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In order to minimize the impacts of noise on overflown communities by re-designing flight procedures, predictive techniques such as the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) have been developed and are widely used in the aviation community. Such tools are usually based on the simulation of flight trajectories and noise generation as well as propagation models of various fidelity levels. To more accurately describe the impacts of noise and changes in noise metrics that result from flight procedure redesigns, errors in the predictions must be sufficiently small so that changes to air traffic patterns do not result in unforeseen consequences. At Stanford University, we have developed the Metroplex Overflight Noise Analysis (MONA) system to measure, predict, and analyze the noise generated by aircraft overflights in complex multi-airport settings and to provide accurate and actionable data to inform consensus-building and, possibly, procedure redesigns in the context of FAA’s NextGen system. The capabilities of the MONA system include generating vast amounts of data (approximately 3,000-5,000 flights/day around Bay Area airports alone). This data contains (a) detailed flight trajectories and equipment combinations extracted from ADS-B data feeds, (b) noise levels at several locations measured by a network of sound-level monitoring (SLM) stations, and (c) predictions of the noise produced by the aircraft/engine combinations computed by automated analyses using AEDT. Over an entire year, millions of predictions and measurements are collected and indexed resulting in curated datasets for further analysis. This paper explores an application of these datasets, using machine learning (ML) techniques to create models of the noise generated by aircraft on approach trajectories to San Francisco International airport (SFO). Using deep neural net ML architectures we show that the errors in the mean for Lmax noise metrics are reduced to within the margin of measurement error of the SLMs.

This paper describes a concept and a prototype for sharing flight information using blockchain technology. Providing all stakeholders access to complete, consistent, and up-to-date information abou...

In this article the models of the Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) by flight crew and air traffic controller in deterministic, stochastic and non-stochastic uncertainty conditions are presented. Effective interaction of the "flight crew - air traffic controller" is a prerequisite for ensuring flight safety in standard conditions and during emergency cases. The problem of air traffic controllers in emergency situations is the incompleteness and inaccuracy of aircraft flight process data. The problem of the flight crew in emergency situations is the incompleteness and inaccuracy of the airspace data. CDM implementation requires the use of a modern information environment based on the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) concept and FF-ICE (Flight & Flow Information for a Collaborative Environment). The methodological basis for CDM in the conditions of certainty is a network planning. Ways to optimize the network planning for the implementation of technological procedures by the ANS operator in emergency case (minimizing time at maximum security) is to optimize time, change the network topology due to multivariate technology execution procedures, the introduction of parallel procedure execution with maximum time coordination. The methodological basis for CDM in the conditions of stochastic uncertainty – is a decision tree, in the conditions of non-stochastic uncertainty – is a matrix of decisions. For intelligent data processing and risk assessment of CDM, Multilayer Perceptron Network with the additional inputs – Bias, that characterizing the interaction of the Air Navigation Systems’ operators, is developed. Examples of СDM in flight emergency "Engine failure and fire on aircraft during climbing after take-off" are given. The developed models will allow to supplement the base of scenarios of flight situations development in the pilot - air traffic controller decision support system during emergency cases for CDM optimization and can be used in the future both in the operators training course and in real aircraft flight.

When the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) initiative, the FAA had the goal of using the same portable, open infrastructure across all participating systems in the National Airspace System (NAS). Around 2008 for SWIM Segment 1, the FAA chose Iona Software's Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) based bundle, which was known and supported under the Fuse brand. The FAA obtained the licenses used by programs, including EnRoute Automation Modernization (ERAM), through Iona, which was later acquired by Progress and RedHat.

SWIM (System Wide Information Management) is considered to be the basic network system responsible for information sharing in the next generation of ATM (Air Traffic Management). As the national airspace and commercial privacy of aviation operators are involved, and the data circulation of civil aviation flight, weather, intelligence and other data is increasing rapidly at this stage, SWIM urgently needs a security gateway that meets the requirements of civil aviation to provide comprehensive protection for SWIM internal data, SWIM users and infrastructure, and to co-process complex business interactions within the system. This article analyzes the requirements of the security gateway for SWIM. According to the analysis results, the overall architecture of the SWIM security gateway is preliminarily designed, and the authentication and authorization process based on JWT (JSON Web Tokens) is proposed, and functions and performance tests are carried out. It proves that the solution in this paper can realize 4A (Account, Authentication, Authorization, Audit) security protection with relatively small resource overhead, and finally completes the design of SWIM security gateway.

