NASA Aeronautics Update

FAA REDAC E&E Subcommittee Meeting

March 18, 2015

John A. Cavolowsky

Director

Airspace Operations and Safety Program

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Aeronautics Research Six Strategic Thrusts

Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations

Enable full NextGen and develop technologies to substantiallyreduce aircraft safety risks

Innovation in Commercial Supersonic Aircraft

Achieve a low-boom standard

Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles

Pioneer technologies for big leaps in efficiency and environmental performance

Transition to Low-Carbon Propulsion

Characterize drop-in alternative fuels and pioneer low-carbon propulsion technology

Real-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance

Develop an integrated prototype of a real-time safety monitoring and assurance system

Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation

Develop high impact aviation autonomy applications

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NASA has used that updated global perspective, along with inputs from the aviation community, to organize our portfolio into six areas where we know we can conduct research and development that will have beneficial outcomes:

Safe, efficient growth in global operations. For example, our Precision Departure Release Capability tool. It’s software that automatically transfers an aircraft’s predicted take-off data to its destination in order to improve arrival scheduling, saving time and fuel.  We transferred PDRC to the FAA in August 2013 for future deployment at air traffic control centers.

Innovation in commercial supersonic aircraft.  WSPR [“Whisper”] used flight tests, sensors and community surveys to help us decide how low a sonic boom has to go to not be a problem. Prove the boom can be busted and perhaps change the ruling prohibiting supersonic flight over land, and open up a whole new market.

Ultra-efficient commercial transports. We’ve taken two designs for aircraft you might see in 15 or 20 years from paper concept to subscale models to wind-tunnel tests to see if they perform as promised. Things look good for dramatic reductions in fuel use, noise and emissions.

Transition to low-carbon propulsion.  ACCESS is a flight campaign that’s investigating emissions from alternative jet fuels to see if they really are less harmful to the environment.

Real-time, system-wide safety assurance. Data mining is key to maintaining safety in the Next Generation Air Transportation System. We develop new algorithms – sets of rules that solve problems – to mine terabytes of aircraft data to diagnose and predict problems. Some airlines are already using our solutions to improve operations. 

Assured autonomy for aviation transformation.  For example, we’ve flight tested a technology called ADS-B on a NASA unmanned aerial system to see whether its ability to provide more detailed information improved the comfort level of air traffic controllers and other pilots with autonomous aircraft. Phase one flights went very well and tests continue. 	 

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Mission Programs

Seedling Program

ARMD Programs with Strategic Thrusts

Integrated Aviation Systems Program

Flight Research-Oriented Integrated, System-Level R&T supporting all six thrusts 

X-Planes/Test Environment 

Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program

High-risk, leap-frog ideas supporting all six thrusts

Critical cross-cutting tool development

Airspace Operations and Safety Program

Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations

Real-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance

Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation

Advanced Air Vehicles Program

Ultra-Efficient Commercial Transports

Innovation in Commercial Supersonic Aircraft

Transition to Low-Carbon Propulsion

Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation

www.nasa.gov

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Advanced Air Vehicles Program

Advanced Air Transport Project (AATT) Conducts fundamental research to improve aircraft performance and minimize environmental impacts from subsonic air vehicles

Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology Project (RVLT) Develops and validates tools, technologies & concepts to overcome key barriers, including noise, efficiency, & safety for vertical lift vehicles

Advanced Composites Project (ACP) Conducts research to reduce the timeline for certification of composite structures for aviation

Cutting-edge research that will generate innovative concepts, technologies, capabilities & knowledge to enable revolutionary advances for a wide range of air vehicles.

Commercial Supersonics Technology Project (CST)  Explores theoretical research for potential advanced capabilities & configurations for low boom supersonic aircraft. 

Aeronautical Evaluation & Test Capabilities Project (AETC)  Ensures the strategic availability, accessibility, & capability of a critical suite of aeronautics ground test facilities to meet Agency & national aeronautics testing needs

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Airspace Operations and Safety Program 

This program integrates the Airspace Systems Program and Aviation System Program system safety work 

Continues Airspace Systems Program research, and the aircraft state awareness research and system wide safety research that was previously conducted within the Aviation Safety Program.

Develops and explores fundamental concepts, algorithms, and technologies to increase throughput and efficiency of the National Airspace System safely. 

Provides knowledge, concepts, and methods to the aviation community to manage increasing complexity in the design and operation of vehicles and the air transportation system. 

Airspace Operations and Safety Program

Projects

Airspace Technology Demonstrations

SMART NAS Testbed for Safe Trajectory-Based Operations

Safe Autonomous System Operations

Mission Program

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NASA has used that updated global perspective, along with inputs from the aviation community, to organize our portfolio into six areas where we know we can conduct research and development that will have beneficial outcomes:

Safe, efficient growth in global operations. For example, our Precision Departure Release Capability tool. It’s software that automatically transfers an aircraft’s predicted take-off data to its destination in order to improve arrival scheduling, saving time and fuel.  We transferred PDRC to the FAA in August 2013 for future deployment at air traffic control centers.

