Avionics News January 2023 - 51

helicopter in a random pattern. The routes will be very
predictable. That's where we see this business headed. "
There will be letters of agreements with ATC facilities
where Wisk operates, and Wisk will propose 4D tailored
flights using trajectory-based operations. The route will
be defined with latitude, longitude and altitude with the
fourth dimension being time. Everything will start small
under VFR, then grow to 4D trajectories.
Wisk has partnered with London-based Skyports,
a designer and developer of vertiports, to integrate
autonomous eVTOL aircraft into vertiport operations.
While AAM services will initially begin with piloted
vehicles, Wisk and Skyports believe autonomy is needed
to unlock the scalability, accessibility and affordability
needed to realize the potential of the market. The partners
are examining aircraft capabilities and requirements,
passenger accommodation, schedule management, final
approach and takeoff management and airspace design.
As part of this effort, Wisk and Skyports have published
their own ConOps document to explore how autonomous
operations can be conducted at vertiports.
" We think the industry, meaning OEMs, operators and
vertiport managers, can bring together the information
systems and take responsibility for management and
deconfliction on the surface of a vertiport, " Corona said.
" What we are doing is we are creating a system that
will not add workload to ATC controllers. If we take
responsibility for management and coordination on the
surface, this could accelerate our entry into that airspace. "
In the Wisk ConOps, a fleet operations center
coordinates all operations in an urban environment and
will have an operational picture of what is happening
on the vertiport surface. Wisk aircraft operations will
have humans " over the loop " overseeing navigation
and communications. " What we will take advantage of
is what technology does really well - robotic computer
sensing, " Corona said. " " Putting humans on the ground
and providing them with situational awareness we are
arguing is better than having a pilot on board. That
individual on the ground provides oversight within the
network and can intervene by exception if things aren't
going to plan. " All of this brings operational costs down
and will help resolve the pilot shortage.
The FAA is currently taking initial steps in
operationalizing trajectory-based operations in the
national airspace system. A longer-term goal is to
provide " full and dynamic TBO, " including functions
such as 4D trajectory management.
The FAA's automation systems communicate with
one another and can already model and exchange
trajectories. In addition, the agency has demonstrated
it can exchange individual trajectories between the
aircraft and FAA systems for more precise individual
flight modeling. A series of working level investigations
and demonstrations are underway with the FAA and
international partners to show, for example, how
information exchanges and messages work in supporting
a TBO environment among groups of nations. TBO
includes airspace design with PBN procedures to
improve strategic and tactical air traffic flow as well as
improving the precision of FAA's conflict alerts.
Some think the coming of UTM provides an
opportunity for the FAA to develop TBO in low-altitude
airspace for air taxis and then move it to traditional
airspace at higher altitudes where airlines, business jets
and piston-powered aircraft operate.
Steve Fulton has been working on government/
industry committees engaged in efforts to improve the
efficiency of air navigation for 30 years, and he sees
the UTM arena as " white space " where new techniques
such as TBO can be tried and perfected. He developed
the first required navigation performance procedures
in Juno, Alaska, for Alaska Airlines. He then formed a
company that developed performance-based navigation
procedures in Canada, the United States, China,
Australia, New Zealand and South America. PBN will
be key to achieving TBO.
What it will take more than anything to make TBO
happen is good leadership. " There needs to be a focused,
driving force with clarity and single-mindedness on
policy to get us from here to there, " Fulton said.
John Walker, a former FAA executive and now an air
traffic consultant, said airspace redesign will also be
key to accommodating eVTOLs and to achieving TBO.
He maintains that airspace is an important part of NAS
infrastructure that is often overlooked while it is the key
to modernization.
" Airspace is designed like a 1955 Chevy, and we are
trying to put a Tesla with 2023 bells and whistles in it, "
Walker said. He maintains that airspace as it is designed
now can't sustain the growth of eVTOLs and UAS, so
changes will have to be made. q
avionics news * january 2023 51
Avionics News January 2023

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