Are ATM operational concepts the cause of failure?
On 03/09/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
I have known Jean-Marc Garot, the former director of EUROCONTROL’s Experimental Centre in Paris for a long time. A forward thinker and in many ways a visionary, he retired from EUROCONTROL in 2005. He has now published an interesting article in The Controller magazine with the title “What is an ATM concept?”
I think everyone in Europe and in the US who has ever been involved in the development of operational concepts for air traffic management should read this article. Not because it is so good or so full of revelations from which we can learn but to see just how poorly we have communicated our efforts and how completely things have been misunderstood on various levels of the ATM world and at different ATM organizations.
The article starts off with a nice and even funny summing up of how, it is claimed, experts for concept work are/have been selected. There is indeed some truth in the description and it is also true that there have always been people on the concept groups coming from airlines, ANSPs, industry and what have you who could only think in terms of their own particular activities with little regard for anybody else’s. But those were always a minority. Troublesome yes, but hardly determinant for the final product.
The overwhelming majority of experts in concept work knew what they were about and it was quite common to have airline reps with an ATC background as well as the other way round with ATC folks who were flying on the side.
The article correctly points out that some of the documents produced were indeed overly voluminous… It is a pity that in the very next paragraph 4D Trajectory Management, System Wide Information Management (SWIM) and even air/ground digital link are listed as mere hypotheses, ambiguous descriptions that everyone can agree to and which therefore assume the status of certainties, no longer questioned and on which benefit expectations can be built… without much justification.
Click here to read the full article
Roger-Wilco – One year down the road
On 23/07/2010, in Anniversaries, by steve
Back in spring 2009 I knew that a lot of us had a lot to say about air traffic management, its future, present and past. What I was not quite sure of was where to say it. Speakers’ Corner in London was not an option and I suspected the official sites of the big ATM organizations would not be exactly happy with some of the things we would want to say.
When the idea of an ATM blog was first floated inside the company, I was reluctant. A lot of people perceive blogs as the trumpet of disgruntled people where they can air their gripes with relative impunity… But then there are other types of blogs also that deliver quality and useful insights… Weighing the possibilities, the decision was made to go for a blog and to make it into this second kind.
In terms of the actual format we decided early on that we did not want to be a discussion forum (plenty of those around) and we did not want to be a news portal either (lots and lots of those also). I was most attracted to something akin to an electronic magazine with full length, informative articles, news items that would not go stale within a day or so, commentary on actual developments and a section on books (both printed and electronic) that we would recommend. In other words, Roger-Wilco had to be something apart, something that befits the first ATM blog ever.
Click here to read the full article
Three short questions on the SESAR Concept of Operations answered
On 19/07/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Over the past year we have published several posts dealing with SESAR in general and the SESAR concept of operations in particular. Some of those posts voiced concerns and uncertainties. In an exclusive interview with Michael Standar, SJU Chief Air Traffic Management, published here in May 2010, we attempted to answer the concerns… to some extent anyway. In SESAR Magazine Issue 3, published in July 2010, Michael now answers three short questions on the Concept of Operations. We bring you the full text as it appeared in SESAR Magazine in the hope of making the ConOps picture a bit clearer.
Michael, where are we today with the SESAR Concept of
Operations (ConOps)?
The first thing to remember is that the SESAR ConOps was set out in the SESAR Definition Phase. In the SJU ConOps storyboard it was structured into three steps to realize the paradigm shift necessary to modernize the European ATM system. In step 1, we move from the current day to time-based operations, focused on better use of existing technology and optimizing communication between ground and airborne equipment. Step 2 introduces trajectory based operations through the 4D trajectory. As new technology is involved, international standardization bodies and ICAO will be engaged. The third and final step will be a fully integrated performance based ATM System supported by System Wide Information Management, SWIM – the intranet of the air. These three steps are not sequential but start in parallel, aiming at gaining early benefits for the air transport sector.
Click here to read the full article
Christophe Hamel in new job with the FAA – Congratulations!
On 13/07/2010, in Just to let you know..., by steve
It is always with pride and great pleasure that we bring news of the successes and achievements of our contributors and experts featured in our articles. This time it is Christophe’s turn. We introduced him recently in the “Interesting People, Unusual Flight Plans” series and now we can bring you the happy news that Christophe has accepted a position with SAIC for the FAA that will be a continuation of his previous contribution to the CNS/ATM world in the EU and the US. He will be working at FAA Headquarters in Washington D.C.
The tasks of the Senior Regulatory Analyst (as his new post is called) include:
Click here to read the full article
9th USA/Europe ATM R&D Seminar – Call for papers
On 08/07/2010, in Events, by steve
The Ninth USA/Europe Seminar on Air Traffic Management Research & Development welcomes papers that produce new concepts, analyses, and methodology. The seminar will take place on 13 June – 16 June, 2011 in Berlin, Germany.
With the past history of successful seminars, we hope to create and reinforce working and personal relationships between leading experts and researchers in the ATM R&D community, share available results and build and maintain consensus on major issues.
