Critical Review of Wake Vortex Mitigation Concepts in Human Factors

Abstract

To increase capacity, the air transportation industry has shown interest in wake mitigation, with the goal of reducing the in-trail separation between leading and trailing aircraft operations. Wake vortex separation is a major impediment to this goal. Replacing the current, static wake separations with dynamic separations, based on airport fleet mix or environmental and aircraft factors, could increase airport and airspace capacity. This paper describes a research effort to locate, review, and summarize already developed or currently proposed dynamic wake mitigation separation concepts. This study also discusses the technical feasibility and implementation challenges of each concept, identifies possible research gaps, and proposes future research recommendations.