Assessing the Impact of Operational Constraints on the Near-Term Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management Supported Market

An economic impact market analysis was conducted for 16 leading sectors of commercial Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) applications predicted to be enabled by 2020 through the NASA UAS Traffic Management (UTM) program. Subject matter experts from seven industries were interviewed to validate concept of operations (ConOps) and market adoption assumptions for each sector. The market analysis was used to estimate direct economic impacts for each sector including serviceable addressable market, capital investment, revenue recovery potential, and operations cost savings. The resultant economic picture distinguishes the agricultural, pipeline and railroad inspection, construction, and maritime sectors of the nascent commercial UAS industry as providing the highest potential economic value in the United States. Sensitivity studies characterized the variability of select UAS sectors economic value to key regulatory or UTM ConOps requirements such as weight, altitude, and flight over populated area constraints. Takeaways from the analysis inform the validation of UTM requirements, technologies and timetables from a commercial market need and value viewpoint. This work concluded in August 2015 and reflects the state of the UAS industry and market projections at that time

Systems-level analysis of On Demand Mobility for aviation

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2017.Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, 2017.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-256).On Demand Mobility (ODM) is an emerging transportation concept that leverages pervasive telecommunication connectivity to enable the real-time matching of consumers with transportation service providers. Having experienced rapid adoption in ground transportation markets, numerous entities are now investigating opportunities to provide aircraft-based ODM within metropolitan areas. Previous research efforts have focused primarily on the technical capabilities of novel electric propulsion aircraft and sought to characterize the market potential for these vehicles. This thesis complements these initial efforts by adopting a broad view of anticipated aircraft-based ODM services to identify operational constraints and evaluate near and far-term mitigation opportunities. A systems-level analysis was used to capture interdisciplinary influence factors such as limitations placed on ODM networks as a result of air traffic control, ground infrastructure integration, network load balancing, unmanned aircraft interaction and community noise, among others. The holistic considerations of this analysis extend beyond the traditional conceptual design disciplines of engineering and business to include evaluative perspective from the legal, policy, urban planning and sustainability domains. The first order, systems-level analysis approach for early-phase conceptual design developed in this thesis was applied to a case study in Los Angeles. Promising markets were identified based upon current commuting and wealth patterns. A notional concept of operations was then applied to twelve reference missions within these markets. Scrutiny of these missions revealed a variety of operational challenges from which five preeminent constraints were derived. These constraints may limit or prohibit ODM aircraft operations and include ground infrastructure availability, aircraft noise emissions and air traffic control scalability. Furthermore, significant legal and policy challenges were identified related to low altitude flight, environmental impacts and community acceptance. Findings from this thesis may support the ODM community to develop a system architecting plan that directs technology investments, stakeholder negotiations and network implementation so as to overcome the identified constraints and avoid or internalize negative externalities.by Parker D. Vascik.S.M.S.M. in Technology and Polic

Systems analysis of urban air mobility operational scaling

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2020Cataloged from the PDF of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-205).Urban air mobility (UAM) refers to a set of vehicles and operational concepts that provide on-demand or scheduled air transportation services for passengers and cargo within a metropolitan area. Prior UAM systems based on helicopters or small aircraft did not achieve sustained, large-scale adoption. The goals of this thesis are: to identify the principal scaling constraints of UAM, to discern how the severity of these constraints varies with different implementation locations and operational concepts, and to assess the feasibility of large-scale UAM services in the United States subject to these constraints. Seven potential scaling constraints are identified through exploratory case studies of UAM operations in three U.S. cities. Of these constraints, the development of takeoff and landing areas (TOLAs) and the provision of air traffic control (ATC) services are proposed as principal near-term constraints and selected for detailed analysis.The development of high-throughput, small-footprint TOLAs to enable UAM scaling in urban areas is evaluated as a multicommodity flow problem. TOLA design and aircraft performance attributes that enhance throughput per footprint are determined through tradespace analysis. TOLA throughput is found to be highly dependent on attributes of ATC, namely controller workload and separation minima. Estimates of maximum aircraft throughput capacity are developed for representative inner-city UAM TOLAs of various physical designs. The development of procedurally segregated airspace cutouts for UAM flight is shown to be a promising strategy to enable high-volume UAM operations within terminal airspace. Furthermore, four flight procedures are proposed to support UAM access to commercial airports under both instrument flight rules (IFR) and visual flight rules (VFR). Lastly, the magnitude of ATC restrictions on the scale of UAM operations is evaluated in the 34 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.The degree to which ATC may constrain UAM scale is found to vary widely between these metropolitan areas potentially inhibiting service to over 75% of the population in the most restricted city but less than 15% in the least restricted city. The development of airspace cutouts for VFR UAM operations reduces this variation and increases population coverage from 65% to 80% in the median U.S. metropolitan area.by Parker D. Vascik.Ph. D.Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautic

Development of Vertiport Capacity Envelopes and Analysis of Their Sensitivity to Topological and Operational Factors

