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At least 37 records · Page 2

On the Modeling of Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Takeoff and Landing Operations in the FAA Aviation Environmental Design Tool

Urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles are anticipated to operate in close proximity to the public. A possible barrier to the introduction of UAM vehicles as a transit solution is their community noise impact, particularly around vertiports. The Federal Aviation Administration Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is the mandated tool to assess aircraft noise and other environmental impacts due to federal actions at civilian airports, vertiports, or in U.S. airspace for commercial flight operations. However, AEDT was designed to model fixed-wing aircraft and conventional helicopter operations, not UAM vehicles. Prior work by the authors showed significant differences in noise contours of UAM departures and approaches when modeling operations as fixed-wing and helicopter types in AEDT. This paper identifies the sources of those differences. Additionally, a NASA time-marching simulation tool is used to generate noise exposure predictions for equivalent operations to help identify differences associated with the noise model implemented in AEDT and offer possible changes to assess UAM community noise impact more consistently with simulation-based modeling.

aeroacoustics↗

On the Modeling of Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Takeoff and Landing Operations in the FAA Aviation Environmental Design Tool

Urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles are anticipated to operate in close proximity to the public. A possible barrier to the introduction of UAM vehicles as a transit solution is their community noise impact, particularly around vertiports. The Federal Aviation Administration Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is the mandated tool to assess aircraft noise and other environmental impacts due to federal actions at civilian airports, vertiports, or in U.S. airspace for commercial flight operations. However, AEDT was designed to model fixed-wing aircraft and conventional helicopter operations, not UAM vehicles. Prior work by the authors showed significant differences in noise contours of UAM departures and approaches when modeling operations as fixed-wing and helicopter types in AEDT. This paper identifies the sources of those differences. Additionally, a NASA time-marching simulation tool is used to generate noise exposure predictions for equivalent operations to help identify differences associated with the noise model implemented in AEDT and offer possible changes to assess UAM community noise impact more consistently with simulation-based modeling.

aeroacoustics↗

Project Management Meets Change Management - A Success Story. Focus Area: Tech Perspectives TI012SN

Utilizing the concepts and terminology from Project Management, the process of planning and executing a Change Management (CM) Infrastructure improvement project is described. The primary audience for this presentation includes both experienced and relatively new CM administrators and their managers. It also includes anyone with an interest in the application of project management knowledge to CM administration. There are several benefits: the complexity of the CM tool technology is more manageable, CM administrators get to use project management knowledge to complete a project (not "firefighting"), improve relations with your customers (that means developers and managers), and get the opportunity to do it again.

Hall, Wayne↗

A HIRF-Map Certification Approach for UAM, AAM, and UAS Vehicles

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), Urban Air Mobility (UAM), and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) vehicles will fly in airspace similar to Transport Category Rotorcraft, requiring them to meet stringent requirements for High-Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF) certification. The environment is notably severe, particularly compared to fixed-wing aircraft, due to operations at lower altitudes. This potentially exposes the vehicles to high-power transmitters on the ground, leading to significant challenges. High-level HIRF exposure can result in avionic system upsets, interference, and undesirable effects. Shielding and circuit protection against HIRF pose significant barriers concerning size, weight, and cost, especially for emerging electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) and electric short take-off and landing (eSTOL) vehicles. This paper proposes a novel HIRF protection approach, aiming to reduce costs by certifying vehicles to a "vehicle tolerance level" lower than that required for Transport Category Rotorcraft. The remaining protection is achieved by maintaining a safe distance from known HIRF sources. This distance is calculated based on the vehicle's tolerance level and transmitter characteristics, such as transmit power, antenna beamwidth, and direction. Tailored flight maps are developed to identify transmitters and avoidance zones within an operating area or along a flight path, enabling restricted vehicle operations. Vehicles with higher tolerance levels could have smaller HIRF avoidance zones, allowing them to operate closer to transmitters. Transmitter data are sourced from government databases, such as those of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A map tool is developed using Matlab to calculate and visualize HIRF avoidance zones based on available databases. The tool determines stand-off distances based on input vehicle tolerance levels, displaying results on various base maps depicting HIRF-restricted areas. Illustrations cover various FCC transmitters, including AM/FM/TV transmitters, satellite earth stations, and NOAA weather radars. The HIRF zones of smaller transmitters, such as land-mobile radios, pagers, microwave links, and cellular towers, are also illustrated. An example of flight planning around transmitters is provided. For now, airports and government-owned lands are excluded due to limited access to sensitive transmitter data. Despite this approach, a minimum HIRF tolerance level for vehicles may still be necessary to cover mobile devices, cellular base stations, transmitters on other AAM vehicles, and other small power devices not included in the FCC databases. The paper discusses findings and areas for improving existing databases and suggests an approach for better access to sanitized data in more restricted government databases. This method significantly deviates from the standard approach and introduces slightly higher flight-planning complexity. However, the potential cost savings are considerable. Future AAM/UAM/UAS aeronautical charts could potentially incorporate these new HIRF avoidance zones. Keywords—HIRF; Map; AAM; UAM; UAS; Advanced Air Mobility; Urban Air Mobility; Unmanned Aerial Systems; Certification.

