By: 	Jeff Tittsworth and Paul Strande	

Date:	August 28, 2013

NextGen - Wake Turbulence (Research)(A12.b) and Wake Re-Cat (1A07E)

REDAC NASOpsFall 2013 Review

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Presentation Outline

Overview of the FAA Wake Turbulence R&D Program (R,E&D and F&E)

NextGen - Wake Turbulence Research Project (A12.b)

What, Why, Who

Anticipated Research for FY 14-15

Emerging FY16 focal areas

NextGen – Wake Turbulence Re-Categorization (F&E project 1A07E)

What is RECAT

Anticipated Activities for FY 14-15

Emerging FY16 focal areas

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Overview of the FAA Wake Turbulence R&D Program (R,E&D and F&E) 

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Wake Turbulence R&D Program Overview What is this Program?

Goal is to increase NAS capacity through safe reduction in ATC required wake turbulence separation between aircraft

Two funding sources are used to achieve these goals:

Wake Turbulence R, E&D (A12.b)

F&E (1A07E, 1A12A, 1A12B) for wake turbulence solutions/standards requiring FAA automation support for implementation

Purpose of R,E&D funding:

Supports the development of procedures-only wake avoidance solutions

7110.308, Wake separation for new aircraft (A388, B748, B787, A350, A320-Neo, 737-Max)

Supports procedure design for wake avoidance solutions that require automation

Supports the data driven safety assessments for all solutions (procedure only or automation)

Purpose of F&E funding: Development/validation of requirements for NAS systems to support wake solutions

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Wake Turbulence (R&D) Program OverviewWhat is this Program?

Benefits (actual and expected) coming from the program:

Gains in airport runway throughput capacity without adding concrete:

Safe, capacity CSPR procedures:

7110.308 ATC dependent staggered procedure reduces capacity loss when CSPR operations change from visual separation (~60/hr) to IMC separation (~30/hr). IMC arrival capacity with 7110.308 is increased by 8-15 arrivals per hour depending on traffic mix

Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Departures – increases airport CSPR departure capacity by 2 to 8 more departures per hour – when persistent crosswind is present

Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Arrivals – extends the 7110.308 procedure to more aircraft types and airport CSPR configurations

Safe, capacity efficient wake separation standards:

Static for NextGen near and mid term

Dynamic, weather and aircraft performance parameterized for NextGen far term – Wake Turbulence Mitigation Single Runway is the first step

New Wake Re-Cat 6 Category standards implemented in MEM (11/2012) are allowing FedEx to increase its departure rate by 17+%, departure taxi queue to near zero, and time spent in terminal airspace reduced by 2-3 minutes. (equates to savings in fuel, emissions and fewer delays).  Wake Re-Cat Phase II – another 4 to 6% increase depending on fleet mix

Safe, capacity efficient ATC wake separation standards for new aircraft series

Gains in capacity in constrained en-route airspace:

Wake safe en-route ATC maneuvers when aircraft en-route separations are less than 5 nm

Wake safe capacity efficient sharing of airspace with UAS

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Wake Turbulence (R&D) Program Overview

Why is Wake RE&D Necessary ?

Products from this R&D program provide cost effective airport capacity benefits to NAS users without requiring new runways to be built

NextGen mid to far term products (TBO, Flex Terminal) require wake solutions to deliver their full capacity benefit 

FAA, aircraft manufacturers, air carriers and airports require this program to set safe, capacity efficient wake separations for new aircraft series

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Have Wake Turbulence RE&D Investments Led to Real Capacity Gains in the NAS?

7110.308 - 

Some immediate success

Immediate use at SEA upon approval (2010): new runway opened (16R) and old runway closed for resurfacing (16L), and ~8 additional arrives per hour were observed over single runway capacity

SFO approved  Oct 2012.  Runway construction has required ILS outages for significant periods.  IOC Sep 2013

Some “build it and they will come” 

EWR also approved Oct 2012

Airspace changes underway to provide ability to run parallel approaches to 4’s and 22’s with more flexibility

Expected IOC in Spring of 2014

BOS approved 2010 

No ILS possible on 4L

Waited for RNAV/ILS dependent staggered approvals to runways >2500ft apart (Feb 2012)

RNAV approach to 4L under development

Anticipate AOV approval  of 7110.308 with RNAV/ILS in Spring 2014 and immediate use

Obvious next step is WTMA-P providing reduced separation dependent procedure with Heavy/757 leading

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Have Wake Turbulence RE&D Investments Led to Real Capacity Gains in the NAS?

