Investigation Into Free Flight Impact On Air Traffic Control

Abstract

This thesis deals with innovative concept of air traffic operations such as Free Flight. First, a baseline is established to determine how controllers operate under the current operation guidelines. Then flight trajectories are developed for different alternatives to the Free Flight operational concept. Finally, a comparison of these Free Flight alternatives with current operational concept is conducted to investigate an impact of Free Flight on Air Traffic Control. With the powerful features of optimization, graphics, and hierarchical modeling, the MATLAB toolboxes proved to be effective in the modeling process involved in this research.