The air traffic management (ATM) system is an intelligent system that integrates the ground computer network, the airborne network and the space satellite (communication and navigation) network. It is connected by the ground-air data link system. Due to the openness and wide-area distribution, ATM system has many security risks, facing increasingly serious security threats, which may have an adverse impact on flight safety. In order to solve the potential cybersecurity risks in the ATM system, this paper presents an information security framework based on blockchain technology, called air traffic management blockchain (ATMChain). The ATMChain alliance blockchain network is composed of air traffic control departments, ground airport departments and System Wide Information Management centers, with specially designed block storage protocols and block structures. Through the use of a unique consensus mechanism for the civil aviation transport environment, it can achieve multicenter, secure, efficient and traceable ATM data sharing and data management. This paper presents security protection functions such as access control, data protection, identity authentication in ATMChain, and gives the protocol flow and system models diagram of these functions implementations. Finally, the analysis of the system is given. The scheme in this paper may help to improve the security and reliability of air traffic management business, and provide reference to the design and research of the fourth-generation air traffic management network.

Flight planning is one of the essential factors of the airline operation. The selection of routes will determine the economic value of the flight. However, some conditions may prevent the flight to use the most optimum route due to airspace restriction or weather condition. The research aims to develop a search engine program that uses dynamic flight parameters that considers fusion of System Wide Information Management (SWIM) data including weather data and NOTAM to produce the most optimum route in 2D flight planning. The Dijkstra’s pathfinding is implemented in Python programming language to produce the flight plan. The navigation data used is enroute airway in Indonesian FIR regions. The scenario used is a flight from Jakarta to Makassar with duration of 2 hours flight with considering the effect of restricted airspace and weather blockage during in-flight. The study also uses the optimum route produced by the algorithm to be compared with the possible alternate routes to define how optimum the route is. Adding a restricted airspace parameter will result in a new optimum flight plan that able avoids the airspace and the most minimum distance. The effect of external wind parameter could influence the optimum route which may vary depends on the speed of the wind.

Current operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) primarily rely on voice communication designed to minimize lengthy conversations as well as simple data exchanges intended to supplement voice communication without adding additional fidelity to instructions. Advances in communication, data processing capabilities, and cultural acceptance of technology-enabled procedural changes are paving the way for implementation of Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts based on Four-Dimensional Trajectories (4DT). Exchanging Four-Dimensional (4D) data (latitude, longitude, altitude, and time) and trajectories via an internet- based infrastructure is part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Office’s vision for Trajectory Based Operations (TBO). In 2020, the FAA successfully completed the 4DT Live Flight Demonstration (4DT LFD) project to demonstrate how 4DT-based operations in the NAS can be implemented with current technologies and to inform future research.The FAA partnered with key industry participants to conduct two live flights in the NAS using 4DT for controller-pilot negotiations, clearances, and aircraft intent information. The 4DT LFD leveraged a connected aircraft with an Internet Protocol (IP) data link that enabled Air-to-Ground (A/G) SWIM and Demo IP-based Clearance connectivity as the aircraft traversed the NAS. The project maximized use of current infrastructure while leveraging NextGen capabilities at the FAA’s Florida NextGen Test Bed (FTB) and communication systems available from industry partners.The 4DT LFD elaborated procedures, validated existing technology, and began to socialize the feasibility of TBO in the NAS to ATM stakeholders including the FAA, airspace users, and system providers. The project focused on new data exchange mechanisms for trajectory negotiations in the NAS enroute environment, leveraging commonly used avionics equipment with emphasis on Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) and Flight Management System (FMS). The project also leveraged ongoing FAA NextGen investments, such as System Wide Information Management (SWIM), Performance Based Navigation (PBN), and research into Flight and Flow – Information for a Collaborative Environment (FF-ICE). Lessons learned from the project will inform future FAA system requirements and airspace users’ development of their own procedures and technologies. These lessons will help refine global concepts, standards, recommended practices, and implementation guidance.

