Spring 2008 The Leader Web edition

Integrated Airport Project (cover story )

About Time:
Embry-Riddle Gets to the Airport Early

By Robert Ross

You’re about to leave home to catch a flight when you discover your plane will be delayed for an hour.
In another city, airline dispatchers are making plans that could save half a ton of fuel on that flight.
At the airport, refuelers, caterers, and a push crew find out exactly when the plane will be ready for their service.

What these scenarios have in common is shared information.

Unfortunately, that information is not yet being shared.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University hopes to change that with a major research program that will help reshape the way air traffic is managed in the United States.

Integrating systems

With partners from government and the aerospace industry, the university is creating an integrated network of systems that will allow researchers to implement and test smooth, real-time information-sharing among users at airports, airlines, and air traffic control centers.
In late 2007, the U.S. Congress awarded $1.89 million to Embry-Riddle to establish an “integrated airport” test facility at Daytona Beach International Airport, where researchers can model and test what the Department of Transportation calls the Next Generation Air Transportation System.

The Embry-Riddle team includes researchers, faculty, and students specializing in air traffic management, business, computer and software engineering, flight, and human factors. Partner companies include Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Sensis, CSC, Volpe Center, Jeppesen, Transtech Airport Solutions, Mosaic ATM, and ENSCO.
Everyone involved in a flight – dispatchers, airport operators, air traffic controllers, ground crews, vendors – gets information through systems developed only for their use and not easily shared or integrated with other systems.
But if that data were available to all users in the air transportation system, their shared situational awareness would enable them to manage aviation operations more flexibly, improve efficiency and safety, and handle more flights.

Project Phases

Phase 1 (2008 & 2009)
Integrate 4-D weather and 4-D trajectory display systems; allows controllers to better manage flight arrivals; controllers monitor trajectories of aircraft and redirect or space out flights that could intersect and direct flights around a storm that is forecast.

Phase 2 (2009 & 2010)
Possible focus: Integrate airport surface monitoring and departure/arrival management systems into system-wide information management (SWIM) system.

Phase 3 (2010 & 2011)
Possible focus: Integrate a 300% increase in air traffic, using continuous ascent and continuous descent procedures; continuous ascents and descents by aircraft are smoother, quieter, cleaner, and more fuel-efficient than current “step-up” and “step-down” methods.

In the air

Today, air traffic controllers work only with aircraft moving through their sector. But in the NextGen system, their monitors would show the trajectories of every flight moving in time through three-dimensional weather systems. The merged information would make it easier for controllers in all sectors to work as a team to redirect or space out planes whose paths might conflict or are headed toward a storm that is forming.
The NextGen system would also streamline flights by allowing more direct trajectories.

Today, a flight from St. Louis to Atlanta, a distance of about 480 miles, flies straight southeast most of the way, and then, if the landing is in an east configuration, loops west and then loops back eastbound to be sequenced with other flights. The detour adds about 20 extra miles to the flight.
In the new system, airlines, corporate flight operators, cargo carriers, air taxis, and small aviators would be able to fly more direct point-to-point trajectories, rather than along fixed airways and jet routes.
Another improvement would be the use of continuous ascents and descent procedures, which are smoother, quieter, and save more fuel than the current practice of climbing and descending in a stair-step fashion.

On the ground

Airport and airline operations people would know within minutes when a plane is to land, enabling them to more efficiently schedule the cleaning, refueling, and restocking of airplanes and shorten the turnaround between flights. They’d also be able to monitor and manage all aspects of an aircraft’s movement on the airfield.
“Operations management today is driven by events,” says Ian Wilson, director of Embry-Riddle’s Center for Advanced Air Traffic Management Research (CAAR). “The new system would allow it to be more predictive. By constantly monitoring the airport, we’re trying to create a known traffic environment on the ground, just as there is one in the air.”
The system would make it easier for air traffic controllers to manage aircraft waiting to take off and land.

“A recent study reported that Heathrow Airport in England was emitting seven and a half tons of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere,” Wilson says. “If you can get aircraft to go straight out and take off, rather than wait in queues with their engines running, it could save a tremendous amount of fuel and pollution.”
The new system should also reduce the possibility of incursions on the runway. Alerts would let air crews or air traffic controllers know of imminent incursions. GPS tracking systems in every vehicle, from airplanes and trucks to container dollies and de-icers, would shut any vehicle down that goes where it does not belong.

Academic Degrees Programs That Will Involve Students in the Project

Aeronautical Science (Flight) – Students fly actual aircraft and play pseudo-pilots in simulated flight scenarios to test the system.
Air Traffic Management – Students and researchers track actual planes at Daytona Beach International Airport, inject simulated air traffic into the system, and use/test “virtual tower” concept.
Business – Students and faculty study proposed flight path alternatives, evaluating their efficiency in terms of fuel, emissions, noise, and overall cost of operations.
Civil Engineering – Students and faculty explore new airport designs to align runways closer than is now possible, allowing an airport to add runways to handle more flights.
Computer and Software Engineering – Students and researchers write code for metrics and displays and develop concepts for displaying 4-D trajectory and weather data on flat-screen monitors.
Human Factors and Systems – Students and researchers measure efficiency of displays in terms of controller workload and understanding.

A triage for concepts

At the airport test facility in Daytona Beach, various manufacturers’ stand-alone applications will be plugged in and made accessible to other users. These systems will be tested together as an integrated airport.
“This research will essentially be a triage for concepts,” Wilson says. “We can test in Daytona Beach what we couldn’t test at a busier airport like Atlanta’s. Once we’ve proved concepts here, they can be rolled out at busier airports.”

Wilson estimates half a ton of fuel per flight could be saved by adopting practices such as point-to-point routes, continuous ascents and descents, and getting jets off the runway surface more quickly.
In addition to its expertise in air traffic management research, Embry-Riddle’s groundbreaking experience with ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast), is a plus for the program. Aircraft in the University’s flight training fleets have been equipped with the satellite-linked collision-avoidance avionics since 2003.

In fact, Embry-Riddle is among the winners of this year’s Collier Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association to organizations that pioneered ADS-B’s development.

Who Will Benefit from the Research Project?

Airports -- More flights possible; improved relations with community.

Airport businesses -- Improved management of personnel and equipment; ability to deliver more timely services, such as refueling, catering, and maintenance.

Air traffic control -- Smoother, more efficient air traffic flow and increased safety, e.g., ability to redirect flights around other aircraft or coming storms.

Air travelers -- Reduced curb-to-curb time; shorter waits for flights.

Flight operators -- Airlines, air taxis, cargo, corporate, and other aviators able to fly more direct point-to-point trajectories, rather than fixed airway and jet routes.

Local residents -- Reduced aircraft noise and exhaust emissions due to smoother ascents and descents; more flights offered at airport.