Visit the new ATM Seminar website here.
Download the Call for Papers document here.
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for Dummies – IBM eBook 2nd Limited Edition (free download)
On 25/06/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
If you are following SESAR or NextGen for that matter, you will have come accross the abbreviation SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). A lot of discussion is being generated on the subject in the air traffic management world, not least because SOA has never really been applied in ATM before. If the experts have a problem figuring this out, what about the rest of us? Where can we turn for help?
Service Oriented Architecture is the most important technology initiative facing businesses today. SOA is game changing, and early SOA successes make it clear that SOA is here to stay. This book introduces you to the basics of SOA in context with the real life experiences of seven companies. Seen through the varied business environments depicted in each of the case studies, the authors hope you will recognize that SOA is more than a bunch of new software products strung together to allow technology companies to have something else to sell. SOA represents a dramatic change in the relationship between business and IT. SOA makes technology a true business enabler and empowers business and technology leaders alike.
Download the free IBM eBook here.
To be able to read the eBook, you will need Adobe Digital Editions to be installed on your computer. If it is not yet installed, with your approval the system will install it for you. Adobe Digital Editions is usable for other eBooks also created under the same protocol.
EUROCONTROL Experimental Center INO Workshop – Call for Papers
On 24/06/2010, in Events, by steve
The 9th Innovative Research Workshop and Exhibition will be held at the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre at Brétigny-sur-Orge, France on 7 – 9 December 2010. Submission of papers for this event is now open.
With some 200 participants the INO Workshop has become an important event in the ATM calendar, providing researchers an open and stimulating environment to present their latest innovative ideas related to air traffic management. Apart from paper presentations, this year’s workshop will further include a keynote (details to be announced soon), parallel workshops, posters and demonstrations, and a panel discussion. Last year’s panel discussion has identified the limited involvement of industry, especially airlines, as an area for improvement and we plan a workshop with airlines to redress this situation.
All papers will be submitted online. Details of the conference and the Call for Papers can be found here.
The deadline for paper submission is September 10, 2010.
Papers will be evaluated based on the innovative nature of the ideas, as well as the approach and methods applied. The proceedings will be assigned an ISBN number and published on the conference website prior to the event; chosen topics may also be selected for inclusion in a possible book or journal volume. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
· 4D and trajectories;
· Communication and surveillance;
· Human factors;
· Airports;
· Modelling and data management;
· Managing complex systems;
· ATM concepts and airspace management;
· Automation;
· Economics and performance and
· Regulatory aspects.
Mark your calendars and start writing your papers!
User Requirements for Air Traffic Services – IATA booklet
On 11/06/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
Publisher: IATA
IATA has put together a very useful booklet offering a better understanding of international airlines’ requirements and capabilities for communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management.
Gunther Matschnigg, IATA Senior Vice President, Safety, Operations and Infrastructure, has this to say in his introduction to the booklet:
“There are times when airlines are taken by surprise from announcements of new equipment for air traffic control being purchased that, as far as airlines are concerned, holds little promise of benefit. In most of these cases, airlines and other airspace users were not consulted during the planning process and the technology was bound to disappoint.
Such misadventures are costly to everyone and are a waste of scarce funding. Regrettably, such undesirable situations continue to occur today, when waste can be ill afforded by the air transport industry.
On the other hand, successful procurement projects are invariably associated with a planning and consultation process that draws upon input from representatives of the airspace users, as well as equipment manufacturers and neighboring States. Such planning also helps airlines schedule their own investments in aircraft technology to work in synch with new air navigation services equipment, leading to clear operational benefits.
Based on a thorough understanding of airspace user requirements and capabilities, these projects are far more successful in providing much-needed benefits to airspace users in terms of increased safety, on-schedule operations and cost efficiency.”
The booklet aims to help ensuring that ATM projects of all kinds are based on the real requirements of the airspace users and not guesses or technologies for technologies’ sake.
Download the booklet here.
Who owns the radar blip?
On 09/06/2010, in SWIM, by steve
I am sure many of you had read about the proposed slot swap between Delta Airlines and US Airways, giving the former substantially more presence at La Guardia while the latter would gain strength at Reagan National in Washington D.C. When the airlines applied for approval, the FAA set conditions that would have nixed most of the benefits expected by the carriers. They are now going to the courts, arguing that the FAA is charged with making sure airspace is used safely and efficiently and not with assessing impacts on competition. The issue of who owns slots has been on the table before but so far, no real answers have been given by the federal authorities. With this latest round and the involvement of the courts, there is hope that a judge will come up with something that can at least be chewed further if it is not to the liking of any of the parties involved.
But slots are an almost physical commodity compared to the nature and ownership issues that are looming in respect of system wide information management (SWIM). So who owns data?
Right at the start we must differentiate between ownership in a purely data management sense and ownership in terms of the value represented by a piece of data. The data management aspect is relatively easy and setting the right rules will ensure that the data owners are always properly identified, their rights (e.g. to change the data) and obligations (e.g. to provide the data) correctly assigned and acknowledged and access by others limited as appropriate.