Innovation in commercial supersonic aircraft.  WSPR [“Whisper”] used flight tests, sensors and community surveys to help us decide how low a sonic boom has to go to not be a problem. Prove the boom can be busted and perhaps change the ruling prohibiting supersonic flight over land, and open up a whole new market.

Ultra-efficient commercial transports. We’ve taken two designs for aircraft you might see in 15 or 20 years from paper concept to subscale models to wind-tunnel tests to see if they perform as promised. Things look good for dramatic reductions in fuel use, noise and emissions.

Transition to low-carbon propulsion.  ACCESS is a flight campaign that’s investigating emissions from alternative jet fuels to see if they really are less harmful to the environment.

Real-time, system-wide safety assurance. Data mining is key to maintaining safety in the Next Generation Air Transportation System. We develop new algorithms – sets of rules that solve problems – to mine terabytes of aircraft data to diagnose and predict problems. Some airlines are already using our solutions to improve operations. 

Assured autonomy for aviation transformation.  For example, we’ve flight tested a technology called ADS-B on a NASA unmanned aerial system to see whether its ability to provide more detailed information improved the comfort level of air traffic controllers and other pilots with autonomous aircraft. Phase one flights went very well and tests continue. 	 

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FY 2016 Budget
|                                     | Actual  | Enacted | Request | Outyears are Notional |         |         |         |
|-------------------------------------|---------|---------|---------|-----------------------|---------|---------|---------|
| Budget Authority ($M)               | FY 2014 | FY 2015 | FY 2016 | FY 2017               | FY 2018 | FY 2019 | FY 2020 |
|                                     |         |         |         |                       |         |         |         |
| Aeronautics                         | $566.0  | $651.0  | $571.4  | $580.0                | $588.7  | $597.5  | $606.4  |
|                                     |         |         |         |                       |         |         |         |
| Airspace Operations and Safety      |         |         | 142.4   | 153.2                 | 159.6   | 160.0   | 163.0   |
| Advanced Air Vehicles               |         |         | 240.9   | 243.2                 | 241.2   | 231.0   | 232.8   |
| Integrated Aviation Systems         |         |         | 96.0    | 85.6                  | 89.0    | 101.6   | 104.8   |
| Transformative Aeronautics Concepts |         |         | 92.1    | 98.0                  | 98.9    | 104.9   | 105.8   |
| Aviation Safety                     | 80.0    |         |         |                       |         |         |         |
| Airspace Systems                    | 91.8    |         |         |                       |         |         |         |
| Fundamental Aeronautics             | 168.0   |         |         |                       |         |         |         |
| Aeronautics Test                    | 77.0    |         |         |                       |         |         |         |
| Integrated Systems Research         | 126.5   |         |         |                       |         |         |         |
| Aeronautics Strategy and Management | 22.7    |         |         |                       |         |         |         |

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FY 2016 Budget Highlights

World leading UAS integration research: 

Completes a flight test campaign to provide data to the FAA to verify and validate Minimum Operational Performance Standards to enable safe, limited operations of UAS in the National Airspace System.

Expands upon UAS Traffic Management (UTM) Build 1 capabilities to enable dynamic UAS mission and trajectory adjustments providing increased safety and operational complexity for an expanded range of aircraft and business objectives. 

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Transformative concepts and technologies:  

Develops a detailed conceptual design of a revolutionary hybrid gas-electric propulsion system which has potential benefits of reduced noise, emissions, and energy consumption compared to today’s turbine engines.

Continued success in transitioning NextGen ATM technologies to the FAA:  

Completes development of the prototype Flight-Deck Interval Management Avionics for ATD-1 and prepare for future flight trial validation.  

High-Impact collaborations to reduce aircraft environmental impacts:

Begins a series of flight demonstrations to both mature candidate environmentally friendly technologies and transfer them to US industry

Begins high-fidelity validation experiments to improve accuracy of computational tools used in advanced aircraft design.

Truss-Braced Wing Concept in the NASA Transonic Dynamics Wind Tunnel

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NASA

Aeronautics Research

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NASA Presentation Sign-Off Page

Sept 26, 2014 - TACP

Aeronautics Research and Technology Roundtable

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What is the Transformative Aeronautics Concept Program?

Solicits and encourages revolutionary concepts

Creates the environment for researchers to become immersed in trying out new ideas

Performs ground and small-scale flight tests

Drives rapid turnover into new concepts

Cultivates multi-disciplinary, revolutionary concepts to enable aviation transformation and harnesses convergence in aeronautics and non-aeronautics technologies to create new opportunities in aviation

Knocks down technical barriers and infuses internally and externally originated concepts into all six strategic thrusts identified by ARMD, creating innovation for tomorrow in the aviation system. 

Provides flexibility for innovators to explore technology feasibility and provide the knowledge base for radical transformation. 

Seedling Program

Transformative Aeronautics Concept Program

While mission programs focus on solving challenges, this program focuses on cultivating opportunities.

Projects

Leading Edge Aeronautics Research for NASA

Transformational Tools And Technologies

Convergent Aeronautics Solutions

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