Ebook: Air Transport and Operations

The focus of the Air Transport and Operations Symposium 2011 was about industry and academia considering how air transport should evolve in order to optimise its value in the 21st Century! Slowly but surely, countries are climbing out of the economic recession and growth rates are positive. The aerospace industry can now be very positive about recovery but in that pioneering spirit of the past, needs to focus more than ever on sustaining value in order to evolve faster in the right direction in this transition time of added opportunity; when we can emulate the pioneers of the past! The opportunity that lies in front of us includes other key aerospace performance challenges, such as the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR)'s aims in being able to handle a threefold increase in capacity, improving safety by a factor of 10, reducing environmental impact by 10% and reducing expenses by a half.

As we enter the 2nd decade of the 2nd century of aviation, and with the EU emissions trading scheme about to enter into force, ATOS 2012 aims to explore how we achieve sustainable progress for the industry. How do we identify, formalize, quantify, optimize and deliver sustained value within the current climate? Can we start to move towards a new Value Operations Methodology that raises the profile of operations research, and incorporates not only cost, but also the environment, safety and capacity into the equation? Indeed, ATOS 2012 aims to build on this aspiration of sustaining value in air transport and operations!

For this 2012 editionit was fantastic that the true integrating spirit of ATOS was reflected in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the International Meeting for Aviation Product Support Processes (IMAPP), SESAR's ComplexWorld and the Association for Scientific Development of Air Traffic Management in Europe (ASDA) joining to make ATOS 2012 the largest and most comprehensive edition yet, with over 200 attendees over the three conference days. The conference splits time equally between academic papers and more applied industry sessions, and it gives me great pleasure to see the majority of the academic papers collated into this 3rd ATOS Proceedings, published both online and in hard-copy format! A selection of the best papers will subsequently be invited for upgrade and submission to the Journal of Aerospace Operations. I hope you will enjoy the material herein and invite you to join us at ATOS in the future!

Prof. Ricky Curran

Value-Driven Design is a systems engineering process intended to improve the outcomes of large engineering systems development programs, which typically involve thousands of engineers, billions of euros of cost, and many years to complete. Does this, or does any comparable systems engineering methodology actually work? With such programs, it is impossible to conduct meaningful clinical trials. Also, the programs are sufficiently complex that it is impossible to observe much of what goes on. The Center for System Studies is developing a laboratory in simulation to examine systems engineering processes operating within simulated development programs. This paper reports on progress constructing multi-scaled simulations for this purpose. It also conveys the results of a prototype simulation project.

The main focus within value driven design in aerospace has been around the development of surplus value objective function for commercial aircraft application. However, it is still particularly new to the automobile industry. The surplus value function might also be applicable to wide range of commercial road transport industries, which have fundamental operations similar to commercial aircraft. Since the objective for every organization is to build a profitable environment to sustain their long term business. Therefore, it is important to identify the overall value of the fleet during acquisition phase, in order to eliminate future risk to the organization. In this paper, commercial buses have been used to represent the wide range of commercial road transports for this surplus value analysis. The influence of future fuel prices to overall value will be discussed. Moreover, how the use of advance materials influence overall value has also been included in the discussion.

This paper gives insight into the development of a strategic value based decision model (SMARD) for the effective implementation of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Supportability (RAMS) in the design process of complex technical systems. This paper shows the application of this model to the military aircraft domain to improve operational availability and cost effectiveness. Two individual case studies performed in a military helicopter development program are described, emphasizing the lessons learned, best practices and improvement areas. These cases prove that the traditional Integrated Logistic Support approach towards the integration of RAMS in design and development of military systems has not been effective. Furthermore conclusions are drawn related to the further development and application of the RAMS Driven Design Approach in other industries.

The test process of safety-critical systems underlies the challenges of growing complex systems and still limited means to satisfy the functionality of a system under test against its requirements. The whole test process has to fulfill the criteria of reliability, objectivity and traceability, because its results act as verification for the correct functionality of the safety-critical system to the public authority. The classification tree method is a common method to support the test process in a model based way. Unfortunately, the actual implemented variants of this method break either the reliability or the traceability. This article presents an extension to the classification tree method to satisfy both, the reliability in the classification tree results and the traceability in the estimation of the adequate test cases. The application of the implemented extension is shown as an example.

This paper highlights several aspects of introducing the integration of security relevant information from passenger air transport processes by utilizing Near Field Communication. Due to its inherent characteristics NFC can support new risk-based security strategies and likely prove to be accepted by passengers. Using mobile phones as the implementation form, perceived benefits and performance expectations could empirically be found in a passenger survey.

