Aerospace Technology Development

Flight Software to Yield Huge Savings

ALMOST A BILLION DOLLARS COULD BE SAVED annually when award-winning air traffic control software developed by NASA is in use nationwide at major airports and en route centers. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has chosen the software for implementation at major airports and estimated its use could save as much as $800 million per year.

"The air traffic software is in daily use at Dallas-Fort Worth, the world's busiest airport," said Heinz Erzberger, senior scientist for air traffic management at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. "The software saves an average of two minutes per flight, saving money for airlines and passengers."

Officially called "Center TRACON Automation System Software," or CTAS, it includes two software tools for managing air traffic. They are the Traffic Management Advisor and the Final Approach Spacing Tool that assist air traffic controllers with airplanes en route and at terminals. TRACON stands for terminal radar approach control.

The Traffic Management Advisor helps traffic managers establish a flow rate of air traffic that closely matches the capacity of an airport. The Final Approach Spacing Tool provides suggested landing sequences and runway assignments to minimize delays, and it increases the landing rate by about 10 percent during critical traffic rushes. An advanced version of the spacing tool, now being developed, will provide speed and heading advisories to help controllers space air traffic accurately on final approach, further increasing capacity.

"The cost to the FAA of implementing the first two tools is about $600 million over an eight-year period, an effort that began in 1996," said Erzberger. He was the originator of the CTAS automation concept. CTAS is to be installed in 22 major airports and 15 en route centers. These centers control air traffic above 10,000 feet.

In 1991, the CTAS project began at Ames. An early version of the system is in daily use at Denver, Los Angeles, Hartsfield-Atlanta and Miami international airports. The CTAS software, developed under the direction of Michelle Eshow, CTAS software development group leader at Ames, was recently named co-winner of NASA's 1998 Software of the Year Award.

"CTAS is like a 'windows' computer environment. CTAS enables the addition of many more air traffic controller tools beyond the first two," Erzberger explained. One new tool now being developed is the Descent Advisor. "It improves fuel efficiency of aircraft descents into large airports," Erzberger said.

CTAS tools are designed to be "human centered" because the tools advise controllers, who retain full control over decisions. CTAS also adapts to controller actions and unplanned events. It refreshes trajectories and advisories every 4 to 12 seconds with each radar update as well as with each controller input.

For more information, contact Heinz Erzberger at Ames Research Center.
Call: 650/604-5425, E-mail: herzberger@mail.arc.nasa.gov
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Nationwide use of award-winning NASA air traffic control software could save nearly a billion dollars annually.