WTMD

RE&D funded safety case and prototypes at STL and IAH

F&E funded acquisition effort in 2010 (Wx program)

Caught up in integration effort with ITWS

Returned to wake Program for “re-engineering”

Ops demonstration system developed in 2012

Implementation SFO May 15, 2013 , IAH July 15, 2013, MEM (Oct 14, 2013)

1 year of operations will provide seasonal variations of benefits

Cost is $10k/site for hardware, $50k for installation and $46k/yr for maintenance

Will be rehosted on another automation platform (e.g., TFDM) if cost/benefit analysis supports that decision

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SFO Inter-departure Times- Heavy/B757 Leader -

WTMD Pairs

Have Wake Turbulence RE&D Investments Led to Real Capacity Gains in the NAS?

Very preliminary WTMD observations from SFO

Over 30 Heavy or B757-led pairs identified for the WTMD procedure in the first two weeks

No aborted takeoffs or declined takeoff clearances due to WTMD

No wake turbulence encounters reported

Only ATC complaint is “why can’t we have this all of the time?”

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Have Wake Turbulence RE&D Investments Led to Real Capacity Gains in the NAS?

RECAT Phase I

Originally RE&D funded

Phase I Transitioned to F&E in FY12

~$9.5M invested over 7 years

Implemented in MEM Nov 1, 2013

FedEx reporting $1.8M savings per month

Called arrival and departure rates raised from 77 to 99/hour

SDF IOC Sep 9, 2013

MIA Dec 1, 2013

RECAT Phase II:  F&E funded in FY13 and FY14

RECAT Phase III: RE&D funded beginning in FY14

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NextGen – Wake Turbulence R,E&D Project A12.b

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Wake Standards for New Aircraft Designs

NTSB 1994 recommendation to assess new large aircraft for wake turbulence prior to entry into the NAS

For aircraft larger than B744, data driven assessments are preferred

A388 was first effort: 

2006 and again in 2008 using LIDAR data

2009 and again in 2010 using wake encounter data from flight tests

FAA implemented notice 7110.626 in June 2013 for revised A388 procedures

B748 was completed in 2011 using LIDAR data, joint FAA/EASA/EURCONTROL/Boeing recommendation to ICAO 2012

For aircraft smaller than B744, a sensitivity analysis is sufficient (aircraft design not stable until high lift tests)

B787 was completed in 2011

A350 standards to be completed prior to entry into service 6/2014 (most of FAA work will be done in FY14)

A320-Neo standards – est. entry into service 10/2015 (most of FAA work will be done in FY14 & FY15)

737-Max proposed entry into service 8/2017 (FAA lead organization – FY16 & FY17 work area)

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National Rule Change 7110.308Dependent Staggered Approaches to Parallel Runways Spaced Less Than 2500 ft

The procedure permits any aircraft type trailing on instrument approach to one runway to be diagonally separated by a minimum of 1.5 NM from a leading small or large aircraft on instrument approach to the parallel runway.  Standard radar or wake turbulence separation is applied between the trailing aircraft and the lead aircraft of the next pair.

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Per RTCA TF5 recommendations, 

Authorizing 2 additional airports per year,

Should be completed by 2015

Adding RNAV approaches to authorizations

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Develop NextGen Wake Procedure Concepts/DSTs

Coordinate our NextGen concepts with SESAR

Wake Turbulence Mitigation Single Runway (WTMSR)

Far term wake turbulence mitigation solution for single runways

Concept is becoming more mature – built on EUROCONTOL/SESAR Concept

RE&D funded for now (FY14/15/16 work: Enhance ability to forecast when and how long favorable winds will be present on approach/departure corridors)

RE&D builds upon concepts developed in F&E WTMD and WTMA-S

Ongoing data collection and analysis will determine feasibility of concept alternatives along with where and how it is implemented

