Arrival Procedures Research Articles

RPAS performance model for fast-time simulation research on integration in non-segregated airspace

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to elaborate the performance model of the remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) which was destined for simulations of the construction characteristics, airspeeds and trajectory of flight in the controlled, non-segregated airspace according to the standard instrument departure and arrival procedures (SIDs and STARs).Design/methodology/approachThis study used systems engineering approach: decomposition of RPAS performance model into components, relations and its connection with components of controlled the airspace system. Fast-time simulations (FTS) method, which included investigation of many scenarios of the system work, minimizing the number of input variables and low computing power demand, is also used.FindingsPerformance envelope of many fixed-wing RPAS was not published. The representative RPAS geometry configuration was feasible to implement. Power unit model and aerodynamic model needed to be accommodated to RPAS category. The range of aircraft minimum drag coefficient differed in the investigated range of take-off mass and wing loading.Research limitations/implicationsFixed-wing RPAS of small and medium categories cover take-off mass (25–450 kg), wing loading (40–900 N/m2) and power loading (8–40 W/N).Practical implicationsThis is a research on integration of the RPAS in the controlled, non-segregated airspace. The results of the work may be used in broadening the knowledge of the RPAS characteristics from the perspective of operators, designers and air traffic services.Originality/valueThe elaborated performance model of the RPAS used the minimum number of three input variables (take-off mass, wing loading and power loading) in identification of the complete RPAS characteristics, i.e. construction features (aerodynamic, propulsion and loads) and flight parameters (airspeeds and flight trajectory).

Environmental inefficiencies for arrival flights at European airports.

In this paper, we analyze two months of trajectory data for aircraft landing in five major European airports. Based on open ADS-B data from the OpenSky Network and open performance models, we enrich all trajectories with automatically detected procedure information, fuel consumption, and emissions for supported aircraft types. To assess the inefficiencies associated with holding patterns, point merges, and continuous descent operations across different airports, we propose methodologies to quantify and compare these environmental inefficiencies. Holding patterns are found to have a higher negative impact on the environment than point merge and continuous descent operations. Furthermore, the paper provides recommendations for procedure evaluations of future airports, which could help policymakers and relevant stakeholders to evaluate the environmental performances of arrival procedures based on open data and open models.

IMPLICATIONS OF AUTOGATE AS THE OPTIMIZATION OF IMMIGRATION TECHNOLOGY IN RELATIONSHIP TO REDUCE THE CRIMINAL ACTION OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human Trafficking is an extraordinary crime because it is generally involved with sexual offenses and forced labour; which is a clear violation of human rights. Autogate technology has been implemented at Soekarno-Hatta Airport to speed up departure and arrival procedures at the country's entrance; however, it is seen as a potential risk factor for trafficking. While technologies such as biometric scanning and automated processing speed up document checks for immigration with Autogate, fewer opportunities for people to interact directly with security agents increase the risk of trafficking. Some analyzes must consider many variables, such as the security of autogate technology, the expansion of human movement, and the protection of human rights. This essay aims to attenuate how implementing autogate can impact human trafficking. Moreover, with the existence of an autogate, these findings will help policy makers develop more effective steps to prevent human trafficking.

국내 표준계기도착절차(STAR)의 활용도 및 연속강하접근 운항 비율 분석

In response to the recent surge in aviation demand, major airport and aviation authorities continue to make efforts to formulate arrival procedures that take into account efficient aircraft separation, noise and environmental issues related to carbon (CO₂) emissions. In order to ensure efficient traffic control and environmental issues, as a result, a new concept Trombone, Point Merge, etc. have been introduced and widely used. However, these new concept incisions are becoming a factor that hinders operational efficiency and stability due to the restricted domestic airspace such as military airspace and excessive constraints of altitude, speed, etc. which do not reflect the concept of continuous descent operation and eventually needs to be modified to make continuous descent operation as feasible as possible. We herewith analyze and propose the way of improving flight safety and efficiency in the arrival operation procedure by supplementary modification which consequently contribute to the aviation industry international competitiveness.

