Supersector experimental results proof of concept assessment

Abstract

The exploratory Supersector project falls within the scope of research based on the hypothesis that the current proliferation of controlled sectors had led to a too rigid use of airspace to face with medium- to long-term traffic growth. Supersector suggests a shift of paradigm from sector-division to sector-regrouping, i.e. instead of subdividing sectors to accommodate traffic growth, Supersector investigates a new control organization and practices from which traffic in large volume of airspace can be managed by teams of controllers with responsibilities no more restricted to sector-planning and radar-control but span from real-time traffic flow organization to conflict solving. In this way, it is expected that Supersector can help filling the gap between long-term predictive issues of central flow management, and short-term adaptive issues of radar-control, and thus moving from the today's non-synchronous Air Traffic Management System to a synchronous one, from a sector-control working methods to a network and flow management one, from conflict-based control to a time-based control one. A human-in-the-loop demonstration has been realised and allowed to validate the hypothesis and to identify the pros and cons of such a synchronised ATM. Time-based ATM architecture, 4D contract of service, teamwork, trunk-structured airspace design, medium-term anticipation and layer planning working methods have been explored and results are discussed.