It is when we start to consider ownership in terms of the value of data that things start to get complicated. Let’s take a concrete example that has in the past already generated some discussion… and little agreement.
Who is the owner of aircraft position information obtained by ground surveillance?
Click here to read the full article
Volcano kicks European ATM cooperation into high gear
On 03/06/2010, in Viewpoint, by cleo
In the past, programs to improve European air traffic management went under the name EATCHIP (1 to many) and the results were meager at best. More recently we got the Single European Sky (SES 1 and now 2) and of course SESAR. Introduction of SES was a major problem even for the European Commission powerhouse and of course SESAR is still too new to be properly judged.
But no matter, we now have Eyjafjallajokull, apparently the best driver yet for European air traffic management co-operation and hopefully an effective one also. When Iceland’s wayward volcano came to life spewing volcanic ash into the atmosphere which was promptly carried by winds towards Europe, the reaction was almost predictable. Under the banner “safety first” air traffic over the continent was grounded, commencing the longest and most widespread ban on flying since WWII. That no one had prepared contingency plans for such an eventuality is perhaps excusable but the disorganized, fragmented and less than scientific response to the disaster once it struck was not. It was a shame…
Click here to read the full article
SESAR’s progress – real achievements, real issues
On 17/05/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Exclusive interview with Michael Standar, Chief Operational Concepts and Validation, SESAR Joint Undertaking.
Michael Standar
Since the inception of the current phase of the SESAR program, we have come to expect regular updates published by the SESAR Joint Undertaking telling the ATM community how things were going. SESAR has introduced a refreshingly innovative way of communicating with the world, making use of all the modern communications means from electronic newsletters to the social media.
Communications issued so far have focused on the achievements but like all major projects, SESAR is also not without problems and issues that they need to address. This is normal and problems are there to be solved. The main thing for managers is to figure out how to solve the problems and not necessarily to avoid them at any cost.
In this exclusive interview with Michael Standar, Chief Operational Concepts and Validation, we talk about the inevitable problems and how the SJU is going about solving them.
It is said that the reduction in traffic has reduced ANSP revenue and as a result, ANSPs had to cut back their resources. As a consequence, they were forced to allocate to the SESAR work experts who are less familiar with the discussions in the Definition Phase, less familiar with the exact meaning of the Concept of Operations. Does this have an impact on the work and if yes, how will it be countered?
SESAR is a major programme including all aviation stakeholders. Through its construction of the three phases, there will always be new faces joining in the work. But we place a great emphasis on sharing the exact meaning of the ConOps through innovative internal communication features.
This being said, we are prepared to share and communicate to each and every individual working in or with SESAR the concept implications in terms of change in procedures and systems. This will be a continuous learning process for many years to come.
Click here to read the full article
Will public funds be available to help SESAR along?
On 12/05/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
If nothing else, the recent wholesale grounding of aviation in Europe will have been an eye opener even to the most recalcitrant and aircraft hating citizens and politicians of the old continent. Some people still tend to regard aviation as a toy of the rich and transport for holidaymakers which damages the environment and should be taxed heavily. Well, with nothing flying for a few days everyone had to realize that aviation is an essential and integral element of our daily life and this is true also for those who never set foot on an aircraft. Car parts, produce and millions of other items normally carried by air were left undelivered with no alternative means of carriage.
This was a timely reminder not least because the SESAR Joint Undertaking is seriously looking into how public funds may be made available to support the deployment of the new SESAR technologies.
The total cost of SESAR is put at around 35 billion Euros of which 20 billion is to be spent by the airspace users to equip with the new capabilities. And herein lies the catch!
Click here to read the full article
EUROCONTROL ATM Lexicon – A single point of access to validated ATM terminology
On 13/04/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
The EUROCONTROL ATM Lexicon offers the whole aeronautical community single access to a terminology tool containing ATM-related terms and their validated definitions. Based on a semantic MediaWiki platform, it also provides an environment where experts can make their own contributions and discuss new concepts and definitions.
“One sky – one term“ is what EUROCONTROL is aiming for with their very own lexicon for ATM – a field that is constantly having to deal with new technical terms and definitions.
Experts don’t always agree on concepts, meanings and definitions and this is why there is a need for the collection, validation and harmonisation of expert knowledge within a single tool.
The current EUROCONTROL ATM Lexicon is a beta version containing a start-up corpus of terms and definitions.
EUROCONTROL promises that it will be updated on a daily basis and is expected to grow from the current 600 terms to more than 1,500 terms by the end of 2010. You are also being invited to contribute. Check out how to do that here.
Access the ATM Lexicon here.