HIRF↗

Development of the Surface Management System Integrated with CTAS Arrival Tools

The Surface Management System (SMS) developed by NASA Ames Research Center in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a decision support tool to help tower traffic coordinators and Ground/Local controllers in managing and controlling airport surface traffic in order to increase capacity, efficiency, and flexibility. SMS provides common situation awareness to personnel at various air traffic control facilities such as airport traffic control towers (ATCT s), airline ramp towers, Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), and Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC). SMS also provides a traffic management tool to assist ATCT traffic management coordinators (TMCs) in making decisions such as airport configuration and runway load balancing. The Build 1 of the SMS tool was installed and successfully tested at Memphis International Airport (MEM) and received high acceptance scores from ATCT controllers and coordinators, as well as airline ramp controllers. NASA Ames Research Center continues to develop SMS under NASA s Strategic Airspace Usage (SAU) project in order to improve its prediction accuracy and robustness under various modeling uncertainties. This paper reports the recent development effort performed by the NASA Ames Research Center: 1) integration of Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) capability with SMS and 2) an alternative approach to obtain airline gate information through a publicly available website. The preliminary analysis results performed on the air/surface traffic data at the DFW airport have shown significant improvement in predicting airport arrival demand and IN time at the gate. This paper concludes with recommendations for future research and development.

Jung, Yoon C.↗

Second-Generation UAM Community Noise Assessment Using the FAA Aviation Environmental Design Tool

Vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate in communities close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not support analysis of such operations due to a combined lack of a UAM aircraft performance model and aircraft noise data. This paper discusses second-generation developments to assess the acoustic impact of UAM fleet operations on the community using AEDT and demonstrates its use for representative UAM operations. In particular, methods were developed to add broadband self noise into computed noise-power-distance data, and vertiport-centric operations were evaluated for two concept vehicles.

urban air mobility↗

Satellite-Based Drought Reporting on the Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation (NN) is the largest reservation in the US, and faces challenges related to water management during long-term and widespread drought episodes. The Navajo Nation is a federally recognized tribe, which has boundaries within Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo Nation has a land area of over 70,000 square kilometers. The Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources (NNDWR) reports on drought and climatic conditions through the use of regional Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values and a network of in-situ rainfall, streamflow, and climate data. However, these data sources lack the spatial detail and consistent measurements needed to provide a coherent understanding of the drought regime within the Nation's regional boundaries. This project, as part of NASA's Western Water Applications Office (WWAO), improves upon the recently developed Drought Severity Assessment Tool (DSAT) to ingest satellite-based precipitation data to generate SPI values for specific administrative boundaries within the reservation. The tool aims to: (1) generate SPI values and summary statistics for regions of interest on various timescales, (2) to visualize SPI values within a web-map application, and (3) produce maps and comparative statistical outputs in the format required for annual drought reporting. The co-development of the DSAT with NN partners is integral to increasing the sustained use of Earth Observations for water management applications. This tool will provide data to support the NN in allocation of drought contingency dollars to the regions most adversely impacted by declines in water availability.

Satellite-based↗

Community Noise Assessment of Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Operations using the FAA Aviation Environmental Design Tool

In contrast to most commercial air traffic today, vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate in communities close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not support analysis of such operations due to a combined lack of a UAM aircraft performance model and aircraft noise data. This paper discusses the initial development of a method to assess the acoustic impact of UAM fleet operations on the community using AEDT and demonstrates its use for representative UAM operations. In particular, methods were developed using fixed-point flight profiles and user-supplied noise data in a manner that avoids unwanted behavior in AEDT. A set of 32 routes in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area were assessed for single and multiple (fleet) operations for two concept vehicles.

urban air mobility↗

Community Noise Assessment of Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Operations using the FAA Aviation Environmental Design Tool

In contrast to most commercial air traffic today, vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate in communities close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not support analysis of such operations due to a combined lack of a UAM aircraft performance model and aircraft noise data. This paper discusses the initial development of a method to assess the acoustic impact of UAM fleet operations on the community using AEDT and demonstrates its use for representative UAM operations. In particular, methods were developed using fixed-point flight profiles and user-supplied noise data in a manner that avoids unwanted behavior in AEDT. A set of 32 routes in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area were assessed for single and multiple (fleet) operations for two concept vehicles.

