This report documents research undertaken by the National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research, under Federal Aviation Administration Research Grant Number 96-C-001. This document has not been reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Any opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the FAA or the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Executive Summary
There is currently a great deal of excitement in the world of commercial aerospace because of a renaissance that is being fostered by a concept broadly known as Free Flight. Free Flight is a notion that has resulted from a number of parties (airlines, manufacturers and suppliers, and government air traffic control and regulatory authorities) seeking to develop a “blueprint” for improvements to an aging and decrepit air traffic control system that threatens the economic viability of those seeking to use the domestic National Airspace System (NAS). Borne out of a need to address system inefficiencies and capacity problems that artificially inflate the direct operating costs of airlines and package carriers, the Free Flight concept seeks to reduce the amount of restrictions placed on aircraft transiting the NAS.
However, Free Flight is currently not a unified concept, and it is not clear that all it’s proposed instantiations solve the intended problems or that they solve them in a way that results in a favorable cost/benefit balance. It does seem evident, though, that a more sophisticated capability to strategically replan individual flights in a way that satisfies a variety of global and local constraints, will be needed to enable any Free Flight instantiation. Whether Free Flight means unrestricted maneuvering, more airline freedom in flight plan filing, or simply more coordinated, flexible re-planning solutions to unforeseen congestion or weather problems, sophisticated flight planning will be required to optimize fuel economy, satisfy multiple constraints of multiple stakeholders in real-time, and provide feedforward aircraft “intention” data for traffic flow management and airline fleet planning. Strategic flight planning/replanning in a Free Flight environment is the focus of this effort.
Rather than locking-in to a particular Free Flight concept, the approach taken here is to revisit the basic flight planning/replanning process in today’s environment, identify inefficiencies, and develop solutions that address those inefficiencies. Developed solutions should enable Free Flight but might offer benefits independent of Free Flight as well. This effort addresses an airborne capability, and the emphasis is therefore on block-to-block replanning, since that will more likely require a more substantial flight deck capability than pre-departure flight planning.
Interviews were conducted to collect descriptive data on current flight planning/replanning practices and inefficiencies. Four classes of airspace user and two air traffic service providers were interviewed:
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