BRENDAN SOBIE / WASHINGTONDC
European Union eyes system giving controllers real-time data on airspace movement
The US Federal Aviation Administration has completed Phase 1 of its Free Flight programme, with the installation at six en-route air traffic control (ATC) centres of software designed to aid more direct routing.
The FAA says user request evaluation tool (URET) software is saving airlines millions of dollars monthly, and is being evaluated by European ATC centres. It projects flight paths to see if a requested most direct routing is suitable, given other traffic and airspace restrictions, giving controllers real-time information to approve pilot requests to fly more directly.
"The European Union is very interested in [URET]," says FAAFree Flight programme director John Thornton. European air navigation organisation Eurocontrol and the UK's National Air Traffic Services have evaluated the tool, prototyped by Mitre and developed by Lockheed Martin, but have yet to issue a request for proposals.
URET deployment at the Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Memphis and Washington DC en-route centres fulfils the last of the goals set in October 1998 for Free Flight Phase I. The FAA is working with controllers to begin using the tool at Atlanta, says Thornton. Under phase two of Free Flight, URET will extend to four more centres in fiscal year (FY) 2003 and the last nine in FY2004.
Diane DeSua, Lockheed Martin URET programme director, says the firm has begun work at some additional centres, and plans to be under contract for Phase II in the third quarter. Thornton says the relatively slow pace of URET extension - only four centres next year against six in the last six months - is "a deployment bandwidth issue".
Phase II calls for Lockheed Martin to equip the first seven centres with a URET upgrade. URET is one of four systems, along with collaborative decision making (CDM), surface movement advisor (SMA) and traffic management advisor (TMA), making up Free Flight Phase I. SMA and TMA operate at six centres, and will extend to the other 14 in Phase II. CDM is in place at all centres. Phase II will introduce controller-pilot datalinks, and research into other new tools.
Source: Flight International
