Air Traffic Management Concept Baseline Definition - The Boeing ...

unknown technology, and thus the concept will evolve to continue to reflect the current
state and the system mission.
This operational concept is for the Continental U.S. (CONUS) and the adjacent oceanic
areas, with primary focus on the domestic radar environment where NASA’s research
efforts are concentrated. The focus is on services and functions directly involved with
planning and operating flights in the CONUS. System components such as the airport
ground side, airway facilities operation and airline operations are not treated in any detail.
These are equally important to the operation of the total system, and must be considered
in their own right along with the ATM operational concept.
1.4 Report Overview
A capacity-driven operational concept developed by the team is summarized in Section
6.2, with supporting detail on improvements needed in the various ATM functions
presented in Sections 3.3 and 3.4. An operational concept must be clearly driven by stated
mission goals, and Section 2 presents the predicted traffic growth scenario that the team
chose as the primary driver for change in this operational concept.
Section 2 also discusses the current lack of consensus in the industry on the details of the
NAS modernization path. Section 2.3 addresses the need for a disciplined systems
engineering approach to the NAS modernization, and in particular the current lack of
preliminary design activity that is required to focus the effort on achieving the critical
mission needs.
Section 3 presents a view of the functional structure of the ATM system as it exists today,
and the fundamental system objectives of capacity, safety and efficiency. The primary
system functions are presented in the context of these objectives, using a representation
that illustrates the levels of flow planning in the system and of plan execution through
separation assurance and navigation. Section 3.3 and 3.4 discuss the improvements that
the team believes are needed in the system to achieve the capacity and safety objectives
stated in Section 2, with primary focus on the separation assurance function.
Sections 4 and 5 present the human factors issues and the technology performance
parameters that must be taken into account throughout the system development process.
The concept presented here is aimed at safely increasing traffic density in the system, and
this will have a substantial impact on the separation assurance function, where safety is
maintained and where human operator performance is a key issue. Section 4 discusses the
human factors issues in some detail, and Section 5 follows with an overview of the current
and emerging technologies available to support the concept.
Section 6 discusses the methodology that the team employed in synthesizing the
operational concept, which is then presented in the form of transition paths for the various
operating phases in Section 6.2. Each step in the transition path is described briefly to
relate technology to a proposed operational improvement. Section 6.3 details the concept
validation process that is needed to ensure that a concept fulfills the mission requirements
and to drive successful system design, build and installation.
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