New Air Traffic Management Concepts Analysis Methodology: Application to a Multi-Sector Planner in US Airspace

Several developments in the technologies supporting air traffic management (ATM) such as digital communication and improved positioning accuracy for aircraft, have enabled consideration of new organizational and functional operations. In order that these new organizational and functional operations be properly evaluated, efficient and effective methods need to be developed in support of systematic analysis of the new ways of managing air traffic. This paper provides such an evaluation method using Cognitive Systems Engineering (CSE) and discusses its application to new controller-team processes. One such consideration of a new controller-team process is a modification of the standard air traffic control team to include a multi-sector planner (MSP) position. This MSP is being investigated in several research and field studies both in Europe and in the US The feasibility and effectiveness of two of these concept variations were investigated in the current study. The experiment consisted of a pair of one-wee...