Dynamic Wake Mitigation

Build upon the static pairwise separations from RECAT and utilize lessons learned from early dynamic wake tools (WTMD, WTMA-S)

FY16 focus – define and then develop concept alternatives

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Enroute Lateral Offset Procedure For Wake Turbulence Avoidance

ASRS wake encounter reporting tells us this is a hot spot

Enroute 3NM everywhere will require this as a mitigation

Potential UAS application

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Determine Statistical Wake Encounter Frequency/Severity

All safety assessments to date have been conducted using a relative risk assessment

Today is safe

Constrain wake severity and encounter likelihood for proposed change to be no greater than today

Absolute criteria will be necessary for NSIP C solutions (e.g., some dynamic separations)

RE&D funding supporting AFS development of ‘acceptable wake encounter’

Aircraft simulators with line pilots encountering wakes of varying strength, height above ground and ceiling/visual conditions

Screen flight data recorder data to establish frequency in the NAS

FY14/15: Continue severity data collection using OKC flight simulators, add more aircraft types to screening tool; NASA’s ASRS 

FY16: Collect potential wake encounter statistics by scanning stored FOQA flight data recorder data sets; NASA’s ASRS

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Develop Models, Data Bases, Data Sources

Enhance and maintain ground based data collection capabilities

Continue work with Leosphere and Gallion on their “lower cost” more portable LIDAR systems – currently in use for wind profile measurements and Volpe is developing their application for low altitude wake measurements (FY14/15: Continue development, FY16: Evaluate emerging prototype RADAR based wake tracking systems)

Keep LMCT legacy LIDARs running – component parts no longer being made (Continuing)

Develop enhanced aircraft and recorded wake track correlation techniques

Gather aircraft data using ADS-B receiving system (Continuing)

Data mine available FAA recorded track information (Continuing)

Correlate weather data with recorded wake tracks (Continuing)

Develop requirements for downlinking aircraft observed weather data (parameters, timing, accuracy)

Work being done by supporting RTCA Subcommittee 206 (Cont.)

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Why Do We Need More Wake Data Collection?

Some past efforts addressed type-specific questions

Demonstrated that winglets did not have an observable effect on wake behavior on approach and departure and associated separations

Demonstrated that B753 was not a Heavy aircraft in terms of wake behavior, and actually bounded by B752

Demonstrated that B752  (and B753) were actually Large aircraft with B738 and B739 bounding the risk for that category

The very large capacity gains at MEM as a result of RECAT are due to sufficient data to distinguish 

Wake separation required behind “upper heavy” versus “lower heavy” aircraft

Wake separation required behind “upper Large” versus “Lower Large” aircraft

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Why Do We Need More Wake Data Collection?

Data collection for these efforts is more time consuming than for solutions like 7110.308 

Large aircraft operations make up ~80 % of total operations 

Heavy aircraft operations make up ~10% of total operations

Statistically relevant data set for Heavy aircraft takes 8x as long to collect as was needed for 7110.308

RECAT Phase II benefits will be driven by the ability to distinguish wake separation requirements on a pairwise basis

It is worth the effort and investment

Wake constrained pairs only make up ~18% of operations, yet

RECAT provided ~18% capacity gain only by reducing separation behind lower Heavy and B757 aircraft

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Why Do We Need More Wake Data Collection?

RECAT Phase III and other dynamic pairwise separation standards have additional data requirements

Static separations set for near worse case conditions – long lasting wakes

Dynamic separations require data at a broader set of environmental conditions, 

Wake data is collected in many of these condition as we seek the longer lasting wakes required for static separation, but

Data collection is required at a wider range of airports to ensure we can maximize safe separation reduction

Fleet mixes change over time and new aircraft are added into operations

The types of aircraft that affect capacity will change over time

In order to bound the efforts and achieved changes in realistic time frames, RECAT Phases I-III cannot analyze wake separations for all 2500 aircraft types,

RECAT Phase II and III must be flexible to  adjust to ne fleet mixes to ensure the capacity gains sustain over time

