Publications

We have developed a computer program that automates rudimentary air traffic control (ATC) planning and decision-making functions. The ability to plan, make decisions, and act on them makes this experimental program qualitatively different from the more clerical ATC software currently in use. Encouraging results were obtained from tests involving simple...

Airport capacity can be improved significantly-by precisely controlling the sequence and timing of traffic flow-even when airspace usage and procedures remain fixed. In a preliminary experiment, a plan for such sequencing and timing was applied in a simulation to a 70-min traffic sample observed at Boston's Logan Airport, and the...

Cross-range measurements of aircraft travelling at distances of 50 to 200 miles include significant errors. Therefore, heading estimates for medium-to-long-range aircraft are not sufficiently accurate to be useful in conflict-detection predictions. Accurate crossrange measurements can be made-by using two or more sensors to measure aircraft position-but such measurements must compensate...

The availability of simultaneous independent approaches to parallel runways significantly enhances airport capacity. Current FAA procedures permit independent approaches in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) when the parallel runways are spaced at least 4,300 ft apart. Arriving aircraft must be dependently sequenced at airports that have parallel runways separated by less...

Many airports across the United States will soon be equipped with Mode S, a next generation beacon (or secondary) radar system. One feature of Mode S is that it provides a data link between airborne aircraft and air traffic controllers. If Mode S could be used to communicate with aircraft...

The Microwave Landing System (MLS) will be deployed throughout the world in the 1990s to provide precision guidance to aircraft for approach and landing at airports. At Lincoln Laboratory, we have developed a computer-based simulation that models the performance of MLS and takes into account the multipath effects of buildings...

To reduce the possibility of midair collisions, the Federal Aviation Administration has developed the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS. This airborne system senses the presence of nearby aircraft by interrogating the transponders carried by these aircraft. When TCAS senses that a nearby aircraft is a possible collision...

In air traffic control, the wind is a critical factor because it affects, among other important variables, the amount of time an aircraft will take to reach its destination. The authors have developed a method for estimating winds aloft in which the radar tracks of aircraft are used; i.e., data...

Air traffic controllers rely on primary and secondary radars to locate and identify aircraft. Secondary, or beacon, radars require aircraft to carry devices called transponders that enhance surveillance echoes and provide data links. Airports currently use a secondary-radar system known as the Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS). However...

Airport surveillance radars (ASR) utilize a broad, cosecant-squared elevation beam pattern, rapid azimuthal antenna scanning, and coherent pulsed-Doppler processing to detect and track approaching and departing aircraft. These radars, because of location, rapid scan rate, and direct air traffic control (ATC) data link, can also provide flight controllers with timely...