Congratulations to our 2018 Tech Papers Finalists, and thank you to all our participants!

ATCA is proud to announce the finalists and the winner of the 2018 ATCA Technical Papers Competition. These authors presented their papers at the 2018 Tech Symposium, and Attendees voted for their favorite presentation to determine the winner.

THE 2018 WINNING PAPER AND PRESENTATION:

Approach Runway Verification: A Tool to Aid Controllers in Preventing Landing on Taxiways

Simon Hennin, Raytheon

On July 7, 2017, a major disaster was narrowly averted at San Francisco international airport (SFO) when arriving Air Canada flight 759 pulled up within seconds of landing on a taxiway that was occupied by several fully loaded aircraft waiting to depart. This was not the first case of an aircraft attempting to land, or actually landing, in the wrong place – nor will it be the last. When such incidents occur, many questions are asked about how they can be avoided completely, or failing that, how unsafe situations can be detected earlier in order to extend the time for warnings and corrective action. This presentation will describe an automation system capability under consideration to address the latter – a tool to provide warnings to air traffic controllers if an aircraft is lined up to land in the wrong place. Following the SFO incident, a proof-of-concept prototype was developed quickly to confirm the potential of the tool and was subsequently demonstrated to FAA senior leadership and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) representatives. As a result of the positive feedback received from these demonstrations, further analysis is underway to evaluate how the tool could be made available to controllers in the NAS.

2018 PAPER AND PRESENTATION FINALISTS:

Addressing the Need for a Near-Term Solution to UAS Integration

Frank Matus and Brenden Hedblom, Thales

Advancements in UAS technology are invigorating the aviation industry. Integrating these platforms into low-altitude airspace globally is challenging the conventional, safety-first culture of the aviation community. The fast pace at which this emerging industry evolves and the pressing need for more routine access to the airspace from the wide range of new entrants further strains the aviation community in investigating plausible, near-term UAS integration solutions. Globally, air navigation service provides (ANSPs) and civil aviation authorities (CAAs) generally agree that there is a need to develop new, commercially viable solutions that promote the use of UAS while ensuring the safety of the existing airspace structure is maintained. UTM for low-altitude airspace reinforces the safety-first culture these unmanned platforms will need to embrace and provides a path forward for safe integration of all vehicles. This presentation will examine the many near-term challenges and approaches to UTM that ensure the world’s airspace systems can maintain exceptional levels of safety while accommodating and balancing the wave of aviation advancements that will disrupt low-altitude operations.

A White Paper Redefining Collaborative Air Traffic Management

Jeff Burke, FAA

NextGen defines collaborative air traffic management (CATM) as a philosophy that delivers information and flow decision-making data to flight planners and FAA traffic managers with the goal of improving the overall efficiency of the NAS. Also, NextGen’s CATM endeavors to provide greater flexibility to the flight planners and make the best use of available airspace and airport capacity. The overall philosophy driving the delivery of CATM services is to accommodate user preferences to the maximum extent possible (NextGen, 2015).

As NextGen defines CATM, CATM does not obligate stakeholders to participate in the collaboration process; it only encourages the collaboration process. However, as technology advances so does the delivery of information, as well as the ability to collaboratively make decisions in a data-rich environment. As this presentation will describe, it is time to advance the philosophy of information sharing using online collaboration utilizing visual analytics. While promoting the philosophy of how decisions are made in a collaborative environment, the white paper will propose a paradigm by allowing stakeholders the ability to define and express their NAS management criteria and performance goals and communicate these criteria and goals to traffic managers. However, more importantly, the stakeholders would be able to utilize real-time data and information as they compare their NAS management criteria to historical data to get a feel for the results of their decisions. The information would allow the stakeholder to determine if it meets their goals and communicates their decisions to traffic managers. In today's environment, traffic managers define goals, then develop initiatives and implement the initiatives that attempt to meet those goals. That is archaic thinking, and it needs to change.