27TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE AERONAUTICAL SCIENCES

The paper presents an overview of development and testing of ground-based automation for accommodating fuel-efficient arrivals in heavy traffic. The Efficient Descent Advisor (EDA) is an emerging decision-support tool for air-traffic controllers managing arrival airspace in en-route facilities. It generates trajectory-based clearance advisories that allow a continuous, descent at low engine power while avoiding conflicts and maximizing arrival throughput. Findings from several human-in-the-loop simulations and a field test are presented and discussed, which pertain to controller use and acceptance of EDA as a near-term capability for the Next-Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen)