Airport Digital Twins | Airport Visualization with JavaScript and WebGL
Tags: digitaltwins, javascript, webdev, webgl
Published: 2022-12-12 02:35:42

Daxing International Airport is known as the first of the “Seven Wonders of the New World”, which spanning 7.5 million square feet — the equivalent of 98 soccer fields. With the runways and annexes, its whole surface covers 18 square miles. In today’s continuous digital transformation, Daxing Airport has created the most eye-catching, theoretical and technologically innovative “Smart Airport” model project in the world’s airports.

In this article, let’s take a look at the 3D visualization of this airport.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/wl3ewnpgihrcopvat60p.png)

**System analysis**
Picture 1: International routes issued by major domestic airports
At its most basic, the whole scene supports rotation, translation and scroll wheel zoom. It displays various international routes starting from major domestic international airports connect all continents of the world.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/t8hlbt7a1owx9hhn80mh.png)
Picture 2: Comprehensive visualization of flight operation status
The data panel on the right side is used to display the flight information of the airport, including the flight on time rate of the day, the real-time status of each flight, the flight flow, passenger flow, logistics information, etc. This information helps monitors predict the operational capabilities in advance. At the same time, the airport staff can use it to get the estimated arrival time of the flight to ensure the progress and efficiency of the flight.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/t7cmmt7wpo32x07dnbuu.png)
Picture 3: 3D simulation of the whole Airport
1. Building appearance simulation

The overall configuration of the airport terminal building is a concentrated five-finger corridor. We performed a high-precision 3D simulation of the airport. The angle of view can be switched at will, and it looks like a “Phoenix” from the air. When approaching the center of the terminal, a large hexagram is presented in front of people.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/65k7ltdvuff8a99vd716.png)
2. Apron operation scene

The apron is a specific place in the flight area for aircraft to board and unload passengers, load and unload cargo or mail, refuel, park or maintain. We used 3D visualization technology to simulate the aircraft docking in the terminal building and the apron, as well as the flight process of the aircraft leaving the port. At the same time, we also added the animation of the navigation lights on the airport runway, which highly simulated the working scene in the apron.

3. Tower monitoring and scanning animation

In the flight area of the airport, the West Tower, known as the “Eye of the Phoenix”, is responsible for air traffic control tasks such as flight takeoff and landing, and ground taxiing. We have visualized the action of tower scanning and monitoring, so that we can intuitively see the working status of the tower.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dscaht5zvdjiglkd8h2h.png)
**Realized value**
This airport is a transportation hub under the background of the rise of digitalization. 3D visualization is integrated into the construction of “smart airport” to improve airport operation efficiency, passenger service level and safety guarantee level, forming a complete passenger service value chain, and serving all parties Create new profit growth points, create a smart benchmark for civil aviation airports, and drive the entire industry to jointly promote the construction of smart airports.

Based on 3D visualization technology, combined with cloud computing, big data, and IoT platforms, it can demonstrate the wisdom of Daxing Airport in many ways:

1) Airport operation and maintenance management visualization

It includes functions such as 3D panoramic view of the airport, monitoring of the airport apron, analysis of airport slots, and visualization of the radar range of the airport.

2) Visualization of flight operation process

With Daxing Airport as the center, it displays the national flight status associated with the airport, and supports visual analysis of various elements in the execution of flight plans; provides data protection to ensure safe operation of flights, and improves the efficiency of route planning; Departure sorting and collaborative management provide decision support.

3) Emergency command and dispatch

Combined with the data analysis of the airport flight flow trend and the utilization of seat resources, it realized the data early warning function of airport flight flow forecast and delay, early warning during peak hours, early warning of large-scale flight delay events, etc. And provide a favorable basis for the optimization of airport resources. It can assist all linkage units to deal with emergencies and provide managers with timely and effective emergency decision-making support.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/m2yxre4pgrrukvhb86dp.png)
**Conclusion**
A smart airport is to use various information and communication technology means to sense, analyze and integrate various key information of the airport, so as to realize the construction and construction of digital processing and intelligent response to airport security, service, operation, security and other needs.

By building a smart airport or digitally upgrading the airport, it will not only bring convenience to airport managers and passengers, but also greatly improve the airport’s service, security and safe operation capabilities.

Watch this 3D airport on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/D6EU4FLxVh0

Through years of accumulation, we also have many other excellent 3D visualization cases. Visit below link to see more:

https://www.hightopo.com/demos/en-index.html