4/12/2013

National Aeronautics andSpace Administration

NASA NextGen Operations ResearchAkbar Sultan
Deputy Director, Airspace Systems Program

www.nasa.gov

Setting the context….

ARMD Global ATM andUS FACETVideo21

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National Airspace System Delays
Period: September’08 – August’09 (Source FAA), Roughly 25% aircraft get delayed
JOINT ECONOMIC COMISSION (2007)
FINDS DELAY
BETWEEN 4.3 AND 5.3 MILLION HOURSCOST OF DELAY $41B
ADDITIONAL 740M GALLONS OF FUEL

Weather is a big delay contributor – Can’t change it but we can optimize around it3

NASA’s MissionsAeronautics

Space Exploration

Space Flight Operations

Science42

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NASA Aeronautics Programs

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NASA Headquarters and Centers

LANGLEY

GLENN

DRYDEN

AMES

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Airspace Systems Program Overview
Enable NextGen from Gate-to-Gate and Reduce the Total Cost of airtransportation operations
Increase Maturation and Implementation of ASP technologies to accelerate
NextGen• Concepts and Technology Development (CTD) Project:
Develop gate-to-gate concepts and technologies for NextGen
to enable significant increases in capacity and efficiency• Systems Analysis, Integration and Evaluation (SAIE)
Project:
Facilitates R&D maturation of integrated concepts andtechnologies through evaluation in relevant environments,
enabling transition to stakeholders

CTD and SAIE will deliver on collaborative work plansto accelerate products and impacts for NextGen
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ASP Technical Challenges
TC 1: Develop Tactical Automation technologies for complex operational chokepoints including surface, arrival/departure, and dense terminal operations.
Target Technologies/Demonstrations: ATD-1, SARDA, PDRC, TRCM, F-IM, Metroplex
TC 2: Establish the basis for air/ground functional allocation for separation
assurance including safe, graceful degradation of performance in response to offnominal conditions.
Target Technologies/Demonstrations: F/A Mixed Equipage; Uncertainties; OffNominals
TC 3: Develop Strategic Automation technologies that integrate probabilistic
weather information and flow management capabilities.
Target Technologies/Demonstrations: Stratus, DWR, TASAR, TFM with weather
TC 4: Conduct seamless integration of automation applications in a resilient, endto-end Trajectory-Based Operations system.
Target Technologies/Demonstrations: SMART-NAS
TC 5: For the highest levels of NextGen performance and beyond, develop
concepts, technologies, and system-wide evaluation and validation approaches.
Target Technologies/Demonstrations: Networked ATM F/A to reduce total cost, SPO
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Program Highlights
ACCELERATE NextGen by making an impact with it’s stakeholders:
Efficient Descent Advisor (EDA) – Transferred to FAA 3D-PAM in Nov. 30, 2011. FAA
working to define requirements for initial EDA deployment under GIM-S•Benefits: Increased fuel efficient arrival profiles that are closer to optimal profile descents:
potential for $300M/yr fuel savings.

ATM Technology Demonstration (ATD) #1 – Demonstrate user operational benefits
through the integration of ADS-B enabled Flight Deck Merging and Spacing and Terminal
Area Precision Scheduling and Controller-Managed Spacing•Benefits: Increased throughput and efficiency; benefit potential, 2020 - $500M/yr

Dynamic Weather Routing – Delivering weather avoidance and time savings
trajectories for better weather routes for aircraft in-flight• Benefits: Increased fuel efficiency and reduced delays under severe weather conditions.

SFO Stratus - Ground Delay Program (GDP) Selection model for SFO airport toinvestigate reducing current ground delay policy leading to excessive unrecoverable delays•Benefits: Reduced delays (2011: ~55,000 minutes)

In-Trail Procedures (ITP) - Enabling aircraft to achieve ADS-B enabled efficient altitudes
and speeds by flight deck in-trail climb and descent in the oceanic environment• Benefits: Increased fuel efficiency ($200K/aircraft annually)

Precision Departure Release Capability - Integrate aircraft OFF time predictions toTraffic Management Advisor to fit departing aircraft in an overhead stream•
Benefits: Reduced delays. 8700/month lost overhead slot opportunities, PDRC mayreclaim up to 80%

9Program Highlights
INNOVATE in emerging new capabilities:
Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) – Integration of SARDA with airline
collaboration in push back management to maximize the efficiency of surface operations•

Benefits: Reduced fuel/noise/emissions/delays

Compression monitoring and terminal conflict alert – Three-segment deceleration
model for compression monitoring consistently has the best probability of detection•

Benefits: Increased capacity and safety

Separation Assurance Functional Allocation –2nd the series of culminating simulations•Benefits: Key enabler for NextGen automation implementation, increased capacity/efficiency/safetyLEAD the research community:
Shadow mode NextGen – SMART NAS•

Benefits: Full domain modeling and simulation of future automation and benefits analysis

Single Pilot Operations•

Benefits: Reduced user costs

Ground Based Surface CD&R•

Benefits: Increased safety and throughput

Strategic international partnerships•

Benefits: Influence concepts, set research direction, and attack broader solution space105

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Airspace Modeling Tools
Airspace Concept Evaluation System (ACES) Models Local Approachand Departure
TrafficManagement

National Traffic Management

Regional Traffic Management

Airport andSurface TrafficManagementHigh Fidelity 4-DOF Trajectory Model• Based on laws of physics• Realistic pilot-based control laws
• Includes elliptic-earth trajectory
propagation• Contains modeling for aircraft/pilot
Future ATM Concepts Evaluation Tool (FACET) variability

Fast-time nationwide gate-to-gate Thousands of agents:•National
1
simulation of NAS operations•Regional
20
Full flight schedule with flight•Local100s•Airports
10,000s
plans, winds, gate-to-gate•Aircraft
10,000s
operations•Airlines
10s

models the National Airspace System, for bothresearch and operational use
Key FACET capabilities used by FAA traffic flow managers
and airline dispatchers• 500 traffic flow managers at 100 FAA operationalsites• 4,700 dispatchers at 600 air carriers via FlightExplorer

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Airspace Facilities

CREW-VEHICLE SYSTEMS RESEARCH FACILITY:
Full mission simulation capability in 747400 and advanced concepts flight cabs
and air traffic control

AIRSPACE OPERATIONS LAB: Investigateshuman operator requirements for NextGen
FUTURE FLIGHT CENTRAL: 360o fullscale Tower simulator for airport
surface research
AIR TRAFFIC OPERATIONS LAB(ATOL)
Multi-fidelity, part-task, air traffic
simulation environment;ATM SIM LAB:
Multi-facility air traffic
simulation capability foradvanced NextGen
research

NORTH TEXAS RESEARCH STATION: Labwith established data networks toFAA air traffic facilities, air carriers,and other national research labs

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Summary••

Challenge can not be met without a partnership of researchers,
implementers, users, operators, and many others
Explore collaboration to reduce fuel, noise, and emissions while
increasing efficiency– International partnerships for mutual bi-lateral benefits– NASA/FAA Research Transition Teams– ASP Industry Days and Technical Interchange Meetings– ATM Technical Demonstrations (ATDs)

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