National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

APR-JUN 2017 | Quarter 3

Approved FAA-NASA Research 

Transition Plan

5

ATDs Featured at NASA Tech Day 

on the Hill

15
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

AOSP IN THE NEWS

America’s Plan to 

Somehow Make Drones 

Not Ruin the Skies

Wired US (5/03) reports that 

NASA is supporting the quest 

with its unmanned aircraft traffic 

management research program.

Air Traffic Control for 

Drones Is Coming. Here’s 

How It Could Work

The Los Angeles Times (5/05) 

reports that NASA, along with the 

Federal Aviation Administration 

and an extensive list of industry 

partners, has been researching the 

requirements needed to establish a 

drone traffic management system. 

This summer, some of those ideas 

will be tested in the field.

Drones Flying by Airports 

Coming Soon(ish)

Nextgov (5/05) reports the sheer 

number of potential drones in the 

airspace mean FAA and its partners NASA and various technology 

companies continue to look at how 

automation and “self-separation” play 

roles in the UAS Traffic Management 

system expected sometime in 2019.

New FAA Regulation Opens the 

Door to Drones Responding to 

Events in Real Time

Commercial UAV News (5/09) 

reports “this work is intended to be 

a first step toward a comprehensive 

UTM system. By agreeing on things 

like the data format for reporting 

flight plans and a common system for 

organizing that data, the industry and 

the FAA are defining the fundamental 

building blocks of the UTM: who 

is flying, where they are flying, and 

when. We’re also leaning on NASA’s 

efforts and the Global UAS Traffic 

Management Association (GUTMA) 

to help inform the LAANC working 

group. There is still a lot of work 

to be done before we get to a truly 

comprehensive UTM system, but I’d 

be lying if I said it isn’t fun working 

to make this happen.”

NASA, University Sign 

Agreement to Advance 

UAS Technology

Unmanned Aerial (5/10) reports 

today that representatives from 

NASA Armstrong Flight Research 

Center, Lone Star UAS Center 

of Excellence and Innovation 

(LSUASC) at Texas A&M 

University-Corpus Christi (Island 

University), and Texas A&M 

University System will sign a new 

space act agreement to further 

autonomous unmanned aircraft 

systems (UAS) technology.

Drones Are Getting Their 

Own Air Traffic Control with 

No Need for Humans

Gizmodo (5/16) reports one way 

NASA research is dealing with 

this is by facilitating what is called 

uncontrolled airspace, basically space 

that isn’t regulated by air traffic 

management. Requiring drones 

to operate in this specific air space 

can prevent them from potentially 

crashing into commercial aircraft. 

That said, NASA is planning to 

eventually integrate drones into air 

space with manned-aircraft.

How to Track Drone Traffic? 

NASA Uses This Mobile 

Command Center

Product Design & Development 

(5/16) reports at AUVSI’s Xponential 

show last week, NASA was on 

hand to demonstrate the traffic 

management systems that will be 

needed if large “swarms” of drones 

start operating as part of big industry 

in commercial airspace.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 3

AOSP IN THE NEWS

The Real Reason to Get 

Pumped about Drone Delivery

CNET (5/20) reports that NASA 

just announced new technology it 

developed for autonomous crash 

management to potentially help 

delivery drones land safely in highly 

populated areas should something 

go wrong.

NASA’s New Tech Could 

Help Drones Safely Land 

During Emergencies

Fortune US (5/28) reports that 

Patricia Glaab, an aerospace 

technologist at NASA Langley 

Research Center, said she and her 

fellow NASA colleague and husband, 

Lou Glaab, have developed crashlanding software for drones.

NASA Drone Traffic 

Management Tests 

Take Off in Reno

ITS International (5/30) reports 

NASA and its partners are in the 

midst of testing the next, more 

complex version of its unmanned 

aircraft systems (UAS) traffic 

management (UTM) technologies 

with live, remotely-operated aircraft, 

or drones, at six different sites 

around the US.

NASA Creating Air Traffic 

Control System for Drones

KGO-TV (6/06) reports pilots have 

flight simulators and NASA has a 

full-sized simulator for air traffic 

control. They’re building a whole 

new kind of air traffic control, not 

for airplanes but for drones.

NASA Tests Drone 

Traffic Management

GCN.com (6/09) reports NASA 

wrapped up the second level 

of testing for its cloud-based 

unmanned aircraft systems traffic 

management platform.

Drone Delivery Hinges 

on Block-by-Block 

Weather Forecasts

Bloomberg US (6/21) reports 

weather reports for drones will rely 

on multilayered systems of groundbased weather gauges, sensors on 

the drones themselves, and data 

from national weather services, 

all feeding computer models, 

said Marcus Johnson, a research 

aerospace engineer at the NASA 

Ames Research Center at Moffett 

Field, California. “It’s not an easy 

solution,” he said.

Senators Look to Boost Safe 

Drone Use in New Legislation

Fedscoop (6/23) reports that the 

bill would require NASA and the 

Secretary of Transportation to create 

an implementation plan for UAS air 

traffic management, due within a 

year of the bill’s passage in addition 

to establishing a working group to 

recommend federal policy for future 

communications. 
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

TCL-2 National Campaign 

Tests Completed 

POC: ARWA AWEISS

This quarter proved to be very 

exciting for the Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems (UAS) Traffic Management 

(UTM) team. Connectivity testing 

of each National Test Site with the 

NASA Flight Information Management System (FIMS) began in 

mid-April. This testing was critical to 

prepare the team to fly UAS in UTM 

controlled airspace for the Technology Capability Level 2 (TCL-2) 

National Campaign during the following months. NASA provided the 

check-out documents for testing the 

connections from each industry partner to the FIMS platform. Partners 

continued testing their connections 

to the FIMS according to NASA’s 

Application Program Interfaces 

(APIs), Interface Control Documents 

(ICDs), and other checkout documents. Researchers began shakedown 

testing in mid-May at NASA and the 

FAA’s UAS test sites and concluded 

data collection runs with NASA’s 

FIMS research platform on June 9, 

according to NASA’s APIs, ICDs and 

check-out documents for TCL-2. 

Each test site flew multiple UAS in 

beyond visual line of site operations 

for several use cases. Project team 

members observed flight tests at the 

test sites and monitored the campaign from the UTM Lab at NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California.

The Nevada UAS National Test 

Site hosted a media day on May 25 

to showcase UTM and example 

operations of UAS as part of TCL-2. 

The flight demonstration, called the 

UTM TCL-2 National Campaign, 

focused on flying small, remotelyoperated aircraft–or drones—beyond 

the pilot’s line of sight in sparsely 

populated areas to demonstrate, 

evaluate, and refine functional designs 

and UTM technology prototypes. 

Participants in the Nevada tests 

included Amazon Prime Air, Airmap, 

the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority, 

the University of Nevada Reno, 

Carbon Autonomous, and Flirtey 

UAS. Thomas Prevot, the lead UTM 

representative, was interviewed by 

a local television station and other 

media. The news clip can be found at:

http://www.ktvn.com/category/170899/video-landing-page?

clipId=13361871&autostart=true

From June 5 through 9, NASA 

researchers completed the data 

collection flight tests, conducting 

multiple, simultaneous beyond line 

of sight operations with about 40 

partners connected to the NASA 

research platform for the TCL-2 

campaign at the Alaska, New York, 

North Dakota, Texas and Virginia 

test sites. The Nevada test site 

completed testing in May. All test 

sites used NASA’s UTM research 

platform, a prototype of the FIMS 

that will be transitioned to the 

FAA, and a UAS Service Supplier 

(USS) technology prototype that 

determines performance standards 

and requirements of industry and 

visualization tools for iPads, PCs and 

the UTM lab video wall. These tools 

allowed researchers to view the data 

sent to the data collection system, 

observe the operations, and validate 

the data feeds at Ames in real-time. 

