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Volpe Center Highlights - July/August 2003Director's NotesDirector's Notes |
Focus |
Safety |
Mobility and Economic Growth 
"New and revolutionary technologies hold undeniable and exciting possibilities for flight and safety, and keeping pace with advanced technology is the key." Supporting the FAA's GoalsReducing air traffic congestion and ensuring the safety of airline passengers continue to be major priorities for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Aviation delays attributable to air traffic congestion cost passengers, shippers, and the industry $6.5 billion, not including costs to other sectors of the economy.* Especially after the events of September 11, 2001, air travel must be perceived as safe to encourage people to resume flying for both business and pleasure. In this issue of Highlights we describe some recent milestones and significant contributions made by the Volpe Center to reduce air traffic congestion and to improve air travel safety. The Focus article describes a new release of the Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS), which helps the FAA to manage the flow of air traffic. ETMS was developed by the Volpe Center and first released in 1988. For the first time, air traffic controllers had the ability to see what was going on in the entire national airspace, not just the sector that they were responsible for. This early release resulted from prior Volpe theoretical work and limited implementation of support tools for FAA's central flow facility in the 1970s. These efforts brought an understanding of traffic flow and the principles of flow management. With each successive release, ETMS has become more sophisticated and has included more functionality that helps to control the nation's airspace. ETMS displays air traffic and weather, predicts the demands for airports and sectors, provides tools for air traffic management, enables the implementation of traffic rerouting strategies for hazardous weather avoidance, and enables collaborative decision making among FAA and the airlines. The result is smoother flow management, fewer delays, improved safety, and a better flying experience. More recently, the Center began working with the FAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop modeling tools for en route congestion management. This issue of Highlights describes a new release of a decision-support tool being developed, the System-Wide Evaluation and Planning Tool (SWEPT). As SWEPT evolves, data from ETMS will interface with SWEPT to create a platform for more advanced traffic flow management. The Focus article also discusses a portion of the Center's significant work on preventing runway incursion, on-ground collisions of planes and/or ground vehicles. The largest aviation disaster in history (at Tenerife, Spain) resulted from a runway incursion. Volpe's ongoing work supporting the FAA's efforts to provide air traffic controllers with seamless surveillance coverage of airport surfaces and approaches can have a significant impact on preventing incursions. This issue discusses two more recent projects--developing runway status light systems and examining the human factors involved in runway incursions. This issue also features our work supporting the FAA's Environmental Safety and Compliance Program, which involves identifying and remediating suspect facilities such as underground storage tanks, old radio transmitters, and radar equipment. We are proud of all the work that the Volpe Center has performed for the FAA over more than thirty years. We are committed to helping the FAA achieve its strategic goals, and to supporting DOT Secretary Mineta's vision of safer, simpler, and smarter transportation solutions. * U.S. DOT Draft Strategic Plan for 20032008 |
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