An Operational Safety Evaluation Method for Manned Transport Aircraft and Large UAV in Mixed Airspace

Abstract

To improve the predictive ability in trajectory of large unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the calculation performance in complicated circumstances with mixed airspace, multiple aircraft types, and joint operations, the concept of phased trajectory deviation (PTD) is introduced and a corresponding minimal interval algorithm (PTD-MI) is set up. This algorithm is capable of deriving the minimal interval between various aircraft types according to the crosswind impacts and the UAV characteristics at different flight phases and thus achieves the effective safety evaluation in airspace operation. To demonstrate the rationality and generality of the proposed algorithm, several simulation experiments are conducted. Based on the experimental results, flight procedure protection area is plotted by PTD-MI algorithm and compared with that generated by Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS). Results indicate that the proposed algorithm is capable of deriving a more scientific basis for airspace assignment and outperform GBAS in dealing with wide-area space problems. And, compared with GBAS, PTD-MI algorithm shows a more stable calculation performance and is easier to output the results. PTD-MI algorithm is proposed under the flight safety regulation designed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and designed to provide effective technical supports for the safe and normal operations of aircrafts.