Airport Safety Technology R&D

1. Foreign Object Debris (FOD) Detection Technology & NextGen Airport Research Airport Safety Technology R&D 2008 Eastern Region Airport Conference, Hershey, PA Jim Patterson Tuesday March 18, 2008

2. Introduction FAA’s Airport Safety Technology R&D SubTeam • Part of the Airport Technology R&D Team located at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ • Combined Workforce of 24 Federal and Contractor Personnel • Offices reside at the FAA’s National Airport Pavement Test Facility

3. The FAA Technical Center

4. Airport Technology R&D Branch (Team) Airport Pavement R&D Section (Subteam) Airport Safety Technology R&D Section (Subteam) Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Wildlife Surface Traction Visual Guidance Operation of NLA Airport Design Airport Safety R&D

5. Discussion Today: • FOD Detection Technology Update • NextGen Airport Technology Research

6. Automated FOD DetectionWhy is the FAA Interested? “It has become clearer that this was a unique accident caused by a one-off chance of a piece of metal lying on the runway“.     -Concorde crash preliminary report

7. Automated FOD Detection FOD Detection Concept: Could avian based radar systems be used to detect FOD? Could FOD be automatically detected? Could airport operator be alerted quickly? Can we prevent another Concorde incident?

8. Automated FOD DetectionFAA Goal Develop performance standards for Automated FOD Detection Systems. Publish Technical Note documenting research. Develop FAA Advisory Circular specifically for FOD Detection Systems. Enable civil airports opportunity to apply for Federal funding to procure systems.

9. QinetiQ – Tarsier Radar – Providence, RI (PVD) Millimeter Wave Radar Mounted on Rigid Towers Stratech – iFerret – Chicago O’Hare (ORD) High Resolution Camera Mounted on Rigid Towers X-Sight – FODetect – Boston Logan (BOS) High Resolution Camera and Millimeter Wave Radar Mounted on Airport Lighting Fixtures Trex Enterprises – FOD Finder – Chicago Midway (MDW) Millimeter Wave Radar and Infrared Cameras Mounted on roof of Airport Vehicle Automated FOD DetectionAvailable Technologies:

10. Detection Capability Testing

11. Detection Capability Testing

12. Automated FOD Detection QinetiQ – Tarsier Radar Providence, RI

13. FOD Found at PVD!

14. Stratech

15. XSight

16. Trex FODFinder

17. QinetiQ Tarsier Radar http://www.qinetiq.com Stratech iFerret http://www.stratechsystems.com XSight FODetect http://www.xsightsys.com Trex Enterprises FODFinder http://www.trexenterprises.com Automated FOD Detection

18. Airport NextGen Connection

19. Airport NextGen Connection Bird Eat Bird in a Cluttered Sky - The New York Times reports on the delay blame-game between the airline industry and corporate jets. The Air Transport Association says the explosive growth of corporate jets is the real culprit behind delays. But users of private jets retort that airlines are offering them up as scapegoats. “The airlines have overscheduled everything so if the smallest weather pattern develops, you have cascading delays all day long,” says Steve Brown of the National Business Aviation Association, a group representing owners of private business aircraft. However, independent observers say corporate flights are also responsible for some of the logjam, especially in congested cities like New York and Los Angeles. Michael Baiada, a consultant in airline operations and a Boeing 747 captain for United Airlines, says the airlines must take more responsibility for delays and improve their own internal systems. But he agrees that corporate jets are increasing the strain on controllers. New Runway? – 10 to 20 yrs (environmental requirements and opposition) New Airports? – Nearly impossible. Only 2 built in last 40 years (DFW and DEN)

20. Airport NextGen Connection By 2025, U.S. air traffic is predicted to increase two to three times. The traditional air traffic control system will not be able to manage this growth. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), is the solution.

21. Airport NextGen Connection NextGen is an example of active networking technology that updates itself with real-time shared information and tailors itself to the individual needs of all U.S. aircraft. NextGen's computerized air transportation network stresses adaptability by enabling aircraft to immediately adjustto ever-changing factors such as: weather, traffic congestion, aircraft position via GPS, flight trajectory patterns, and security issues. By 2025, all aircraft and airports in U.S. airspace will be connected to the NextGen network and will continually share information in real time to improve efficiency, safety, and absorb the predicted increase in air transportation.

22. Airport NextGen Connection NextGen was enacted in 2003 by President Bush and Congress under VISION 100 – Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act (P.L. 108-176). In this initiative, the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) is responsible for managing a public/ private partnership to bring NextGen online by 2025. The JPDO is the central organization that coordinates the specialized efforts of the Departments of Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce, FAA, NASA, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

23. Airport NextGen Connection “NextGen is not intended to identify specific locations for new airport development or specific infrastructure needs (e.g., runways, terminals, gates) at existing airports. Rather, the NextGen effort is examining concepts that can advance the capabilities of existing infrastructure and enable new infrastructure to be developed as needed.” - JPDO Integrated Work Plan for NextGen

24. Airport NextGen Connection The Operational Improvement roadmap for Airport Operations was developed with the following considerations: Major capacity gains will be achieved from maximizing use of existing infrastructure, through both the increasing use of secondary airports and new Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) procedures that increase airport efficiency. Some major airports that are at or near capacity today may not be able to reasonably expand to support up to a threefold increase in aircraft operations or a 1.8- to 2.4-fold increase in passenger movements. This will drive development of other airports in congested metropolitan regions. Congestion and the “hassle factor” will drive some passenger choices as to whether to travel on scheduled carriers with connections through hub airports or seek transportation via regional airports with (scheduled/ nonscheduled) nonstop service.

25. Airport NextGen Connection The Operational Improvement roadmap for Airport Operations was developed with the following considerations (Con’t): Secondary airports will expand by promoting higher levels of service to both aircraft operators and passengers, potentially pushing integration into the hub-and-spoke system and stimulating changes in the airline business models (e.g., more point-to-point service). Concurrently, new aircraft technology will allow long-range flights with medium seating capacity aircraft at competitive yields, thus promoting point-to-point service to smaller airports.

26. NextGen & Airport Tech R&D Many of the major focuses of NextGen are on the airborne aspects of the NAS, with regards to weather, separation, communication of aircraft. It is important that we not forget about the airport surface itself, and how the increased level of operations will dramatically affect our airports infrastructure. “Future is in the Sky” by Turk Hava Kurumu

27. NextGen & Airport Tech R&D Ultimately, our research needs to focus on, and keep ahead of, the NextGen trend. - More attention to smaller airports. • Keep costs low for end user. • Make solutions easy to deploy. • Testing/monitoring techniques for end user need to be quicker. • Solutions need to be adaptable to ALL airports.

28. Conclusions While airport safety/design are not directly mentioned in the NextGen plan, we must align our research with the program. The Airport Technology R&D Branch must be ready to answer the call as the NextGen program matures. NextGen is a complicated program that is contingent on integration of numerous other systems that are still under development. Now is the time to initiate this work! Regardless of how many aircraft are flying, where they fly, or how close they fly together, they still need to land and takeoff at an airport. That’s where we fit in the puzzle!

29. Airport Safety R&D FAA Technical Center Airport Technology R&D Branch AAR-411/AJP-6311, Building 296 Atlantic City International Airport, NJ 08405 Jim.Patterson@faa.gov 609-485-4989 www.airporttech.tc.faa.gov