Information on the suggested aircraft airspeeds can be obtained from flight manuals, but the actual airspeeds flown by an aircraft will vary based on the aircraft landing weight, airport altitude, wind conditions, and other Air-Traffic-Control related factors. The recent advent of new tools and an abundance of new, highly accurate aircraft surveillance data have enabled a reevaluation of past airspeed profile assumptions. The resulting analysis provides a stronger representation for airspeeds flown on final approach and initial departure by the aircraft types comprising a large percentage of U.S. Instrument Flight Rules operations. Furthermore, the time to fly is calculated to determine how long it takes the trailer aircraft to fly the distance to the point where the leader generates a particular portion of the wake. Although this work is performed to provide improved inputs for Recategorization Phase II analyses, the airspeed profiles derived from aircraft surveillance data will also be valuable to other Air Traffic Control applications (such as the Advanced Traffic Proximity Alert, the Interval Management-Paired Approach, Time-Based Flow Management, and the Integrated Departure Arrival Capability) that require accurate knowledge of how aircraft approach and departure airspeeds vary in actual operations.
Development of Approach and Departure Aircraft Speed Profiles
2017
Article (Journal)
English
Development of Approach and Departure Aircraft Speed Profiles
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