The System Wide Information Management (SWIM) concept is now being discussed internationally for the standardization of the data formats and exchange protocols in order to share the required information efficiently and safely among the relevant civil aviation stakeholders. This paper presents the results of a validation test regarding the feasibility of the Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communications System (AeroMACS) as a wireless medium to connect SWIM around the airport. We carried out flight experiments using AeroMACS and SWIM prototype system in order to investigate the possibility of expanding AeroMACS coverage. Furthermore, we demonstrated air-ground information sharing via SWIM-enabled applications that support operations based on FF-ICE (Flight and Flow Information for a Collaborative Environment). The results show that the coverage can be expanded to 18 km from the ground station under the constraint in the AeroMACS specifications that the transmission power is 200 mW for each antenna. A 5 Mbps throughput can be achieved while the aircraft is moving at a speed of 108 knots (200 km/h). Moreover, FF-ICE demonstrations show the effectiveness of aircraft access to SWIM using AeroMACS.

In the background of the globalized interaction needs of civil aviation information services, the definition of System Wide Information Management (SWIM) was proposed by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). However, the issue of interaction between traditional business systems and heterogeneous systems still exists on the SWIM platform. The data adapter is an important functional component to solve this problem, which can not only solve the problems of high coupling among systems, poor compatibility, low sensitivity, non-standard syntax and poor semantics, but also realize the high sharing of information between systems. Based on the SWIM platform, this article redefines SWIM. First, this article analyzes the concept and architecture of SWIM as well as the role and logical architecture of adapters. Then, according to the requirements of the adapter, a design method of the adapter structure is proposed, and the process design methods of the two main functional modules, data transformation and service encapsulation, are proposed respectively, including data standard and service standard. Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology is a platform independent language, 90% of systems support XML, it is self-descriptive and extensible, suitable for storage and transport on the network, therefore it is the preferred language for software development and is important for the design of SWIM data adapter. Finally, the data adapter is designed and implemented.

System Wide Information Management (SWIM), as an advanced civil aeronautical information management method, aims to solve the problems of global civil aeronautical information systems such as difficulty in obtaining common data in a timely manner and high information exchange costs. SWIM was first proposed by Europe and the United States and was recognized and valued by the International Civil Aviation Organization. It is to ensure the correct information transmission at the correct time. In order for the consistent information in the “virtual information pool” to be efficiently, accurately and securely transmitted, the information and data in the SWIM environment need to be defined in detail and standardized, so the two sides of data interaction can maintain the consistency in syntax and semantics. The Aeronautical Information Exchange Model (AIXM) is a core standard model for data transmission and format conversion, which mainly involves information in the aeronautical intelligence field. It covers multiple thematic elements such as airspace, airports and air routes, and provides a standardized description for data conversion and transmission in this field. The article analyzes the model composition of AIXM in the SWIM information exchange model, the modeling process, and the key technologies involved in model establishment, and preliminary design and implementation of AIXM.

ATM information providers publish reports and notifications of different types using standardized information exchange models. For a typical information user, e.g., an aircraft pilot, only a fraction of the published information is relevant for a particular task. Filtering out irrelevant information from different information sources is in itself a challenging task, yet it is only a first step in providing relevant information, the challenges concerning maintenance, auditability, availability, integration, comprehensibility, and traceability. This paper presents the Semantic Container approach, which employs ontology-based faceted information filtering and allows for the packaging of filtered information and associated metadata in semantic containers, thus facilitating reuse of filtered information at different levels. The paper formally defines an abstract model of ontology-based information filtering and the structure of semantic containers, their composition, versioning, discovery, and replicated physical allocation. The paper further discusses different usage scenarios, the role of semantic containers in SWIM, an architecture for a semantic container management system, as well as a proof-of-concept prototype. Finally the paper discusses a blockchain-based notary service to realize tamper-proof version histories for semantic containers.

