Simulating Civilian and U.S. Military Use of European Airspace

A request for modeling of the European air traffic environment was addressed using an existing playback and analysis capability. Previously used only to represent United States (US) airspace, the tool was accoutered to handle civilian air traffic over Europe and part of southwest Asia, as well as U.S. military flights pursuing specific tactical missions. Analysts and developers searched the World Wide Web and were able to identify and retrieve several key elements necessary for a simulation: a source for commercial traffic routes, traffic growth factors for future years, the upper wind field, and formulae for discerning localized traffic congestion. The completed simulation infrastructure was used to answer questions regarding purchasing advanced avionic equipment for the U.S. military aircraft fleet. Full details addressing those questions can be found in (Wigfield, 2006)