Coordinating General Aviation Maneuvers with TCAS Resolution Advisories

One of the remaining sources of mid-air collision risk is encounters between aircraft that are equipped with Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and non-TCAS-equipped General Aviation (GA) aircraft. Equipping GA aircraft with a collision avoidance system may further reduce the mid-air collision and may further reduce the mid-air collision risk in the National Airspace System (NAS). A critical design decision for a GA aircraft collision avoidance system is the level of coordination between the system and TCAS on TCAS-equipped aircraft. This report investigates the performance of varying levels of coordination: full coordination where the system directly coordinates with TCAS, responsive coordination where the system only responds in TCAS, and no coordination. Results from this study show that equipping GA aircraft with TCAS is acceptable if the GA pilot response rate is high and vertical capability of the aircraft can achieve TCAS advisories. A responsive coordination strategy performs well regardless of the GA pilot response rate. Lastly, GA aircraft should not be equipped with the TCAS logic without a coordination capability.

• Corporate Authors:

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Linclon Laboratory, 244 Wood Street
  Lexington, MA  United States  02420-9180

  Federal Aviation Administration

  800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20591
• Authors:
  • Griffith, D
  • Olson, W
• Publication Date: 2001-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Pagination: 42p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air traffic control; Air transportation crashes; Aircraft separation; Approach control; Coordination; Crash avoidance systems; Design; Flow control (Air traffic control); General aviation; Risk assessment
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I85: Safety Devices used in Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01342714
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: ATC-374
• Contract Numbers: FA8721-05-C-0002
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jun 23 2011 9:07AM