Increasing Runway Capacity for Continuous Descent Approaches Through Airborne Precision Spacing

NASA Langley Research Center has been developing an operational concept called Airborne Precision Spacing (APS), which combines new avionics and procedures to increase runway arrival capacity through precise inter-aircraft spacing at the runway threshold. However, with increases in traffic volume, noise restrictions threaten to limit operations. Continuous Descent Approaches (CDAs) are efficient arrival routes designed to minimize ground noise, but these routes are not currently operational in a high-density environment. This research evaluates applying the APS precision spacing tool to CDA arrival routes in three test conditions. These test conditions were developed to evaluate the system performance and operational efficiency of the combined concepts. Simulation results indicate that the APS tool is able to minimize inter-aircraft spacing errors at the threshold in the presence ofvarying initial spacing errors.