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As introduced in the Air
Traffic Services (ATS) Concept of Operations for the National Airspace
System (NAS) in 2005  ,
the flight object is intended as the medium for sharing common information
elements among new and existing capabilities as the NAS evolves. Sharing
common information elements improves the following:
- Accuracy and availability of flight information updates.
- Consistency of flight planning in different Air Traffic Management
(ATM) system domains, and the transition of flights between those domains.
- Availability of user preferences and recorded flight history information.
The Flight Object Concept described here was first developed as a strawman
concept, and then refined through extensive feedback from Federal Aviation
Administration, CAASD, and other cognizant personnel on the future NAS
capabilities, architecture, and evolution plans that are needed to fully
describe the flight object.
As shown in the figure below, the flight object is a collection of common
information elements describing an individual flight (as filed, cleared,
and flown) that provides a means of sharing flight information among ATM
service providers, NAS users, and their supporting capabilities. As such,
the flight object will be integrated into the operations of all the supporting
capabilities and will serve as the primary method for linking and sharing
information in the NAS. In this website, the flight object is described
as a design type of object in the object-oriented paradigm, providing
a way to consider what is known about a flight and how it can be shared
among decision support capabilities.
The Mission
- Define Flight Object, a concept for
sharing flight information electronically:
- Structure for organizing discussion of flight information elements
- Process for identifying flight information elements
- Format for presenting interactions
- Identify “near-term” opportunities for information sharing
among NAS capabilities
- Note additional desired information
- Capture issues for analysis and evaluation
Additional Information Sources
- Associated overview paper
- An Overview of a Flight Object Concept
for the National Airspace System (NAS)
- Associated Research Management Plan (RMP)
- Research Management Plan for Integrating
the Flight Object into the National Airspace System (NAS), Version 1.0,
DRAFT
- Public websites
- The Federal Aviation
Administration's Office
of System Architecture and Investment Analysis (ASD)
- The MITRE Corporation's
Center for Advanced Aviation System
Development (CAASD)
- Electronic mail
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- General Information about CAASD: caasdweb@mitre.org
- References to related work
- Work on Topics related to the Flight Object Concept
Top of Page
About the Authors
Karen Viets and Norma Taber
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Karen Viets and Norma Taber have both worked in aviation-related projects
since the early 1980s. Karen's experience ranges from data analysis for
on-board collision avoidance systems, through decision support tool design
and system modeling, to advanced concept development for air traffic control
(ATC) and traffic flow management (TFM). Norma's background includes developing
detailed algorithms for ATC tools, analyzing decision techniques for local
air traffic management, generating alternative concepts for TFM, defining
a top-down decomposition of TFM operational functions, describing the future
roles and responsibilities of traffic managers, exploring the implications
of the Free Flight concept, and proposing future concepts of operations.
Together, they developed the Flight Object Concept to capture the diverse
types of data about flights that are exchanged among systems now and into
the future.
Site Links
Go to Home Page (top of this page)
Go to Overview of Flight Object Concept website
Go to Table of Contents for site
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For further information, please contact The MITRE Corporation, Contracts
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The contents of this material reflect the views of the authors. Neither
the Federal Aviation Administration nor the Department of Transportation
makes any warranty or guarantee, or promise, expressed or implied, concerning
the content or accuracy of the views expressed herein.
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