Five companies implemented their 

USS and connected them to the 

NASA systems. NASA researchers in 

the field collected data on information requirements for operators and 

determined what types of information service suppliers will need to 

share with each other. Results from 

the TCL-2 national campaign will 

feed into designs and features of the 

next technical capability level for 

FIMS and USS, as well as refined 

operation concepts and use cases. 

A separate media day was held on 

June 6 at Ames’ UTM Lab and 

three of the UAS National test sites 

to highlight UTM TCL-2 National 

Campaign testing. Local media 

were invited to visit the sites, observe 

and film UTM and unmanned 

vehicle flights, and to interview 

NASA and test site personnel. 

J.D. Harrington of the Public Affairs 

Office at NASA Headquarters (HQ) 

led the media day. NASA attendees 

included Tom Prevot, Joey Rios, 

Ron Johnson, Marcus Johnson, 

and Jeff Homola. Below are links 

to media coverage of the event:

Alaska

North Dakota

(Posted by The Bismarck Tribune 

and Grand Forks Herald)

Texas
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 5

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

NASA Ames

KGO-TV (ABC, Channel 7) 

Facebook Live

Following the conclusion of the 

data tests, TCL-2 national campaign 

debriefs with the six national test 

sites were completed between 

June 13 and 23. Data analysis 

is ongoing, with more data and 

final reports from the test sites 

expected by the end of June. This 

collaborative effort between NASA, 

the FAA, industry, and academia 

was a success, and demonstrated 

close-proximity BVLOS operations 

in sparsely-populated areas. The 

operational scenarios included 

package delivery, farmland 

survey, search and rescue, railway 

inspection, and video surveillance. 

The tests will be used to evaluate 

concepts developed by the FAANASA Research Transition Teams. 

ATD-2 Post Requirements 

Freeze (FRZ1) Workshop 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

The NASA Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) team 

held a Post-Evaluation Requirements 

Freeze (FRZ1) workshop from 

April 3 to 5 at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California. 

More than 50 participants from 

the NASA ATD-2 team were 

in attendance, including team 

members from Human Solutions 

Inc., Mosaic ATM, Science 

Applications International 

Corporation, San Jose State 

University Research Foundation 

and Universities Space Research 

Association. The FRZ1 meeting was 

held on March 29, with field demo 

partners and other stakeholders 

expected to reach an agreement on 

capabilities to be included in the 

Phase 1 Field Demo, which will 

go live in September of this year. 

The objective of the post-FRZ1 

workshop was to discuss key points 

from the FRZ1 meeting and to 

review critical path tasks to be 

completed before the Phase 1 Field 

Demo. The workshop provided a 

plan for completing these tasks, 

consistent with Field Demo 

Partner expectations and project 

timelines. The agenda included 

an overview of the concept of use, 

software development plans during 

the Phase 1 Field Demo, and 

plans for the next six months. 

The Phase 1 effort has shifted 

from system development to 

system hardening, and the 

Phase 2 Agile development 

process is now underway.

Approved FAA-NASA 

Research Transition Plan

POC: TOM PREVOT

FAA Administrator Michael 

Huerta recently signed off on 

the joint FAA-NASA Research 

Transition Plan in early April. 

The next steps are finalizing 

the Unmanned Aircraft System 

Traffic Management (UTM) pilot 

project. It is expected that the 

UTM pilot project will continue 

some of the Technical Challenge 

Level-2 national campaign 

activities. As part of a collaboration 

with industry, the pilot project 

demonstration is expected to have 

a Notification and Authorization 

Capability, a UTM prototype, 

and a digital ID capability. 

The ATD-2 Team
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

ATD-2 Highlighted at 

Collaborative Decision 

Making (CDM) Meetings 

POC: RICH COPPENBARGER

NASA engaged with both industry 

and FAA regarding NASA’s Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-2 

(ATD-2) research efforts during 

the Collaborative Decision 

Making (CDM) meetings held 

on Dallas on April 11 and 12. 

ATD-2 demonstrations also were 

provided at the NASA North Texas 

Research Station (NTX) to the 

CDM Automation Team (CAT) 

and Surface CDM Team (SCT) on 

April 10 and 11. Also participating 

in the demos at NTX were FAA 

managers and ATD-2 field demo 

partners from the Charlotte Douglas 

International Airport Tower, Terminal 

Radar Approach Control Center, 

the National Air Traffic Controllers 

Association, and American Airlines. 

At the SCT meeting on April 11, 

NASA presented insights from field 

demo partners gathered during 

shadow evaluations and simulations, 

along with details on ATD-2 

scheduling and metering functions. 

The following day, ATD-2 was 

the primary topic presented by the 

SCT during their progress update 

at the yearly CDM Spring General 

Session. During this session, NASA 

presented the ATD-2 project plan 

and technology maturation efforts 

leading up to the Phase 1 Field 

Demonstration. SCT representatives 

described how ATD-2 is “bringing 

to life” the Surface CDM concept 

that resulted from nearly a decade 

of collaboration between FAA 

and industry. A primary topic of 

discussion was ATD-2’s need for 

departure intent data from airlines 

in the form of Earliest Off Block 

Time (EOBT), and the need for 

scheduling algorithms that are robust 

to varying levels of EOBT quality. 

Also discussed were the ways that 

mobile applications for ATD-2 

could allow data exchange directly 

with pilots for departure scheduling 

at small airports, or for operators 

not equipped with ramp facilities. 

NASA also met with FAA managers 

to discuss how ATD-2 will influence 

requirements for the Terminal Flight 

Data Manager program, under which 

NextGen surface automation will be 

incrementally deployed nationwide. 

ATD-3 TASAR and AGI 

Meeting at NASA Langley 

Research Center 

POC: KAPIL SHETH

A meeting to discuss the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-3 

(ATD-3) Traffic Aware Strategic 

Aircrew Requests (TASAR) Flight 

Trial 3 (FT-3) and Air-Ground 

Integration was held at NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia, 

from April 11 through 13. The 

TASAR FT-3 will be held in 

May 2018, and preparations have 

begun to establish the goals for 

this activity. During the meeting, 

the goals and objectives were 

discussed by personnel from Langley, 

NASA Ames Research Center in 

California, and Advanced Aerospace 

Solutions (AdvAero), a subsidiary 

of Marinvent, a Canadian company. 

The main goals of FT-3 are to 

The ATD-2 team conducting presentations of their research activities at NTX. develop functionality to combine 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 7

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

airborne and ground weather data, 

to enhance the existing humanmachine interface, and to evaluate 

the effectiveness and benefits of 

this functionality. The FT-3 will 

be conducted on a Langley Falcon 

20 aircraft, which the team had a 

chance to visit (see image above). 

The TASAR software received 

the 2016 NASA Software of the 

Year award and a ceremony was 

held to present awards to the team 

members. A meeting to discuss 

the plans for demonstration of the 

air-ground integration activity was 

also held on the last day. The plans 

were presented to the ATD Project 

Manager on Wednesday, April 19. 

