Transition flight between the Autonomous Flight Airspace and automated airspace

The paper proposes a novel Autonomous Flight Airspace concept as a bridge between pure innovation and integration of the existing and envisioned highly automated ATM concepts, methodologies, metrics, and procedures. Novel technologies, operations, and procedures will lead to air traffic flows with novel properties which together with adapted geometry and organization of airspace will define the complexities of air traffic situations in the Autonomous Flight Airspace and in its neighbourhood. The problem of transition flights to and from the Autonomous Flight Airspace is addressed from the complexity of in-flight traffic situations and consequent increase in conflicts between aircraft in the area perspective. Those are the driving criteria for the positioning of transition layers between the Autonomous Flight Airspace and the controlled airspace, their organization, and management of traffic flows in both zones adjacent to the boundary between them as well.