© 2019, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. This study develops an Integer Programming (IP) approach to analytically estimate vertiport capacity envelopes. The approach is used to determine the sensitivity of vertiport capacity to the number and layout of touchdown and liftoff pads, taxiways, gates, and parking pads (i.e. the vertiport topology). The study also assesses the sensitivity of vertiport capacity to operational parameters including taxi time, turnaround time, pre-staged aircraft, and approach/departure procedure independence, among others. Findings indicate the importance of balancing the number of touchdown and liftoff pads with the number of gates to achieve maximum aircraft throughput per vertiport footprint. Furthermore, simultaneous paired arrivals or departures provide significant throughput gains without the need for fully independent approach and departure procedures. The methodology and findings introduced in this paper support the development of concepts of operation to maximize throughput for a given vertiport footprint and demand scenario. While throughput has been extensively researched for fixed-wing operations, little research has been dedicated to the operation of infrastructure for Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. The emergence of new VTOL aircraft to conduct a potentially large number of urban air mobility operations creates a need to better understand the operation and throughput capacity of vertiports, especially in space constrained inner-city locations. This paper reviews numerous existing heliport designs to derive four topology classes of vertiport layouts. The IP formulation of vertiport operations is readily adapted to represent the infrastructure and operations of these layouts

Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas

The current air traffic control (ATC) system is human-centric and voice-based. As a result, separation minima, controller workload, and radio frequency limitations may restrict the number of emerging unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or urban air mobility (UAM) operations that can occur within congested airspace. Limited ATC capacity will be especially impactful for UAS or UAM operations in proximity to large airports. One concept to reduce ATC limitations is to re-allocate airspace to develop procedurally separated corridors or regions where UAS and UAM aircraft may operate without receiving conventional ATC services. The creation of such “airspace cutouts” currently enables hundreds of daily small aircraft and helicopter operations in major U.S. cities without contributing to ATC workload. This paper develops an approach to analytically identify terminal airspace that is procedurally segregated from large aircraft operations and may be appropriate for new airspace cutouts. The magnitude of the benefit of allocating airspace in this manner is demonstrated at three major airports and in the 34 largest metropolitan areas of the United States.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NNL13AA08B

Assessment of Air Traffic Control for Urban Air Mobility and Unmanned Systems

This paper assesses how the introduction of urban air mobility services and unmanned aircraft systems may challenge Air Traffic Control (ATC) in the United States and what opportunities exist to support these forthcoming operations. Four attributes unique to these emerging operations were identified that may challenge effective ATC. Each attribute concerned the scalability of current ATC systems to support a large number of new airspace users at low altitudes. Six potential operational limitations were identified that ATC may impose upon airspace users in an effort to manage increased traffic demand. The fundamental mechanisms that set the aircraft capacity of an airspace, considered to be a surrogate for ATC scalability, were determined. The influence of ATC system architecture, technologies, and operational factors on these mechanisms was diagramed. Finally, the ability of various new ATC approaches to support high density, low altitude operations were reviewed with respect to these mechanisms

A Geometric Approach Towards Airspace Assessment for Emerging Operations

Emerging Urban Air Mobility (UAM)operators propose to introduce extensive flight networks into metropolitan airspace.However,this airspace currently contains complex legacy airspace constructs and flight operations that are perceived as safe, efficient, and generally acceptable to the overflown public. Hence, Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts to support UAM may be constrained to cause little to no interference with these legacy operations. The identification of airspace that is non-interfering and potentially “available” to these new operators is therefore a critical first step to support UAM integration.This paper introduces a geometric airspace assessment approach that considers seven existing airspace constructs. Four hypothetical ATM scenarios are developed that prescribe different degrees of UAM integration. An alpha-shape topological method is refined to process geometrically complex airspace construct polygons over an expansive geographic area and develop 3D mappings of airspace availability.The approach is demonstrated in the San Francisco Bay Area and is readily extensible to other locations. It is envisioned to be useful in identification of viable takeoff and landing sites, evaluation of the sensitivity of airspace availability to separation or trajectory conformance requirements, and flight route design, throughput estimation and riskanalysis

Opportunities to Enhance Air Emergency Medical Service Scale through New Vehicles and Operations

Air Emergency Medical Service (Air EMS) provides unique and important medical transport capabilities to society. Air EMS can move patients or live organs more rapidly than surface modes over long distances or congested areas. Air EMS also provides unparalleled access to accident scenes in regions where surface transportation is compromised such as in the backcountry or during disaster scenarios. However, despite these unique capabilities, Air EMS is currently provided to only a small minority of the most critical medical cases. This is due to the high historical cost and risk of airborne operations. Air EMS costs are driven primarily by the high level of availability required of these services and their low utilization. The elevated accident rate compared to other forms of aviation is in large part due to the operation of these services to and from off-field landing areas with unmarked and perhaps unknown obstacles. This research investigates opportunities to increase the number of Air EMS operations provided in a region by reducing the cost per operation and increasing the level of care. Significant recent investments in Urban Air Mobility (UAM) systems are maturing a new class of electric aircraft and automation technologies that may provide benefits to Air EMS operations. Furthermore, opportunities to deploy Air EMS assets as part of a UAM system to increase utilization and reduce costs through revenue management are also reviewed. Finally, potential pathways to leverage Air EMS as a proving ground and forcing function to overcome constraints in air traffic control and community acceptance for broader UAM services are discussed. The results of this study suggest that near-term electric aircraft are not expected to meet the requirements of the Air EMS mission and also provide little cost reduction potential for the industry. However, new operational models that leverage UAM markets and airline revenue management systems show promise to enhance Air EMS scale. Finally, flight automation technologies in development for UAM aircraft show potential to increase Air EMS safety.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NNL13AA08B