Global city-region ambition in the Netherlands: From Randstad to Deltametropolis

The recent renaming of the Dutch Randstad into 'DeltaMetropolis' can be seen as part of a broader strategy to capitalise upon the region's metropolitan and economic potentials and to strengthen its international competitive position. This strategy was first presented by the national planning authorities at the end of the 1980s as a key element of spatial policy in the Fourth National Memorandum on Spatial Planning and it is now prolonged in the recently launched Fifth National Memorandum on Spatial Planning (Fifth Memorandum). An essential difference with 15 years ago is the fact that the current policy strategy for the Randstad is the result of a clear 'give-and-go' between Randstad-based local and regional stakeholders on the one hand and the national (planning) authorities on the other. At the end of the 1990s, local and regional stakeholders in the Randstad joined forces in a broad coalition (which is still growing) to pursue the objective of developing the Randstad into a metropolitan entity named 'DeltaMetropolis'. By turning this highly urbanised region into a thinly populated metropolis a better position in the international inter-urban and inter-regional competitive arena was (and is) aspired to. While this objective fit in with the broad strategy followed by the national government, the DeltaMetropolis coalition had to lobby hard during the preparatory stages of the Fifth Memorandum to make sure that the Randstad in the same document was conceptualised as a single urban network rather than three or four separate 'network cities'. The lobby succeeded and even the long-standing name of the Randstad was traded in for the new name proposed by the coalition. With these developments, which may also be judged as the Randstad having become the subject of a project involving the 'establishment' of the region as an actor in a wider (political) context, the region seems to qualify increasingly well as an illustrative case for the recently presented global city-region thesis (Scott et al., 2001). This thesis expands upon the global city thesis by combining important elements from both the 'new regionalism' school and the 'Los Angeles' approach to urban and regional economics. It stresses the growing importance of so-called 'global city-regions' as both political actors and regional economic motors in the emerging global economy as the result of a wide range of forces of political, technological and economical origin. The aim of the present paper is mainly to explore the extent to which recent developments regarding the Randstad/DeltaMetropolis are indeed compatible with the global city-region thesis (both in political and economic terms). The paper presents a summary of the global city-region thesis and a brief outline of recent developments regarding the Randstad/DeltaMetropolis. In addition, an analysis of the (potential) qualities of the Randstad/DeltaMetropolis as a political actor and a regional economic motor is presented. In conclusion some instructive elements are derived from the global city-region thesis for the DeltaMetropolis project. Reference: Scott, A.J., J. Agnew, E.W. Soja and M. Storper (2001) Global City-Regions, in: A.J. Scott (ed.) Global City-Regions: Trends, Theory, Policy, pp. 11-32. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Functional integration of vertical flight path and speed control using energy principles

A generalized automatic flight control system was developed which integrates all longitudinal flight path and speed control functions previously provided by a pitch autopilot and autothrottle. In this design, a net thrust command is computed based on total energy demand arising from both flight path and speed targets. The elevator command is computed based on the energy distribution error between flight path and speed. The engine control is configured to produce the commanded net thrust. The design incorporates control strategies and hierarchy to deal systematically and effectively with all aircraft operational requirements, control nonlinearities, and performance limits. Consistent decoupled maneuver control is achieved for all modes and flight conditions without outer loop gain schedules, control law submodes, or control function duplication

The 727 approach energy management system avionics specification (preliminary)

Hardware and software requirements for an Approach Energy Management System (AEMS) consisting of an airborne digital computer and cockpit displays are presented. The displays provide the pilot with a visual indication of when to manually operate the gear, flaps, and throttles during a delayed flap approach so as to reduce approach time, fuel consumption, and community noise. The AEMS is an independent system that does not interact with other navigation or control systems, and is compatible with manually flown or autopilot coupled approaches. Operational use of the AEMS requires a DME ground station colocated with the flight path reference

Total energy based flight control system

An integrated aircraft longitudinal flight control system uses a generalized thrust and elevator command computation (38), which accepts flight path angle, longitudinal acceleration command signals, along with associated feedback signals, to form energy rate error (20) and energy rate distribution error (18) signals. The engine thrust command is developed (22) as a function of the energy rate distribution error and the elevator position command is developed (26) as a function of the energy distribution error. For any vertical flight path and speed mode the outerloop errors are normalized (30, 34) to produce flight path angle and longitudinal acceleration commands. The system provides decoupled flight path and speed control for all control modes previously provided by the longitudinal autopilot, autothrottle and flight management systems

Vertical flight path steering system for aircraft

Disclosed is a vertical flight path angle steering system for aircraft, utilizing a digital flight control computer which processes pilot control inputs and aircraft response parameters into suitable elevator commands and control information for display to the pilot on a cathode ray tube. The system yields desirable airplane control handling qualities and responses as well as improvements in pilot workload and safety during airplane operation in the terminal area and under windshear conditions

Aircraft roll steering command system

Aircraft roll command signals are generated as a function of the Microwave Landing System based azimuth, groundtrack, groundspeed and azimuth rate or range distance input parameters. On initial approach, roll command signals are inhibited until a minimum roll command requirement is met. As the aircraft approaches the centerline of the runway, the system reverts to a linear track control