Simulation Results for Airborne Precision Spacing along Continuous Descent Arrivals

Barmore, Bryan E.; Capron, William R.; Abbott, Terence S.; Baxley, Brian T.

doi:10.2514/6.2008-8931

Cited by 50 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Recent simulations of CDAs have shown meter fix arrival time errors at 30 seconds. 14,15 In contrast, the delivery accuracy to the runway is more precise than to the meter fix. For this study, rwy was also varied from 0 to 30 seconds.…”

Section: A Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…13,17,18 As advanced air traffic management techniques become prevalent, the inter-arrival spacing error is expected to decrease to less than 7.5 seconds. 14,15,18 Assuming arrival time errors are independent, the corresponding runway arrival time error is computed by the root sum square of two successive arrival time errors equals the inter-arrival spacing time error.…”

Section: A Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Design Considerations for a New Terminal Area Arrival Scheduler

Thipphavong

Mulfinger

2010

10th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference

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Design of a terminal area arrival scheduler depends on the interrelationship between throughput, delay and controller intervention. The main contribution of this paper is an analysis of the above interdependence for several stochastic behaviors of expected system performance distributions in the aircraft's time of arrival at the meter fix and runway. Results of this analysis serve to guide the scheduler design choices for key control variables. Two types of variables are analyzed, separation buffers and terminal delay margins. The choice for these decision variables was tested using sensitivity analysis. Analysis suggests that it is best to set the separation buffer at the meter fix to its minimum and adjust the runway buffer to attain the desired system performance. Delay margin was found to have the least effect. These results help characterize the variables most influential in the scheduling operations of terminal area arrivals.

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Section: A Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Considerations for a New Terminal Area Arrival Scheduler

Thipphavong

Mulfinger

2010

10th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference

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“…Previous experiments have demonstrated that flight deck based spacing can deliver aircraft to the runway with mean errors less than seven seconds and standard deviations less than five seconds. 4,5,13,[23][24][25] In contrast, baseline scenarios of current day operations conducted at MITRE have produced a mean spacing error of 24.75 seconds and a standard deviation of 17.02 seconds. 4,5 The inter-arrival time recorded in this experiment revealed an interaction effect between Control Method and Error Source (p = 0.002), and results of post hoc comparisons revealed that scenarios conducted using RTA procedures during the presence of wind error resulted in a greater arrival error when compared with each of the other five Control Method by Error Source combinations (p < 0.05).…”

Section: Runway Delivery Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of an Airborne Spacing Concept, On-board Spacing Tool, and Pilot Interface

Swieringa

Murdoch

Baxley

et al. 2011

11th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference

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The number of commercial aircraft operations is predicted to increase in the next ten years, creating a need for improved operational efficiency. Two areas believed to offer significant increases in efficiency are optimized profile descents and dependent parallel runway operations. It is envisioned that during both of these types of operations, flight crews will precisely space their aircraft behind preceding aircraft at air traffic control assigned intervals to increase runway throughput and maximize the use of existing infrastructure. This paper describes a human-in-the-loop experiment designed to study the performance of an onboard spacing algorithm and pilots' ratings of the usability and acceptability of an airborne spacing concept that supports dependent parallel arrivals. Pilot participants flew arrivals into the Dallas Fort-Worth terminal environment using one of three different simulators located at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Langley Research Center. Scenarios were flown using Interval Management with Spacing (IM-S) and Required Time of Arrival (RTA) control methods during conditions of no error, error in the forecast wind, and offset (disturbance) to the arrival flow. Results indicate that pilots' delivered their aircraft to the runway threshold within +/-3.5 seconds of their assigned arrival time and reported that both the IM-S and RTA procedures were associated with low workload levels. In general, pilots found the IM-S concept, procedures, speeds, and interface acceptable; with 92% of pilots rating the procedures as complete and logical, 218 out of 240 responses agreeing that the IM-S speeds were acceptable, and 63% of pilots reporting that the displays were easy to understand and displayed in appropriate locations. The 22 (out of 240) responses, indicating that the commanded speeds were not acceptable and appropriate occurred during scenarios containing wind error and offset error. Concerns cited included the occurrence of multiple speed changes within a short time period, speed changes required within twenty miles of the runway, and an increase in airspeed followed shortly by a decrease in airspeed. Within this paper, appropriate design recommendations are provided, and the need for continued, iterative human-centered design is discussed.

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“…In a previous study, however, it was reported that time-based separation cannot always be achieved especially due to unexpected wind. 10) To cope with such undesirable situations, the authors presented the ''arrival time controllability'' concept to evaluate how large arrival time difference could potentially be made at the TOD. 15) The arrival time controllability is defined as the difference between the extensible and reducible time, and is uniquely determined for a CDO trajectory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14] Although these concepts differ in detail, their basic strategies can be summarized as follows: an aircraft descends from the top of descent (TOD) to reach the merging point at a required time, and maintains an appropriate interval with the preceding aircraft by airborne separation as shown in Fig. 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arrival Time Control during Continuous Descent and Its Application to Air Traffic Control

Takeichi

Hatano

Fukuda

2013

Trans. Japan Soc. Aero. S Sci.

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Arrival time control in a continuous descent operation (CDO) and its application to arrival traffic control are discussed. Through numerical simulations, the feasibility of the arrival time extension and reduction while maintaining the idle thrust during the continuous descent trajectory is presented. The extensible and reducible time of a CDO trajectory are also numerically analyzed. They are uniquely determined by the aircraft speed, altitude and distance from the runway. The CDO trajectory that potentially has the maximum extensible and reducible time is also proposed, which is expected to cancel the deviation of arrival time from that scheduled. A set of numerical traffic simulations proves the effectiveness of the proposed traffic control strategy. It is concluded that CDO using the proposed traffic control strategy is able to achieve delay-free air traffic with enhanced arrival time predictability. A noteworthy numerical result is also obtained showing that a slower trajectory for a larger reducible time can achieve a faster arrival time on average than the fastest trajectory with no reducible time.

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Simulation Results for Airborne Precision Spacing along Continuous Descent Arrivals

Cited by 50 publications

References 11 publications

Design Considerations for a New Terminal Area Arrival Scheduler

Design Considerations for a New Terminal Area Arrival Scheduler

Evaluation of an Airborne Spacing Concept, On-board Spacing Tool, and Pilot Interface

Arrival Time Control during Continuous Descent and Its Application to Air Traffic Control

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