NASA is conducting the Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 to evaluate an Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) traffic management system. The IADS system is powered by real-time System Wide Information Management feeds which provide an accurate and high fidelity view of the lifecycle of a flight. This data can be leveraged to drive efficiencies in the National Airspace System. For non safety critical applications there is opportunity for third party service providers to offer this type of data-driven prediction service in near real-time. This paper investigates the gate conflict prediction problem as a concrete use case which could help drive efficiencies. We model gate conflicts as a regression problem and describe the iterative process of model building, model validation, and evaluation used to assess the efficacy of our approach. We quantify our predictive accuracy and identify paths for improvement. Through this iterative process we hope to evolve our models and methods to a near real-time prediction service.

Historically communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) technologies were designed independently and operated in a siloed fashion. As 4D trajectory-based operations (TBO), connected aircraft, system wide information management (SWIM) systems, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are fast becoming reality, an aviation internet, that will enable fast, safe, secure, and cost-effective information sharing across CNS and air traffic management (ATM) domains is emerging as a necessary approach to cope with the challenge of ATM in complex operational environments.The aviation internet will leverage commercial Internet Protocols (IP) and information security technologies to establish an internetworking capability across CNS functions for both manned and unmanned aircraft. Both United States and European Union have set the goal of implementing an interoperable IP-based aviation network around the 2028 timeframe. As more and more aviation stakeholders are eager to contribute to the aviation internet standardization and validation, a practical and systematic transition plan that will orchestrate aviation stakeholders’ efforts to achieve common mission objectives is crucial to the success of aviation internet transformation.In support of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) CNS strategy, we first take a systems engineering approach to investigate key practical aspects of the whole lifecycle of the aviation internet transition, including technical standards suitability, regulatory and policy support, acquisition and investment decision process, business model, cost/benefit, market offerings, necessary validation, and implementation activities. Based on the investigation, we then identify technical, regulatory, and programmatic risks and corresponding mitigations, and provide technical feedback to the standardization groups. Finally, we present an action plan for the aviation industry stakeholders to ensure a successful transition from today’s closed custom network to tomorrow’s IP-based aviation internet.

Currently, the airport surface is one of the most difficult areas for a flight crew to navigate, especially at large complex airports. Taxi instructions are communicated through Ultra High Frequency / Very High Frequency (UHF/VHF) radio communications from the air traffic controller to the flight deck [1]. Frequency congestion at major airports increases difficulty conveying taxi instructions. The challenges of effective communication for ground controllers and pilots due to a single method of communication to many aircraft are clearly present in the current state. Flight crews may experience limitations to visibility and signage, or have a lack of reference to surface destinations, further complicating surface navigation. The combination of lengthy detailed taxi instructions, issuing instructions multiple times, radio frequency congestion, and unfamiliarity with the airport can result in a complex environment for the flight crew.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is interested in improving clarity and delivery of taxi instructions through automation in the tower and the flight deck, focusing on Part 121 aircraft at larger airports. Current research interests will focus on developing capabilities and procedures to digitize taxi instructions on a Ground Control (GC) application and deliver the taxi instructions to the flight deck’s Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). Development of digital taxi instruction concepts and infrastructure should leverage existing National Airspace System (NAS) systems and procedures and identify gaps for further exploration. Digital taxi instructions may improve instruction clarity with minimal voice exchanges and clarifications from the GC before a common understanding is reached. Also, the flight deck will have less "head down" time processing taxi instructions, increasing surface situational awareness.This paper will provide initial research on the use of connected aircraft to support digital taxi instructions. The initial scope and future potential capabilities will be discussed. Identification of the functional hierarchy to realize digital taxi instruction capabilities will be reviewed. The concept has identified data elements and message sets that could be integrated into the digital taxi applications via System Wide Information Management (SWIM). Current exchange models like Flight Information Exchange Model (FIXM) should be considered for handling the message sets. Lastly, initial benefits of digital taxi instruction have been identified.

As the core of next-generation air traffic management(ATM), System Wide Information Management(SWIM) connects various components of civil aviation information network, various business resources such as administration and traffic management, traffic management, traffic management, monitoring management, and aircraft systems. SWIM improves global interoperability between ATM service providers, enhances information sharing between departments, and breaks the bottleneck of information exchange between heterogeneous services. Through the research of System Wide Information Management, SWIM security is analyzed based on SWIM architecture and business processes in this paper. The SWIM spoofing and tampering SWIM data are analyzed in detail to the security impact of SWIM system. A SWIM-oriented intra-domain user authentication method were proposed to ensure the safe operation of the SWIM system. Finally, the proposed authentication method is verified by experiments.

