Volpe Center: Volpe Center Highlights

Information Resources

Volpe Center Highlights - July/August 2000

Safety

Promote public health and safety by working toward the elimination of transportation-related deaths, injuries, and property damage.

Supporting the Safe Flight 21 Program (FAA)

The Volpe Center is supporting the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Integrated Product Team for Advanced Technology in their efforts related to the Safe Flight 21 Program (SF21), a three-year joint government/industry initiative to develop and demonstrate enhanced operational capabilities of free flight based on evolving communications, navigation, and surveillance technologies. The underlying core concept of SF21 is the sharing of real-time traffic and weather information between the pilot and the air traffic controller to provide enhanced operational capabilities.

The Capstone avionics suite has been installed in general aviation aircraft in Alaska to address safety problems. It includes GPS-based and ADS--B-based avionics and data link communications equipment.
(Photo courtesy of Mr. John Perkins)

An integral component of the SF21 Program is the Capstone Project, an accelerated effort to address safety problems associated with general aviation in Alaska. A recent National Transportation Safety Board study, "Aviation Safety in Alaska" (November 1995), found that bush pilots in Alaska have a fatal accident rate almost seven times greater than that of general aviation pilots in the "lower 48" states, making it one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. By installing a Capstone avionics suite in aircraft--Global Positioning System (GPS)-based and Automatic Dependent Surveillance -- Broadcast (ADS -- B)-based avionics and data link communications equipment--the FAA hopes to greatly increase pilot situational awareness and to reduce the risk of midair collisions and controlled flight into terrain accidents in Alaska.

From June 10 to 16, 2000, Mr. John Perkins of the Technology and Knowledge Engineering Division and Mr. Robert Phillips of the Operations Assessment Division met with Mr. Leonard Kirk of the Aviation Technology Program at the University of Alaska at Anchorage. The University is currently under contract to the FAA to conduct pilot training and perform an empirical study to measure the safety benefits of the new avionics suite, which was installed in most commercial aircraft serving the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YK Delta), a remote mountainous region in Alaska.

photo of Mr. John Perkins in front of a Cessna 185 float plane

Mr. John Perkins flew in a Cessna 185 float plane for an operational demonstration of the new avionics technology.
(Photo courtesy of Mr. John Perkins)

The YK Delta was chosen as a test site for the new avionics suite because the aircraft population serving this region is relatively self-contained and stable. Equipping aircraft in this area with the new avionics suite has improved the quality of life for residents in remote villages because the region is now more accessible to air traffic, and it is easier to evacuate medical emergency cases.

The Volpe Center is working with the University and the FAA SF21 staff in evaluating the safety benefits of the new avionics suite and in mitigating project risk.

While in Alaska, Mr. Perkins and Mr. Phillips also met with Mr. Gary Childers and Mr. James Call of the FAA Alaska Capstone Project Office, and flew with Mr. Childers and Mr. Dean Hilde, a trained Capstone pilot, in Mr. Hilde's Cessna 185 float plane for an operational demonstration of the new avionics technology.

The Volpe Center also is supporting SF21 by providing program management/site coordination support at the Louisville Airport in Kentucky. From June 1 to 2, 2000, Mr. Steve Nuzzi of the Airport Surface Division briefed the SF21 Operational Coordination Group, which includes members of the FAA and aircraft industry, on the Phase 2 Operational Evaluation and the ground infrastructure status at the Louisville Airport. The briefing covered potential equipment locations and unresolved issues concerning ground station data links and local area networks.

Optimization of the Runway Safety System Reduces False Incursion Alerts (FAA)

In support of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Integrated Product Team for Terminal Surveillance and Weather, the Volpe Center's Airport Surface Division is playing a key role in optimizing the Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS), a production air traffic control radar tool for reducing runway incursions. Volpe team members include Mr. Ian McWilliams, Mr. Jose Ortiz, Mr. Khang Nguyen, Mr. John Winkler, Mr. Brian Berkwitz, and Mr. Brendan English.

AMASS tracks targets such as aircraft on the runway from an ASDE-3 radar, usually placed on top of the air traffic control tower. AMASS tracks the targets and inputs data from those targets to "safety logic" algorithms to help controllers reduce runway incursions. As with any radar, multipaths (false radar reflections) are most always evident, especially in ground radar applications. The Airport Surface Division, working with the FAA, is trying to prevent multipaths from entering into the safety logic algorithms of the AMASS system, thereby preventing AMASS from issuing false alerts to air traffic controllers.

screen shot of the AMASS maintenance display

A view from the AMASS maintenance display unit at the San Francisco International Airport.

screen display of two runways sharing the same pavement.

In addition to resolving multipath issues, the Volpe Center's Airport Surface Division's optimization effort consists of evaluating and analyzing individual airport operations to ensure that the maximum safety margins can be implemented using AMASS. Sites like Salt Lake City have straight in approaches making the parameter changes in AMASS simpler. In airports such as Boston, the circling approach warrants a review of more than 200 safety parameters. The Volpe Center team optimized 16 airport sites during fiscal year 2000. Currently, San Francisco is undergoing operational readiness testing and is expected to be fully operational in January 2001. Also, the team plans to visit another 16 sites in fiscal year 2001.