IDM TBFM Development 

“Mini-HITL” 

POC: NANCY SMITH

Researchers from the Airspace 

Operations Laboratory at NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California 

conducted a three-day Integrated 

Demand Management (IDM) 

working meeting with retired subject 

matter experts from April 11 

through 13. Activities included an 

IDM “mini-Human-in-the-Loop” 

(HITL) simulation to evaluate and 

refine scenarios, procedures, and a 

new Time Based Flow Management 

adaptation in preparation for a June 

HITL simulation. A briefing about 

the status of this year’s IDM research 

was presented to the Collaborative 

Decision Making Flow Evaluation 

Team, and included presentations 

by AOSP researchers from the 

Dynamic Routes for Arrivals in 

Weather (DRAW) element of 

Airspace Technology Demostration-3 

(ATD), and DRAW’s proposed 

Optimized Route Capability (ORC). 

Both ATD and IDM researchers 

recognized the possibilities for 

operational integration of IDM with 

DRAW, as well as the potential for 

adapting the ORC algorithm to 

support IDM re-route advisories. 

IDM Briefing to the FAA/

Industry CDM Flow 

Evaluation Team

POC: HEATHER ARNESON

Under NASA-funded NASA 

research announcements supporting 

Integrated Demand Management 

(IDM), METRON Aviation, 

Inc. and MOSAIC ATM, Inc. 

are developing a decision-support 

capability for setting rates across 

multiple Flow Constrained Areas 

in Collaborative Trajectory Options 

Programs and predicting Trajectory 

Option Sets given the traffic 

demand, available capacity, and 

airspace and weather constraints. 

On April 12, during an IDM 

briefing to the Collaborative 

Decision Making Flow Evaluation 

Team (FET), Heather Arneson and 

Deepak Kulkarni from NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California, 

Bob Hoffman from METRON, 

and Bill Hall from Mosaic ATM, 

provided presentations on this work. 

The intent of the presentations 

was to inform the FET about the 

ongoing efforts by the research 

teams that complement IDM. The 

presentations were well-received 

by the FET, who expressed interest 

in continuing the dialog on the 

research efforts. Representatives 

ATD-3 Air-Ground Integration Team in front of a Langley Research Center Falcon 20.
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

from the National Business 

Aviation Association (NBAA), 

Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, 

American Airlines, Delta, FedEx, 

and United Airlines also attended. 

Autonomy and Next Generation 

Flight Deck Symposium

POC: DR. RICHARD MOGFORD

The NASA Aeronautics Research 

Institute, in cooperation with SAE 

International, hosted the Autonomy 

and Next Generation Flight Deck 

Symposium on April 18 and 19 at 

NASA’s Ames Research Center in 

California. The Autonomy and Next 

Generation Flight Deck Symposium 

provided a forum for aerospace 

companies, government agencies, 

universities, and individuals to meet 

and share their ideas with researchers 

and industry leaders. The meeting 

encouraged discussions on the latest 

developments in engineering practices 

and fostered debate on possible 

future trends in autonomy and flight 

deck technology. The technologies 

and engineering practices that were 

discussed at the symposium are 

applicable to NASA research efforts 

involving Next Generation Air 

Transportation System NextGen, 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(UAS), UAS Traffic Management, 

spacecraft, smart sensors, artificial 

intelligence, the International 

Space Station, cybersecurity and 

transformative advanced flight decks 

and aircraft. Approximately 60 

people attended the two-day event. 

Workshop for ATD-2 NASWide Benefits Assessment

POC: RICH COPPENBARGER

On April 19, NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California 

hosted a workshop with the ATAC 

Corporation-led team responsible 

for a NAS-wide assessment of 

the benefits and costs of Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-2’s 

(ATD-2) Integrated Arrival, 

Departure, and Surface Operations 

(IADS) system. The purpose of the 

workshop was to convey details 

on IADS scheduling and metering 

functions in preparation for ATAC’s 

upcoming modeling and simulation 

studies for benefits assessment. 

The ATAC team will run fast-time 

simulations using NASA’s Surface 

Operations Simulator and Scheduler 

for key sites that include Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport, 

Dallas-Fort Worth International 

Airport, and Newark Liberty 

International Airport. Simulations 

will use traffic scenarios based on 

FAA selected canonical days in 

2016, designed to facilitate the 

extrapolation of benefits across the 

national airspace system. Benefits and 

costs will be assessed for technology 

increments representing each phase 

of ATD-2. Where applicable, 

studies will capture IADS benefits 

related to the entire metroplex, 

including potential benefits at 

satellite airports and within shared 

departure airspace. The ATAC 

team, which includes MIT Lincoln 

Laboratory and MCR, is conducting 

this investigation under a NASA 

research announcement contract that 

will conclude in 2018. To support 

discussions during the workshop, 

a live IADS demonstration was 

provided to the ATAC team; the 

demo was controlled remotely from 

the NTX and broadcast over WebEx. 

CLT ATCT/TRACON Back room 

ATD-2 Training and System 

Familiarization Session 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

On February 1, NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California hosted 

tours of some of its unique aeronautics facilities to members of the FAA’s 

Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team 

(UAST). The FAA requested the 

visit, which began with an overview 

of Ames and its aeronautics research 

presented by Deputy Director of 

Aeronautics, William Van Dalsem. 

The group then toured the Airspace 

Operations Laboratory, FutureFlight 

Central, the National Full-Scale 

Aerodynamics Complex and the 

small Unmanned Aerial System 

Autonomy Research Complex. In 

addition to the FAA, attendee organizations included AT&T, DJI, Inc., 

CNN, Amazon, the News Media 

Coalition, Pierce Aerospace, Cape 

Productions, Resilient Solutions and 

the Technology Exploration Group. 

Attendees also participated in the 

UAST’s second team meeting held 

in Mountain View on February 2. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Technical Interchange 

on System-Wide Safety 

with FAA RTT

POC: JESSICA NOWINSKI

A meeting on System Wide Safety 

Assurance Research Technology 

Transfer (RTT) took place on April 

25 at the FAA Headquarters. Jessica 

Nowinski from NASA Headquarters 

in Washington, DC, Guillaume Brat, 

and, by phone, Bryan Matthews and 

Matthew Daigle from NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California had 

a discussion with FAA stakeholders 

about progress on Verification 

and Validation, Data Mining for 

precursor detection, and Real-Time 

Safety Prediction. The RTT meeting 

enabled participants to look for new 

opportunities to share and build on 

research conducted by FAA, NASA, 

and other government agencies; clear 

roadblocks to technology sharing and 

transfer; and plan for future collaborative efforts. Various FAA stakeholders expressed interest in further 

engagement on Data Mining and 

Real-Time Safety Prediction work. 

DFW Airport Executive Vice 

President of Operations Visits 

North Texas Research Station

POC: PAUL BORCHERS

On April 25, the NASA North 

Texas (NTX) Research Station team 

hosted executives from Dallas-Fort 

Worth International Airport (DFW), 

including the Executive Vice 

President of Operations, the Vice 

President for Environmental Affairs, 

and the Vice President of Operations. 

The visitors received an orientation 

to the NTX Research Station, 

and reviewed the data-sharing 

arrangement between DFW and 

NASA established through a nonreimbursable Space Act Agreement. 

