Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas
The current air traffic control (ATC) system is human-centric and voice-based. As a result, separation minima, controller workload, and radio frequency limitations may restrict the number of emerging unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or urban air mobility (UAM) operations that can occur within congeste...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130557 |
| _version_ | 1811092159194988544 |
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| author | Vascik, Parker D. Hansman, R John Vascik, Parker Denys Hansman Jr, Robert J |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Vascik, Parker D. Hansman, R John Vascik, Parker Denys Hansman Jr, Robert J |
| author_sort | Vascik, Parker D. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The current air traffic control (ATC) system is human-centric and voice-based. As a result, separation minima, controller workload, and radio frequency limitations may restrict the number of emerging unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or urban air mobility (UAM) operations that can occur within congested airspace. Limited ATC capacity will be especially impactful for UAS or UAM operations in proximity to large airports. One concept to reduce ATC limitations is to re-allocate airspace to develop procedurally separated corridors or regions where UAS and UAM aircraft may operate without receiving conventional ATC services. The creation of such “airspace cutouts” currently enables hundreds of daily small aircraft and helicopter operations in major U.S. cities without contributing to ATC workload. This paper develops an approach to analytically identify terminal airspace that is procedurally segregated from large aircraft operations and may be appropriate for new airspace cutouts. The magnitude of the benefit of allocating airspace in this manner is demonstrated at three major airports and in the 34 largest metropolitan areas of the United States. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:13:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/130557 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:13:55Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1305572022-10-02T01:33:11Z Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas Vascik, Parker D. Hansman, R John Vascik, Parker Denys Hansman Jr, Robert J Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics The current air traffic control (ATC) system is human-centric and voice-based. As a result, separation minima, controller workload, and radio frequency limitations may restrict the number of emerging unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or urban air mobility (UAM) operations that can occur within congested airspace. Limited ATC capacity will be especially impactful for UAS or UAM operations in proximity to large airports. One concept to reduce ATC limitations is to re-allocate airspace to develop procedurally separated corridors or regions where UAS and UAM aircraft may operate without receiving conventional ATC services. The creation of such “airspace cutouts” currently enables hundreds of daily small aircraft and helicopter operations in major U.S. cities without contributing to ATC workload. This paper develops an approach to analytically identify terminal airspace that is procedurally segregated from large aircraft operations and may be appropriate for new airspace cutouts. The magnitude of the benefit of allocating airspace in this manner is demonstrated at three major airports and in the 34 largest metropolitan areas of the United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NNL13AA08B) 2021-05-05T20:44:35Z 2021-05-05T20:44:35Z 2020-06 2021-05-05T13:37:38Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper 9781624105982 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130557 Vascik, Parker D. and R. John Hansman. "Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas." AIAA AVIATION 2020 FORUM, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, June 2020. © 2020 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics en http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/6.2020-2905 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125990 AIAA AVIATION 2020 FORUM Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics MIT web domain-DSpace collection |
| spellingShingle | Vascik, Parker D. Hansman, R John Vascik, Parker Denys Hansman Jr, Robert J Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas |
| title | Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas |
| title_full | Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas |
| title_fullStr | Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas |
| title_short | Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas |
| title_sort | allocation of airspace cutouts to enable procedurally separated small aircraft operations in terminal areas |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130557 |
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