A Concept for Procedural Terminal Area Airspace Integration of Large Uncrewed Aircraft Systems at Non-Towered Airports

Abstract

Uncrewed aircraft systems are expected to revitalize traffic at under-utilized airports. These airports are often located in uncontrolled airspace and do not have an operating control tower to provide separation services for approaching aircraft. The lack of operating control tower presents a unique challenge for the integration of uncrewed aircraft at these non-towered airports. This paper offers a methodology to systematically assess traffic activities and quantify flight behaviors of crewed aircraft using historical flight data. To integrate uncrewed traffic, especially in off-nominal flight situations such as during a lost command and control link, this paper proposes a concept of a holding stack above the traffic pattern airspace to handle increased traffic uncertainty and to provide safe integration procedures. Twelve non-towered airports, relevant for initial cargo uncrewed aircraft operations across Germany, California, and Texas, and their airspace environments are investigated. Results are presented on the viability of a holding stack in the analyzed terminal area airspace and the influence of crewed aircraft’s historic flight behavior on different integration procedures.