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No fixed flight paths makes for 'quieter' airspace

November 02, 2001

If pilots, with the aid of a computer and within a certain set of rules, were to determine their own flight routes, the skies would appear quieter to them. Moreover this so-called Free Flight concept offers advantages in efficiency and safety for air traffic. This is the opinion of Ir. Jacco M. Hoekstra, who has researched the possibilities of Free Flight in the past few years, as an alternative for the current system of air traffic control. On Tuesday 6 November, his degree ceremony will be held at TU Delft.

In the Free Flight concept, pilots can choose the fastest route to their destination. They only have to slightly deviate from this route if it intercepts that of another aircraft. All aircraft would digitally broadcast their position and be able to receive the data from other planes within a certain radius. The received data would be displayed in the cockpit. Based on this information and adhering to certain rules, the pilots can make sure that there is a safe distance between themselves and other aircraft. They will be assisted by a computer system, the so-called Airborne Separation Assurance System (ASAS), that warns the pilot if the planes threaten to come too close and suggests course adjustments according to the rules.

The difference with the currently used centrally organised system is great. One traffic controller guides all aircraft through a certain sector. Pilots simply follow the instructions they get from the traffic controller. They have no active part in making sure they keep their distance from other aircraft. Fixed flight paths are used at different altitudes (so-called flight levels). Aircraft seldom fly the shortest route at optimum altitude, from their starting point to their destination. To keep the situation manageable, a maximum number of aircraft is allowed in one sector at any given time. This limits the capacity of the airspace and causes delays.

The Free Flight-concept has been thoroughly tested in the past few years.
A number of pilots flew in simulators that were outfitted with the system. The goal was to test if the pilots were capable of maintaining their distance from other aircraft without help from air traffic control. The researchers started with the idea that Free Flight would only be suitable for quiet parts of the airspace. The opposite turned out to be true. The pilots had the impression that they were in a quiet part of the airspace, even when traffic was simulated that was far more dense than busiest parts of Europe. According to Hoekstra, Free Flight is therefore a good solution for overcrowded flight paths. "New ideas require far better arguments than those required to keep an old system implemented, " says Hoekstra. That is why is took years of testing to convince the flight world of the safety of Free Flight. At the moment, both America and Europe are looking into 'how' the system can be implemented, in stead of 'if' it should be implemented.

The safety of Free Flight was also tested with a computer programme especially designed for this study, that can simulate a flight situation with hundreds of aircraft. Moreover, "During the whole research project, creating conflicts (situations in which aircraft threatened to collide) was much more difficult than avoiding them," says Hoekstra. As soon as the computer sees that two planes are heading for the same point, the pilot is warned. If the pilots in both planes were to ignore the warning, a dangerous situation would arise. This is much safer than the current situation, where one person, the traffic controller, and one computer system have to guard the safety of all the aircraft in one space.

Delft University of Technology

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