Merging and Spacing Software in the ACES Simulation

Merging and Spacing (M&S) in ACES is a software product written in the Java programming language that adds scheduling and management of flights into and out of an airport for the Airspace Concepts Evaluation System (ACES) simulation. ACES is a systems-level simulation that portrays NAS-wide flight. The ACES simulation, prior to the delivery of the M&S product in 2010, was limited to a node/queuing model for the terminal airspace, which means that it modeled the time an aircraft would generally take from its metering fix to/from a runway, but it did not provide a model for its physical location during that flight phase. The M&S software uses the IAI Kinematic Trajectory-Generator to model actual physical trajectories through the terminal airspace, and uses a scheduling algorithm along with various managers for waypoints (specific locations along the route) to direct each arriving and departing aircraft to a trajectory and schedule that not only behaves according to the performance characteristics of the specific aircraft, but also maintains the FAA’s requirements for wake vortex spacing during flight. This allows Langley research using ACES for the physical behaviors in the complex terminal airspace for the first time.