| During periods of good visibility, airports can conduct Closely Spaced Parallel Approaches (CSPA) and simultaneously operate parallel runways separated by more than 750 feet. When visibility degrades to Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) and pilots must fly exclusively by the instruments, the runway separation required to operate parallel runways increases to 3400 feet or more. For many airports around the country and the world this means the second runway must be closed and the airport operates at half capacity. To alleviate the delays caused by this capacity reduction many airports worldwide are planning to expand and build new runways. The projected cost of the ten largest airport projects in the United States is {dollar}8--16 Billion. Perhaps a less expensive solution can be found with innovative technology rather than real estate?; This research presents the first ever design, implementation, and characterization of a synthetic vision display and the supporting flight system to attempt to achieve this solution. The display uses 3D graphics and an air to air datalink called Automatic Dependent Surveillance---Broadcast to present the pilot with the information necessary to aviate, navigate and monitor traffic. This thesis also documents the first series of flight experiments to test the applicability of synthetic vision displays to both runway incursion avoidance and CSPA. Finally, utilizing the results from the flight testing in a Monte Carlo analysis, the effect of deploying this display on minimum safe runway separation is calculated. It has been found that the minimum safe runway separation for IMC operation can safely be reduced to 1900 feet. If, in addition, significant changes are made in Air Traffic Control procedures for longitudinal aircraft spacing, the analysis shows that the display system presented herein will allow for runway separation of 1400 feet with no new restrictions on aircraft size or crosswind. Furthermore, with certain restrictions on aircraft size and crosswind the runway spacing can be reduced to 750 feet. These results have tremendous implications for pilots, controllers and the public. They will also have large impacts on the financial and environmental costs of airport expansion projects. |
