Air transport

Directorate-General For Mobility And Transport European Commission

Description

Study on potential benefit to airport/ATM congestion through special operational procedures for rotorcraft
Research policy and organisation
Air and space transport

Informations

• Publié par: DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-MOBILITY-AND-TRANSPORT-EUROPEAN-COMMISSION
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

RANSPORT RESEARCH
AIR TRANSPORT
EUROPEAN Study on potential benefit
COMMISSION
to airport/ATM congestion
through special operational
procedures for rotorcraft
DIRECTORATE-
GENERAL
TRANSPORT TRANSPORT RESEARCH
AIR TRANSPORT
VII — 47
Study on potential benefit
to airport/ATM congestion
through special operational
procedures for rotorcraft
Aéroports de Paris — Agusta SpA — Deutsche
Flugsicherung GmbH — Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für
Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. — Eurocopter France SA —
Technische Universität Braunschweig — Westland
Helicopter Ltd
Under the direction of Eurocopter Deutschland
GmbH The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect either the position or
the views of the European Commission
A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be
accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int)
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1996
ISBN 92-827-7995-5
© ECSC-EC-EAEC, Brussels · Luxembourg, 1996
Printed in Belgium DGVH-Airport/4-Study
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Final Report comprises the work package reports of the study proceeded by a
comprehensive summary.
Following the reports the reader is logically guided through the individual results of
the studies' various subjects peaking in their application ana interpretation within the
capacity simulation.
It was the intention of the consortium to keep every report as a single entity without
duplicating information.
For each document reference is given to the work package number.
SUMMARY
IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES:
A. 1.1 "Specification of Helicopter Characteristics and Capabilities"
A. 1.2n of Tilt Rotors and Capabilities"
A.2.1 "Helicopter - Operational Procedures"
A.2.2 'Tilt Rotor -l"
A. 3 "Investigation of Vortex Phenomena"
B. 1 "Appropriate Control Procedures"
B.2 "Effects on Ground and Airborne Personnel"
C.1e Navigation Equipment"
C.2e Surveillance"
CAPACITY INCREASE QUANTIFICATION:
D.1.1 Simulation Scenarios
D.1.2 Capacity Increase Simulation Frankfurt Airport
D.2 Effects of Different Airport Configurations
ANNEX: Abbreviations DGVII-Airport/4-Study
SUMMARY DGVII-Airport/4-Study WP-E/ECD
SUMMARY
1. Motivation
As already today a number of European airports operate at or close to the limits of
their capacity, the continuing growth in air transport is likely to result in an increasing
lack of airport and ATM capacity.
Therefore a lot of effort is currently put into finding new solutions to prevent the
imminent collapse of the European air traffic. However, the work performed so far did
not consider the potential benefits provided by rotorcraft (at least on the European
side) offering the capability of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL).
As all the infrastructure, air traffic management system and support structures are
sized for the characteristics, dimensions and performance of fixed-wing aircraft the
unique capabilities of rotorcraft can not be exploited within the existing air
transportation system. Actually, because of their physico-technological nature
rotorcraft are best suited to bypass the congested flight corridors, runway and
terminal systems making use out of their capabilities of extreme low speed flight,
hover, side-, back- and rearward flight, steep and curved approaches and climbs.
Thus, rotorcraft represent a promising, additional element of coping with airport and
ATM congestion.
While rotorcraft technology matured the air transport system was more and more
optimised according to fixed-wing needs leading to an increasing rejection of
rotorcraft operation. In order to utilise the VTOL capabilities to relieve airport/ATM
congestion the intrinsic limits imposed over decades must be overcome.
Therefore, doing the first step, this study focused on the integration of VTOL-
operation at airports addressing operational and control procedures as well as
appropriate ATM equipment. Furthermore, the potential capacity gain through
rotorcraft traffic was quantified.
2. Approach
Starting out from the review of existing and future helicopter and tiltrotor
characteristics the boundary conditions for operational procedures were defined.
Attention was also paid to vortex phenomena and their effect on rotary-wing and
fixed-wing traffic integration.
D.1.2-1 DGVU-Airport/4-Study WP-E/ECD
After the establishment of physical, technological and operational boundary
conditions for rotorcraft operation into the airport, control procedures to manage
mixed traffic were investigated on the basis of current ICAO regulations.
The applicability of ATM equipment to support VTOL operation at airports was
evaluated against the background of current standards and expected future
technological achievements. Additionally, a first look was laid upon the human
aspects involved on the ground and on the airborne side.
In order to quantify the airport/ATM capacity increase through rotorcraft operation
SIMMOD computer simulations for Frankfurt International Airport were performed by
applying the previously developed operational and control procedures to the specific
environment of the sample airport. Finally, coupling the simulation results with the
effect of different airport configurations allowed a general judgement on the potential
in airport/ATM capacity increase through VTOL-operation.
3. Consortium Composition
In order to cope with the demands imposed on knowledge and experience arising
from the above described approach an multinational, multidisciplinary and
multiinstitutional consortium was established. The wide scope of the innovative
approach taken in this study was reflected in the number of the partners and the
variety of skills and expertise they provide. Within this consortium the resources of
- the complete European helicopter industry:
- EUROCOPTER (D, F)
-AGUSTA (I)
- WESTLAND (UK
- the German ATC-agency DFS (D
- the German research establishment DLR
- the French airport operator and consultant ADP (F)
- the Technical University Braunschweig (D)
were utilised to address "airport/ATM capacity increase through rotorcraft operation".
4. Results
4.1 Implementation Issues
The reasons which make rotorcraft an attractive option for operation in the airport
environment are its unique flying capabilities which burst the classical constraints
experienced by F/W aircraft in terminal area operation, see Table 1.
D.1.2-2