The executives also observed an 

overview of the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) project, 

including the concept, technologies, 

and plans for the Phase 1 Field 

Demonstration that will begin this 

fall at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Phase 3 of the ATD-2 

demonstration, scheduled to begin 

in September 2019, will include 

an evaluation of the ATD-2 system 

capabilities in the DFW metroplex 

environment. The DFW Airport 

leaders expressed their support 

for this ongoing collaboration. 

Air-Ground Integration 

Demonstration Meeting 

at Alaska Airlines 

POC: DAVID WING

A meeting to discuss the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-3 AirGround Integration (AGI) activity 

was held at Alaska Airlines in Seattle, 

from April 26 through 28th. During 

the meeting, personnel from NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California, 

NASA’s Langley Research Center 

in Virginia, and Robust Analytics 

discussed the implementation of air 

and ground integration parameters. 

Alaska Airlines submitted a strong 

proposal for partnering with NASA 

for the 2020 demonstration of 

NASA’s air-ground integration 

technologies. Under a previous 

Space Act Agreement (SAA), Alaska 

Airlines is installing the Traffic Aware 

Planner (TAP) software on three 

Boeing B737 aircraft. Under an 

extended SAA, to be developed and 

signed by September, Alaska Airlines 

will install the National Airspace 

System Constraint Evaluation 

and Notification tool in their 

Air Traffic Control Coordinator/

Dispatch operations, and extend the 

installation of TAP to approximately 

seven more aircraft. Under a Small 

Business Innovative Research 

Phase II contract, Robust Analytics 

developed an air-ground integrated 

solution that provides message 

communications infrastructure but 

lacks the generation of efficient 

rerouting advisories. Robust Analytics 

has proposed to extend the work 

and be a partner in this AGI activity 

with Alaska Airlines and NASA. 

FAA Low Altitude 

Authorization and Notification 

Capability (LAANC) Meeting

POC: DR. THOMAS PREVOT

On May 1, NASA participated in the 

FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization 

and Notification Capability 

(LAANC) Industry Workshop III 

in Washington, DC. LAANC will 

provide an early capability towards 

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) 

Traffic Management. The LAANC 
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

workshop reviewed the timeline, usecases, and on-boarding procedures 

for industry partners that will 

participate as UAS Service Suppliers 

(USS) in the planned LAANC 

demonstration. The NASA/FAA 

UTM Research Technology Transfer 

Concepts working group and the 

LAANC team are coordinating 

LAANC and UTM messaging, 

terminology, concepts, and activities. 

ATD-2 Project Completes FAA 

Safety Risk Management 

Review of Phase 1 Field Demo

POC: AL CAPPS

From May 9 through 11, the 

FAA conducted a Safety Risk 

Management (SRM) Review 

of the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) Phase 

1 Field Demonstration. NASA 

and its field demo partners will 

demonstrate ATD-2 integrated 

surface metering and airspace 

departure scheduling technologies 

at the American Airlines Ramp 

Control Tower, FAA Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport Air 

Traffic Control Tower, and FAA 

Washington En Route Center 

starting in late 2017. Meeting at 

the Carolinas Aviation Museum 

in Charlotte, the SRM Panel 

was composed of representatives 

from the FAA, the National Air 

Traffic Controllers Association, 

and American Airlines, who were 

responsible for implementing 

operational changes, accepting risks, 

validating identified controls, and 

implementing safety mitigations. 

The first day of the demonstration 

was focused on assessing the safety 

impacts related to the integration of 

the ATD-2 system with the FAA’s 

Time-Based Flow Management 

(TBFM) system. The last two days 

were dedicated to analyzing risks 

associated with the ATD-2 system, 

Phase 1 Concept of Use, and field 

demo site operations. The SRM 

process consists of reviewing the 

current state and the proposed 

change, identifying potential safety 

risks, and analyzing each risk by 

evaluating existing controls and 

its effect, then determining the 

severity and likelihood of the risk. 

Preliminary analysis of the safety risks 

of the ATD-2 system integration 

with TBFM indicate minimal impact 

to current operations. However, the 

plan is to implement the appropriate 

controls prior to the Phase 1 Demo. 

The SRM Panel’s report is expected 

to conclude that the ATD-2 project 

did not increase any safety risks 

to operations and its users. These 

results will be recorded in an SRM 

Document, which will complete 

a key step before operational use 

of the ATD-2 system begins. 

NASA’s ATM Research 

Featured at ATCA Technical 

Symposium, May 16-18

POC: BRYAN BARMORE AND TOM PREVOT

NASA’s Air Traffic Management 

research and development was 

showcased during the annual 2017 

Air Traffic Control Association 

(ATCA) Technical Symposium’s Tech 

Center Tuesday event on May 16 at 

the FAA William J. Hughes Technical 

Center in Atlantic City. This 

year’s theme was “Transformation 

through Operational Integration,” 

and featured technical tours, 

demonstrations, and exhibits in a 

variety of aviation fields from over 

40 different projects, programs 

and organizations. NASA had two 

booths that showcased the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration (ATD) 

sub-projects and the Unmanned 

Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic 

Attendees participating at the FAA’s SRM Review of the ATD-2 Phase 1 Field Demo Management (UTM) technologies. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

The ATD-1 concept animation 

and Avionics Phase 2 flight test 

video was featured. The ATD-2 

materials included live data views 

of the technologies that will be 

used as part of the Phase 1 Field 

Demonstration, as well as camera 

feeds of surface operations at CLT. 

The ATD booth also premiered 

the new ATD-3 concept animation 

about the integration of groundbased tools and a flight-deck-based 

tool focusing on improving en route 

and arrival phases of flight. The 

UTM booth featured joint NASA/

FAA posters, and was staffed by both 

NASA and FAA personnel. Exhibit 

visitors included government and 

industry representatives who showed 

considerable interest throughout 

the event. They were treated to a 

simulated scenario of traffic at the 

six FAA UAS test sites and in the 

San Francisco Bay Area. They could 

also view functions of the UTM 

research platform on three iPad apps 

running Insight-UTM, the UTM 

research visualization app, and on 

a display showing selected UAS 

in a Google Earth environment. 

In addition, briefings of NASA’s 

ATD’s research were provided to 

Congressmen Frank LoBiondo 

(R-NJ) and Rick Larsen 

(D-WA). Jim Eck, the FAA’s 

Assistant Administrator for 

NextGen, accompanied them.

Following Tech Center Tuesday, 

on May 17, Bryan Barmore and 

Tom Prevot of NASA participated as 

speakers on technical panels at the 

Technical Symposium in Atlantic 

City. Barmore participated in a 

panel discussion titled Transition 

of the NAS to a Time-Based 

Management System - Technologies 

and Capabilities, which also 

included senior representatives from 

the FAA and MITRE. The panel 

featured the research and technical 

capabilities planned to support 

time-based management as part 

of the FAA’s NextGen concept. 

Prevot participated with industry 

members in an FAA moderated 

panel on Risk Mitigation Activities 

for Enabling UTM Operation. 

Approximately 500 people 

attended the ATCA conference, 

with representatives from a wide 

range of industry supporting the 

FAA and air traffic control. 

