One-of-a-Kind Testing Facility
ASA has begun construction
of a full-scale air traffic control tower simulator that will provide
information essential for addressing and improving elements of present-day
commercial airflight. It will also provide cost-saving analysis about
technology for transfer, commercialization and dual use in airport conditions
and configurations.
This ideal, realistic airport environment will test ways to combat potential air and runway traffic problems at commercial airports and provide information that may assist in the development of proposed changes to airport ground procedures and in the construction of new airport facilities. Researchers will look primarily at the feasibility, safety, reliability and cost benefits of technologies prior to incorporating them into airports.
"This will be the only one of its kind in the world," said Stan Harke, project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center, where the facility is being built. "It will allow the commercial aviation industry to study and correct potential problems in a safe setting before they become actual problems. This will be as real as it can get," he added.
The $9.3 million, two-story building, known as the Surface Development and Test Facility, is jointly funded by NASA's Advanced Air Transportation Technologies Office and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It will begin testing operations in 1999.
"We will be able to simulate any airport in the world," said Nancy Dorighi, deputy project manager at Ames. "The three-dimensional visual data base of the airport will be viewed through the 360-degree window of the simulator. The visual scene, along with specific airport traffic patterns and operating procedures, will give us a very credible simulation capability."
"The principal value of this facility is risk mitigation. We have no business introducing new functions into delicate environments like Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York or Atlanta, without first shaking them down with the actual users in an environment which very closely replicates the real world," said Dennis Lawson, FAA lead surface management advisor on the project.
The facility's second floor is designed to replicate a typical air traffic control tower. Computer software, provided by Raytheon Systems Company of Arlington, Texas, will be integrated with the tower simulation hardware technologies at Ames to support both radar and out-the-window visual simulation.
The tower cab will have reconfigurable site- specific displays, such as terminal area radar, surface radar and weather, installed to FAA specifications. Twelve rear-projection video screens will provide a seamless, 360-degree high-resolution view of the airport or other scenes being depicted. These image generators will provide a realistic view of weather conditions, environmental and seasonal effects and the movement of 200 or more active aircraft in the air or on the ground.
The imaging system will be powered by supercomputers, with the remainder of the simulation by approximately 100 Pentium processors. Video cameras will record air traffic controllers' activities for human factors research and also provide visitors and researchers unobtrusive remote viewing of simulations in progress.
On the first floor, ramp controllers, airport operators, simulation engineers, software developers and researchers will be located in separate work areas. A briefing room will accommodate simulation participants and allow visitors to observe a simulation in progress through remote video and sound monitoring. Project engineering for the facility is provided by the firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall of Moffett Field, California. Project partners also include Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores, California, and Silicon Graphics Inc. of Mountain View, California. Representatives from the FAA's air traffic control supervisors committee, the National Air Traffic Controller's Association and the Air Transport Association participated in all phases of the facility's design.
For more information, contact Stan Harke at Ames Research Center.
Call (650) 604-5012, Fax: (650) 604-3594, E-mail: sharke@mail.arc.nasa.gov
Or contact Nancy Dorighi at Ames. Call (650) 604-3258, Fax: (650)
604-3594, E-mail: ndorighi@mail.arc.nasa.gov
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.
This system is being tested to more efficiently process aircraft data.
This system is being tested to more efficiently process aircraft data.
