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European Studies to Investigate the Feasibility of Using 1000 ft Vertical Separation Minima above FL 290 Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2009

M. E. Cox ,
J. M. ten Have  and
D. A. Forrester
M. E. Cox
Affiliation:
(Eurocontrol, Brussels)
J. M. ten Have
Affiliation:
(National Aerospace Laboratory, Amsterdam)
D. A. Forrester
Affiliation:
(Meteorological Office, Bracknell)
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Extract

Primarily in response to airline pressures for fuel economies, ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, established a study programme early in the 1980s to determine the feasibility of halving the vertical separation minimum (VSM) used above FL 290 to 1000 ft. This paper is the first of a 3-part article describing a European contribution to this programme. After outlining the aims and organization of the experimental work, it describes the choice of methodology available to measure height-keeping errors and gives an indication of the measurement accuracy achieved. Details of the data collections, the risk calculations performed and the factors found to affect height-keeping accuracy are given in Parts II and III. Overall, the work has shown that whereas it would be technically feasible to introduce a 1000-ft VSM in the North Atlantic region, other measures would be necessary before it could be used in continental airspace. Today, in certain areas, the need for a reduced VSM has become even more pressing in order to achieve the gains in airspace capacity necessary to handle rapidly growing volumes of air traffic.

Keywords

1. Air Traffic Control.2. Risk analysis.3. Flight levels.
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , May 1991 , pp. 171 - 183
Copyright
Copyright The Royal Institute of Navigation 1991

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References

REFERENCES

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