Effective and efficient air transportation systems are crucial to a nation's economy and connectedness. These systems involve capital-intensive facilities and equipment and move millions of people and tonnes of freight every day. As air traffic has continued to increase, the systems necessary to ensure safe and efficient operation will continue to grow more and more complex. Hence, it is imperative that air transport analysts are equipped with the best tools to properly predict and respond to expected air transportation operations. This dissertation aims to improve on those tools currently available to air transportation analysts, while offering new ones. Specifically, this thesis will offer the following: 1) A model for predicting arrival runway occupancy times (AROT); 2) a model for predicting departure runway occupancy times (DROT); and 3) a flight planning model. This thesis will also offer an exploration of the uses of unmanned aerial vehicles for providing wireless communications services. For the predictive models of AROT and DROT, we fit hierarchical Bayesian regression models to the data, grouped by aircraft type using airport physical and aircraft operational parameters as the regressors. Recognizing that many existing air transportation models require distributions of AROT and DROT, Bayesian methods are preferred since their output are distributions that can be directly inputted into air transportation modeling programs. Additionally, we exhibit how analysts will be able to decouple AROT and DROT predictions from the traditional 4 or 5 groupings of aircraft currently in use. Lastly, for the flight planning model, we present a 2-D model using presently available wind data that provides wind-optimal flight routings. We improve over current models by allowing free-flight unconnected to pre-existing airways and by offering finer resolutions over the current 2.5 degree norm. / Ph. D.

This thesis evaluates the potential recovery of the runway throughput under Wake Turbulence Re-categorization (RECAT) Phase II and Time-based Separation (TBS) with a Runway Occupancy Time (ROT) constraint comparing with RECAT Phase I. This research uses aircraft performance parameters (runway occupancy time, approach speed, etc.) from the Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X) data set. The analysis uses a modified version of the Quick Response Runway Capacity Model (RUNSIM). The main contributions of the study are: 1) identifying the technical buffer between in-trail arrivals and regenerate them in RUNSIM; 2) estimate the percentage of the arrival pairs that have wake mitigation separation times in excess of ROT; 3) developed an additional in-trail arrival separation rule based on ROT; 4) measure the risk of potential go-arounds with and without the additional 95 ROT separation rules. 5) generate a sample equivalent time-based RECAT II. The study results show that the distributions of technical buffers have significant differences for different in-trail groups and strong connectivity to airport elevations. This is critical to estimate runway capacities and safety issues especially when advanced wake mitigation separation rules are applied. Also, with decreasing of wake separations, ROT will become a limiting factor in runway throughput in the future. This study shows that by considering a 95 percentile ROT constrain, one single runway can still obtain 4 or 5 more arrivals per hour under RECAT II but keep the same level of potential go-arounds compared with current operation rules (RECAT I). TBS rules seem to benefit more under strong wind conditions compared to RECAT I, and RECAT II. TBS rules need to be tailored to every airport. / Master of Science / This thesis evaluates the potential recovery of the runway throughputs by re-defining the minimum distance or time separations between successive arrivals. The minimum separation criteria between in-trail arrivals is defined by Federal Aviation Administration to avoid the wake vortex influence produced by the leading aircraft. The main contribution of this thesis lies in estimation of throughput capacity with the reduced minimum separation between arrivals. The study results show that the distributions of buffers added to the minimum separations have significant differences for different in-trail groups and strong connectivity to airport elevations. This is critical to estimate runway capacities and safety issues especially when advanced wake mitigation separation rules are applied. Also, with decreasing of wake separations, runway occupancy time will become a limiting factor in runway throughput in the future. This study shows that by considering a 95 percentile ROT constrain, one single runway can still obtain 4 or 5 more arrivals per hour under reduced minimum separation but keep the same level of potential go-arounds compared with current operation rules.

This thesis estimates potential runway throughput gains using a reduced wake separation based on the 123 most prevalent aircraft in the United States fleet. The analysis considers Runway Occupancy Time (ROT) constraint factors and existing geometric design factors. This research extracts the historic data from Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X) for analysis. The Runway Exit Design Interactive Model (REDIM) is used to optimize the runway exit locations and reduce ROT. The runway throughput and safety factors are generated from a Monte Carlo runway simulator. This thesis focuses on selected US airport runways that could benefit from geometric optimization. The study aims to estimate ROT improvements through improved runway exit locations and the changes in runway throughput considering ROT constraint factors. The results of the thesis show that Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) runway 35C and Denver International Airport (DEN) runway 16R have the potential to improve the ROT. After the optimization to locate runway exits, the ROT time of the RECAT group F and G aircraft (greater than 90% of the arrivals) was reduced by three to five seconds (a very significant effect). After the ROT reductions and with the application of reduced wake separation criteria with the ROT constraint factor applied, the arrival-only capacity of DFW runway 35C improved by 3.5 arrivals per hour. The arrival-only capacity on DEN runway 16R improved by 2.14 arrivals per hour. Both runways maintained a probability of violation between time-based separation and ROT time at around 1.5%. The study concludes that the application of reduced wake separation criteria alone is a necessary but insufficient condition to improve the efficiency of arrival runways. Through careful improvements of runway exit locations, reductions in ROT provide reliability and efficiency to the operation of runways. / Master of Science / This thesis estimates potential runway throughput gains using a reduced wake separation based on the 123 most prevalent aircraft in the United States fleet. The analysis considers Runway Occupancy Time (ROT) constraint factors and existing geometric design factors. This research extracts the historic data from Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X) for analysis. The Runway Exit Design Interactive Model (REDIM) is used to optimize the runway exit locations and reduce ROT. The runway throughput and safety factors are generated from a Monte Carlo runway simulator. This thesis focuses on selected US airport runways that could benefit from geometric optimization. The study aims to estimate ROT improvements through improved runway exit locations and the changes in runway throughput considering ROT constraint factors. The results of the thesis show that Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) runway 35C and Denver International Airport (DEN) runway 16R have the potential to improve the ROT. After the optimization to locate runway exits, the ROT time of the RECAT group F and G aircraft (greater than 90% of the arrivals) was reduced by three to five seconds (a very significant effect). After the ROT reductions and with the application of reduced wake separation criteria with the ROT constraint factor applied, the arrival-only capacity of DFW runway 35C improved by 3.5 arrivals per hour. The arrival-only capacity on DEN runway 16R improved by 2.14 arrivals per hour. Both runways maintained a probability of violation between time-based separation and ROT time at around 1.5%. The study concludes that the application of reduced wake separation criteria alone is a necessary but insufficient condition to improve the efficiency of arrival runways. Through careful improvements of runway exit locations, reductions in ROT provide reliability and efficiency to the operation of runways.