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Surface Movement is one of the most challenging phases of flight. To support the flight crew in this critical flight phase
and to prevent serious incidents and accidents, of which Runway Incursions are the by far most safety-critical, the electronic
airport moving map display has evolved as the key technology to increase the flight crew's situational awareness
on the airport surface over the past decade.
However, the airport moving map is limited to quasi-static airport information due to the envisaged 28 day update cycle
of the underlying Aerodrome Mapping Database (AMDB), and thus does not include information on safety-relevant
short-term and temporary changes such as runway closures or restrictions. Currently, these are conveyed on paper
through the Pre-Flight Information Bulletin (PIB), a plain-language compilation of current Notices to Airmen
(NOTAM) and other information of urgent character. In this context, the advent of airport moving map technology leads
to a disparity in the conspicuousness of information, resulting in the danger that e.g. a runway that is not displayed as
closed on the airport moving map might be perceived as open even if contrary NOTAM information exists on paper
elsewhere in the cockpit. This calls for an integrated representation of PIB/NOTAM and airport moving map information.
Piloted evaluations conducted by the Institute of Flight Systems and Automatic Control have already confirmed the
high operational relevance of presenting runway closures on an airport moving map.
Based on the results of these trials, this paper expands our previous work by addressing the various pre-requisites of an
integral NOTAM visualization, ranging from the development of appropriate symbology to an operational concept enabling
the transition from conventional to electronic, machine-readable NOTAM information without shifting responsibility
and workload from the dispatcher to the flight deck. Employing Synthetic Vision techniques, a complete symbology
set for various cases of runway closures and other applicable runway and airport restrictions is derived, and the requirements
on the underlying machine-readable NOTAM data are discussed. Finally, the concept of an electronic
Pre-Flight Information Bulletin (ePIB) is used to facilitate the gradual integration of this technology in an airline operational
workflow.
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