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A Near-Term Concept for Trajectory Based Operations with Air/Ground Data Link CommunicationAn operating concept and required system components for trajectory-based operations with air/ground data link for today's en route and transition airspace is proposed. Controllers are fully responsible for separation as they are today, and no new aircraft equipage is required. Trajectory automation computes integrated solutions to problems like metering, weather avoidance, traffic conflicts and the desire to find and fly more time/fuel efficient flight trajectories. A common ground-based system supports all levels of aircraft equipage and performance including those equipped and not equipped for data link. User interface functions for the radar controller's display make trajectory-based clearance advisories easy to visualize, modify if necessary, and implement. Laboratory simulations (without human operators) were conducted to test integrated operation of selected system components with uncertainty modeling. Results are based on 102 hours of Fort Worth Center traffic recordings involving over 37,000 individual flights. The presence of uncertainty had a marginal effect (5%) on minimum-delay conflict resolution performance, and windfavorable routes had no effect on detection and resolution metrics. Flight plan amendments and clearances were substantially reduced compared to today s operations. Top-of-descent prediction errors are the largest cause of failure indicating that better descent predictions are needed to reliably achieve fuel-efficient descent profiles in medium to heavy traffic. Improved conflict detections for climbing flights could enable substantially more continuous climbs to cruise altitude. Unlike today s Conflict Alert, tactical automation must alert when an altitude amendment is entered, but before the aircraft starts the maneuver. In every other failure case tactical automation prevented losses of separation. A real-time prototype trajectory trajectory-automation system is running now and could be made ready for operational testing at an en route Center in 1-2 years.
Document ID
20110008385
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
McNally, David (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Mueller, Eric (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Thipphavong, David (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Paielli, Russell (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Cheng, Jinn-Hwei (California Univ. Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
Lee, Chuhan (California Univ. Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
Sahlman, Scott (California Univ. Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
Walton, Joe (California Univ. Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
September 19, 2010
Subject Category
Air Transportation And Safety
Report/Patent Number
ARC-E-DAA-TN2193
Meeting Information
Meeting: ICAS 2010, 27th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences
Location: Nice
Country: France
Start Date: September 19, 2010
End Date: September 24, 2010
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS0203144
WBS: WBS 411931.02.51.01.25
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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