Aeronautical Information Exchange Model (AIXM) & Weather Information Exchange Model (WXXM) Conference
On 30/03/2010, in Events, by steve
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will host the second annual Joint AIXM/WXXM Conference on May 4-6, 2010 in Washington DC. The conference is intended for the aeronautical information and aviation meteorological (MET) communities; including software developers, program managers, experts, and users of aeronautical and weather information. The general topic of the conference is Digital Convergence on the Common Operating Picture: the AIXM and WXXM Conference.
For more information and registration, click here.
SWIM – How much information should we be sharing?
I would like to propose a simple rule: anybody asking how much information we should be sharing in air traffic management should have their Christmas bonus cancelled… Here is why.
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is the concept and set of rules, procedures and other needed elements that underpin the net-centric approach of the new air traffic management environment being built by SESAR in Europe and NextGen in the USA.
In a nutshell, the SWIM concept stipulates that the traditional and cumbersome point to point connections be replaced by a solution where those with data to share (i.e. data useful to the ATM community) publish the fact that they have this data (as well as any updates to it of course) and those who need that data simply go search for it or subscribe to it to avoid having to search. This arrangement assumes a kind of directory service not unlike that used on the internet and which helps you find your favorite movie title as it were. Don’t be offended by the comparison, in the world of networking, a movie title or a flight plan are not that different, they are both data. The difference is how we protect and handle the data but that is another story.
You will have noticed the fundamental difference between to-day’s approach to data dissemination and the one being proposed by SWIM.
Click here to read the full article
Performance Based Navigation (PBN) – Why the “N” should be an “O”
On 11/03/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The abbreviations game
In aviation we seem to be creating abbreviations at a rate that raises the specter of our grandchildren not having any usable combinations left any more. This remark from a well respected colleague of mine who used to work for UPS airlines does in fact indicate a few problems that go beyond the scarcity of available unique letter combinations and which, as we will see, affect our daily work in all kinds of unexpected ways.
This is not aviation CNS...
Consider the well known CNS formation which, we all know, stands for Communications, Navigation and Surveillance. Whoever came up with the abbreviation CNS probably had no idea how much damage their invention would cause in air traffic management by perpetuating the kind of silo mentality that keeps many organizations hopelessly divided and some experts retreating into their respective ivory towers.
If at least the inventors had the good sense of putting those letters into some kind of logical order, like history, which would have given us NCS… We did navigate first (as in trying to find our way by reading the names of train stations and flying along highways), then communicated, initially with lights and hand signals and later via radio and most recently we do surveillance also. Not that NCS would have been any better at driving the silo mentality from the face of the earth.
Of course in the old days there was some logic in looking at navigating and communicating as something totally different from each other. You trained for one or the other, aircraft carried separate navigators and radio operators and when radar came along, the wizards of that kit were a completely new breed yet again. It was only logical also that separate fiefdoms should grow up along the letters NCS with hardly any horizontal contact between them. That they should fiercely protect their respective domains was perfectly natural…
Click here to read the full article
The tower with a soul… 8
On 09/03/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Airport – the book and the real thing
In order for you to understand this part, we need to go back to the early days, when the tower was commissioned… We have to look back to those days because that is where the never ending problems have started. What follows here is conjecture on my part, but as they say, where there is smoke, there is fire…
In 1983, the year the tower started in live operations, we only had two television channels, both broadcasting in Hungarian. Under the regime then in power, movies from the West arrived on the “good” side of the iron curtain with a delay of several years. This was the reason why the film Airport made in 1970 from Arthur Hailey’s hit novel, was shown on Hungarian television 13 years after its premier, in 1983. This had far reaching consequences for us in the tower…
With there not being much of a choice, half the country was glued to the tube watching how the good folk of Lincoln went to protest aircraft noise, in spite of the heavy snow. Many of those who saw the film felt immediate sympathy with the Lincoln protesters. Before that movie I had never seen anyone protesting aircraft noise in Hungary, not even at places like Tokol where Mig-21 jet fighters blasted over their heads almost every minute. Call it a coincidence, but after hand-over of the new runway, people living around Ferihegy airport started protesting in much the same way they saw it in the movie. Why couldn’t Arthur Hailey write about ants or the underground instead of airports? The consequence was that take-offs from 31R and landings on 13L were immediately restricted. In other words, we lost an approach direction even before we started using it.
Click here to read the full article
8.33 kHz Channel spacing – what is this?
On 04/03/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The radio spectrum, a scarce resort
One of the most basic activities in a cockpit is tuning the radio to the assigned frequency of whoever we want to talk to. Contacting ground control, the tower or one’s own company is done by turning a few knobs until the right numbers show in the radio control panel display and we can talk.
Air traffic controllers see the same thing slightly differently. They do not normally have to tune their radios. The proper frequencies for their sector or other working position are pre-set and need no further attention.
With the matter being so pedestrian and the actions so routine, few of us realize that the ability of pilots and controllers to talk to each other is in fact dependent on one of the scarcest resources in aviation, namely the radio spectrum allocated to aviation use.