In global air traffic management (ATM), it is necessary to exchange various information related to aircraft operation such as the flight plans, surveillance, airports, weather, and restrictions, among different systems and operators. Hence, the concept of System Wide Information Management (SWIM) has been promoted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to implement interoperability and harmonization in global operation. In the SWIM environment, all the related stakeholders need to efficiently obtain the necessary ATM data with situational awareness from various information domains. However, this is difficult to realize in the current system, as different data are structured based on different data models. In this study, we construct domain ontologies based on flight, aeronautical, and weather information exchange models. Further, we develop a common ontology that uniformly defines the inconsistent representation in terms of the 4D, 3D, and 2D concepts and their inclusion relations and propose an integration method for heterogeneous domain ontologies. Moreover, we apply the proposed ontologies to a SWIM test system. The applicability and efficiency of the proposal are demonstrated through a case study in the SWIM environment.

The air transport infrastructure is important and prominent. The current aviation system is already vulnerable and the advent of more automation and pervasion of standard IT in the future leads to ever more complex and interconnected systems with an increasing attack surface. To cope with this situation, we need suitable methods and tools to achieve understanding of the consequences in potential cyber threat situations. In this paper, we present results of a case study on the use of simulation methodologies to support aviation cyber-security risk assessment. We use different variants of a flight plan data manipulation scenario as well as a scenario, where the availability of flight plan data is compromised. The one day scenarios were implemented in the air traffic simulator TrafficSim. The aim is to investigate the potential of the methodology and to achieve an estimation of cyber-threat potentials in connection with flight plan data processing. One scenario capped the flight level of 473 flights on the same airway, resulting in 1073 t additional fuel, and 147 flights would spent their minimum final reserve fuel before landing. A second scenario showed that four or five flights, missing their flight plan at startup, could impact a well utilized runway for about 2–4 h. During a risk assessment, the effects of an attack can be more accurately assessed using simulation results. We recommend to (1) develop, maintain, and apply simulation models and cyber attack simulation scenarios, (2) connect and develop simulation models from “gate-to-gate”, and (3) integrate human interactions with cyber attack simulation scenarios.

With the advent of the era of big data, aviation big data is gradually being applied in the aviation industry. As a component of aviation cloud, System Wide Information Management (SWIM) carries a large amount of data interaction and sharing. The security and continuity of SWIM directly affect the stability of civil aviation transportation and in turn affect the quality of service throughout the aviation industry. SWIM provides standards, infrastructure and governance, enabling information exchange between SWIM-enabled applications. Consequently, SWIM must guarantee the survivability of all services between different Air Traffic Management (ATM) departments. In this paper, we describe the threats and risks faced by SWIM, put forward a survivability scheme and evaluate its feasibility through experiments.

The Internet of Flying Things and related emerging technologies, such as the System-Wide Information Management Infrastructure of the Federal Aviation Administration NextGen program, present numero...

The growth in demand for air transportation services is steadily ahead of the capacity of carriers. The most advanced aviation empires set a goal to triple the capacity of the current air traffic management system by the mid-twenties. The technical basis for such achievements is equipping all aircraft with automatic dependent surveillance broadcast systems, which provides both control over the parameters of their movement anywhere in the world, and reliable mutual exchange of verified information on the air picture and forecasts of its development between all pilots and ground services. The concepts of collaborative decision-making on air traffic flows management and System Wide Information Management, suggested by ICAO experts, have proclaimed the idea of the flight information availability as a means of increasing the intensity of flights, not only for considering, but also for making changes in it by all the participants of the process of organizing and servicing the flows – analysts, meteorologists, planners, air traffic controllers, pilots (in the part relating to their area). The technology of specialists’ cooperation is proposed. It allows to make sensible decisions on servicing aircraft flows for the whole depth of their flights (both on routes and along free trajectories) when changing the conditions for performing flights. The task is to develop software procedures for computer support of new concepts that ensure the integrity of aeronautical data used by all the participants in the operational organization of flows. All the interconnected elements of air traffic management (personnel and equipment) may distort the system public information with the known probability of cooperation outcomes. The article proposes a three-level algorithm for neutralizing data mismatch in the elements of a distributed network of process participants ground and on-board computing facilities, allowing in the actual time to maintain consistency of information about the current air situation and its development prospects. An optimal strategy for the algorithm application has been constructed (by the criterion of computational resource expenses).