Stall has been an inherent hazard since the beginning of flying. Despite numerous efforts and a very succesfull stall mitigation strategy, stall as a phenomenon still exists and occasionally leads to accidents, mostly of a serious nature. This contribution explores the nature and dynamics of stall and the remedies that have been developed over time.

This contribution proposes an innovative approach, by introducing a stall shield device for prevention of stall in various segments of the fleet. A multi-actor collaborative approach is suggested for the development of such a device, including the technological, control and simulation and operational aspects of the design by involving designers, pilots and investigators in its development.

Local effects of noise mitigation measures would best be researched with high-fidelity tools. It may be preferred to actually listen to the audible results from such a tool, which is possible by applying noise synthesis. Noise synthesis, based on separate modeling of airframe and engine noise components, is described for a virtual community noise simulator. The merits of individual atmospheric propagation models are qualified. The propagation results on synthesized aircraft noise, following the implementation of two different models, are presented to qualify the importance of atmospheric propagation modeling. The effects on common flyover noise metrics for single events are minimal for this particular flyover case. This is due to the fact that at a short distance, which defines the level of the noise metric, the atmospheric propagation is well modeled by traditional straight paths.

A framework is presented for the noise minimization of approach and take-off trajectories. Within this framework, population and terrain models are coupled with a dynamic trajectory optimization algorithm. By using a pseudospectral method to discretize the optimal control problem integrals can be handled very efficiently using matrix multiplication. Thus, a large number of noise stations can be included allowing an accurate calculation of the perceived noise on ground. The dynamic aircraft model included in the optimization framework is based on the BADA and ANP database of EUROCONTROL. Specific path constraints have been introduced to model regulations arising from various ICAO and FAA documents. Optimized trajectories for runway 08L of Munich airport are presented and compared.

This paper aims to explore traveler expectations and service improvements for a regional airport. Using Kaohsiung International Airport (Taiwan) as an example, it is illustrated how a simple integration of three-factor theory and SERVQUAL into QFD can help planners to identify feasible strategies that can increase passenger numbers. Among the 29 identified service attributes, travelers identify four attributes having great potential to increase overall traveler satisfaction if they are improved. These attributes are: design of special category lounge, travel information service, baggage claim wait time, and clarity of airport entry sign. The traveler perception of attribute importance is then translated into designing 20 quality improvement strategies, which are weighted for feasibility by airport managers. The researching findings suggest the following feasible strategies: increase variety of food options, improve wayfinding and airport terminal design, improve airline services, minimize baggage claim wait times, and redevelop and extend departure lounge facilities.

Air transport is an innovative industry that drives economic and social progress. Beyond the 32 million jobs annually that it maintains, air transportation is a major facilitator of global trade, with some estimates placing the total value of goods transported representing 35% of all international trade. Safety represents a cornerstone of the industry with billions being invested every year in new technologies aimed at making air transportation safer. While the utility of such technologies cannot be questioned, the issue how increasing complexity may impact the various services air traffic controllers are called to provide must be addressed. The present paper explores how the services of safety and efficiency may be impacted by changes in reported traffic complexity. Based on a preliminary study conducted at a busy terminal facility, we examine tradeoffs in the provision of safety and routing efficiency as a result of performance unpredictability that is linked to sustained and complexity and momentary traffic demands. The implications of our findings are discussed.

One of the core bottlenecks with respect to the continued growth of aviation in the coming 40 years is the airport itself. The 2050+ Airport project investigates the step change innovation needed for the airport to enter the second half of this century. Three concepts are being researched: a time-efficient, cost-effective and ultra-green airport. To support the development of future concepts, the Concept Development Methodology is created. It builds upon the Value Operations Methodology to develop each airport concept and assess the expected benefits for the different users in 2050. The main contribution of this paper is to highlight the development of the Concept Development Methodology and to outline its individual steps. It is shown that the methodology is fit for application in the draft development stage, but further work is required to support detailed concept evaluation. Particularly the Change-Impact sub-method is promising and as such requires more research.

This paper sets out to investigate the impact of the taxiways' status on airport operations. The main objective is to create a quantifiable method to measure the research project's consequences e.g. a modeling tool. The main findings will be the measurable impact/consequences of maintenance activities on different stakeholders. A simulation is developed and used to test and optimize certain scenarios with a validation carried out at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam. It will show that the simulation tool is an effective way of optimizing taxiway system maintenance so that impact on airport operations is minimized in terms of performance and ideally, the total value to the airport operator. In general, the full paper will aim to explore the possible financial benefit for operators, the optimization between work-costs en fuel-costs, and the optimization between costs and capacity; in order to explore the potential the tool has as an analysis and decision making tool.

The new P2/HFS|Prec|C_max scheduling problem is found within an aerospace fuselage manufacturing environment and is a combinatorial problem addressed using dispatching rules. A newly proposed dispatching rule, named ‘batch and match’, was created by exploiting the combined elements of a) product assembly characteristics and b) processing time on a shared resource, is used to find solutions for minimizing makespan and waiting time for ten fuselage sets. A new manufacturing tool incorporates models for calculation of makespan and waiting time in the system. The best schedule, found using the new dispatching rule and a weighting system for ranking makespan and waiting time, was DCAB (LI), this schedule gives a reduced makespan of 2.61% against the benchmark longest imminent operation rule. The DCAB (LI) schedule also shows a reduction in waiting time of 53.5% per fuselage set created. This ‘batch and match’ dispatching method performs better than other rules and offers a solution to shared resources that limit processing in hybrid flowshops with precedence constraints.

Current design methods used within the aviation industry include the Systems Engineering (SE) methodology. Many products produced using this approach experience both scheduling and financial overruns resulting in a loss of value for the design. Recent developments in design have seen the introduction of the Value Driven Design (VDD) methodology which is an enhancement on the traditional SE approach. As this methodology is still in its infancy, many issues need to be clarified and developed before VDD can be fully implemented within the industry. One such issue is the development of subsystem value functions. To date, these local value functions only look at each individual subsystem in turn which results in an isolated design procedure as per SE. The main results from this work see the introduction of a Value Influence (VI) factor which enables interactions between these low level subsystems to be accounted for, thereby moving away from the current isolated approach. Further work will be required to fully develop these VI factors across multiple subsystems to ensure reliable, accurate calculations of value can be undertaken.

In this article a final descent approach procedure is evaluated that performs near-idle descents of tightly sequenced arrivals over a curved approach path towards a single heavy loaded runway. An operational concept is applicable in which a Final Approach Spacing Tool (FAST) assists the Controller with advisories to maintain stability of the arrival flow. Calculated small subliminal control instructions are processed automatically, whilst other more significant required instructions are assumed to be given by the Controller. This process is modelled in MATLAB / Simulink, using an aircraft performance model with realistic modelled flight dynamics, including randomised uncertainties. Simulation results demonstrate significant stability differences for including or excluding assistance by subliminal control instructions. Also, the model gives indications for the maximum achievable runway throughput of an arrival runway in segregated mode fed by a dedicated flow of near-idle CDA operations. The achievable reactivity of the control loop is decisive to improve control on arrival sequence stability, whilst pro-active measures will help to increase the stability.

Future Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs) will have to monitor closely whether aircraft are compliant with given time constraints. This time- based guidance will be a new task compared to current operations where the timely precise adherence to flight plans is not a high priority. This additional requirement will produce new task loads, especially in approach control, where the main task of the ATCOs is to implement conflict-free optimized landing sequences with aircraft of different performance characteristics and wake vortex classes. It is anticipated that from medium traffic load on, the task load will increase to a level that ATCOs couldn't cope without the use of decision support tools (DST). They may even be forced to delegate the time-constraint monitoring completely to the automation. In the DLR project Aviator II a usability study was conducted to evaluate an advanced arrival management system that behaved adaptive to the workload apperception of ATCOs. In three sessions a SME (subject matter expert) worked on a medium traffic scenario with the support of this adaptive DST. After a training and a test run, the SME filled out a usability questionnaire with a focus on the adaptive functioning. The paper describes the concept and implementation of the adaptive DST and summarizes first results regarding the potential benefits of such an innovative feature in a controller working position.

Under the umbrella of SESARs Atlantic Interoperability initiative to Reduce Emissions II (AIRE II) program, NLR, LVNL and KLM have teamed up to develop a novel arrival management system to improve nightly operations at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol using time-based operations. At night, aircraft often tend to arrive in bunches at the Amsterdam FIR, resulting in sequencing (e.g. vectoring) before TMA entrance. This disturbs their CDA and leads to inefficiency. This is not necessary as modern flight management systems are able to accurately predict their time of arrival. In addition many aircraft are able to share this information with the ground using data link. In this project, the partners have created a ground based planning system that interfaces with most aircraft via data-link. Aircraft down-link their ETA-threshold. These form the basis for an optimized planning that is aimed at preventing bunching in the FIR. To realize the planning, flight crews are requested to use their RTA functionality. The system has been tested in a live-trial for four consecutive nights. Bunching is significantly reduced and the amount of top-of-descent CDAs that can be flown is subsequently increased, resulting in less fuel burn and emissions.