Many other disciplines have their own radio spectrum and we all guard jealously what we have been given and for good reason. With so many users wanting to use the radio waves, the incumbents better watch or the use it or lose it principle kicks in. Luckily, the frequencies most widely used by aviation (118 – 137 MHz) are not coveted so strongly by others. Our problem is different but not in the least less serious.
Click here to read the full article
Latest edition of SITA’s “Air Traffic Management Highlights” now available
On 25/02/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
The latest edition of SITA’s newsletter, Air Traffic Management Highlights, dedicated to the ATM community is now available.
In this publication, you will learn more about two major initiatives undertaken by our industry in 2009:
• The Data Link Services Implementation Rule adoption by the European Commission and
• SITA’s selection by EUROCONTROL to deliver the Pan European Network Service (PENS).
This newsletter will also provide you with a high-level overview of the different air traffic management activities that SITA has been involved in recently.
Get your copy here.
29th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) – Call for participation
On 01/02/2010, in Events, by steve
The 29th DASC will be held on 3-7 October 2010 in Salt Lake City, UT at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center. It is bylined “Improving our environment through green avionics and ATM solutions”. Conference Chair Bob Lyons has this to say about the 29th Digital Avionics Systems Conference.
Concern over the environment is very prevalent in today’s society and being “green” is becoming a product selection decision criterion for many on par with the cost and quality of the purchase being made. This is augmented by legislation in many industries to reduce the environmental impact of commercial product and service offerings. In the aerospace industry, this materializes as noise abatement requirements in densely populated areas, control of emissions from engines and auxiliary power units (APUs), and the disposal of worn out aircraft components to name a few. Digital avionics provide enabling technologies for green aerospace systems. Just as was the case at the 28th DASC, a dual focus will be maintained on airborne and ground systems.
Click here to read the full article
Safety briefing – the missing element
On 28/01/2010, in Battle stations, by steve
This blog is about air traffic management. But, by the nature of our business, we tend to travel more than the average citizen and the pilots among us spend half their life strapped to the aircraft that carry us around. So it is appropriate to say something for once as a passenger rather than the ATM expert I often claim to be.
I am one of those passengers who actually follows the safety briefing, checks the location of the emergency exits and who has actually studied the operation of the damn things. I would hate having to read the opening instructions with smoke filling the cabin… I never take off my shoes until we are at cruising level. And yes, I do check that my life vest is under my seat and yes, I did find an empty container once and complained before we were airborne.
Recently however I started missing something from the safety briefing. If you look at the statistics, the likelihood of needing my life vest is distinctly lower than the need to know what I should do in case the chap or gal sitting next to me turns out to have explosives in his or her pants and decides to use it too.
Click here to read the full article
2010 ICNS Conference – Call for participation
On 20/01/2010, in Events, by steve
The 2010 Integrated Communications Navigation and Surveillance (ICNS) conference will take place on May 11-13 2010 at the Westin Washington Dulles Airport Hotel in Herndon, VA. The conference this year is by-lined as “The challenged of NextGen, new issues for aviation’s future”.
The Conference, jointly sponsored by government, civil and military, and industry, addresses long term research and development and early implementation of integrated CNS technologies needed to Enable NextGen.
The Conference is focused on providing understanding of CNS programs, longer term plans, standards development (RTCA, etc.), research, ICNS technologies, and the New Issues for Aviation’s Future that accompany NextGen.
Each day begins with a plenary session. Tuesday morning is all about Accelerating Implementation and Integration (I&I). Wednesday morning will focus on Interagency Systems Transformations, addressing multi-agency (DoD, DHS, and FAA) information sharing, and policies and procedures needed to insure airspace security while improving the support for each agency’s primary mission. NextGen Beyond 2018 is the topic for Thursday’s plenary.
Every afternoon, parallel technical sessions will be held on specific ICNS topics.
Click here to read the full article
My FAB my Castle – is there hope for the European air traffic management enterprise?
On 27/11/2009, in Viewpoint, by pbn
I guess from a purely political point of view, criticizing the Functional Airspace Block (FAB) concept is probably not correct. I will not criticize the FABs. What I will do is share a few thoughts with you and also raise a few questions. Who knows, someone may even have the answers.
So what is a FAB? Contrary to what you may have heard, the FAB concept was/is an effort by the European Union to bring some order into the fragmented European ATM scene. That this was not exactly to everyone’s taste was amply evidenced in the time it took to get the first FAB (and subsequent FABs) off the ground. The process stalled a few times and lots of screaming brides had to be dragged to the altar before it was restarted again.
Click here to read the full article
SITA selected to provide PENS – but SWIM is more than just ANSPs!
On 24/11/2009, in SWIM, by steve
Those of our readers who have looked at the various postings on System Wide Information Management (SWIM) will be familiar with the abbreviation PENS which stands for “Pan European Network Service”. PENS will allow air navigation service providers from 38 countries to exchange operational data communications across a common network for the first time.
Following an intensive competitive tendering exercise, SITA was selected as the provider of this managed IP based regional communications backbone service.
