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NASA's FutureFlight Central is the world's first full-scale, full-immersion airport-surface simulation environment in which the safety and efficiency of new technologies and procedures can be researched, developed, and evaluated under various airport conditions. Construction of this innovative new Ames facility was completed and the facility formally dedicated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on 13 December 1999.
FutureFlight Central (FFC) consists of a two-story physical structure replicating a full-scale air traffic control tower, including work areas to support pilots, ramp controllers, and airport operators along with FFC simulation engineers, software developers, and researchers. It is equipped with air traffic control simulation software components and a digital voice, a simulated radio/telephone/intercom system, a data communication network, and audiovisual equipment to support the simulations. The tower cab (fig. 1) features programmable user displays and a virtually seamless, visual display system consisting of screens and projectors that provide a 360-degree out-the-window field of view driven by the air traffic control simulation software and image generators.
The FFC staff successfully completed the first simulation for a paying customer when the Boeing Corporation completed a human factors study in the facility at the end of May 2000. For this very first simulation in the FFC, Boeing gave the FFC staff extremely high marks in its debrief survey. The staff received scores of 10 out of a possible 10 on every item except two, on which it received scores of 9.
In June 2000, San Francisco International Airport entered into an agreement with FFC to simulate and preview new tower locations associated with its potential runway reconfiguration. And in August 2000, Los Angeles International Airport and United Airlines signed a contract to include FFC in a joint study of runway incursions. These major U.S. airports are the first to benefit from FutureFlight Central, a world-class airport operations simulation facility designed to advance the safety, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of current and future airport procedures, design, and technologies.
Point of Contact: Nancy Dorighi
(650) 604-3258
ndorighi@mail.arc.nasa.gov
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Fig. 1. Future Flight Central air traffic control tower cab.
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