Route Builder
Graphical, map-based tool displaying relevant NAS route information
Change is needed to the framework of identifying reroutes and types of reroutes to address shortfalls experienced by National Airspace System (NAS) users, service providers, and NextGen requirements. Currently, users need to process large amounts of information to ensure that routes identified between city-pairs are good routes. Users may spend significant amounts of time integrating, processing, and updating data in order to identify a good route. FAA specialists need to collect and combine information from various sources to determine the best routes for a given situation. This process is time consuming, and often generates results that are obsolete or incomplete by the time they are published. Lastly, NextGen recommendations for system upgrades require accessibility to a robust route-planning tool that can allow for rapid prototyping of alternative rerouting strategies and route validation prior to submission.
Route Builder is a map-based interface which can assist users and service providers in generating routes between airport pairs, and supports NextGen recommendations. Route Builder is capable of generating routes such as shortest flyable path, Coded Departure Routes, Instrument Flight Rules preferred routes, Playbook routes and historically filed flight plan routes. It integrates and displays information from various sources, and incorporates user route preferences, preferred departure and arrival fixes, NAS elements to avoid, and types of airways to fly, among others.
Route Builder has the capability to include impact of forecast wind and constrained regions in the NAS to identify the best route options. The Automatic Route Creation capability incorporates departure and arrival procedures along with basic route validation of routes when identifying routes between airports. Metrics are created for each route including length of route (in nautical miles), average distance from the great circle arc, and estimated time to fly the route (automatically updated when forecast wind is used). It also has the capability for rapid prototyping of alternative rerouting strategies to quickly understand the impact of dynamic changes on route options.
Route Builder will provide many benefits, including efficient route planning and capability for rapid prototyping of alternative rerouting strategies, increased common situational awareness, and improved capacity utilization.
