Distributed Command/Control Impacts on NAS Operations, Phase II

In an effort to cope with air traffic demand growths and changing demand patterns, FAA, NASA, and industry have developed a number of simulation tools to model future concepts of air traffic management. Among these is the Systems Analysis Branch (SAB) simulation environment of NASA Langley. The current tools would greatly benefit from the portrayal of the daily preemptive Command and Control (C&C) activities performed by FAA and air carrier traffic managers. These actions significantly influence daily operations and overall NAS efficiency. Development of new operational concepts and evaluation of proposed changes requires simulation and modeling capabilities that include C&C effects. This understanding is crucial for the evaluation of current or proposed operations. Metron Aviation uses its extensive experience with and research of C&C to implement a model of NAS-wide ATM (C&C) actions and to integrate the resulting module into NASA Langley's SAB simulation environment. The final product adds realism to future aircraft movement simulations performed by NASA Langley and admits exploration of new concepts that involve air traffic flow management.

Potential NASA Commercial Applications: Estimates of ATM costs due to delays range from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars per year. Several research activities being pursued to meet the increasing demands in air travel promise to be costly and laborious to implement, and the difficulty of adequately assessing the anticipated impacts creates significant risk for operators and users of the NAS. Development of simulation capabilities and benefit assessment methods that include the effects of C&C creates significant commercial demand for accurate and robust C&C modeling capabilities.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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