Present research in Air Traffic Management (ATM) is going towards improvement of airspace capacity, accessibility and efficiency while reducing the management costs and increasing the safety performance indicators. A 4D contract between an Airspace User (AU) and Air Traffic Control, in which aircraft should be located at a given time on a particular waypoint, opens a wide scope of applications for decision support tools (DSTs). This paper introduces a new modeling approach for a smooth safety nets transition within the high en-route airspace operations. The approach is based on a causal state space search as a response to some shortages in the collision avoidance events, resulted from a limited logic of Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). It considers Enhanced TCAS (E-TCAS) that relies on an extended time horizon at the separation management level to define functionalities that will provide the most optimal resolution trajectories and remove the deadlock scenarios.

The concept of System Wide Information Management (SWIM) for global Air Traffic Management (ATM) is to achieve various information exchange among related stakeholders, such as information about flights, routes, surveillance, airports, aircrafts, and weather. Although standard information exchange models are adopted in the SWIM concept, these models are different for each type of information. Therefore, ontology and data-linking technologies are required for the semantic integration of heterogeneous data. In this paper, we focus on the geospatial information contained in various data, and propose a method for extending the geospatial representation of the existing aviation ontology. This enables advanced geospatial searches using geometry information and facilitates integration of heterogeneous data.

Based on the SWIM global interoperable framework, this paper presents and analyses the benefits of SWIM by comparing to AFTN, such as simplified network, gathering real time information, facilitating cooperation decision making and increasing ATM efficiency. This paper uses mathematical analysis to calculate the bandwidth of interface of CRV, and highlights the details of information service overview. This paper also emphasizes the policies on SWIM implementation of governance, information services and cyber security in Asia/Pacific region. Thereby, the SWIM is recommended to be deployed for aviation information management in APAC region.

Using mobile devices for various flight planning tasks is becoming the norm among general aviation (GA) pilots. Mobile apps, such as ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot, provide services such as flight plan filing, electronic charts, and weather briefings, but time-consuming and error-prone voice-based methods must still be used to exchange clearance information with air traffic control (ATC). The ubiquity of mobile device and app use by pilots suggests that mobile applications could also be used to deliver Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) clearances and provide other traditionally voice-based services. This concept proposes that pilots will be able to exchange pre-departure and post-arrival information electronically at both towered and non-towered airports in the United States (U.S.), without speaking a single word. Similar to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) technology known as Data Communications (DataComm), used to supplement verbal communication with digitally delivered messages [1], mobile devices may provide an affordable option to GA pilots for pre-departure and post-arrival electronic information exchange. Both implementations provide a significant reduction in pilot and controller workload for the services they enable. Electronic information exchange may eliminate read-back errors and incorrect interpretations of spoken clearances for controllers across the country and the over 300,000 instrument-rated pilots in the U.S. (as of December 31, 2018) [2] to whom they deliver clearances. The concept consists of four parts: providing IFR clearance delivery, negotiating IFR release at non-towered airports, exchanging other pre-departure information, and cancelling IFR at non-towered airports. The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) created a research prototype, using flight plan information from the FAA's System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Flight Data Publication Service (SFDPS), to evaluate the concept's operational acceptability and investigate resulting benefits. It is expected that a fully electronic information exchange will significantly reduce pilot and controller workload. However, before the concept can be implemented as a capability available to users of the National Airspace System (NAS), some preliminary steps must be taken by the FAA, in conjunction with industry, to validate the concept to ensure success. In the summer of 2018, we partnered with ForeFlight, an electronic flight bag (EFB) technology provider, to design and conduct a 75-day field test of the mobile clearance delivery concept at Manassas Regional Airport (HEF). This study focused strictly on clearance delivery at a towered airport and was designed to be transparent to ATC. Participation in the test was available to pilots on a voluntary basis; pilots who opted into the study received an email from ForeFlight with expected clearance information. The goal was two-fold: 1) to show that it is possible for automation to generate accurate expected clearance information by comparing automatically generated clearances to the clearances provided verbally to pilots, and 2) to collect feedback from end users on the accuracy and acceptability of an electronic clearance delivery concept. Pilot subject matter experts listened to recordings for over 30 percent of the flights processed during the test period and compared the recorded clearances to the MITRE-generated data. The MITRE project team also reviewed subjective feedback from test participants. This field test successfully demonstrated that it is feasible to use SWIM data to formulate expected clearances and transmit that information to the pilot. Although we identified some mismatches between formulated clearance data and controller verbally issued clearances, analysis of the collected data allowed the team to determine the changes required to correct these mismatches and reliably send accurate clearance data to the pilot. Following the field test, we conducted table-top exercises to further explore the accuracy and effectiveness of delivering clearance information using a streamlined process that required minimal verbal exchange. We are also examining the end-to-end safety and cybersecurity implications of using mobile devices to exchange clearance information and will provide recommendations for developing a methodology to provide the assurance and security of data transmissions for mobile devices to enable these IFR services for GA pilots. Through these activities, we have identified challenges to making the mobile IFR services concept a reality. The most profound challenges are related to limitations within NAS systems, a mismatch between procedures and adaptation, and data elements that are unavailable to external systems. These technical challenges must be mitigated or overcome to enable these mobile IFR services.

