Next Generation Aviation Technologies
WHO WE ARE
The Future Flight Operations Team (FFOT) focuses on the analysis, design, and operation of next-generation air transportation systems.
Our research is grounded in real operational data, physics-based modeling, and optimization-driven decision making, with the goal of enabling safe, efficient, and scalable future air operations.
Our core research areas are:
WHAT WE DO
With ever increasing air traffic volume, safe and efficient management of air traffic is becoming increasingly important. Instead of focusing on improving individual air vehicles, we research how to optimally operate those vehicles as a system to achieve the goal. Air Traffic Management related topics that we have tacked include,
Efficient scheduling algorithms for integrated arrival and departure management at airports.
Human-in-The-Loop (HiTL) simulation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to assess the viability of their integrated operation with current manned traffic.
FFOT conducts aircraft design research from an operations-driven and system-level perspective, focusing on how vehicle-level design choices translate into mission performance and operational efficiency. Our work emphasizes multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) that integrates aerodynamics, propulsion, energy, and performance modeling, with particular attention to electric and unmanned aircraft configurations. By leveraging efficiency maps, performance trade studies, and physics-based optimization methods, we develop design methodologies that capture realistic operational constraints and enable informed decision-making in conceptual and preliminary aircraft design.
FFOT studies unmanned aircraft systems as integrated operational systems, encompassing aircraft, sensors, communication links, ground control, and traffic management. Our research focuses on safety assessment and operational readiness for UAS operating in shared airspace, with particular emphasis on detect-and-avoid (DAA) performance, human-in-the-loop evaluation, and trajectory-based analysis using realistic flight data. By examining nominal, abnormal, and contingency scenarios—including communication failures—FFOT develops data-driven methodologies that support the safe and scalable integration of UAS into future airspace systems.