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Controller and pilot decision support tools for operations with airborne spacing in the terminal area were evaluated in a simulation conducted at NASA Ames Research Center as part of the NASA Advanced Air Transportation Technologies project Distributed Air Ground Traffic Management element. The results indicate that airborne spacing improves spacing accuracy and may help reduce go-arounds. Controller workload is acceptable and spacing clearances containing lead aircraft callsigns are clear. Expected operational benefits depend on traffic flow coordination and predictable spacing guidance and support tool behavior.

This paper presents research on computational models of pilot activities for detecting and simulating pilot errors, and discusses how these techniques may be used to enhance aviation safety. The discussion addresses improved feedback about pilot errors to support training, and the use of actual and simulated error data to understand how errors may impact new air traffic management concepts and flight deck automation. The research is supported by the System-Wide Accident Prevention project of the NASA Aviation Safety Program.

This paper describes a model-based tool for analyzing the activities of glass cockpit flight crews. The tool is based on the Crew Activity Tracking System (CATS). CATS has been extended to provide visualization and data playback capabilities to support analysis of pilot-automation interaction. Use of the tool for analyzing high fidelity flight simulator data from a NASA Air Traffic Management simulation as part of a model-based design process is described.