Optimization of standard arrival procedures at Sheremetyevo airport using rnav path terminators

Holding patterns are established at international airports to make the arriving traffic flow smooth and efficient. One of the main aims of holding patterns is to extend the aircraft arrival route, which allows ATC units to arrange the sequence on the arrival routes more effectively. The article considers the current methods and offers new ideas to improve the efficiency of the inbound traffic flow management using Paths and Terminators concept with HA holding patterns for standard arrival routes at Sheremetyevo Airport. As the main idea for optimizing air traffic management on this stage and reducing the workload on the controller, it is proposed to create extra routes in addition to the existing ones which include holding patterns, that will be used when needed to ensure a well-ordered traffic. The probabilistic method is used to calculate the maximum capacity of existing and proposed arrival routes with holding patterns. The proposed options for restructuring the airspace of the Moscow Terminal Control Area with preserving waypoints of starting standard arrival routes are presented.

Causal Analysis of Lateral Deviation of Flights in Terminal Airspace

Aircraft arrival and departure procedures are designed by air navigation service providers to enable the orderly and safe flow of air traffic. However, in actual operations, flights often deviate from standard routes, especially within terminal airspace. In this context, this paper presents an analysis of the determining factors for the lateral deviation (LD) of flight paths compared with the standard aeronautical departure and arrival procedures. For that, aircraft tracking data recorded by surveillance systems were leveraged and a linear regression model was employed to map structural and operational factors into LD. Our results indicate that LD tends to decrease with increased demand and low ceiling or visibility conditions. On the other hand, convective weather tends to increase LDs as additional holdings and rerouting may be necessary. Besides, significant levels of deviation can be associated with some specific arrival and departure procedures.

Probabilistic Prediction of Separation Buffer to Compensate for the Closing Effect on Final Approach

The air traffic is mainly divided into en-route flight segments, arrival and departure segments inside the terminal maneuvering area, and ground operations at the airport. To support utilizing available capacity more efficiently, in our contribution we focus on the prediction of arrival procedures, in particular, the time-to-fly from the turn onto the final approach course to the threshold. The predictions are then used to determine advice for the controller regarding time-to-lose or time-to-gain for optimizing the separation within a sequence of aircraft. Most prediction methods developed so far provide only a point estimate for the time-to-fly. Complementary, we see the need to further account for the uncertain nature of aircraft movement based on a probabilistic prediction approach. This becomes very important in cases where the air traffic system is operated at its limits to prevent safety-critical incidents, e.g., separation infringements due to very tight separation. Our approach is based on the Quantile Regression Forest technique that can provide a measure of uncertainty of the prediction not only in form of a prediction interval but also by generating a probability distribution over the dependent variable. While the data preparation, model training, and tuning steps are identical to classic Random Forest methods, in the prediction phase, Quantile Regression Forests provide a quantile function to express the uncertainty of the prediction. After developing the model, we further investigate the interpretation of the results and provide a way for deriving advice to the controller from it. With this contribution, there is now a tool available that allows a more sophisticated prediction of time-to-fly, depending on the specific needs of the use case and which helps to separate arriving aircraft more efficiently.

How Air Traffic Control Intervention Effects Altitude Deviations on Optimized Profile Descent Arrivals

