Evaluation of Flight Deck-Based Interval Management Crew Procedure Feasibility

Abstract

Air traffic demand is predicted to increase over the next 20 years, creating a need for new technologies and procedures to support this growth in a safe and efficient manner. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration -1 (ATD-1) will operationally demonstrate the feasibility of efficient arrival operations combining ground-based and airborne NASA technologies. The integration of these technologies will increase throughput, reduce delay, conserve fuel, and minimize environmental impacts. The ground-based tools include Traffic Management Advisor with Terminal Metering for precise time-based scheduling and Controller Managed Spacing decision support tools for better managing aircraft delay with speed control. The core airborne technology in ATD-1 is Flight deck-based Interval Management (FIM). FIM tools provide pilots with speed commands calculated using information from Automatic Dependent Surveillance -Broadcast. The precise merging and spacing enabled by FIM avionics and flight crew procedures will reduce excess spacing buffers and result in higher terminal throughput. This paper describes a human-in-the-loop experiment designed to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the ATD-1 procedures used in a voice communications environment. This experiment utilized the ATD-1 integrated system of ground-based and airborne technologies. Pilot participants flew a high-fidelity fixed base simulator equipped with an airborne spacing algorithm and a FIM crew interface. Experiment scenarios involved multiple air traffic flows into the Dallas-Fort Worth Terminal Radar Control airspace. Results indicate that the proposed procedures were feasible for use by flight crews in a voice communications environment.The delivery accuracy at the achieve-by point was within +/-five seconds and the delivery precision was less than five seconds. Furthermore, FIM speed commands occurred at a rate of less than one per minute, and pilots found the frequency of the speed commands to be acceptable at all times throughout the experiment scenarios.

ASTAR Flight Test: Overview and Spacing Results

“…The desired spacing goal is required to be met no later than when the trailing aircraft crosses the Achieve-By Point, which helps to keep speed guidance close to constraints found in published procedures. As the speed guidance is executed by the flight crews, the aircraft conforms to very precise spacing intervals and procedures, thus simultaneously enabling increased airport arrival capacity and more efficient aircraft operations 3,4,5 .…”

Contributions to trajectory prediction theory and its application to arrival management for air traffic control

“…Where these systems fit on the spectrum of Figure 4.1 depends on their function. Airborne separation assurance is being researched to maintain separation during final approach, so called interval management (IM) [90][91][92]; such system would be of a more tactical nature. On the other hand airborne separation assurance is proposed where aircraft negotiate route changes between one another; this is more of a strategic nature [14].…”

“…92) where Contributions to Trajectory Prediction Theory and its Application to Arrival Management for Air Traffic Control -J. Bronsvoort, MSc in (9.92) representing the change in deceleration segment length will be discussed later. Substitution of (9.91) and (9.92) into (9.90) yields, Substitution of (9.97) and (9.98) into (9.35) to (9.37) finally yields,…”