Cockpit Displayed Traffic Information and Distributed Management in Air Traffic Control

Abstract

The technical feasibility of graphically displaying information such as surrounding aircraft and navigation routes in the cockpit on a cathode ray tube has been suggested as a viable method for improving the safety, orderliness, and expeditiousness of the air traffic control system by distributing some of its management to the pilots equipped with this cockpit displayed traffic and navigation information (CDTI). Several years of experimental study of this Concept, using a three-cab simulator facility at NASA-Ames, have produced several consistent findings relating to system performance and pilot and controller work loads and opinions. These findings generally agree with those from other studies.

The most consistent result is a considerable reduction in controller verbal work load without any appreciable increase in pilot verbal work load, although they may report an increase in visual work load. However, pilots tend to prefer distributed management to centralized management, while this is generally reversed for controllers. The reduced response delays in the system obtainable using CDT/ permit pilots to maintain their own spacing more closely and precisely than when depending entirely upon controller-issued radar vectors and speed commands. As a result, time between successive aircraft landings and its variability can be reduced, thereby increasing runway utilization. Limited findings suggest that CDTI-based benefits do not detract from system safety.

On balance, distributed management offers significant advantages for air traffic control.

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