The impact of strong
headwinds
''Headwinds'' (french: Des vents contraires) is a 2011 French drama film directed by Jalil Lespert.
Cast
*Benoît Magimel as Paul Anderen
* Isabelle Carré as Josée Combe
* Antoine Duléry as Alex Anderen
*Ramzy Bedia as Le déménageur
* Bouli ...
on an aircraft’s speed during approach results in decreasing landing rates, generating delays and cancellations at airports with a significant cost to airspace users and the travelling public.
In early 2000,
EUROCONTROL
The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, commonly known as Eurocontrol (stylised ''EUROCONTROL''), is an international organisation working to achieve safe and seamless air traffic management across Europe. Founded in 1960, Eur ...
started researching Time Based Separation (TBS), a new operating procedure for separating aircraft by time during strong headwind conditions, instead of distance. TBS addresses headwind disruptions by reducing the spacing between pairs of aircraft.
As wake decay is more rapid in strong headwinds conditions,
wake vortex
Wake turbulence is a disturbance in the atmosphere that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. It includes variety of elements, the most significant of which are wingtip vortices and jetwash. Jetwash refers to the rapidly moving g ...
is quickly dispersed permitting a safe reduction in the spacing between aircraft through TBS preserving runway throughput.
NATS joined the TBS research in
SESAR and in 2014 was preparing its first deployment for spring 2015 at
London Heathrow airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the Airports of London, London airport sys ...
. Furthermore, TBS is now a part of the SESAR Deployment Programme.
Time Based Separation was successfully implemented at Heathrow by NATS and Leidos working in conjunction with Heathrow Airport on 24 March 2015 and has been in continuous operation since then. It enabled an average of 2.9 additional landings per hour on strong wind days, and delays caused by headwinds were reduced by up to 60%.
In March 2018 it was further enhanced to include Optimised Runway Delivery (ORD), Runway Occupancy Time and RECAT EU Wake categories. Results have been very successful with a 62% reduction in arrival delays due to headwinds and a marked improvement in overall airport punctuality.
Weather dependent
Future steps in research linked to TBS will involve Weather Dependent Separations (WDS) on arrival taking into account different parameters such as weather and wind forecasts. WDS will support an increase in runway throughput whilst TBS preserves current runway throughput.
Related systems
The application of reduced separations in strong headwinds conditions requires the development of a new Air Traffic Controller support tool to optimise delivery of accurate and safe separation at the runway threshold.
See also
*
Wake Turbulence
Wake turbulence is a disturbance in the atmosphere that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. It includes variety of elements, the most significant of which are wingtip vortices and jetwash. Jetwash refers to the rapidly moving g ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
EUROCONTROL TBSNATS TBS
Air traffic control in Europe
Aircraft operations