NASA team staffing the NASA ATD/TBO booth at Tech Center Tuesday

NASA UTM team in front of the UTM booth at Tech Center Tuesday
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

SBIR Phase II Kickoff Meeting 

for the IMMA Prototype for 

Trajectory-Based Operations

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

A kickoff meeting for the Integrated 

Multi-Mode Automation (IMMA) 

Phase II Small Business Innovation 

Research (SBIR) program was 

held at NASA’s Langley Research 

Center in Virginia on May 17. Led 

by ATCorp, this SBIR is tasked 

with designing, building, and 

demonstrating two prototypes of 

the IMMA concept in support of 

Trajectory Based Operations (TBO). 

IMMA provides automation 

support to air traffic controllers that 

simplifies the inherent complexities 

of using a variety of different TBO 

and trajectory implementation 

strategies, such as speed and path 

control, required time-of-arrival, and 

interval management. Additionally, 

IMMA helps the controller execute 

the desired trajectories, maintain 

situational awareness at all times, and 

support off-nominal situations. This 

support tool provides automation by 

focusing the controller interactions 

on common core functions that all 

TBO operations must support, like 

determining the initial clearance 

and monitoring compliance. 

The first prototype that will be 

developed targets a near-term 

TBO environment, potentially 

within the next five to ten years, 

while the second prototype targets 

farther-term TBO operations 

more than a decade away. 

During the Phase I effort, ATCorp 

successfully demonstrated the 

technical feasibility of IMMA 

through a proof-of-concept 

demonstration. IMMA supports 

NASA’s far-term TBO research 

and has high potential for 

technology transfer to the FAA. 

Steve Bradford, Marc Buntin, 

Biruk Abraham, and Rob Hunt 

of the FAA have already expressed 

interest in staying abreast of the 

IMMA prototype development. 

This SBIR is being supported by 

the Shadow Mode Assessment 

Using Realistic Technologies for the 

National Airspace System testbed 

for Safe TBO project in AOSP. 

First Dynamic Routes for 

Arrivals in Weather (DRAW) 

HITL Simulation Completed

POC: KAPIL SHETH

The Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-3 project successfully 

conducted its first human-in-theloop (HITL) simulation data runs 

of the Dynamic Routes for Arrivals 

in Weather (DRAW) concept this 

past quarter. In preparation for 

the HITL, the team conducted 

a shakedown HITL on April 5 

and 6 that included a recently 

retired traffic manager, an area 

supervisor, and seven controller 

subject matter experts (SME). The 

simulation went smoothly, with 

no significant simulation-related 

anomalies, allowing the DRAW 

team to focus on their objectives of 

evaluating operational procedures 

and scenario traffic levels to be used 

for DRAW HITL #1—the team’s 

first data collection simulation 

scheduled for mid-May. 

Feedback from the shakedown SMEs 

showed that the DRAW functionality 

worked well, but the scenario 

complexity needed to be increased 

for the data collection runs, which 

were successfully completed from 

May 16 through 25. The DRAW 

HITL #1 was held in the Air Traffic 

Controller Lab at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California in two 

three-day sessions over a two-week 

period. Each session involved two 

recently retired traffic managers using 

and evaluating the DRAW tool, 

with the same team of five recently 

retired controllers working traffic 

downstream in both sessions. The 

primary technical objective of DRAW 

HITL #1 was to obtain feedback on 

DRAW tool usage and the singlescheduler concept of operations. 

Initial feedback from the traffic 

managers highlighted the ease of 

managing arrival traffic with DRAW. 

Traffic managers and controllers 

suggested DRAW’s effectiveness 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 13

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

and benefit over current operations 

could be accentuated further with 

more complicated scenarios in future 

HITLs. The next DRAW HITL 

is planned for late September. 

ATD-2 Familiarization 

for FAA Executives 

POC: SHAWN ENGELLAND

NASA researchers Gautam H. Shah 

and Kevin Cunningham from the 

Langley Research Center in Virginia 

hosted two groups of American 

Airlines (AAL) fleet managers and 

senior check airmen on March 

8 and 9. As part of an ongoing 

collaboration between Langley and 

AAL, Langley provided technical 

briefings and a flight simulator 

demonstration of technologies to 

enhance critical stall recognition 

and recovery simulation fidelity. 

The representatives from AAL also 

observed demonstrations of the 

Integration Flight Deck, among 

other briefings and demonstrations 

of in attention management 

technologies and display concepts 

by Technologies for Airplane State 

Awareness (TASA) researchers.

Research conducted at Langley 

within the TASA subproject has 

enabled improvements in the flight 

dynamics models of transport 

airplane simulations, so that full stall 

training may be performed during 

airline pilot training. The FAA has 

required airline training programs 

to add full stall training by 2019. 

Langley and AAL personnel plan 

additional visits to each other’s 

facilities during the coming months. 

Management by 

Trajectory NRA Technical 

Interchange Meeting

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

On June 1, the Advanced 4D 

Trajectory Based Operations 

(4DT) research team conducted a 

technical interchange meeting with 

Mosaic ATM, Inc. on their ongoing 

Management by Trajectory (MBT) 

NASA Research Announcement 

(NRA) contract at NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia. The 

MBT research team is tasked 

with defining an MBT concept of 

operations, studying the impacts 

of possible changes in roles and 

Subject Controllers Supporting the DRAW HITL Simulation

FAA executives visiting FAA Tower at CLT
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

responsibilities between the various 

agents in the air traffic system, and 

identifying the concept’s potential 

impact on system safety in a way 

that brings the National Airspace 

System closer to a full Trajectory 

Based Operations environment. In 

addition to representatives from 

Mosaic ATM, other attendees at the 

meeting included representatives 

from NASA, Honeywell, and 

Systems Enginuity, Inc. Langley 

researchers and Mosaic ATM 

discussed the contractor’s draft 

concept of operations document, 

mainly focusing on the applicable 

use cases and possible degraded 

modes associated with an MBT 

air traffic environment. This 

NRA is supported by the Shadow 

Mode Assessment Using Realistic 

Technologies for the National 

Airspace System (SMART-NAS) 

Project, and is focused on improving 

and enhancing the management 

and flow of airspace traffic within 

the National Airspace System. 

Build 1.1 delivered for 

TBO Toolkit for Integrated 

Ground and Air Research

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

Researchers at NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia 

delivered build 1.1 of the Trajectory 

Based Operations Toolkit for 

Integrated Ground and Air Research 

(TBO-TIGAR) system on June 2. 

TBO-TIGAR is a rapid prototyping 

and testing environment for 

advanced Air Traffic Management 

concepts and technologies. TBOTIGAR previously integrated 

Data Communications, Advanced 

Interval Management, and Dynamic 

Required Navigation Performance 

routing capabilities. TBO-TIGAR 

works within the Airspace and 

Traffic Operations Simulation and 

Shadow Mode Assessment Using 

Realistic Technologies for the 

National Airspace System testbed 

environments, allowing the use 

of many other NASA air traffic 

management simulation components. 

Version 1.1 increases the fidelity 

of the vehicle trajectory modeling, 

introduces the use of the Efficient 

Universal Trajectory Language 

(EUTL) to store and communicate 

trajectories, adds performance 

models for many more vehicle 

types, adds the ability to load and 

display separate truth and predicted 

wind fields, models speed advisories 

from the FAA Ground Interval 

Management for Spacing system to 

meet a scheduled time of arrival, and 

improves data collection abilities. The 

new trajectory modeling and EUTL 

format will allow for easier inclusion 

of emerging vehicle types such as 

supersonic aircraft, Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems, and personal air 

vehicles for future research. This 

version of TBO-TIGAR will be used 

to support an upcoming batch study 

measuring the trade-offs between 

different methods of delivering 

aircraft to a metering schedule. 