PENS will enable the 38 ANSPs of the EUROCONTROL Member States to exchange operational ATC data communications in a seamless and integrated manner; it will provide an alternative to the ad-hoc bi-lateral communications that are largely in place today between the ANSPs, resulting in improved service levels and reduced overall costs.
Click here to read the full article
Aircraft Operational Fuel Savings & Noise Reduction – Past and Future
On 23/11/2009, in View from the left seat, by phil
The way pilots fly their aircraft can have a significant effect on the economics, fuel consumption and environmental performance of their airline. Many airlines and Air Navigation Service Providers are working on Constant Descent Approaches (CDAs) but to do these it is necessary to have well motivated pilots, good operating procedures and efficient ATM procedures.
Particularly on long flights, the pilots have many more things to do than just flying the aircraft. The tactical decisions they make on the day with regard to fuel load, payload, routes and altitudes, descent profiles and the deployment of flaps and landing gear can all affect the bottom line economics. In a lecture given to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s CEAS 2009 Conference last month, Captain Hugh Dibley described the work done in the past to improve operating procedures, the influence the flight crew can have over the fuel used, and some of the possible improvements in the future. In one example he showed that a fuel economy campaign and improved procedures produced savings in the order of 8%. Some recent simulation work done by SAS has shown that CDAs and optimised procedures could produce comparative savings of 18.4%. And even minor changes in operation can save at least 1% at no cost – in comparison, one engine manufacturer currently spends over £800,000,000 per year in Research and Development to improve consumption by 1%. The paper also shows how some airlines were able in the past to reduce their fuel burnt by nearly 10% virtually overnight.
Click here to read the full article
NCS – What? Not CNS?!
On 22/11/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
Whoever came up with the abbreviation CNS (a.k.a. Communications/Navigation/Surveillance) probably had no idea how much damage their invention would cause in air traffic management by perpetuating the kind of silo mentality that keeps many organizations hopelessly divided and experts retreating into their respective ivory towers.
If at least the inventors had the good sense of putting their beloved letters into some kind of logical order, like history, which would have given us NCS… We did navigate first (as in trying to find our way by reading the names of train stations and flying along highways), then communicated at first with lights and hand signals and later via radio and more recently we do surveillance. Not that NCS would have been any better at driving the silo mentality from the face of the earth.
Of course in the old days there was some logic in looking at navigating and communicating as something totally different from each other. You trained for one or the other, aircraft carried separate navigators and radio operators and when radar came along, the wizards of that kit were a completely new breed yet again. It was only logical also that separate fiefdoms should grow up along the letters NCS with hardly any horizontal contact between them. That they should fiercely protect their respective domains was perfectly natural…
Click here to read the full article
GDP and the Key Performance Indicators of air traffic management
On 18/11/2009, in Viewpoint, by pbn
Time magazine in their 2 November issue published a very interesting essay. The author, Steven Faris, argues that using GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to judge how well a country was doing is wrong and misleading. The idea behind GDP was only to show how much money is changing hands, nothing more, nothing less. Should we not use a metric that actually measures the things we really care about, he asks.
To illustrate the inadequacy of GDP to measure what we always thought it did, he gives a few telling examples. Natural disasters, oil spills, car crashes, riots, crime: anything you pay to fix will boost GDP. Helping a neighbor up the stairs, skipping work to see your son’s basketball game or walking in the woods will not.
Reading the essay it occurred to me that in air traffic management we have our own ingrained GDP equivalent, the famous KPIs or Key Performance Indicators. True, GDP was devised by economist Simon Kuznets at the end of the Great Depression (not the current one but the one before it…) and the KPIs for things like the SESAR project were put together within the last five years. They should be ok… Well, I am not so sure.
Click here to read the full article
Single Sky Committee unanimously supports Aeronautical Data and Information Quality (ADQ) Implementing Rule
On 04/11/2009, in SWIM, by steve
The drive is on to transform Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) into Aeronautical Information Management (AIM). This is needed to set the scene for the introduction of System Wide Information Management (SWIM), the ultimate goal of the activity.
The change from AIS to AIM is primarily the morphing of the traditional, package based aeronautical information system into a data-based one, where users are provided with data to feed their particular applications in the way they need it rather than being fed with pre-cooked packages that do not really satisfy anyone while also being extremely difficult to change when new requirements turn up.
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Enterprise Architecture and service orientation – what is this?
On 03/11/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Few abbreviations connected with the future air traffic management system have given rise to so many questions and misunderstandings as EA (Enterprise Architecture) and SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). In the United States both concepts are part and parcel of air traffic management system development since the marching orders were given by the Federal Government. In Europe, however, it was only during the SESAR development phase that EA and SOA were first introduced into the ATM context and the reception was at first mixed.
To-day there is probably no doubt any more that EA and SOA are the way to go but the fact remains: to many in the air traffic management family the exact meaning of both remains a puzzle.
Let’s try to set out the pieces and see what picture emerges.
