Abstract
The two basic facts about air transport and air navigation is that safety and security are the critical factors. The air navigation system, whether considered globally or nationally, should cater to growing demands of air travel in an efficient, safe and secure manner. In this context, there is one fact which stands out in any discussion on air navigation: that safety, efficiency and performance based navigation are the key words. Two initiatives that serve as catalysts to these objectives are NextGen and SESAR.
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Notes
- 1.
Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) is a framework for defining navigation performance specifications for an aircraft along a route, during a procedure, or in airspace. These navigation performance specifications have been defined and have specific operational performance requirements. PBN provides a simple basis for the design and implementation of automated flight paths, as well as for airspace design, aircraft separation, and obstacle clearance. PBN comprises both Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP).
- 2.
U.S. NEXT GENERATION AIR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM (NextGenAPANPIRG/21-IP/13), submitted to the ICAO Twenty First Meeting of the Asia/Pacific Air Navigation Planning and Implementation Regional Group (APANPIRTG/21) Bangkok, Thailand, 6–10 September 2010, at 1.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Through network enabled information access, information will be used to distribute decision-making appropriately during normal operations, abnormal events, and system-wide crises improving the speed, efficiency, and quality of decisions. Aircraft will become mobile nodes integral to this information network, not only using and providing information, but also routing messages or information being sent from another aircraft or a ground source.
- 5.
Layered, Adaptive Security will integrate security functions into NextGen in a manner that increases security while moving more people/goods and requiring proportionally fewer resources to do it. Building on Network-Enabled Information Access and Performance-Based Services, security will exist in layers of defence designed to detect threats early.
- 6.
Leveraging the benefits of Network-Enabled Information Access, NextGen will provide a “common” weather “picture” to support decision-making. Thousands of global weather observations—from ground, airborne, and space-based sources—will be used to determine real-time weather status and to feed multiple weather forecast models. Information will be fused into a single, constantly updated, national (eventually global) weather database.
- 7.
Broad-Area Precision Navigation will provide navigation services where and when needed to enable reliable aircraft operations in nearly all conditions1. Today’s US navigation infrastructure includes over 5,000 FAA operated ground-based navigation aids to support both enroute navigation and precision approaches to airports.
- 8.
To accommodate the projected doubling or tripling of system demand by 2025, today’s flight planning and air traffic paradigms must be transformed to a system that manages operations based on aircraft trajectories, regularly adjusts the airspace structure to best meet user and security/defense needs, and relies on automation for trajectory analysis and separation assurance. This capability builds on the network-enabled information access, performance-based services, weather assimilated into decision making, and broad-area precision navigation capabilities.
- 9.
Network-Enabled Information Access, certain aspects of Performance-Based Services, and Broad-Area Precision Navigation will provide aircraft with the critical information needed to navigate without visual references and maintain safe distances from other aircraft during non-visual conditions.
- 10.
Super density operations would match land and airside throughputs of an airport in order to meet future demand. The realization of the previously described capabilities will enable peak throughput performance at the busiest airports while protecting the environment of the surrounding communities. Airport taxiway and runway configuration requirements will be specified to enable high capacity traffic operations on the airport surface. Arrival and departure spacing will be reduced, as a result of enhanced surveillance and navigation performance and the development and integration of tools to detect and avoid wake vortices. Capacity will be increased with closely spaced and converging approaches at distances closer than currently allowed, and through simultaneous operations on a single runway. The airport “landside” (including security systems) will be sized to match the passenger and cargo flow to the airside throughput.
- 11.
U.S. NEXT GENERATION AIR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM, supra, note 2 in this Chapter at 3.
- 12.
EUROCONTROL is the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation. Founded in 1963, it is an international organization working for seamless, pan-European air traffic management system. EUROCONTROL is a civil organization and currently has 39 member states; its headquarters are in Brussels EUROCONTROL coordinates and plans air traffic control for all of Europe. This involves working with national authorities, air navigation service providers, civil and military airspace users, airports, and other organizations. Its activities involve all gate-to-gate air navigation service operations: strategic and tactical flow management, controller training, regional control of airspace, safety-proofed technologies and procedures, and collection of air navigation charges. EUROCONTROL’s contribution to SESAR, through direct involvement in 200 projects and our investment of up to EUR 700 million, represents one third of SESAR’s total effort and budget.
- 13.
- 14.
Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) currently being built by the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The €20 billion project is named after the famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. One of the political aims with Galileo is to provide a high-accuracy positioning system upon which European nations can rely independent from the Russian GLONASS\nd US Global Positioning System (GPS) systems, which can be disabled for commercial users in times of war or conflict.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Abeyratne, R. (2012). NextGen and SESAR. In: Air Navigation Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25835-0_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25835-0_11
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