Advanced 4D Special Use Airspace Research

This research project will attempt to better understand the dynamic response process to accidents / incidents in commercial space transportation (CST) operations, and how such dynamic capabilities of the National Aerospace Solutions (NAS) (including air traffic control and the aircraft themselves) might be utilized to safely continue to separate air and space vehicles while minimizing the nominal operations impact on the commercial air traffic. This research will (1) incorporate a variety of models for true wind variability and wind measurement uncertainty (for selected sites) into the modeling strategy, (2) develop distributions of accident/incident debris size and their time-accurate locations so that a model of debris tracking accuracy can be generated that can then be used for assessment of the safety of the proposed dynamic evasion procedures, (3) supply dynamic 4D compact envelopes for varying levels of wind/debris tracking capabilities (e.g. with and without real-time debris tracking or wind measurements) and safety buffer sizes, (4) With input from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Traffic Control (ATC) Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), develop notional operational procedures for implementing Compact 4D Envelopes in nominal scenarios, and (5) support the evaluation of the impact of these advanced procedures on air traffic flow using NAS's FACET tool. The work in this proposal is classified as long-term research: our work is at the point of trying to understand the major parameters and methodologies that might lead to a far more efficient use of the airspace than what we have today. For this reason, the level of modeling applied is appropriate to the early stage of this research: while the major parameters are all accounted for, there are a number of specific assumptions that will need to be revised and refined as the research transitions to a later phase, when a potential implementation may be considered.

• Record URL:
  http://www.coe-cst.org/index.html

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $171343
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation

  William J. Hughes Technical Center
  Atlantic City International Airport, NJ  United States  08405
• Managing Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation

  William J. Hughes Technical Center
  Atlantic City International Airport, NJ  United States  08405
• Project Managers:

  Davidian, Ken

• Performing Organizations:

  Leland Stanford Junior University

  STANFORD, CA  United States  94305
• Principal Investigators:

  Kochenderfer, Mykel

• Start Date: 20150215
• Expected Completion Date: 20171231
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air traffic control; Airspace (Aeronautics); Aviation safety; Commercial space transportation; Crashes
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01678249
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 22 2018 1:03PM