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A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 3
On 24/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Pioneers to the rescue
In spite of the positive business case, airspace users were not exactly rushing to equip with air/ground digital link. Because of the slow down of traffic growth in the wake of 9/11, the expected ACARS problems did not materialize and the ATC frequency congestion was also pushed far into the future. In other industries, such a period of respite might have been used to prepare for the times when business recovery would once again make air//ground digital link essential. But that is not how aviation works. With the immediate threat receding and even some of the big carriers fighting for survival, enthusiasm for investing in things that would generate benefits only many years down the road cooled.
Of course for the planners of the ATM system this was a situation that spelled trouble for later. The frequency congestion problems were not a mirage even if for the time being those problems slipped into the future. The need to put together a comprehensive kit of capacity enablers had not become less important, only the urgency had changed somewhat. For LINK2000+ the big question was: how to jump start equipage? The question was not self serving at all. If Maastricht UAC controllers did not get digital link equipped aircraft to work with, it would be impossible to build and maintain proficiency and to shake down the system in real operational circumstances.
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What is nanotechnology’s equivalent in air traffic management?
On 17/10/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
It has been all over the trade press recently. 10 billion extra euros to go into French aeronautics research, the money coming from a planned public bond issue. Some of the fruits of this dough will come in the form of ground and flight demonstrations in the 2011-2014 time-frame and the primary aim of the effort is to meet the threat to Europe’s lead in the narrow-body aircraft area. Those new Chinese and Russian (not to mention Canadian) designs are being taken seriously and for good reason. Replacements for the A320 family and of course the 737 will be needed and probably sooner than later if Europe and the US wants to remain big players.
The line-up of planned demos is impressive. Replacing hydraulics with electrics, 15 % improvement in the performance of existing turbofan technologies, improved rotorcraft, and blended winglets… Airframes with nanostructure enhanced materials and intelligent skin and even new cockpits to mate up with SESAR and NextGen are also on the Agenda. All very good and timely.
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Whatever happened to (the benefits of) Mode S Enhanced Surveillance (EHS)?
On 14/10/2009, in Viewpoint, by cleo
Though there are few who will not be familiar with the term Mode S Enhanced Surveillance, let me quickly recap. Mode S is a legacy, ground based surveillance system which has a rudimentary data link capability. It is this latter that was being pushed in the 90s as a solution to all ills of air traffic management. Using the link capability, certain parameters from the aircraft, the so called DAPs, can be sent to the ground ATM system. Part of these are for display to the controller and part serve in theory to enhance system functions.
Back then the airspace users saw clearly that the benefit claims made for Mode S EHS were grossly overstated. It did not help that the first business case created for Mode S EHS was, to put it mildly, questionable. A later version showed more realistic figures but the damage was done.
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A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 1
On 12/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Introduction
Talking to a group of young controllers the other day I suddenly realized that Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications (CPDLC) and its enabler, air/ground digital link were a kind of given for them… Their centre has either already implemented it or had plans for it and while their opinion diverged on the usefulness of the thing, they certainly did not consider it as anything exciting. In a way this is good. The more everyday air/ground digital link becomes, the more we can consider having cleared a major hurdle in implementing an important capacity enabler.
But not being familiar with the history of a particular development reduces our ability to understand its shortcomings and its future potential.
With this article I would like to put on the table a few, sometimes amusing, sometimes incredible, details from the last 15 years of so about air/ground digital link development in the hope that it will be provide some insight into what is after all a very exciting development in air traffic management.
The story will not be comprehensive; it is only a summary and is based mainly on my recollections. I was pretty close to the fire but possibly for that very reason I may have seen things in a light that was colored differently from the actual reality. If you have better information, do comment on my version of the tale.
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SWIM – Institutional aspects first and foremost
On 11/10/2009, in SWIM, by steve
Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine has recently published a very interesting article with the title “Integration Nightmares”. It is about the problems planners and engineers are facing in integrating the battlefield “system of systems”. As the author reports, high level military planners do not like to pay to solve complexity… Researchers have to weave through political, technological and financial obstacle courses to figure out how to create that “system of systems”.
You may shrug this news off and ask what relevance does this have to air traffic management’s SWIM? After all, we have SESAR and it will take care of such detail.
Sure, SESAR will help in bringing the partners together and in coordinating things but the obstacle course will still remain and needs to be negotiated. OK but why single out SWIM?
For most people, System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is a physical network, some standards and protocols and a few applications with some kind of network management thrown in, but little else.
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New directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM)
On 07/10/2009, in CDM, by steve
What exactly is CDM?
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) is not a new concept. It is being practiced to a certain degree both in the US and in Europe, focus being on en-route in the former and airports in the latter. Mature as the concept may be, surprisingly we still see experts who seem to believe that CDM is little more than a few wise men sitting together and deciding things for the benefit of the community… Little wonder that they see a role for CDM that is strictly limited to the strategic planning phases. They seem to hang on to this view even in the face of actual CDM implementations at some airports (e.g. Munich) which are anything but limited to the strategic phase. So, what is CDM?
