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Development and Application of a Classification System for Comparing Future Air Traffic Management Operational Concepts
December 2009
Elida C. Smith, The MITRE Corporation
ABSTRACT
As the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) moves forward with plans to evolve operations of the National Airspace System (NAS), as well as to achieve the various operational improvements described by the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Implementation Plan [1], there is an increasing need to assess a broad range of solutions in a systematic manner to determine which will prove most desirable for implementation. Discriminating between these concepts can be a difficult task because of the variability in the level of detail that exists and the different Air Traffic Management (ATM) aspects that are described. Understanding these differences is important because of their far-reaching impact to the NAS evolution path.
This paper seeks to provide an evaluation framework for comparing future ATM arrival/departure concept alternatives. The framework is based upon review of a sample of concept descriptions, proposed by industry, academia, and government, that was conducted to understand the wide variability of aspects addressed. The framework involves applying questions that can decompose concepts into more abstract terms so that features and critical parameters can be highlighted to help identify concept commonalities (and differences). A classification system is proposed for organizing the arrival/departure concepts. Using this classification system, a mapping of the arrival/departure concepts within the taxonomy described was performed.
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