Remote ATD-2 Briefing and 

Demo to Stakeholders

POC: AL CAPPS

On June 9, NASA provided a 

remote Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) 

briefing and demonstration to 70 

stakeholders. FAA headquarters 

participants hailed from a variety 

of organizations, including 

NextGen, Program Management, 

System Operations and System 

Requirements. FAA and National 

Air Traffic Controllers Association 

members of the Terminal Flight 

Data Manager Operations team 

participated. Participants also 

included representatives from air 

carriers operating at the Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport 

field demo site, pilot unions, 

Dallas-Fort Worth International 

Airport, McCarran International 

Airport, and various other industry 

stakeholders. The demonstration 

started with a briefing on the ATD-2 

concept, the process to gather 

requirements from stakeholders for 

the Phase 1 Field Demonstration, 

Surface-Collaborative Decision 

Making principles used in the 

ATD-2 system, data exchange and 

integration features that facilitate 

collaboration among participating 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 15

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

operational facilities, interchange 

between the sub-components, and 

analysis tools. Following the briefing, 

NASA presenters conducted a 

demonstration of the functions of 

ATD-2 user interfaces and concept 

of use using the latest software 

running with live CLT traffic. 

Remote ATD-2 demonstrations 

will be hosted occasionally, with the 

goal of providing regular outreach 

to all interested stakeholders. 

WebEx Telecon Meeting/

Briefings with ONERA 

Representatives 

POC: KEE PALOPO

A WebEx meeting was held on June 

12 between NASA and ONERA 

representatives in Toulouse, 

France, to discuss collaboration 

opportunities on environmental 

modeling work, Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems Traffic Management 

(UTM), and the Shadow Mode 

Assessment Using Realistic 

Technologies for the National 

Airspace System (SMART-NAS) 

testbed. Attendees included 

ONERA representatives Henry de 

Plinval Salgues, Thomas Dubot, 

Sebastien Aubry, Antoine Joulia, 

and Claire Sarrat, and NASA 

representatives Kee Palopo, Tom 

Prevot, and Barry Sullivan. The 

purpose of the meeting was to 

explore the next steps of the joint 

NASA-ONERA collaboration on 

performance modeling for fuel, 

noise, and emissions. ONERA 

presented their work on the Air 

Transport Systems Evaluation 

Infrastructure platform, UTM, 

and environmental studies. NASA 

presented development on UTM 

and the SMART-NAS testbed. 

Each of the organizations discussed 

possible joint collaboration efforts 

and agreed to come up with a 

combined list of candidates to be 

coordinated with AOSP Deputy 

Director Akbar Sultan. There 

was also discussion of a possible 

visit by ONERA to NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in the near future. 

ATDs Featured at NASA 

Tech Day on the Hill 

POC: LEIGHTON QUON

On June 15, the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration (ATD) 

Project featured the three ATD 

subprojects at NASA’s Tech Day 

on the Hill at the Rayburn House 

Office Building, in Washington, 

DC. Congressional representatives, 

congressional staff, NASA’s Acting 

Administrator Robert Lightfoot, 

and NASA Headquarters staff all 

attended the event. ATD Project 

Manager Leighton Quon hosted the 

event and provided the attendees 

with descriptions of each of the ATD 

subprojects, the phases of flight and 

key objectives they each address, 

and their recent progress and 

accomplishments. Other highlights 

included the recent ATD-1 Flight 

Interval Management flight test and 

implementation of tools by the FAA. 

Lightfoot discussed recent NASA 

activities, including the visits 

by former NASA Administrator 

Charles F. Bolden to Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport 

(CLT) for the ATD-2 CLTLab 

ribbon-cutting ceremony. Lightfoot 

also shared progress on the ATD-2 

system development in the lab 

and subsequent initial hardware 

deployments to prepare for ATD-2 

Phase 1 testing in September 2017. 

He then discussed the previous visit 

to the American Airlines Operations 

Center to look at rerouting tools 

that were being tested, and the 

progress and extensions of ATD-3 

rerouting tools. Lightfoot expressed 

ATD Project Manager Leighton Quon briefing 

Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lighfoot
16 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

his thanks for the progress and hard 

work from the entire project team. 

Rep. Bobby Scott from Virginia’s 

3rd district, where NASA’s Langley 

Research Center is located, was 

present for part of the event, and 

asked about Langley’s Traffic 

Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests. 

Rep. Scott also was present for the 

ATD flight deck-related highlights. 

Technology Transfer of 

UTM Products to FAA 

POC: JOSEPH RIOS AND TOM PREVOT

On April 28, the Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems (UAS) Traffic Management 

(UTM) completed the second 

technology transfer of deliverables to 

the FAA, per the Joint Management 

Plan schedule. This technology 

transfer included the following items:

• An overview paper on the deliverables, including a summary of 

the hazard-based scenarios. 

• A NASA Technical Memorandum of the final report on the 

Data Exchange and Information Architecture working group 

(DWG) demo summarizing 

activities that define and execute 

the first demonstration of the 

NASA-FAA Research Technology Transfer (RTT) DWG. 

The demonstration focused on 

testing the interactions between 

two key components in the 

future UTM System through 

a collaborative and distributed 

simulation of key scenarios. The 

summary incorporated written 

feedback from each of the participants in the demonstration. 

In addition to discussing the activities, this report also provided 

some insight into future steps of 

this working group.

• A set of slides showing 

classifications of known vehiclebased hazards, along with their 

contributing factors, impacts 

and outcomes.

On June 23, the joint NASA-FAA 

RTT Concept Working Group completed its draft Concept & Use Cases 

Package #1: Technical Capability 

Levels (TCL) 1 & 2. The document 

details the following information:

• TCL-1: Visual line of sight operations in uncontrolled airspace 

under 400’ AGL in rural areas. 

• TCL-2: BVLOS operations in 

uncontrolled airspace under 400’ 

AGL in rural areas. 

For TCLs 1 and 2, the CWG 

developed the following products: 

1. Terms and Definitions

2. Foundational Principles

3. TCLs 1 and 2 Concept 

Narratives

4. TCLs 1 and 2 Use Cases

5. TCLs 1 and 2 Operational Views 

(OVs)

6. Roles and Responsibilities of 

actors interacting within TCL 1 

and 2 environments. 

The document is in final review 

before being released outside of 

the CWG.

Initial Exploratory HITL 

on IDM Convective 

Weather Operations 

POC: NANCY SMITH

Familiarization briefings were held 

this quarter with FAA Stakeholders 

supporting Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2). The 

first occurred on February 2, when 

NASA provided a demonstration of 

the ATD-2 system to the National 

Time-Based Flow Management 

(TBFM) Operations Team CoLeads, representatives from the FAA’s 

Future Standards and Procedures 

Group (AJV-85) and the Mission 

Support Group to the Air Traffic 

Organization. The National TBFM 

Operations Team and AJV-85, 

which sponsors the TBFM team, is 

responsible for all aspects of TBFM 

system operations, including software implementation, and testing, 

creating operating procedures, 

and providing training for the 

operational facilities. Participants 

included the AJV-85 Group and 

Team Manager, and the National 

Air Traffic Controller Association 

National Representative for TBFM. 

