Study Due Next Year Looking At Supersonic Aircraft In The System

Wyle is taking a significant role in a NASA study due out early next year that will provide valuable insights into how the U.S. National Airspace System will be transformed by new types of aircraft, and new air traffic control operational concepts by the end of the next decade.

"The study will provide an understanding of how new-generation supersonic aircraft can be operated without causing adverse environmental impacts," said Jawad Rachami, Wyle's manager of program development for its research and consulting unit.

"The results will also make a significant contribution to the modeling of environmental interdependencies of system-wide aircraft operations and enable a good understanding of the scope of the environmental improvements that are achievable through the introduction of new aircraft technologies into the National Airspace System."

Wyle is conducting system-level environmental assessments for the NASA study, led by Raytheon, to introduce advanced vehicles and concepts into the National Airspace System as planned under the Next Generation Air Transportation System, (NextGen) concept of operations.

The study represents a comprehensive effort to explore tradeoffs among procedures, vehicle characteristics and overall NextGen performance for new vehicle classes including very light jets, supersonic business jets, super heavy aircraft and unmanned aerial systems.

NextGen aims to modernize the airspace system through the introduction of advanced automation and operational concepts including super density operations and trajectory-based operations. In addition to these advanced concepts, the aviation industry is also expecting the introduction of new vehicle types and classes to enter into service between 2012 and 2025. These new aircraft technologies are being designed to meet stringent new goals for reduced noise and emissions, and decreased fuel burn.

Wyle is using advanced environmental tools, including the FAA's Aviation Environmental Design Tool and NASA's PCBoom model, to conduct noise, sonic boom, emissions, and fuel burn analyses for several NextGen scenarios. These analyses include the assessment of tradeoffs between the environmental impacts (noise and emissions) and operation performance (capacity and fuel burn).

"The study involves a series of complex tasks due to its focus on future National Airspace System conditions complete with new vehicles and new procedures," said Rachami. "The results of this study will provide valuable insights into the issues associated with a National Airspace System transformed by new aircraft and new operational concepts. It will also serve as a valuable guide for the identification of future research needed for aviation to reduce its overall environmental footprint."

FMI: www.wylelabs.com