delair’s Activities in the Research Area
21 February 2008
delair Air Traffic Systems is continuously investing in research activities in order to enhance the development of innovative air traffic management solutions and to provide research partners with its knowledge.
delair was involved in the Cooperative Air Traffic Management (K-ATM) research project which aimed at the development of a cooperative planning mechanism. Companies like Fraport, DFS (German Air Navigation Service Provider), Lufthansa, Airbus, Thales, DLR and several national universities were joining forces for the project which started in 2003 and was successfully completed in December 2007.
In order to address increasing air traffic and to find the best solution to prevent bottleneck situations at airports, the participating companies have co-developed a system which will provide the pre-planning of air traffic processes. This includes the planning and control of all airport procedures from arrival of the aircraft over apron movements up to departure at the tower. During this project a simulation was set up addressing the sequence of processes with particular consideration paid to optimising the use of resources.
Based on the delair departure management system darts (in operation in Zurich since 2003) and the arrival manager 4D planner developed by DFS, the cooperative AMAN/DMAN system darts4D was conceived. With this system delair has made a contribution to the cooperative project which resulted in the realisation of a pre-tactical planning system and the specification of a cooperative arrival/departure manager.
Since 2006, delair has been participating in the cooperative project Competitive Airport (WFF) – Cooperative Arrival and Departure Manager, which will terminate in 2009. This project, supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, focuses on the study of possibilities to optimise processes in German airports, especially with regards to permanently increasing air traffic. For this purpose, delair is focussed on the development and testing of innovative Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) in order to provide an optimised working tool. The HMIs indicate all relevant airport processes to the controllers, and will be used in combination with planning tools such as Arrival Manager (AMAN) and Departure Manager (DMAN).
This project will also include the development and test of a Surface Manager (SMAN) which is based on current technologies already used by delair and its project partners, DFS and the Technical University of Braunschweig, Institute of Flight Guidance. In the near future the SMAN shall be available for operational use and in combination with AMAN and DMAN as it closes the gap between arrival and departure management systems.
delair’s activities in research testify to its commitment in remaining one of the top suppliers of air traffic management optimisation systems. Subsequently, delair will keep on developing highly sophisticated and state of the art solutions for air traffic control, airports, airlines and ground handling companies.