On March 23, the NASA team 

demonstrated the ATD-2 system 

to FAA Headquarters representatives from the NextGen Portfolio 

Management and Technology 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 17

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Development Office (ANG-C), 

and AJV-85. Participants included 

the ANG-C Director, ANG-C5 

Manager and AJV-85 Group and 

Team Managers. The ATD-2 

demonstrations were hosted at 

NASA’s lab at the Charlotte Douglas 

International Airport and used live 

data. The ATD-2 system overviews 

included a description of the goals, 

benefits, and tools developed for use 

across the various user groups, from 

air traffic control tower personnel 

to ramp managers and controllers. 

ATD-2 subject matter experts 

from Human Solutions, Inc., also 

supported the visit, and provided 

key insights on how the ATD-2 

system will be used operationally. 

The visits provided NASA with the 

opportunity to have valuable technical interchange discussions with 

AJV-85; in particular, to understand 

the FAA’s TBFM plans and inform 

the FAA on how the ATD-2 

system integrates with TBFM. 

Convergent Paths Workshop 

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

On June 20 and 21, Steve Velotas 

and Bryan Barmore from NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia 

participated in the Convergent 

Paths Workshop at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California. 

The meeting was organized by 

NASA and the International 

Air Transportation Association 

(IATA). NASA and IATA focused 

on the airspace needs of emergent 

and legacy airspace users and 

how those needs converge into 

common operations. The meeting 

was attended by senior officials 

from NASA, FAA, IATA, multiple 

traditional airlines, commercial 

space, urban air mobility, 

Unmanned Aircraft System 

package delivery companies, global 

air navigation service providers, 

Eurocontrol, and high-altitude, 

long-duration vehicle companies. 

Discussions focused on the current 

problems and future needs of the 

different aviation communities 

and how each community can 

learn from the others. There were 

engaging discussions about the 

needs of vehicles that travel at 

speeds between 25 knots (e.g., 

solar-powered surveillance vehicles) 

to Mach 2.7 (e.g., commercial 

space launch rockets) operating 

in a system designed for vehicles 

traveling at speeds similar to one 

another. Some of the emergent users 

talked about their expected growth 

plans and the need for regular access 

to the National Airspace System. 

The discussion in the afternoon on 

June 20 focused on how the whole 

system can learn and improve from 

the new ideas of the emergent 

community. Several actions were 

taken to engage the emergent 

users with the existing community, 

including the opportunity to 

influence International Civil 

Aviation Organization operational 

recommendations at a once-a-decade 

conference in December. NASA 

identified several potential research 

topics that will be considered 

during the ongoing formulation of 

 “Command Center” traffic managers assess the situation and develop a CTOP plan.
18 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

the Trajectory-Based Operations 

Services and other projects. 

TASAR Project Review 

and Connectivity Test 

Held at Alaska Airlines

POC: DAVID WING

On June 20 and 21, a status review 

of NASA’s Traffic Aware Strategic 

Aircrew Requests (TASAR) 

collaboration with Alaska Airlines 

was held at Alaska Airline’s Flight 

Operations and Maintenance and 

Engineering facilities at SeattleTacoma International Airport. 

The TASAR software application, 

Traffic Aware Planner (TAP), 

developed by NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia and 

contractor Engility Corporation, 

provides flight crews with flight-path 

optimization advisories that account 

for traffic, convective weather, 

and restricted airspace, providing 

greater acceptability to pilots and 

air traffic controllers. NASA is 

partnering with Alaska Airlines to 

install and operationally test TASAR 

in revenue service. Attending the 

review with NASA, Engility, and 

Alaska Airlines were industry 

collaborators UTC Aerospace 

Systems (UTAS), Gogo, and ACSS, 

who are providing the hardware, 

data connectivity services, and TAP 

software hosting capability to enable 

the TASAR system on board three 

Alaska B737 aircraft. The project 

remains on track for initial flights 

beginning in August, following the 

pending completion of software 

packaging by Gogo and UTAS, 

and the receipt of FAA certification 

and operational approval. 

New collaborator ACSS presented 

plans to upgrade and certify 

the traffic computer to provide 

traffic data to TAP. Alaska’s pilot 

training and mobile technology 

leads discussed the review of 

NASA’s TASAR training materials 

and found those materials to be 

“impressive” and well-suited for 

Alaska’s use. The development team 

also discussed plans for soliciting 

pilot feedback through online 

surveys following each flight. 

The meeting was held in 

conjunction with a TASAR hardware 

connectivity test conducted 

overnight on board one of the 

aircraft. The partially successful 

test demonstrated high-bandwidth 

communication between the 

UTAS and Gogo hardware. 

Additional configuration changes 

and on-aircraft testing will be 

conducted to ensure sufficiency 

for TAP data flows prior to the 

upcoming commencement of 

operational TASAR flights. 

Flight Testing of Small UAS 

(sUAS) Safety Technologies

POC: STEVEN YOUNG

On June 21 and 27, 21 test flights 

were successfully completed over 

Victory St. at NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia’s 

City Environment for Range 

Testing of Autonomous Integrated 

Navigation—nicknamed 

“CERTAIN”—test range. This 

marked the first use of this range for 

untethered research flights of small 

unmanned aircraft system (sUAS). 

The flight test vehicle was a DJI 

S-1000, equipped with various types 

of research equipment and supported 

by a Ground Control Station, safety 

pilot, and range safety officer.

During the summer months, 

NASA researchers and support staff 

conducted a series of autonomous 

small UAS flights over the streets of 

Langley, west and north of B2102. 

These tests serve in part to stage a 

major UAS Traffic Management 

(UTM) project milestone called 

Technical Capability Level-3, 

currently planned for Fall 2017. 

These tests also provide data and 

a baseline capability that support 

efficient start-up of the new 

System-Wide Safety (SWS) Project 

beginning in FY18. As part of 

the research, various integrated 

air-ground systems are being 

investigated as enablers for safe 

autonomous small UAS operations 

beyond visual line-of-sight and 

near and over populated areas. 

Airborne research instrumentation 

includes sensing, monitoring, 

and contingency management 

technologies that provide (1) 

safeguarding through independent 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 19

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

and dependable geo-conformance 

to defined “stay-in” and “stay-out” 

areas; (2) autonomous flight 

management and control to ensure 

maintaining safe proximity from 

potential hazards by using Integrated 

Configurable Algorithms for 

Reliable Operations of Unmanned 

Systems (ICAROUS); and (3) 

infrastructure inspection technology 

with ultraviolet sensors adapted to 

transmission line fault detectors. 

Ground-based systems reside within 

a ground-control station that hosts 

three functions under test: (1) 

real-time risk assessment capability 

that advises operators of predicted 

risks along or near the planned route 

of flight; (2) Safeguard/ICAROUS 

configuration management and 

data archiving; and (3) a UTMconnected client that requests 

airspace access, acquires relevant 

UTM-based information services, 

and informs UTM of aircraft 

states such as position reports. 

Continuing Shadow 

Evaluations Completed for the 

ATD-2 Phase 1 Field Demo 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

The second and third Engineering 

Shadow Evaluations (ESE) continued for the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 Phase 1 Field 

Demonstration this past quarter. 

