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CTAS-FMS Integration (CFI ’02)

CFI’02 compared a sector-oriented approach to arrival flow management to a candidate trajectory-oriented approach. The sector-oriented approach was based on the existing 2002 operations for handling arrival traffic in a time-based metering situation. The trajectory-oriented approach provided advanced tools for the controller and introduced a more active interaction with the traffic management coordinator (TMC). These additions helped to manage an arrival flow from a broader perspective, helping controllers, especially controllers in upstream sectors, to use strategic clearances to improve the downstream flow at the meter fix merge.

NASA researcher using the CTAS-FMS tool in a simulation in the Airspace Operation Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center
NASA researcher Thomas Prevot using the CTAS-FMS tool in a simulation in the Airspace Operation Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center
Credit – NASA

CFI’02 sought to validate the assumed benefits associated with a trajectory-oriented approach. This research was conducted in two operational modes. The first was a baseline condition resembling current day operations for time-based metering. The trajectory-oriented approach was the other condition, adding such tools as CTAS/FMS descent procedures, conflict prediction, trial planning, speed advisories, automation to support controller-controller clearance coordination, and TMA-derived meter fix RTA advisory updates to en route aircraft.

The CFI’02 experiment gave us an opportunity to determine what benefits could be gained by introducing ground-based procedures for trajectory-oriented traffic management, and to develop scenarios and metrics to support other DAG-TM concepts.