Towards a Wake Encounter Avoidance and Advisory System (WEAA) - Conceptual Design and First Implementations

Abstract

The encounter of wake vortices of preceding aircraft can present a substantial hazard to the follower. Separations as procedural means are applied to avoid such encounters; however, the multitude of parameters governing vortex evolution makes them overly conservative (and thus capacity limiting) in the majority of cases without preventing incidents altogether. German Aerospace Centre DLR is working on a Wake Encounter Avoidance and Advisory (WEAA) system to allow pilots to avoid potentially dangerous wake vortex encounters by a small scale tactical evasion manoeuvre. Such manoeuvre tries to adhere to the planned flight track as closely as possible and is not intended to require ATC permission. Work on the system is on-going with a larger time horizon but initial solutions will be presented: the system conceptual design and selected components such as wake vortex prediction and hazard evaluation, avoidance trajectory generation, and a human machine interface for increased situational awareness.