, would be desirable or essential in order to achieve a given degree of progress.

Airspace Users' Views on Air Traffic Control (ATC) System Planning

Airspace Users' Views on Air Traffic Control (ATC) System Planning

Navigation for General Aviation

General aviation has become the major user of the airspace in the United States, and will continue as an increasingly predominant airspace user as time goes on. Thus future programming must take into consideration more and more the impact of general aviation on the control of air traffic, and in particular its inherent need for flexible flight routes between many points on the surface. A significant requirement for aircraft flying over multiple routes connecting virtually unlimited combinations of departure and destination points and for the efficient control of high density traffic is that pilots can perform area navigation. Airborne equipment is now available which provides accurate area, multiple track, navigational flexibility. During the remainder of this Century, probably the most acceptable equipment with this capability for the majority of general aviation aircraft—from both an operational and economic viewpoint—will involve the introduction of airborne computers for use with conventional VOR/DME receivers, coupled with suitable read-outs giving continuous position information. Aircraft so equipped also will be able to provide data link reporting of position information derived from the airborne navigation system, which will constitute an important contribution to future automation in the control of air traffic.

Responsibility of the State for Air Traffic Control

I shall try to set the Air Traffic Control scene by describing how the responsibilities of States to provide Air Traffic Services are currently exercised in the United Kingdom, and by indicating some of the measures being taken to ensure that these services keep pace with the increasing demands of the air space users. Any opinions I may express are, of course, my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Ministry of Aviation.

Notes on the Research and Development Programme of the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency

The expansion of air traffic in the United States continues at a forceful rate and shows no signs of decelleration. The Federal Aviation Agency (F.A.A.) traffic control statistics of Fig. 1 show total yearly operations and their relative growth. The graphs distinguish between the three major airspace users, i.e. the scheduled air carriers, the military activity at F.A.A. controlled airfields, and general aviation. The term ‘general aviation’ combines all non-military and non-scheduled airline operators, such as business fliers and private individuals who operate their own airplanes. In addition to the total trend the most significant aspect to note is the high percentage of general aviation activity and its explosive growth rate.