In-trail dynamics of multiple CDTI-equipped aircraft queues

One of the potential problems of in-trail self-spacing with a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) is whether dynamic oscillations would occur in a queue of aircraft flying an approach, similar to the ""accordion'' effect seem with the queue of automobiles in stop-and-go traffic. In order to gain some insight into this potential problem, a brief experiment was conducted with the Transport Systems Research Vehicle (TSRV) ground-based simulator equipped with CDTI which presented the position of other aircraft in the area. Three simulation sessions were conducted wherein queues of up to nine aircraft were built, each one self-spacing on the preceding aircraft. The aircraft crews were rotated to ensure that the pilots had no prior knowledge of the lead aircraft behavior they would be following. Two different spacing criteria were employed: a constant time predictor criterion and a constant time delay criterion. The experiment failed to uncover any dynamic oscillatory tendencies in queues of seven to nine aircraft