Pilot in Command: a Feasibility Assessment of Autonomous Flight Management Operations

Several years of NASA research have produced the air traffic management operational concept of ‘Autonomous Flight Management’ with high potential for operational feasibility, significant system and user benefits, and safety. Among the chief potential benefits are demand-adaptive or ‘scalable’ capacity, user flexibility and autonomy that may finally enable truly successful business strategies, and compatibility with current-day operations such that the implementation rate can be driven from within the user community. A concept summary of Autonomous Flight Management is provided, including a description of how these operations would integrate in shared airspace with existing ground-controlled flight operations. The mechanisms enabling the primary benefits are discussed, and key findings of a feasibility assessment of airborne autonomous operations are summarized. Concept characteristics that impact safety are presented, and the potential for initially implementing Autonomous Flight Management is discussed. 1 General Introduction NASA is conducting feasibility research and development on an advanced operational concept in air traffic management termed ‘Autonomous Flight Management’ (AFM). This concept is chiefly characterized by a revised distribution of responsibilities and authorities between air traffic service (ATS) providers and flight crews of specially equipped ‘autonomous’ aircraft. Proceeding along the conceptual path offered by the original 1995 RTCA concept of ‘Free Flight’ [1], these flight crews select their path and speed in real time while conforming to restrictions established for safety and flow management. AFM in the enroute and terminal-transition domains of flight are founded on a new category of flight operations: ‘autonomous flight rules’ (AFR). The term AFM refers to the process of exercising the authorities and responsibilities of an AFR flight. The operational concept of AFM is an outgrowth of NASA’s research of the Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management (DAG-TM) concept element 5, ‘En Route Free Maneuvering’ [2]. AFM is an airborne concept that would integrate into a complete gate-to-gate system containing many other components beyond those described in AFM. According to the AFM concept, an AFR aircraft would generally operate in the same airspace as existing instrument flight rules (IFR) aircraft, but the AFR flight crew would exercise an expanded set of authorities and responsibilities. In summary, trained flight crews of AFR-equipped aircraft are given the authority to dynamically plan and execute userpreferred three-dimensional (3D) paths without coordinating with the ATS provider, thereby placing the pilot truly in full command of the flight. With this authority comes full responsibility for traffic separation and conformance to operational constraints; the ATS provider establishes these constraints in order to safeguard special-use airspace and manage traffic flows into high-demand terminal areas. An illustration of a typical AFR flight is shown in Fig. 1.