U.S. National Airspace System modernization began with the publication of the Next Generation Air Transportation System Integrated Plan (NextGen) in 2004 to accommodate forecast air travel demand increases in the United States. This framework proposed an integrated approach to safety, environmental sustainability, reduced fuel burn, and increased airspace and airport capacity by using automated capabilities. One of these capabilities, the Optimized Profile Descent (OPD) is an automated procedure created to link the en route phase of flight with the terminal area within the context of NextGen goals. This type of automated procedure was developed during the NextGen short phase (2004-2012) for both air traffic control and aircraft, but they continue to be used in a non-integrated manner. It is the confluence of incompatible automated and manual air traffic management techniques that produce a favorable location for an altitude deviation. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of air traffic control intervention on altitude deviations reported during optimized profile descent arrival procedures in the U.S. National Airspace System from January 1, 2012 to January 1, 2018. Examination of aviation safety reports from this time period showed that air traffic control intervention did effect altitude deviations, specifically in the areas of aircrew error, communication error, and equipment malfunction or limitation. This analysis also demonstrated the failure of the altitude deviation rate to return to normal historic levels after the introduction of NextGen procedures, making altitude deviation a leading safety indicator for the U.S. National Airspace System.

Quantifying the Environmental Design Trades for a State-of-the-Art Turbofan Engine

Aircraft and engine technology have continuously evolved since their introduction and significant improvement has been made in fuel efficiency, emissions, and noise reduction. One of the major issues that the aviation industry is facing today is pollution around the airports, which has an effect both on human health and on the climate. Although noise emissions do not have a direct impact on climate, variations in departure and arrival procedures influence both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions. In addition, design choices made to curb noise might increase CO2 and vice versa. Thus, multidisciplinary modeling is required for the assessment of these interdependencies for new aircraft and flight procedures. A particular aspect that has received little attention is the quantification of the extent to which early design choices influence the trades of CO2, NOx, and noise. In this study, a single aisle thrust class turbofan engine is optimized for minimum installed SFC (Specific Fuel Consumption). The installed SFC metric includes the effect of engine nacelle drag and engine weight. Close to optimal cycles are then studied to establish how variation in engine cycle parameters trade with noise certification and LTO (Landing and Take-Off) emissions. It is demonstrated that around the optimum a relatively large variation in cycle parameters is allowed with only a modest effect on the installed SFC metric. This freedom in choosing cycle parameters allows the designer to trade noise and emissions. Around the optimal point of a state-of-the-art single aisle thrust class propulsion system, a 1.7 dB reduction in cumulative noise and a 12% reduction in EINOx could be accomplished with a 0.5% penalty in installed SFC.

Models of the Reference Departure and Arrival IFR Procedures for the Purpose of Research in RPAS Integration in Controlled Airspace

Abstract The air operations in controlled airspace performed according to Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) are composed of three main flight phases, i.e. departure, cruise, arrival. Controlled airspace is divided into the terminal area and en-route airspace. The terminal area encloses the departure and arrival phases while the en-route airspace encloses the cruise phase. The IFR procedures are designed for manned aviation to ensure the safety of air operations. Development of the aviation concerns among others the increase in the number of unmanned aviation operations. Currently, on the European level, there is an on-going, long-term program of integration of the unmanned aviation in the uniform (non-segregated) airspace. This work concerns the research in the integration of the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in the IFR procedures of the controlled airports. The objective was to build the reference models of Standard Instrument Departure and Arrival Procedures (SID and STAR). Basing on the procedure design guidelines the models of procedural nominal track, tolerance area, obstacle clearance area, climb or descend gradient, manoeuvres in SID and STAR were done. The guidelines describe the operational minima thus the statistics of existing procedures was done to select the suitable procedure parameters such as a number of navigational points, segments lengths, altitudes, climb or descent gradients. Reference models of SID include straight departure and turning departure procedures. Reference models of STAR include non-precision approach procedures according to used navigational aids, i.e. GNSS, VOR. The reference procedures were numerically implemented which will be used in the further works on RPAS integration problem by simulations of the RPAS ability to execute of the SID and STAR.

