Analysis of aircraft surface motion at Boston Logan International Airport

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the nature of aircraft surface motion on the airport surface during normal operations. Twelve hours of radar data, gathered by MIT Lincoln Laboratories from Logan airport in Boston, were made available for this study. Specifically, the data included target position reports from the ASDE-3 surface surveillance radar and the ASR-9 radar from the near terminal airspace information. This data covers a variety of runway configurations, weather conditions, traffic levels and high or low visibility conditions. The study is divided into three sections. The first one focuses on the runway, and examines occupancy times, exit velocities, exit usage and velocity profiles of the final approach and landing phase. The second section, analyzes fourteen runway-taxiway intersections. Results are presented for the crossing times and usage of these intersections. The analysis also focuses on relating crossing times and usage to crossing direction, runway configuration and aircraft size. Finally, average taxiway velocities and the overall taxiway usage is measured. Additionally, the role that the location of the taxiway segment as well as its length, plays in the variation of these velocities are examined. Where possible, this study includes means, standard deviations and sample sizes of the variables in question.