urban air mobility↗

Noise Mitigation Controller Tools

During the past decade, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been developing and evaluating a suite of decision support tools (DSTs) to aid the air traffic controller in the management of traffic. These tools are known collectively as the Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS). The primary focus of CTAS is increased capacity. As part of a new NASA program called Quiet Aircraft Technology (QAT), the following question is being addressed: Can CTAS technology also support the noise mitigation requirements imposed by the community? Controllers currently support a variety of low noise procedures in low traffic densities but, as traffic increases, these must be abandoned due to excessive spacing requirements for vectoring or inter-arrival spacing requirements needed to handle a spectrum of low noise procedures. NASA is currently investigating how to provide controllers with noise-mitigation-based advisories which address these issues without negatively impacting capacity. These issues are of global concern which must be addressed as the demand for air travel continues to increase.

Tobias, Leonard↗

Air Traffic Management Research at NASA Ames Research Center

Since the late 1980's, NASA Ames researchers have been investigating ways to improve the air transportation system through the development of decision support automation. These software advances, such as the Center-TRACON Automation System (eTAS) have been developed with teams of engineers, software developers, human factors experts, and air traffic controllers; some ASA Ames decision support tools are currently operational in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facilities and some are in use by the airlines. These tools have provided air traffic controllers and traffic managers the capabilities to help reduce overall delays and holding, and provide significant cost savings to the airlines as well as more manageable workload levels for air traffic service providers. NASA is continuing to collaborate with the FAA, as well as other government agencies, to plan and develop the next generation of decision support tools that will support anticipated changes in the air transportation system, including a projected increase to three times today's air-traffic levels by 2025. The presentation will review some of NASA Ames' recent achievements in air traffic management research, and discuss future tool developments and concepts currently under consideration.

Lee, Katharine↗

A Life-Cycle Cost Estimating Methodology for NASA-Developed Air Traffic Control Decision Support Tools

This paper describes the development of a life-cycle cost (LCC) estimating methodology for air traffic control Decision Support Tools (DSTs) under development by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), using a combination of parametric, analogy, and expert opinion methods. There is no one standard methodology and technique that is used by NASA or by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for LCC estimation of prospective Decision Support Tools. Some of the frequently used methodologies include bottom-up, analogy, top-down, parametric, expert judgement, and Parkinson's Law. The developed LCC estimating methodology can be visualized as a three-dimensional matrix where the three axes represent coverage, estimation, and timing. This paper focuses on the three characteristics of this methodology that correspond to the three axes.

Wang, Jianzhong Jay↗

An Evaluation of Operational Airspace Sectorization Integrated System (OASIS) Advisory Tool

In January 2013, a human-in-the-loop evaluation of the Operational Airspace Sectorization Integrated System (OASIS) was conducted in the Airspace Operations Laboratory of the Human Systems Integration Division (Code TH) in conjunction with the Aviation Systems Division (Code AF). The development of OASIS is a major activity of the Dynamic Airspace Configuration (DAC) research focus area within the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Airspace Systems Program. OASIS is an advisory tool to assist Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) En Route Area Supervisors in their planning of sector combinedecombine operations as well as opening closing of Data-side (D-side) control positions. These advisory solutions are tailored to the predicted traffic demand over the next few hours. During the experiment, eight retired FAA personnel served as participants for a part-task evaluation of OASIS functionality, covering the user interface as well as the underlying algorithm. Participants gave positive feedback on both the user interface and the algorithm solutions for airspace configuration, including an excellent average rating of 94 on the tool usability scales. They also suggested various enhancements to the OASIS tool, which will be incorporated into the next tool development cycle for the full-scale human-in-the-loop evaluation to be conducted later this year.

decision support tools↗

Creating Simple Windchill Admin Tools Using Info*Engine

Being a Windchill administrator often requires performing simple yet repetitive tasks on large sets of objects. These can include renaming, deleting, checking in, undoing checkout, and much more. This is especially true during a migration. Fortunately, PTC has provided a simple way to dynamically interact with Windchill using Info*Engine. This presentation will describe how to create simple Info*Engine tasks capable of saving Windchill 10.0 administrators hours of tedious work. It will also show how these tasks can be combined and displayed on a simple JSP page that acts as a "Windchill Administrator Dashboard/Toolbox". The attendee will learn some valuable tasks Info*Engine capable of performing. The attendee will gain a basic understanding of how to perform and implement Info*Engine tasks. The attendee will learn what's involved in creating a JSP page that displays Info*Engine tasks

Jones, Corey↗

Characterization of Days Based On Analysis of National Airspace System Performance Metrics

