Million-Dollar Makeover for Hangar

New air traffic institute will simulate and study conditions at Changi Airport with S$72 million from a CAAS-NTU tie-up.

By Wong Pei Ting

Some hand-me-downs from the Singapore Air Force at the aircraft hangar in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) will be given away to make way for a multimillion aviation research institute.

With the free space, the area will house a new research institute dedicated to the field of air traffic management, to simulate and study the actual conditions of Changi Airport.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and the university will also pump in S$72 million to service the one-year revamp of the hangar, which is the size of an Olympic-sized soccer field. An existing research lab in the hangar will also be relocated over the next few months.

“As a national endeavour, the collaboration is big. Very big,” said NTU Provost Freddy Boey in recognition of the region’s robust air traffic growth during a media conference.

“$70-over million over five years can make a big difference to the industry as it generates knowledge, know-how, and provides critical manpower needed for research in air traffic management for the region.”

To kick off interest in the institute, NTU is enrolling more PhD students who will contribute to four primary areas of research: air-ground traffic, weather forecast and information, aircraft separation and human performance.

Meanwhile, the task now is for the institute to recruit new faculty members and PhD students, and to carefully choose projects to fund, said Professor Chua Chee Kai, the Chair of MAE.

And MAE isn’t the only school that will be involved. There will be possibilities for collaboration among the 1,200-strong team of professors at NTU.

Whether it is engaging the School of Computer Engineering to look into management systems, or the Earth Observatory of Singapore to study weather issues, the institute will rope in professors who have the expertise required, said Prof Chua.

These research areas take on existing challenges at Changi Airport. They include high air and ground traffic volume, increasingly complex air traffic with the possible opening of a third runway, and weather disruptions.

CAAS and NTU tie-up

The institute, set to launch early next year, is the fruit of a tie-up between CAAS and the university.

From testing the effect of weight turbulence, to reducing the area of separation between aircraft in the air, the institute seeks to validate new technologies, said Director-General of CAAS, Mr Yap Ong Heng. It will test solutions from foreign institutes to cater to the regional market.

After all, the expanding operations at Changi Airport have become too complicated for CAAS to just buy solutions off the shelves, said CAAS’s Assistant Director-General Mr Soh Poh Theen.

“In our early days, the air hub had not reached that critical mass so we could afford to be an early adopter of established solutions.

“But now, we have crossed a certain threshold in terms of airhub size and complexity of air traffic movements,” said Mr Soh.

Addressing the needs of air traffic management will enhance the safety and efficiency of the airport’s operations, an effort to remain the region’s leading air hub.

A memorandum of agreement was signed on 5 Feb at the World Civil Aviation Chief Executives’ Forum, in witness of high-ranking officers in the field of aviation around the world.

Over the next five years, CAAS will pledge $50 million to fund air traffic research and development, while NTU will contribute $22 million in kind to prepare the facility that will house the institute and get the right expertise.

The institute will be the main thrust of the new Centre of Excellence for Air Traffic Management, which was launched last October.