The concept of CDM is very simple. Decisions on all levels must be made not in isolation but based on a shared, common view of the state of the ATM network with full awareness of the consequences of the decisions on every aspect of the operation. Collaborative in this context does not necessarily imply people sitting together or working together remotely. A single person can also make a collaborative decision if the decision is based on the shared information provided by the partners and if it takes into account the impact of the decision on those partners and the ATM network as a whole.
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Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 04/10/2009, in Interesting people, by steve
Rob Mead – Long-way turn from Yellowstone to Seattle
I put passion into
everything I did...
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
Actually… I did not dream of anything in particular. I put passion into everything I did, wanted to be good in what I did… I always felt that life was going in a good direction and I just went with it.
What made you become part of the aviation family?
The blame for that goes to the US Air Force. By pure chance I ended up flying in the back of RC135s and never looked back since. I knew right from the start that flying was the pladce to be for me. Still feel the same way.
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SWIM, the external enabler – now read the book!
On 28/09/2009, in SWIM, by steve
Towards the end of the SESAR definition phase the airspace users in Europe presented a paper, arguing that System Wide Information Management (SWIM) was in fact external to air traffic management and as such, its implementation could and should happen at its own rate matched to the need to ensure mximised, early benefits.
The reasoning behind this argument was that SWIM could generate major efficiency benefits by improving situational awareness and decision making even in a basically legacy system and hence its implementation should not be tied to more advanced air traffic management developments slated for later years only.
Although the document has not been updated in the past year and parts of it have now been possibly superceeded, it still contains valuable information for those engaged in the definition and scoping of SWIM. The document as such is not an official position from the airspace users even if the content had originally been thoroughly discussed with their representatives. SInce it had been presented in an open meeting, it should now be considered as being in the public domain and we are pleased to share it with our readers for the benefit of the SWIM community.
Click on SWIM DOC to download your copy.
(Before) all else fails… read the Concept! Part 2.
On 23/09/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
What is a net-centric system?
Net-centric, in its most common definition, refers to “participation as a part of a continuously evolving, complex community of people, devices, information and services interconnected by a communications network to optimise resource management and provide superior information on events and conditions needed to empower decision makers.” It will be clear from the definition that “net-centric” does not refer to a network as such. It is a term that covers all elements constituting the environment referred to as “net-centric”.
Exchanges between members of the community are based not on cumbersome individual interfaces and point to point connections but a flexible network paradigm that is never a hindrance to the evolution of the net-centric community. Net-centricity promotes a “many-to-many” exchange of data, enabling a multiplicity of users and applications to make use of the same data which in itself extends way beyond the traditional, predefined and package oriented data set while still being standardized sufficiently to ensure global interoperability. The aim of a net-centric system is to make all data visible, available and usable, when needed and where needed, to accelerate and improve the decision making process.
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(Before) all else fails… read the Concept! Part 1.
On 22/09/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The birth of the SESAR Concept of Operations (CONOPS), perhaps not unexpectedly, was not an easy process. Although SESAR is claimed to be a user-driven project, when the airspace users tried to drive the development of the CONOPS, the road proved to be anything but smooth. Plenty of natural and artificial obstacles had to be negotiated before the final product was crafted and pronounced airworthy. In the end, the CONOPS had turned out to be much more than the usual representation of the smallest common denominator, agreed and supported by most, criticized by others.
Now, some two years after version 1 of the CONOPS saw the light of day, we still see a worrisome degree of misunderstanding, hesitation and claimed or actual ignorance persist around the concept. Apparently, some people just continue with legacy thinking, pleading ignorance that there is any direction being set that is relevant to them. Ignoring the guidance encapsulated in the CONOPS or giving it a new interpretation not in line with what was originally intended represents a grave danger to the effectiveness of the new air traffic management system and the SESAR project itself.
In this article, I will try to clarify a number of issues still burning around the CONOPS, answering also questions which have been put to us in recent months. Some items may appear trivial to those who have been involved in the SESAR definition phase but will be useful to our worldwide readers many of whom are innocent when it comes to any phase of SESAR.
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SWIM in the USA
On 17/09/2009, in SWIM, by ahmad and lesley FAA
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is an advanced technology program designed to facilitate greater sharing of Air Traffic Management (ATM) system information such as airport operational status, weather information, flight data, status of special use airspace, and National Air Space 
(NAS) restrictions. SWIM will support current and future NAS programs by providing flexible and secure information management architecture for sharing NAS information. SWIM will use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software to support a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that will facilitate the addition of new systems and data exchanges, and increase common situational awareness.
How did SWIM originate?
EUROCONTROL initially presented the SWIM concept to the FAA in 1997, where it has been under development ever since. In 2005, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Global Air Traffic Management (ATM) Operational Concept adopted the SWIM concept to promote information-based ATM integration. SWIM is now part of development projects in both the United States (NextGen) and the European Union (Single European Sky ATM Research – SESAR).
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