Days of operations in the National Airspace System can be described in term of traffic demand, runway conditions, equipment outages, and surface and enroute weather conditions. These causes manifest themselves in terms of departure delays, arrival delays, enroute delays and traffic flow management delays, Traffic flow management initiatives such as, ground stops, ground delay programs, miles-in-trail restrictions, rerouting and airborne holding are imposed to balance the air traffic demand with respect to the available capacity, In order to maintain operational efficiency of the National Airspace System, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) maintains delay sad other statistics in the Air Traffic Operations Network (OPSNET) and the Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) databases. OPSNET data includes reportable delays of fifteen minutes ox more experienced by Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) flights. Numbers of aircraft affected by departure delays, enroute delays, arrival delays and traffic flow delays are recorded in the OPSNET data. ASPM data consist of number of actual departures, number of canceled departures, percentage of on time departures, percentage of on time gate arrivals, taxi-out delays. taxi-in delays, gate delays, arrival delays and block delays. Surface conditions at the major U.S. airports are classified in terms of Instrument Meteorological Condition (IMC) and Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC) as a function of the time of the day in the ASPM data. The main objective of this paper is to use OPSNET and ASPM data to classify the days in the datasets into few distinct groups, where each group is separated from the other groups in terms of a distance metric. The motivations for classifying the days are two-fold, 1) to enable selection of days of traffic with particular operational characteristics for concept evaluation using system-wide simulation systems such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Airspace Concepts Evaluation Tool (ACES) and 2) to enable evaluation of a given day with respect to the characteristics of the classified groups. The first part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of major trends seen in the OPSNET and ASPM data. The second part of the paper is devoted to describing features or measures derived from the OPSNET and ASPM data that are suitable for characterizing days, and the classification algorithm used for grouping the days. Finally, the method for evaluating the characteristics of a given day with respect to the properties of the groups is described.

Chatterji, Gano B.↗

ASTAR Flight Test: Overview and Spacing Results

The purpose of the NASA Langley Airborne Spacing for Terminal Arrival Routes (ASTAR) research aboard the Boeing ecoDemonstrator aircraft was to demonstrate the use of NASA's ASTAR algorithm using contemporary tools of the Federal Aviation Administration's Next Generation Air Transportation System (NEXTGEN). EcoDemonstrator is a Boeing test program which utilizes advanced experimental equipment to accelerate the science of aerospace and environmentally friendly technologies. The ASTAR Flight Test provided a proof-of-concept flight demonstration that exercised an algorithmic-based application in an actual aircraft. The test aircraft conducted Interval Management operations to provide time-based spacing off a target aircraft in non-simulator wind conditions. Work was conducted as a joint effort between NASA and Boeing to integrate ASTAR in a Boeing supplied B787 test aircraft while using a T-38 aircraft as the target. This demonstration was also used to identify operational risks to future flight trials for the NASA Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration expected in 2017.

Roper, Roy D.↗

Airborne Spacing for Terminal Arrival Routes (ASTAR) Proof-of-Concept Flight Test

The Airborne Spacing for Terminal Arrival Routes (ASTAR) Flight Test was conducted by the NASA Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration – 1 (ATD- 1) project to demonstrate the use of NASA’s ASTAR algorithm beyond a simulated environment and assess the operational risks of performing a multi-aircraft flight test of Flight-deck Interval Management (FIM). Utilizing contemporary tools of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) such as ADS-B, the ASTAR algorithm calculated speeds that the flight crew flew to achieve a precise spacing interval behind another aircraft at the final approach fix. Airspeed commands issued by the algorithm were flown by the flight crew of the FIM-equipped aircraft to achieve or maintain an assigned spacing goal from a target vehicle. The ASTAR algorithm was integrated with the Boeing supplied B-787 ecoDemonstrator aircraft, and five flight trials were conducted as a joint effort between NASA and Boeing on December 12, 2014. Initial results indicated arrival times within several seconds of accuracy of the planned termination point between two aircraft performing FIM in a real world environment. This flight test opened the way for the much more expansive ATD-1 Avionics Phase II flight test which occurred in early 2017. The flight trials under Phase II preceded further testing by the community in preparation for inclusion of the Interval Management concept as a part of the NextGen environment.

Roper, Roy D.↗

Prediction-Based Approaches for Generation of Noise-Power-Distance Data with Application to Urban Air Mobility Vehicles

In contrast to most commercial air traffic today, vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate within communities and be close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not directly support analysis of such operations due to a combined lack of UAM aircraft flight performance model data and aircraft noise data. This paper addresses the latter by offering two prediction-based approaches for generation of noise-power-distance (NPD) data for use within AEDT. One utilizes AEDT’s fixed-wing aircraft modeling approach and the other utilizes the rotary-wing aircraft modeling approach.

noise-power-distance↗