Optimal Metering Point Configurations for Optimized Profile Descent Based Arrival Operations at Airports

Optimized profile descent (OPD) is an arrival procedure for the Next Generation Air Transportation System, which has been demonstrated to effectively decrease noise, emissions, and fuel costs. Implementation of OPD operations requires effective metering policies because of the increased role of uncertainty in aircraft trajectories during descent. While optimal sequencing and spacing of OPD flights have been studied in the literature, any potential savings resulting from possible changes in metering point configurations have not been addressed. In this paper, we develop models to further increase the value of OPD operations over conventional arrival procedures by optimizing metering point configurations, which include identification of the optimal number and locations of metering points to use during OPD. We derive an algorithmic framework based on implementations of a stochastic dynamic programming model and a nonlinear stochastic integer program to identify best metering point configurations where resulting computational difficulties are addressed through convex approximation and Lagrangian decomposition procedures. We also describe numerical results based on actual traffic information at major U.S. airports, which indicate that the total potential savings in the top 10 major airports could be up to $22 million a year if the proposed policies are implemented. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2017.0788 .

A data-driven approach to modeling high-density terminal areas: A scenario analysis of the new Beijing, China airspace

Airports are being developed and expanded rapidly in China to accommodate and promote a growing aviation market. The future Beijing Daxing International Airport (DAX) will serve as the central airport of the JingJinJi megaregion, knitting the Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei regions together. DAX will be a busy airport from its inception, relieving congestion and accommodating growth from Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK), currently the second busiest airport in the world in passengers moved. We aim to model terminal airspace designs and possible conflicts in the future Beijing Multi-Airport System (MAS). We investigate standard arrival procedures and mathematically model current and future arrival trajectories into PEK and DAX by collecting large quantities of publicly available track data from historical arrivals operating within the Beijing terminal airspace. We find that (1) trajectory models constructed from real data capture aberrations and deviations from standard arrival procedures, validating the need to incorporate data on historical trajectories with standard procedures when evaluating the airspace and (2) given all existing constraints, DAX may be restricted to using north and east arrival flows, constraining the capacity required to handle the increases in air traffic demand to Beijing. The results indicate that the terminal airspace above Beijing, and the future JingJinJi region, requires careful consideration if the full capacity benefits of the two major airports are to be realized.

ON THE ARRIVAL TRAFFIC FLOW ORGANIZATION

This article is about air traffic flow organization, ICAO regulations describe the organizing of traffic flow as one of the purposes of air traffic control, but they don’t state exactly at what point the flow has to be organized and metered. The flight phase, where air traffic controller interferes with his instructions in order to begin organizing of all aircraft landing at a certain airport depends on the actual traffic volume per hour, airspace capacity and design. The example of air traffic situation in Moscow Domodedovo airport is described in the article, with runway 32 right in use, no significant weather, real usage of STARs, considering all the ICAO and Russian Federation regulations regarding speed control with the restrictions mentioned in AIP of Moscow Domodedovo. The purpose of the experiment is to prove the need of metering the air traffic flow on the entry points in Moscow TMA, because in case of unorganized air traffic flow approach controllers will have additional unnecessary workload. The conducted calculations show, that only 3 aircraft entering TMA on the same distance from initial approach point can be handled using only speed control and existing standard arrival procedures, in all other cases vectoring or holding areas should be used. In order to avoid such situations and increase the number of the aircraft that can be handled by the approach controller with less instructions, all the traffic arriving on the TMA entry point has to be metered by area control centre, because the air traffic control unit has much more space and time for long term speed control modifications, e.g. ±0,02 Mach. In conclusion a simple rule comes to mind – the bigger inbound traffic is, the earlier one has to organize it, in order to do it speed control, radar vectors, miles-in-trail can be used. Also new equipment and technology can help air traffic controller with this task, e.g. AMAN (arrival manager), in addition to this, the experience of London Heathrow airport, which increases the AMAN horizon from 150 nm to 600 nm, has to be studied by all concerned air traffic providers.

