Emerging new aircraft types such as Cruise-Efficient Short Take-Off and Landing (CESTOL) transport aircraft potentially could have a strong positive effect on the efficiency and capacity of the U.S. Next Generation Air Transportation System, according to research recently completed by Sensis Corporation and its project team.
NextGen, as the Next Generation Air Transportation System is generally and more succinctly known, is a $30 billion-plus upgrade of today’s U.S. air traffic management (ATM) system launched by the FAA and its industry partners in 2006.
Involving scores of new digital technologies and automated systems, as well as an unprecedented planning effort to ensure that the existing ATM system continues to work normally while NextGen is gradually introduced, NextGen also involves an entire redesign of the U.S.airspace system as well as construction of new runways and isn’t expected to be completed until 2025 or later. It will move air navigation from radar-controlled, ground-based ATM surveillance and traditional methods of air navigation to satellite-based navigation and ATM surveillance based as much in the cockpit as on the ground.
Under the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate contract “Integration of Advanced Concepts and Vehicles into the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen),” the Sensis-led team analyzed the impact of five advanced-design air vehicles in NextGen scenarios. In addition to a CESTOL vehicle, the team investigated Large Commercial Tilt-rotor Aircraft (LCTR), an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), a Very Light Jet (VLJ) and a Supersonic Transport (SST). NASA is currently evaluating the data and recommendations that were generated by the project.
“The [NextGen] Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) has indicated that projected future travel demand in 2025 is only 80 per cent accommodated if NextGen is implemented without taking into account these new vehicles,” says Ken Kaminski, vice president of Sensis Advanced Development. “Depending on how these new vehicles are incorporated, the unique performance characteristics of each vehicle can address potential shortfalls in accommodating future travel demands.”
A study performed for NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate by Sensis Corporation and six partners has found that large commercial tilt-rotor aircraft and cruise-efficient short-take off and landing aircraft would have a strong positive effect on passenger capacity in the U.S. Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). These aircraft could serve under-used airports in dense metroplex regions and fly arrival and departure routes into congested major airports that are procedurally separate from conventional traffic routes.
Through the study, the Sensis team ― comprised of Sensis Corporation, Georgia Tech, CSSI, Inc., ATAC Corporation, L-3 Communications, Honeywell and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ― examined the five vehicles in terms of their performance, safety and environmental impact.
In the area of performance, the research determined that CESTOL and LCTR vehicles have the highest potential to affect passenger capacity positively, as CESTOLs and LCTRs could serve under-used airports in dense metroplex regions (defined as areas of complex regional airspace encompassing multiple airports of varying size) as well as fly arrival and departure routes into congested major airports that are procedurally separate from conventional traffic routes.
Many large airports have shorter runways that are under-used today and, by utilizing these, the CESTOL and LCTR provide significant new runway capacity, according to Sensis. The combination of these benefits, realizable under NextGen methodologies, is a significant improvement in capacity and reliability at the nation’s most congested airports and along many of the most congested routes.
The spectacular Bell/Agusta BA609 is currently the only flying tilt-rotor aircraft designed for the civil aviation market. It employs similar technologies to the revolutionary Bell V-22 Osprey, which after a problematic development and early operational history is now in everyday operation with the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Air Force
In terms of safety, says Sensis, each vehicle operates in some new and unique ways and therefore poses unique safety considerations that need to be addressed with vehicle-specific procedural, training and technological solutions. The Sensis-led study identified critical safety issues such as a CESTOL’s approach and descent characteristics and VLJ risks associated with potentially shifting the number of flight crew members from two to one to meet operational financial requirements.
The research also provided a high level examination of both system-wide climate impact and metroplex-scale air quality and noise impact based on the New York City (NYC) metroplex. System-wide climate impact was as expected; because the new vehicles increased the traffic (and passenger capacity) there was a corresponding increase in fuel burn and emissions just as if there had been an increase in conventional traffic.
According to Sensis, the results of the study highlighted the importance of achieving greater operational efficiencies in new vehicles as they become a larger part of the U.S. air transportation system, and this was indeed shown. In the NextGen NYC metroplex scenario, fewer emissions (in terms of particulate matter) were predicted for the metroplex area.
Additionally, noise analysis of the CESTOL vehicles operating in the New York metroplex area led to a reduction in the total population exposed to a given noise level due to the vehicles’ unique approach, which allowed less time at low altitude.
“This NASA sponsored research establishes that these new vehicles hold great promise to positively impact air travel in the future, particularly in terms of meeting the projected air travel demand without adversely affecting overall NAS performance,” says Kaminski. “Now is the time to start developing the unique processes and tools needed to effectively incorporate them into NextGen in a safe manner, as these vehicles possess different performance characteristics than conventional aircraft.”
In addition to the NextGen vehicle research, Sensis has completed numerous modeling, simulation and analysis projects for NASA, JPDO, FAA and other industry and academic organizations. Through its fast-time and real-time capabilities, Sensis is able to generate current and future air traffic demand scenarios, provide system-wide or regional simulations to evaluate current and future air traffic management concepts, and analyze and visualize simulation results. For more information, visit www.sensis.com.
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