As the transport volume of civil aviation increases rapidly, more attention than before has been paid to the stable and reliable operation of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. Then, the reliability analysis of the system is in urgent need. Meantime, due to the complexity of this “system of systems” which contains a diversity of individual systems, the construction of the model which can efficiently and accurately reflect the characteristics of ATM system is crucial. After the characteristic analysis of the system, a modeling method based on the supernetwork theory is introduced in this paper. The theory specializes in characterizing the complicated structural attribute of the complex system and the interaction relationship between the system components. Furthermore, the method is applied to the modeling of the System Wide Information Management (SWIM)-based ATM system which facilitates the information access and interchange of distributed heterogeneous systems. Specifically, the supernetwork model can be divided into three subnetworks according to the user based information domains of SWIM. Considered that there remains a certain number of invalid paths between nodes within the supernetwork, five types of supply-demand flows are proposed, and based on which improvements in traditional reliability index, typically the efficiency parameters are achieved. In order to simulate the performance of the SWIM-based ATM system in the case of system failure, the reliability index of the supernetwork model is calculated under the node removal strategy. Analysis results indicate the reasonability and applicability of the reliability analysis scheme for ATM system.

This paper describes the initial development of a real-time, NAS-wide Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) performance dashboard that aggregates relevant timestamps by flight; reports flight-specific TBFM assigned departure delay and flight-specific compliance to TBFM scheduled departure times; and presents actionable airport-level alerts (with supporting flight-specific information) based on those delay and compliance metrics. This research found that it is feasible to use System Wide Information Management (SWIM) data for real-time TBFM metrics calculation for performance monitoring and alerting. Using the processing method described in this paper, raw TBFM SWIM data was parsed and analyzed to produce operationally meaningful flight-specific timestamps, which were then compared with known timestamps in TBFM post-operations data. Validation of the timestamps supports that TBFM SWIM data can be employed for calculation of real-time TBFM metrics. Initial metrics developed along with a demonstration capability for monitoring and alerting NAS-wide TBFM departure performance are described. Notional example use cases are discussed as well as recommendations for next steps.

The System Wide Information Management (SWIM) concept has been discussed for the standardization of the data format and exchange protocol internationally in order to share the necessary information efficiently and safely in the area of civil aviation. Therefore, aircraft access to SWIM (AAtS) is a key function to achieve rich information exchange between the aircraft and ground systems. However, it is difficult for current air-to-ground communication systems to satisfy the requirement of SWIM. In this paper, we present validation test for availability of Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communications System (AeroMACS) as a wireless media to achieve the AAtS in the airport. We carried out field taxiing experiments based on the AeroMACS and SWIM prototype systems at the Sendai airport. Furthermore, we conducted validation tests of Quality of Service (QoS) function of AeroMACS for accessing to ground SWIM systems. The results show the effectiveness of AeroMACS for AAtS.