Methods of air traffic management in the airport area including the environmental factor

ABSTRACTIn the modern approach to air traffic management (ATM), issues related to air quality and climate protection have led to the introduction of a growing number of new restrictions instead of having these issues be the objectives of actions taken. The aim of the study was to investigate whether it is possible to improve air quality while controlling pollution emission by introducing changes in the organization of air traffic control at the airport. For this purpose, mathematical models of emissions were created. These concern the movement of aircraft near the airport and emission of carbon dioxide and the spread of human health related substances emitted from a landing airplane's engine. The first case refers to the possibility of using different arrival procedures. The second case was to adapt the Pasquill formula by treating landing aircraft as a sequence of point-source emissions. As a result of applying the designed models and software tools, it was proven that both a change in the arrival trajectory and a change of the runway can contribute to a reduction of CO2 emission into the atmosphere. The emission maps created for different aircraft approach profiles show the ability to control the local concentration of harmful emissions. The study clearly shows that the current approach of maximizing throughput is not beneficial to air quality. ATM services should consider the use of other variants of air traffic organization, particularly during periods of reduced traffic.

How Safe Are Neurosurgical Patients during Intrahospital Transportation?

Background Transporting critically sick neurosurgical patients from the intensive care environment for diagnostic procedures has become increasingly common. The occurrence of physiologic compromise and technical mishaps has been recognized. Objective To assess predeparture, in-transit, and arrival procedures and documentation during intrahospital transport of critically sick neurosurgical patients. Materials and Methods In a study of consecutive 30 patients, the transfer/shifting details were prospectively analyzed. Results The present study did not document any untoward incident and fixed protocol/checklist was followed for all cases/transfers. Conclusion The study concluded that safe intrahospital transport of critically sick neurosurgical patients can be ensured by following a systemic checklist. So, there is a need to utilize transportation checklist for better outcome of neurosurgical patients.

Optimal Control Based Vertical Trajectory Determination for Continuous Descent Arrival Procedures

Continuous descent arrival (CDA) procedures provide time and fuel savings, and reduce the noise impact of aircraft operations near airports. To date, these procedures have been designed to limit the performance envelopes to achieve trajectory commonality. In this paper, the performance bounds of CDA procedure via multiphase optimal vertical trajectory generation problems with respect to two performance indices—flight time and fuel consumption—have been investigated. The optimal CDA vertical profile is first divided into two segments: the cruise segment before the top of descent (TOD) and the descent segment from the TOD. Then, the second segment is further subdivided based on flap setting and speed constraints. Finally, the resulting multiphase optimal control problem is solved using a pseudospectral method. Two different types of aircraft, B737-500 (light) and B767-400 (heavy), are used in a numerical study, and the optimal CDA trajectories of the two types are compared with a typical vertical navigation (VNAV) CDA trajectory used in CDA applications at several airports. Then, the utility of suboptimal VNAV CDA trajectories that can be created with known flight management system (FMS) VNAV descent modes is explored, and thereby enabling onboard calculation in the FMS via the sensitivity analysis that is performed with various wind conditions.

Enabling Performance-Based Navigation Arrivals: Development and Simulation Testing of the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing System

NASA has developed an advanced arrival management capability for terminal controllers, known as Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSAS). TSAS increases use of performance-based navigation (PBN) arrival procedures during periods of high traffic demand. It enhances two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operational systems with terminal metering and controller spacing tools. Sixteen high-fidelity human-in-the-loop simulations, involving more than five hundred hours of evaluation time, were conducted to mature TSAS from proof-of-concept design to fully functional prototype. These simulations modeled arrival procedures at several US airports, incorporated a broad range of traffic demand profiles and wind conditions, and used controllers with extensive operational experience. Two metrics are evaluated for these simulations: PBN Success Rate and Inter-Arrival Spacing Error. The PBN Success Rate shows a definitive trend when TSAS is used. TSAS increases from 42% for today’s operations to 68% for terminal metering only and 92% for terminal metering with controller-managed spacing tools. Meanwhile, the Inter-Arrival Spacing Error improves 25% to 35% when TSAS is used compared to when it is not used. The TSAS technology was transferred to the FAA, and it is targeted for deployment to several busy airports in the US starting in 2018.

