![](media/image1.jpeg){width="1.320138888888889in"
height="1.1298611111111112in"}**Fact**Sheet

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

**Langley** **Research** **Center**

Hampton, Virginia 23681-0001 FS-2002-07-59-LaRC

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SMALL AIRCRAFT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

**NASA-led technology effort aims to increase\
mobility, access for smaller communities**

![](media/image2.jpeg){width="7.497916666666667in"
height="3.3777777777777778in"}

**NASA prepares to fly the latest small plane technologies to
demonstrate the advantages of a Small Aircraft Transportation System
(SATS). This Lancair Columbia 300X has been added to the research fleet
of aircraft at NASA Langley Research Center. As envisioned, the SATS
concept supports prop and jet aircraft for business and personal
transportation for on-demand, point-to-point trips, as well as scheduled
service.**

## SATS: A bold vision

NASA has proposed a travel alternative to relieve congested interstate
highways and hub-and-spoke airports, with the potential to revolutionize
transportation accessibility and mobility.

As envisioned, the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) will free
people and products from existing delays, by allowing more access to
more communities in less time.

To prove the SATS concept will work, NASA has initiated a five-year \$69
million research plan. NASA will conduct ground and flight research at
several airports around the country, culminating in technology flight
demonstrations by mid-2005.

SATS offers an on-demand, point-to-point, widely distributed
transportation system. It relies on advanced 4- to 10-passenger aircraft
using new operating capabilities. Such a system promises improved
safety, efficiency, reliability and affordability for small aircraft
operating within the nation\'s 5,400 public-use-landing facilities.
About 98% of the U.S. population lives within 20 miles of at least one
of these airports.

Can you imagine these same-day travel options?

-   Business: From Chattanooga, visiting clients in Jackson, Crossville
    and Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and still making it back in time for your
    child's little league game;

-   Leisure: A family of four taking an affordable weekend roundtrip
    visit to grandparents over 300 miles away;

-   Medical: Having outpatient surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center
    in Maryland and returning to your own bed in Farmville, Va. that
    night for recovery;

-   Package Delivery: Same day prescription drug delivery to senior
    citizens in smaller communities like Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. or Port
    Arthur, Texas.

Now imagine that the aircraft and airports needed for the previous
scenarios are readily available to the public, with jet-like performance
and safety at propeller-like prices.

SATS will take advantage of a new generation of safe and affordable
aircraft that is emerging as a result of NASA investments in aircraft
technology. Advancements include revolutionary propulsion systems,
improved cockpits, synthetic vision, new communication systems and
real-time weather data. These investments were made possible through
NASA's General Aviation Propulsion (GAP) and Aviation Safety (AvSP)
Programs, and the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments
(AGATE).

SATS will use advanced communication technologies to eliminate the need
for control towers and ground-based radar systems at small airports.
These advancements will allow multiple aircraft to takeoff from and land
at the smallest of neighborhood airports, in nearly all weather
conditions.

Early consumers of SATS are expected to have access to
"jet-taxi-services" with hired pilots. Scheduled services will likely
emerge where travel demand requires and as entrepreneurs discover and
meet growing consumer need.

# The 5-year research plan

The SATS five-year research plan will invest in four operating
capabilities: (1) high-volume operations at airports without control
towers or terminal radar facilities; (2) technologies enabling safe
landings at more airports in almost all weather conditions; (3)
integration of SATS aircraft into a higher capacity air traffic control
system, with complex flows and slower aircraft, for en route flights;
and (4) improved single-pilot ability to function competently in
evolving, complex national airspace.

# Public/private partnership

NASA has taken an important step towards proving the feasibility of the
SATS concept. The National Consortium for Aviation Mobility (NCAM) has
been selected to partner with NASA, as well as with other government
agencies including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the
Department of Transportation (DOT).

This federal-NCAM partnership will develop air mobility concepts for
on-demand city-to-city transportation. Its research will culminate in a
joint NASA/FAA/industry technology flight demonstration of the SATS
operational capabilities. The results will establish the basis for
future decisions by local, state and federal policy makers regarding
SATS and air transportation.

NCAM is made up of over 130 members from private businesses and public
entities nationwide, and expects to grow. Members include industry
partners from the AGATE Alliance Association Inc.; state/regional
SATLABS partnerships and other state and local aviation authorities;
airport operators; general aviation manufacturers; transportation
services suppliers; transportation research institutions (including
universities); pilot training institutions; and suppliers of
communication, navigation and surveillance systems for small
transportation aircraft.

*For more information on the NASA SATS program, visit*
**[http://sats.nasa.gov](http://sats.nasa.gov/).**

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="3.542361111111111in" height="2.2in"}

Affordable, small jet aircraft based on new technologies are being
manufactured today. Illustrated above is the Eclipse 500 Jet, a
six-place, twin-turbofan aircraft expected to cost less than most used
turboprops. Its all-glass cockpit and computer industry-derived avionics
and operating systems will make the most of a future small aircraft
transportation system.