3
Learning from Other Projects and Other Organizations
In recent years, the FAA and the aviation industry have successfully demonstrated the value of FAA research to improving the safety, efficiency, and quality of aviation in the United States. This chapter summarizes three such programs that went from research to operations: the Alaska Capstone Program, the Gulf of Mexico Helicopter initiative, and the Greener Skies Over Seattle initiative.
The Alaska Capstone Program was primarily a safety improvement program in Alaska. Alaska poses significant environmental and operational challenges to aviation, and the state is heavily reliant on aviation to connect communities across vast distances. The accident rate in Alaska is much higher than in the lower 48 states, which prompted the FAA to initiate the Capstone program. The specific areas of concentration the program recommended to improve on were to reduce the accident rate due to navigation errors, such as controlled flight into terrain, and to reduce the rate of mid-air collisions.
A fleet of small commercial aircraft initially evaluated safety benefits of technologies during day-to-day operations in Alaska. The aircraft were fitted with instrument flight rules (IFR) capable systems. These included Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers; a universal access transceiver (UAT) data-link system that enabled automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) and flight information service (FIS), including real-time weather. Also included was a multifunction display depicting terrain, other ADS-B aircraft, and weather graphics and text data. Approximately 200 aircraft used for commuter, charter, and mail flights in southwest Alaska were equipped.
The goal was to identify an affordable means to reduce controlled flight into terrain, providing pilots with an enhanced means to see nearby traffic and receive current weather in the cockpit. The Capstone program provided training for pilots, operators, safety inspectors, air traffic control specialists, and technicians. To enable air traffic services (ATS) to use ADS-B in the Bethel non-radar environment, Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center’s equipment was modified so that the air traffic controller’s display showed both radar and ADS-B together. This system operated from 2000 to 2006 when it was merged with the National ADS-B program. A safety analysis done by the University of Alaska showed a reduction of 47 percent in the accident rate of equipped aircraft between 2000 and 2004.1
____________________
1 FAA, “Alaska Controllers Use Next Generation Air Transportation Technology to Improve Safety,” Press Release, June 24, 2010, https://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=11540.
GULF OF MEXICO HELICOPTER INITIATIVE
Before December 2009, the 600,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico had little surveillance and was characterized by large separation standards and difficult flying conditions, particularly in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). ADS-B, first operational in 2010, has been helping helicopters reach offshore oil rigs in poor weather conditions that would have previously left supplies and rig workers back at the airport unable to fly.
In the past, because of insufficient radar coverage over the ocean, when bad weather obstructed visibility in the Gulf and pilots had to navigate using onboard instruments rather than visually avoiding other helicopters, the FAA imposed severe restrictions on helicopter operations. The FAA either grounded the aircraft or required that each helicopter stay in its own 20-by-20-mile airspace grid. This created problems because air traffic in the Gulf is nearly as busy as the heavily traveled East Coast corridor, with some 5,000 to 9,000 helicopter offshore platform operations every day.
In December 2009, the FAA debuted the ADS-B in the Gulf. In a joint agreement with the FAA, Helicopter Association International, helicopter operators, and oil platform companies, the federal government installed ADS-B transmitters, along with weather observation and communications equipment, on 12 offshore platforms; and operators equipped their helicopters with ADS-B avionics.
Similar to radar, ADS-B pinpoints the location of helicopters and aircraft. FAA air traffic controllers now provide the same surveillance and air-to-ground communications to helicopters in the Gulf as they do for aircraft flying over land. Helicopters can also use the same standard 5-mile separation distance when flying over the Gulf. This reduction to 5 nautical miles from a 20-by-20-mile block allows direct routing clearances for ADS-B-equipped helicopters. The FAA estimates more than 300,000 nautical miles in flight savings from December 2009 to February 2014.2 An individual helicopter operator reports an increase in its average annual IFR flight hours from about 1,500 to about 20,000 with all its helicopters equipped with ADS-B. The users cite schedule dependability as the biggest benefit for their operations.
On June 11, 2012, a commercial passenger flight landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport using a satellite-based navigation arrival procedure that may significantly reduce aircraft exhaust emissions and fuel burn, contributing to better air quality in the United States and eventually around the world. This was done as part of the Greener Skies Over Seattle initiative, a collaborative project between the FAA, airlines, the Port of Seattle, and Boeing Corporation. This initiative involves a combination of new technology, procedures, flight regulations, and training. The FAA will add 27 new procedures, expanding the use of Optimized Profile Descents, where the airplane essentially glides in idle to the runway threshold; Area Navigation (RNAV) arrivals, which are GPS-guided arrivals; and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approaches, which take RNAV to an additional level of precision. These procedures were planned to be available to any properly equipped aircraft by spring 2015.
