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Model Development History

1973-1983       In its early airport simulation development and application, ASI used the Simscript language on large IBM mainframe computers. Graphical demonstrations could be done only by post-processing of the simulation output to create 16mm films.

1983-85 When personal computers became available in 1983, the simulation program was reprogrammed in Pascal to run under DOS on a desktop machine to produce a concurrent animated display. This program was named The Airport Machine.

1986-97 The DOS/Pascal versions 1.0 to 6.0 of the model were used extensively for airport design studies and continued to be enhanced with new features.

1997-1998 With the advent of the Windows operating system, the C++ programming language was adopted in order to take advantage of the improved user interface, and to enhance the graphics of the displayed animation. Windows versions AM3D1_0 to 1_3 incorporated functions for finding optimal routes, and for plotting of results that previously had been separate programs. The Windows environment also made it possible to reduce the number of monitors required to run the program from two to one.

The DirectX graphics language made possible introduction of 3D graphics to the program.

1998-2001 Many enhancements were incorporated into versions AM2_0 to 2_1 during this period, such as: runway markings, runway fillets, texture tiling, and unidirectional runways. These were followed by versions AM3D3_0 to 3_3, which added: TMA routes, enhanced deicing, and a speed bar to easily adjust simulation speed.

2001-2005 AM3D4_0 to 4_4 continued enhancement of the model, capitalizing on technological advances in computer speed and memory plus greatly improved new graphics cards in order to provide:

  • faster graphics
  • increased taxiway features such as width and priority
  • holding of pushbacks
  • more aircraft sizes
  • relaxed limits on the number of many airport features
  • holding at gates due to runway and deicing constraints
  • color coded display of current aircraft delay state
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    2005-present AM3D5_0 was released to update the model to use DirectX5, the most recent version of the Windows graphics interface, in place of the previous version, DirectX4. In addition, it is now possible to record videos of a simulation run for later playback on another computer.