Northwest uses lab to visualize terminal designs

Detroit Metro Airport, the Northwest Airlines hub, will soon undergo a massive change. Northwest is currently working on its Midfield Terminal project, a $1-billion creation which will introduce two new concourses with a total of 74 gates, a 12,000-space parking garage, an intricate system of roads and a power plant. The new terminal will replace Northwest's current facilities at Metro Airport and will attempt to improve the airline's service in Detroit.

To help undertake this large-scale plan, Northwest has commissioned a group of researchers at the University to develop a virtual reality model of the entire project.

The specialists, headed by Klaus-Peter Beier, a research scientist in the University Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Department, will translate existing sketches of the terminal into Virtual Reality Modeling Language. Beier will then publi

TAL NURIEL/Daily Research scientist Klaus-Peter Beier uses imaging equipment to view a virtual model of a new Northwest terminal.

sh his virtual reality models on the web for viewing by members of Northwest, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration.

"The virtual reality helps the FAA to conduct studies on the terminal," Beier said. "With it, they are able to check things such as the visibility from the viewing by members of Northwest, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration.

"The virtual reality helps the FAA to conduct studies on the terminal," Beier said. "With it, they are able to check things such as the visibility from the control tower."

The virtual reality terminal design provides the ability to change the model in any way and then see how the terminal operates with those modifications.

"VR has a lot of advantages over physical models," said Ross Barna, an Engineering sophomore who has been working on the project. "With VR, you can make any kind of manipulations you want."

Beier used the height of the control tower as an example of one of the most important features that can be modified.

"By increasing the height of the tower, you can check to make sure that all parts of the terminal are visible from the tower," Beier said.

Other adjustments are also possible.

"You can also turn on and off aircraft, change or magnify viewpoints, change the size of an airplane, change the design of a structure, or even pick up and move around the tower," Barna said.

Beier's group has been working on the Midfield Terminal project since October. The new terminal will include the West Concourse, which will handle smaller private planes, and the East Concourse, which will handle all publicly used aircraft.

"There will also be a people-mover-type vehicle, which will transport the public from one side of the terminal to the other," Beier said. "This is good, since Metro Airport is hard to get around now."

Northwest said it hopes the project will improve facilities at Detroit Metro, its largest hub. In a recent study by a Los Angeles-based research firm, Plog Research, Inc., Detroit Metro ranked lowest overall among 36 metropolitan airports, with the lowest ranking in four of eight categories, including speed of baggage delivery, ease of reaching gates, availability of ground transportation and ease of following signs.

Northwest carries part of the responsibility for many of these problems since it is responsible for about 74 percent of all of Metro Airport's traffic.

Jim Faulkner, manager of media relations at Northwest, said the Midfield Terminal project is an attempt to better service in Detroit.

"Northwest has outgrown its facilities at Detroit Metro airport," Faulkner said. "It definitely needs work."

The Midfield Terminal project is currently under construction and is expected to end sometime in 2001. Mr. Beier's VR model of the new terminal is password protected and cannot be accessed by the public.

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