Greener Skies aims to prove that satellite-based navigation approaches can be flown using the same separation standards as the current procedures using ground-based instrument landing systems. The trials seek to determine that a curved RNP approach to one runway is so precise and predictable that when it is flown next to another aircraft that is approaching a parallel runway, it merits the same separation standard as two straight-in parallel approaches. Although the project is still under way, it demonstrates how the introduction of new air and ground systems and procedures can have beneficial effects on air transportation.
____________________
2 FAA, NextGen Implementation Plan, August 2014, https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/library/media/NextGen_Implementation_Plan_2014.pdf.
3 FAA, NextGen Implementation Plan, 2014.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NEXTGEN SUCCESSES
All three successful NextGen programs share the following characteristics:
- Stakeholders were involved from the beginning of the program.
- The project plan had the commitment of each stakeholder.
- Frequent progress report meetings were held with project reviews of all actions as a group.
- Stakeholders stayed committed throughout the project.
- Projects were directed at specific sites or specific areas. Scaling it up for the entire United States is not automatic (i.e., “do the same everywhere”) and presents major challenges of integration with the existing ATC systems, procedures, mixed equipage, and the diversity of users. Stakeholders’ communities are much larger and very diverse, hence, creating and holding consensus for the duration of any project is a major challenge.
- The stakeholders in these programs received easily observable benefits. It is not at all clear that this is the case for NextGen.
The Alaska Capstone Program, the Gulf of Mexico Helicopter initiative, and the Greener Skies Over Seattle initiative demonstrate some of the potential benefits of the components of NextGen, as well as some of the attributes required for the successful implementation of a program. They are included here because they can help guide the development of future FAA research programs and indicate what aspects are necessary for a successful program. However, these projects were limited in scope and do not demonstrate the scale and complexity that will be needed for FAA to be successful with NextGen, or its larger research and development and deployment mission.
OTHER AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
During the course of this study, the committee sought to determine how other agencies and organizations engage in certification of new technologies. The committee was briefed by managers from the U.S. Air Force Flight Standards Agency and the Air Force Operations Systems Requirement Group, and from NavCanada.4
The Air Force Flight Standards Agency briefing showed an effective system of linking requirements to the certification plans for weapons systems. This very active certification program and the Air Force’s experience may provide the FAA with some lessons learned. However, this weapon system certification program does not appear to be directly relevant to the FAA.
The Air Force reported working closely and in cooperation with the FAA on air traffic control requirements and accepting FAA direction on implementing new systems. An Air Force representative indicated that the Air Force is required to meet other nations’ air traffic control requirements that, in some cases, have advanced beyond the current FAA concepts. These requirements have caused operational compromises for the Air Force in some cases.
A NavCanada briefing to the committee highlighted their methods of implementing new technologies and operations. While Canada has the second largest airspace service provider in the world geographically, it is still smaller than the U.S. National Airspace System, and some of Canada’s initiatives have been addressed with implementations specific to certain types of operation or facilities. Thus, NavCanada’s methods may not scale to larger FAA NextGen initiatives. However, notwithstanding that limitation, the NavCanada approach was notable for its emphasis on simultaneously developing new operations and the technologies that would enable these operations. The NavCanada approach uses embedded teams that include stakeholders, and it has demonstrated a track record over the past few years of repeated, incremental change. In some areas, NavCanada systems surpassed FAA systems. Further, the NavCanada managers described consciously deciding to scope each incremental change to be small enough to remain tractable, with each change fitting into a larger strategic roadmap of changes planned in the near future.
____________________
4 NavCanada is the company that owns and operates Canada’s Air Navigation System.
A number of elements have led to NavCanada’s success:
- The certification organization is independent of the program management offices.
- The process is well-defined and data-driven.
- Endorsed technical and operational experts are involved throughout the process, including the developmental phase, and it is clear what operations are to be enabled.
- It is known in advance when new certification requests will be expected.
- The process is flexible enough to provide incremental improvements as determined during the process.
- All stakeholders are aware and involved at each stage as needed.
- Accountability at each stage is well understood by all.
While acknowledging that NavCanada is different and faces different issues, the committee concluded that the FAA could learn valuable lessons by studying how NavCanada operates and has achieved success in some instances.
Finally, although the committee was not specifically briefed by NASA, its members are aware of the extensive research conducted by NASA on many aspects of air traffic control in general and NextGen in particular. FAA and NASA work closely together on this research. However, the February 2014 Research Plan does not refer to this important relationship. The committee considers this to be a deficiency and believes that any future research plan will not be complete unless it references relevant NASA research as well as that of other agencies and organizations that develop air traffic control technologies or are involved in certifying new technologies.
FINDING: The February 2014 Research Plan does not refer to research conducted by NASA.
RECOMMENDATION: The FAA research plan should benchmark the best practices regarding certification of other organizations that can contribute to the timely implementation of Nextgen technologies and coordinate its research with other relevant organizations, particularly NASA.