An Investigation of the Harbor Pilot Concept for Single Pilot Operations

Commercial aviation is expected to see an average growth of 3.7% per year over the next five years. At the same time, regional airlines are expressing concerns that they are unable to find a sufficient number of pilots who meet the minimum number of required flight hours and certifications. One option for handling the increased demand for, and reduced supply of, pilots is to better distribute the pilots already employed. This could be accomplished by reducing the number of required crewmembers on the flight deck from two to one. However, a significant challenge to the implementation of a single pilot crew is the increase in workload a single pilot would face especially in complex airspace. The harbor pilot is one concept of operations that has been proposed to deal with the potentially serious problem. In this concept, the harbor pilot is a ground operator whose job it is to help arriving single pilot aircraft navigate the complex terminal area airspace. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the feasibility of the harbor pilot concept by measuring the workload and performance of harbor pilots during a series of back-to-back simulated arrival procedures. Preliminary results show that harbor pilots rate their workload generally low and indicate that the maximum consecutive normal approaches that they are able to complete in a row is about four to six, provided they are not emergency situations.

Estimating the model-specific uncertainty of aircraft noise calculations

Aircraft noise contours are estimated with model calculations. Due to their impact, e.g., on land use planning, calculations need to be highly accurate, but their uncertainty usually remains unaccounted for. The objective of this study was therefore to quantify the uncertainty of calculated average equivalent continuous sound levels (LAeq) of complex scenarios such as yearly air operations, and to establish uncertainty maps. The methodology was developed for the simulation program FLULA2. In a first step, the partial uncertainties of modelling the aircraft as a sound source and of modelling sound propagation were quantified as a function of aircraft type and distance between aircraft and receiver. Then, these uncertainties were combined for individual flights to obtain the uncertainty of the single event level (LAE) at a specified receiver grid. The average LAeq of a scenario results from the combination of the LAE of many single flights, each of which has its individual uncertainties. In a last step, the uncertainties of all LAE were therefore combined to the uncertainty of the LAeq, accounting also for uncertainties of the number of movements and of prognoses. Uncertainty estimations of FLULA2 calculations for Zurich and Geneva airports revealed that the standard uncertainty of the LAeq ranges from 0.5dB (day) to 1.0dB (night) for past-time scenarios when using radar data as input, and from 1.0dB (day) to 1.3dB (night) for future scenarios, in areas where LAeq⩾53dB (day) and LAeq⩾43dB (night), respectively. Different uncertainty values may result for other models and/or airports, depending on the model sophistication, traffic input data, available sound source data, and airport peculiarities such as the specific aircraft fleet or prevailing departure and arrival procedures. The methodology, while established for FLULA2 on Zurich and Geneva airports, may be applied to other models and/or airports, but the partial uncertainties have to be specifically re-established to account for individual models and underlying sound source data.

Assessing the Benefits of NextGen Performance-Based Navigation

Two key components of the Next Generation Air Transportation System are Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) and the Optimization of Airspace and Procedures in the Metroplex (OAPM). PBN leverages state-of-the-art navigation technologies such as Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP). OAPM implements PBN procedures and airspace changes. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is seeking to quantify the benefits of PBN. To support this effort, we investigated the throughput impact of PBN to mitigate numerous metroplex inefficiencies. PBN capabilities included RNAV Standard Instrument Departure (SID) and Standard Terminal Arrival (STAR) procedures. We developed queuing system models of the baseline SIDs or STARs capturing the inefficiencies and the RNAV SIDs or STARs mitigating the inefficiencies. We evaluated the models in simulations. Results show that RNAV SIDs and STARs demonstrated significant throughput increases over baseline SIDs and STARs, particularly at high traffic levels. This paper describes the modeling assumptions, methods, and results.