At the Salt Lake City Airport, depicted above right, two runways share the same pavement. Sometimes, the prediction algorithms would tell AMASS that the aircraft was landing on runway 35 when, in fact, the aircraft was landing on runway 32. Therefore, an important aspect of optimization is to ensure that the safety parameters are adjusted properly so that aircraft are identified on the appropriate runways.

Volpe Plays Key Role in Helping FAA Secure Clean Audit (FAA)

During the early 1990s, DOT's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) cited several material weaknesses in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) recording and accounting of National Airspace System (NAS) property assets. Given the extent of FAA assets, which are valued at approximately $25.5 billion, the OIG "disclaimer of opinion" was cause for concern. In an effort to address this situation, the FAA's Office of Financial Management asked the Volpe Center for assistance in strengthening the FAA's procedures and related systems for NAS property accounting.

Beginning in fiscal year 1996, the Volpe Center teamed with the FAA to analyze existing property accounting procedures, identify areas for improvement, and undertake a series of actions to implement those improvements. In particular, the Center completed a comprehensive analysis of the FAA's centralized acquisition process for NAS assets at FAA headquarters, and its regional procedures to complete and install these NAS assets at sites. The Center proposed and helped implement a series of recommendations to redesign these property and accounting procedures to record these assets in the financial and property records on an accurate and timely basis. The Volpe team designed new policies and procedures, identified systems modifications to support these changes, trained FAA personnel on the new procedures, and provided program management support to monitor the results of these changes.

As a result of these efforts, after seven years of disclaimers of opinion from the OIG, the FAA received its first ever "clean audit" of its financial statements in 1999. Speaking of this accomplishment, the FAA Administrator Jane Garvey remarked, "A clean audit brings the FAA to the standards of private industry for fiscal responsibility." She said it was a major financial turnaround for the agency and a gain in credibility.

In May 2000, the FAA recognized the contribution of the Volpe team to this success, presenting Mr. Steven Walkinshaw of the Technology and Knowledge Engineering Division with a memento from Administrator Garvey for the "FAA's First Unqualified Audit Opinion." The team consisted of federal staff, EG&G Technical Services, Inc. staff from the Operations Research Analysis and Engineering Services contract, and Pricewaterhouse Cooper's staff provided through the OMNI Information Systems Engineering contract.

Volpe Develops "Bulk" Ordering Process for FAA Telecommunications (FAA)

The Volpe Center's Telecommunications Division reached a significant milestone as part of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) mandate to move its administrative phone services from the prior vendor, AT&T, to the new contract vendor, MCI Worldcom, by November 2000. The FAA would have been subject to significant financial penalties if this and other interim dates were not met.

Within two weeks after receiving a request from the FAA's Federal Telephone Service (FTS) Transition Program to develop a "bulk" ordering process, Volpe staff working on the Telecommunications Information Management System (TIMS) distributed spreadsheet data on approximately 13,500 existing circuits to the FAA's regional offices, Aeronautical Center, Hughes Technical Center, and headquarters for their use in transition ordering. TIMS was developed by the Volpe Center to support the management of FAA telecommunications assets through the use of a suite of desktop tools accessing an integrated database.

Development of the bulk ordering process involved designing an information system approach to allow spreadsheet files to be used as an order entry mechanism. This effort involved compiling the data in a predetermined spreadsheet form from the TIMS Oracle database, sorting and verifying data according to requested criteria, and creating user instructions and data dictionaries. This effort was completed to meet an extremely short schedule, considering the extensive coordination required from FTS program offices, regional offices, the service provider (MCI Worldcom), and the contracting office.Through September 2000, the Volpe Center implemented the approach to process more than 11,000 orders received from FAA offices. (The remaining existing circuits were not reordered.) Through the dedicated support of Volpe's FTS 2001 transition team, the Center helped the FAA meet its program objectives and its deadline well in advance.

Volpe Supports FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FAA)

In 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Telecommunications Integrated Product Team initiated a new strategic planning activity to address the replacement of the FAA's leased and owned telecommunications assets between 2002 and 2006. The FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI), as the new activity is called, is a major multi-year program to meet the FAA's future operational and mission support communications requirements in an integrated, comprehensive, and cost-effective manner. The target implementation date of the program is 2001. The Volpe Center provides technical analyses, database development, and engineering support to the FTI Program.

At the request of the FTI Program Manager, the Volpe's Telecommunications Information Management System (TIMS) team produced a document to be included in the FTI Screening Information Request, which is used to select the contractor that will supply telecommunications services to FAA for the next 10 years. The 50-page document informs potential bidders of recommended interface requirements between the future selected vendor's business system and TIMS. The TIMS team also produced a second document that provides a preliminary cost estimate and schedule for making changes to the TIMS system related to developing FTI core business processes in TIMS, and to identifying developmental risks and mitigation approaches.

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