This paper presents an operational concept for Air Traffic Management, and in particular arrival management, in which aircraft are permitted to operate in a manner consistent with current optimal aircraft operating techniques. The proposed concept allows aircraft to descend in the fuel efficient path managed mode and with arrival time not actively controlled. It will be demonstrated how the associated uncertainty in the time dimension of the trajectory can be managed through the application of multiple metering points strategically chosen along the trajectory. The proposed concept does not make assumptions on aircraft equipage (e.g. time of arrival control), but aims at handling mixed-equipage scenarios that most likely will remain far into the next decade and arguably beyond.

We sketch the history and development of the Turkish aviation system and we analyze the position and strategy of Turkish Airlines as the major player in this system. Turkish international aviation was liberalized in 1983, but domestic aviation was only liberalized in 2003. Combined with Turkey's economic development, this opened up the aviation system and ensured its growth. Turkish Airlines was the first company in the system, established 1933. It is still the dominant player, shaping the system as well as profiting from its growth. We provide a strategic analysis of Turkish airlines based on data from 2001 to 2011. We analyze the qualitative development of its business model, the quantitative development of its financial value creation, and the (in)consistencies between these.

Flight safety is a critical success factor for an airline. The whole airline organization plays an important role to achieve an acceptable level of safety but it has not yet been managed across all organizational levels as a business integrated system. Regulations issued by international authorities focus mainly on what kind of safety management activities should be executed. Safety science provides requirements for how the SMS should be structured. In this research I develop a model taking into account the what and the how to assist where to find safety topics. I will propose an airline safety management system which could become part of the airline organization business system. Both systems will be modeled using the same concept. One essential requirement is to translate operational safety into meaningful variables for each level of the organization. The Viable System Model and its foundation on cybernetics laws and principles will be used to describe an airlines control structure for managing the essential variable of safety. Every process needs to be managed to ensure a balance between efficiency and effectiveness. Cybernetics and the VSM in particular will be used to create in software an explicit organizational model including safety management to manage business concerns in the context of value production, under the increasing pressure of complexity and economy.

Many authors claim that LEAN principles can be applied successfully in any industry. Although LEAN success stories are visible throughout the automotive sector and even in larger aerospace Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) facilities, the implementation in smaller MRO organizations seem to be lagging behind. This research describes a study to translate LEAN principles and tools into a small MRO organization. A LEAN pilot project has been initiated within JetSupport B.V.'s work preparation department. Initial results show that large benefits in throughput can be generated. Additional recommendations are given that include mapping of the total value stream of the base maintenance process to prevent departmental sub optimization.

Moonshine is the practice of workplace innovation in which the end user plays a prominent role. The KLM Engineering & Maintenance moonshine program uses a prescriptive moonshine process model. This paper describes the development of a moonshine pro cess model from practitioners' literature. The model is tested in twenty-three cases of employee involved workplace innovation at KLM Engineering & Maintenance. We found additional activities used in practice, and found activities depicted in the model but not used in the cases. The iterative and recursive nature of moonshine was observed. Variables affecting moonshine were found in the case study, which are used for constructing a research question for future research into moonshine.

With the advancement of reconfigurable tooling and manufacturing systems, aerospace enterprises are looking for mixed production solutions to gain leading competitive edge. An accurate similarity metric will be necessary and crucial for making sound mix-production decisions. Most literatures studied similarity coefficients for grouping part families in cellular manufacturing systems; however they are not applicable to aircraft assemblies which involve large amount of manual work dealing with large heavy components and assemblies. This paper proposes a new similarity metric that incorporates both component level similarity and system level similarity of aircraft assemblies. The similarity in components level is modeled based on part-operation and operation-operation incidence matrices. The similarity in assembly level is modeled by similarity system theory associated with a newly proposed operation quota based weighting method. A digital manufacturing tool has been developed for the automated implementation of the new models. Both the models and the tool have been validated by six pairs of real life panel-assembly examples. Results showed that the new similarity index gives clear indication to the degree of commonality in panel assemblies, and the digital tool can generate the similarity results rapidly and accurately.