Use of ADS-B and perspective displays to enhance airport capacity

As the growth in air travel continues over the coming decades, there will need to be increases in the capacity of the airspace system, especially airports. Technology associated with GPS, along with changes in procedures between air traffic controllers and pilots, has the capability to provide much of the required growth without sacrificing safety and without requiring wholesale expansions of airport land areas. The use of GPS to augment radar surveillance through automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) provides a substantial improvement in surveillance accuracy and provides every pilot with information on neighboring traffic, information that does not exist now. Wake vortex turbulence of neighboring traffic is one of the limiting factors on parallel runway spacing and the in-frail spacing of aircraft. This paper shows how the impact of wake turbulence can be substantially reduced by the use of ADS-B and appropriate displays. The paper presents results of analyses, pilot simulations, and flight-testing that show the required runway spacing can be reduced from the current 4300 ft. to 750 ft., thus substantially improving landing capacity while minimizing cost and the effect on the environment.