 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
EQUIVALENT VISUAL OPERATIONS: By Anand Mundra SUMMARY: The Federal Aviation Administration is sponsoring research that will help reduce airline congestion and delays, especially during bad weather. Equivalent Visual Operations (EVO) is a collection of new air traffic management technologies and procedures that will allow pilots and controllers to operate as efficiently in poor weather conditions as they can in favorable ones. Flying by the Rules There are two sets of flight rules that air traffic controllers and airplane pilots follow when determining how to maintain a safe distance from terrain and other aircraft: visual rules and instrument rules. Visual rules apply when weather conditions are clear enough for the controllers to see the aircraft or for the pilots to see the terrain, obstacles, or other aircraft in their path. Instrument rules apply when degraded weather conditions require controllers and pilots to rely solely on their instruments for safe separation or navigation. Instrument rules require pilots to maintain much greater separation from terrain and other aircraft. For example, planes approaching airport runways need to be nearly a mile farther from each other when their pilots are flying by instruments rather than by sight. This need for greater separation slows airport traffic significantly and leads to broader delays throughout the national airspace system. But what if new technology and procedures enabled pilots to perform at visual levels even when flying by their instruments? Could we, essentially, eliminate from aviation the adverse effects of weather? Could such advances help cure the congestion that plagues our airways? The Next Generation of Air Traffic Management Reducing congestion is one of the goals the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is pursuing as it seeks to evolve our national airspace system through a collection of new concepts, standards, and solutions known as the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen. MITRE’s Equivalent Visual Operations project is contributing to NextGen by developing cockpit instrumentation technologies that permit pilots a level of operation equivalent to or better than visual operations, providing for flight operations that are safer and more efficient. EVO technologies include:
Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B): A plane’s ADS-B system broadcasts precise data in real time about the plane’s location, speed, direction, and altitude. This increased situational awareness will allow aircraft to fly in tighter proximity to each other while still remaining within required safety standards. Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP): RNAV and RNP use advanced satellite-based navigation and procedures that allow equipped aircraft to fly more predictable and direct routes into and out of airports, enhancing efficiency of arrivals and departures while saving time and fuel. Wake Vortex Transport Prognosis: Wake vortex, the turbulence generated behind aircraft, limits airport capacity by making it necessary to space arriving and departing aircraft to keep them from encountering another aircraft’s wake. An increasing understanding of wake vortices is being put to use to more accurately predict aircraft wake turbulence, providing for safer and more efficient approaches and departures. Enhanced Vision Systems: Enhanced vision systems use infrared and other Synthetic Vision Systems: Synthetic EVO procedures take advantage of the above technologies to allow aircraft to fly closer together, to approach airports “visually” under poor weather conditions, and to land on and depart from runways at shorter intervals, with safety margins equal to or greater than those currently maintained. To test these technologies and procedures, MITRE is putting to use its Air Traffic Management Laboratory. The laboratory contains a cockpit simulator and a bank of controller display suites, which enable users to simulate the actual air traffic control process. In the laboratory, pilots, controllers, aviation officials, and MITRE researchers are currently collaborating on EVO simulations based on real-life conditions at Los Angeles International Airport. More Than Meets the Eye The next phase of EVO research will involve integrating these evolving technologies and procedures into an overall operations system that has the potential to revolutionize air traffic management. Despite a century of aviation technology advancement, current “see-and-avoid” rules have changed little from the very early days of aviation when pilots had only a bare minimum of instrumentation. Now at last we may have a system more advanced to offer to pilots and air traffic controllers than the naked human eye.
Related Information Articles and News
Technical Papers and Presentations
Websites |
|
|||||||||||
For more information, please contact Anand Mundra using the employee directory. Page last updated: January 27, 2010 | Top of page |
||||||||||||
Solutions That Make a Difference.® |
|
|