Network-centric sharing of data between all Air Traffic Management (ATM) stakeholders can improve the aviation network substantially. The System Wide Information Management (SWIM) platform is a platform for the open sharing of all information between aircraft operators, airports, air navigation services providers (ANSPs), and meteorology services, but has struggled to find a following. This article aims to identify the potential reasons for the slow adoption of the SWIM platform, and to investigate how to better communicate its potential. To gain insight into the drivers for each of the stakeholders, a series of semi-structured interviews was conducted with airlines, airports and ANSPs. Moreover, an Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) initiative at the airport in Dublin was included as a case study. Recommendations are provided on how to address the results from a governance point of view.

The Advanced Flexible Use of Airspace Service (AFUAS) introduces network wide airspace management (ASM) by realization of a centralized service, allowing central ASM data administration and distribution, supported by realtime collaborative network processes for updating all participants' airspace needs in Europe, ranging from strategic planning to post-ops. action harmonization. Against this background, the integration of future space traffic, by acting as System Wide Information Management (SWIM) communicating sub-systems, is presented and discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of various aviation infrastructure dimensions over aviation fuel consumption reduction (AFCR) performance. This study is an effort that considers the role of dimensions collectively from all aspects belonging to aviation infrastructure. The relevance of dimensions and constructs for hypothesis development are based on extensive literature review. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were performed in the consecutive purification processes. Also, hypothesis testing was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). A customized questionnaire was developed for collecting data from both kinds of respondents: Aviation industry experts and academic experts. Out of 382 approaches through mail survey, a total of 194 valid responses were collected. Analysis of the results shows the positive and significant impact of various factors such as: airport design, airspace management and air traffic control over the aviation fuel consumption reduction. Maximum importance is adjudged on air traffic control (ATC) and airspace route flexibility. The results of this study will encourage airlines and airport development authorities to increase their insight over aviation infrastructure, also to perform deeper analysis and find out precise values for real life implications.

In the future air traffic management system, the trajectory becomes the fundamental element of a new set of operating procedures collectively referred to as trajectory-based operations. Trajectory-based operations require the air traffic management to introduce profound innovations to enable the envisioned changes. Some of these include collaborative decision-making processes, better data and information management, and advanced decision support tools to aid human operators. In particular, fast and accurate computation of optimal trajectories could certainly contribute to enhance trajectory management within the future air traffic management. The trajectory optimization problem can be solved using optimal control methods. In this paper, the existing methods for solving optimal control problems focusing on direct collocation are discussed. In particular, pseudospectral collocation methods have shown to be numerically more accurate and computationally much faster than other direct methods. A very relevant p...

Situational awareness (SA) and its related metrics are often used to rate the performance of flight crews, especially for flight safety purposes. In the context of a Ph.D. thesis on data mining, this paper presents the principles followed to model and measure SA using Bayesian networks, focusing on the work performed to validate different data discretization methods. A simulation environment has been implemented to conduct experiments that monitor pilot activities, with special attention to information management. The outcome of simulated flights are datasets that contain relevant data, including control actions of the pilot, information queries, navigation information and environment and flight parameters. Large amount of data are generated during the experiments, driven by the complex and powerful flight data relationships provided by System Wide Information Management standards. Thus, dynamic Bayesian networks are specially applicable for this research due to their suitability to learn probabilistic dependencies from data.

Today’s National Airspace System (NAS) is facing a challenge of dealing with an increasingly larger number of flight operations. To address this, the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) is introduced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to improve the efficiency and safety of the NAS. Currently, the performance of the NAS is mainly measured using the delay-based metrics that cannot capture the positive aspects of the performance and level of utilization of the NAS. To address this issue, a diagnostic throughput factor analysis tool is proposed to analyze and quantify the factors that have greater responsibility for poor/better regions/times of performance of the en-route airspace using the concept of throughput. Through a function-level comparison with other applications such as ground transportation, manufacturing, and wireless communication, major factors affecting the NAS’s throughput performance are identified as Monitor Alert Parameter violation, aircraft conflict, metering, c...