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Detail A12.b Spending Estimates
| A12.b Work Element                                      | FY13  | FY14  | FY15  | FY16  | FY17  |
|---------------------------------------------------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|
| Wake Standards for New Aircraft                         | $0.8M | $0.6M | $0.6M | $0.8M | $0.9M |
| Analyze Airports for Wake Separation Requirements       | $0.7M | $0.7M | $0.7M | $0.3M | $0.3M |
| Develop NextGen Wake Procedure Concepts/DSTs            | $2.1M | $1.9M | $2.0M | $2.4M | $2.5M |
| Determine Statistical Wake Encounter Frequency/Severity | $1.6M | $1.4M | $1.5M | $1.5M | $1.3M |
| Develop Models, Data Bases, Data Sources                | $4.1M | $3.9M | $3.9M | $3.9M | $4.1M |
| A12.b Totals                                            | $9.3M | $8.5M | $8.7M | $8.9M | $9.1M |

Issue/concern:  The above funding is based on OMB guidance associated with 

the President’s FY14 Budget submission to Congress.  The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee provided the requested FY14 amount.  The House Appropriations Subcommittee cut the project’s budget by 50%.  If the 50% cut is enacted by Congress, the project will stop work on airport analysis, wake concept and DST development and development of the wake encounter safety risk management matrix (essentially halting wake R,E&D activities needed for NextGen era operations).

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Human Factors

OMB has voiced concerns about how much the FAA is spending on HF

Concept exploration and initial prototyping of wake avoidance solutions require mostly controller SMEs but some HF support

Early focus is usually on getting information requirements correct, not information presentation or CHI

Our experience is that HF involvement is best leveraged in the information presentation piece of the solution, and where this intersects with procedures and human behavior 

It is much more cost effective to 

Integrate CHI and procedures and training to optimize safety , rather than 

Have a heavy HF footprint on the upfront system requirements piece

Thus the most effective investment in HF is during F&E efforts

Procedures development, 

Operational Test and Evaluation of software, and

Pre-implementation/post implementation phases of a program

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Human Factors

The wake program uses the same contract support used by the FAA HF Program office to support

Wake Turbulence Recategorization (RECAT)

Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Departures (WTMD)

Automated Terminal Proximity Alert (ATPA)

We believe RECAT, WTMD and ATPA have been successful because

We took the approach that HF is not a research effort that can be completed and put in a report or captured in a requirements document

HF is function that lives with a project through and beyond implementation

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RECAT Example of HF Evaluation Plan

Pre- and post-evaluation of RECAT at key site Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs) and Terminal Radar Approach Control Facilities (TRACONs)

Pre: Before use of RECAT at site

Observe Ground Control (GC) and Local Control (LC) positions in ATCT during heavy departure pushes

Observe Feeder and Final positions in TRACON during heavy arrival rushes

Post: 2 months & 6 months after use of RECAT at site

Record when RECAT separation standards were used or not used 

Record when RECAT separation standards were issued by controller but not used by pilot

Collect controller feedback on RECAT through the use of questionnaires

Pre- and post-evaluation of RECAT are more effective if HF participates in training development, training execution and observes and supports early implementation

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RECAT Example of HF Support to Initial Operational Capability

1-2 staff full time in the MEM  ATCT TRACONs, 24/7 for first week of operations

Staff numbers biased towards ATCT support during departure pushes and biased towards TRACON support during arrival pushes

HF was able to 

Answer questions about procedures and training

Observe effectiveness of both procedures and training over time (first week, and later observations)

Feed back those observations into improved procedures and training

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RECAT Key Sites & HF Evaluation Dates

RECAT Key Sites
| Facility      | Pre-Evaluation  | 2-month Post-Evaluation | 6-Month Post-Evaluation |
|---------------|-----------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|
| Memphis       | Oct 16-18, 2012 | Feb 5-7, 2013           | June 3-6, 2013          |
| Louisville    | Aug 12-15, 2013 | Tent. Nov 2013          | Tent. Mar 2014          |
| Miami         | Tent. Nov 2013  | Tent. Jan 2014          | Tent. May 2014          |
| San Francisco | TBD             | TBD                     | TBD                     |

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Backup

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