INNOVATIVE FUTURE AIR TRANSPORT SYSTEM: SIMULATION OF A FULLY AUTOMATED AIR TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Kurzfassung

Abstract: Within the project Innovative Future Air Transport System (IFATS) funded by the European Com-mision within the 6th Framework a new concept for the air traffic organization has been developed. The most significant difference to today's organization is the lack of pilots and controllers. The IFATS concept forsees that each aircraft receives a 4D contract before departure which is calculated and negotiated on a worldwide scale so that it is conflict free. If during flight unforeseen deviations from the contract occure (delayed take-off, unforeseen weather change, reduced engine performance or emergencies) a new contract is negotiated online taking into account the new boundary conditions. DLR provided to this project a tool that simulates a large number of aircraft (approx. 1000) flying such a 4D contract. With this tool one day traffic over Frankfurt airport with all the aircraft arriving and de-parting in Frankfurt was simulated. Normal situations were demonstrated together with disturbances such as delayed aircraft, thunderstorm, degraded performance aircraft and aircraft facing an emer-gency. At the DLR Air Traffic Management and Operations Simulator (ATMOS) simulations were con-ducted with "real" ATC and pseudo-pilots in comparison to this fully automatic IFATS mode.