The second evaluation, commonly 

referred to as ESE1, was conducted 

at the American Airlines (AAL) ramp 

tower and in the NASA Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport 

Laboratory (CLTLab) from 

May 30 through June 2. In the 

AAL ramp tower, two days of 

training and system familiarization 

sessions took place with ramp controllers using the Integrated Arrival 

and Departure Surface (IADS) 

prototype systems in the operational 

floor and backroom areas. This training session enabled ramp managers 

and controllers hands-on time with 

the IADS system running with 

live data. During the session, data 

exchange and integration features 

were demonstrated, and detailed 

information regarding their use and 

implementation was provided. 

In addition to the training session, 

a meeting was held in the CLTLab 

with CLT Air Traffic Control Tower 

traffic managers, the National Air 

Traffic Controllers Association 

(NATCA), AAL ramp controllers, 

and NASA personnel. This meeting 

focused on the ESE1 process 

and timeline, the steps taken to 

ensure software features for the 

Phase I Field Demonstration were 

implemented as agreed upon, the 

training procedures in development, 

and the infrastructure for operational 

use. The meeting also allowed 

for continued discussion on 

micro-benefits analysis, focusing 

on characterizing the typical traffic 

banks at CLT to help identify 

potential off-nominal events that 

may occur during operational use. 

The third ESE1 session was 

conducted on June 27 and 28, at 

CLT, and again included field demo 

partners from NATCA, CLT Airport 

Ops, AAL, FAA Headquarters, and 

Training session providing Ramp Managers and Controllers hands-on time with the IADS system
20 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

CLT ATCT, who participated in the 

ESE1. The first day offered a preview 

of recently developed capabilities 

of the IADS system at the AAL 

Ramp Tower and CLT ATCT 

backroom areas. These capabilities 

included refinements to the surface 

management user interfaces and 

analysis dashboard, a what-if 

capability, and a chat application 

for use by Traffic Managers. On 

the second day in the CLTLab, 

feedback was gathered on these 

capabilities, along with a discussion 

to finalize training processes and 

methods, and to provide updates on 

benefits analysis and data sharing. 

At the end of the day, field demo 

partners reviewed the IADS system 

readiness for the Operational 

Shadow Evaluation to support 

the Phase 1 Field Demonstration 

(OSE1), and approval was obtained. 

During OSE1, operational users will 

assess the ATD-2 system via live-data 

shadow testing in the operational 

areas. The IADS system has been 

fully deployed to all operational 

areas in the CLT ATCT/ Terminal 

Radar Approach Control Center and 

AAL Ramp Tower, and OSE1 plans 

and procedures have been vetted by 

the field demo partners. The focus 

of OSE1 is to assess readiness for 

operational use, and will include 

controller training and baseline 

human factors data collection. 

OSE1 started on July 10, and will 

be conducted through September. 

Successful completion of the OSE1 

will be the final checkpoint before 

the Phase 1 Field Demonstration 

commences on September 29.

ATD-2 Quarterly Update 

to Surface Collaborative 

Decision Making Team

POC: AL CAPPS

On June 30, NASA researchers 

participated in the joint government/

industry Surface Collaborative 

Decision Making Team (SCT) 

meeting. The session began with 

an update from the FAA on the 

status of the Terminal Flight Data 

Manager program. The remainder of 

the session was devoted to technical 

interchange on Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2). NASA 

presented an update on recent progress made towards the Phase 1 field 

demonstration at Charlotte Douglas 

International Airport. ATD-2 topics 

also included a review of efforts to 

capture and report hard-to-quantify 

benefits provided by the ATD-2 

Integrated Arrival and Departure Surface (IADS) system, a preview of the 

IADS system development roadmap 

for the coming year as NASA builds 

toward ATD-2 Phase 2, and a discussion about reducing barriers to successful technology transfer. The SCT 

remains engaged with ATD-2 plans, 

and will be integral in the technology 

transfer process to FAA and industry. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2017 21

RECOGNITION

Panel Participation on 

“Transportation Security 

in the Era of Drones”

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR

On April 3, Parimal Kopardekar 

participated in “The Evolution 

of Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(UAS)” with a panel at a forum 

entitled “Transportation Security 

in the Era of Drones.” The forum 

was hosted by the Transportation 

Security Administration (TSA) 

Office of Chief Counsel, in 

conjunction with the Federal Bar 

Association, and took place in 

Arlington, Va. The purpose of the 

forum was to discuss emerging 

UAS legal and regulatory issues in 

the nascent drone era. Kopardekar 

participated remotely and discussed 

the evolution of unmanned aircraft 

systems. Other members of the 

panel included representatives from 

the Department of Homeland 

Security, Wiley Rein, DJI, and TSA. 

 

Aviation Safety Seminar 

– Moscow, Russia

POC: AKBAR SULTAN

From April 3 through 8, Akbar 

Sultan, AOSP Deputy Director, 

traveled as part of a NASA delegation 

to Moscow to participate in an 

aviation safety seminar with the 

Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute 

(TsAGI). This seminar provided an 

opportunity to share best practices 

in the area of aviation safety and 

to demonstrate the capabilities 

and the importance of aviation 

safety, not only to Russia and the 

United States, but to the global 

aviation safety community. During 

the trip, Jaiwon Shin, ARMD 

Associate Administrator, also 

received a background briefing from 

U.S. Embassy officials, provided 

a presentation to U.S. aviation 

industry representatives in Russia, 

and met with the students and future 

leaders of TsAGI at the Moscow 

Institute of Physics and Technology. 

High Confidence Software 

and Systems Conference 

POC: DR. ALWYN E. GOODLOE

From May 8 through 10, members 

of the Safe Avionic and Air Traffic 

Management Future Evolutions 

TC team participated in the High 

Confidence Software and Systems 

(HCSS) Conference along with 

researchers, practitioners and 

managers from institutions, such 

as the National Security Agency, 

Defense Advanced Research Projects 

Agency, National Institute of 

Standards and Technology, MITRE, 

Carnegie Mellon, and Google. This 

year’s conference focused on three 

major themes: Industrialization 

of Formal Methods, Privacy, and 

Artificial Intelligence from a security 

and privacy perspective. Noteworthy 

presentations ranged in topics from 

anonymizing personal data in large 

data sets to security and privacy for 

machine learning-based systems. 

AUVSI XPONENTIAL Conference 

POC: LOU GLAAB

On March 7, John Cavolowsky, 

NASA’s Director of Airspace 

Operations and Safety Program, 

briefed the staff of the Senate 

Commerce Committee at the 

Russell Senate Office Building 

in Washington, DC. The Senate 

Commerce Staff requested the 

briefing to provide an update 

regarding the recent developments 

of Unmanned Aircraft System 

Traffic Management research. 

Paul Fontaine and Sherri Magyarits 

from the FAA’s NextGen Division, 

and Sabrina Saunders-Hodge from 

the FAA UAS Integration Office, 

were also a present at the briefing. 

Media Day at the Nevada 

Test Site During TCL-2 

National Campaign 

POC: ARWA AWEISS

On May 25, NASA researchers 

supporting the Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems (UAS) Traffic Management 

effort will coordinate with NASA 

Public Affairs on joint NASA/

test site/industry media events for 

the Technical Capabilities Level-2 

National Campaign. The first such 

event will be held during the flight 
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RECOGNITION

evaluation at the Nevada test site at 

the Reno Stead Airport. The site is 

managed by the Nevada Institute for 

Autonomous Systems on behalf of 

the Governor’s Office of Economic 

Development. Participants in the 

Nevada tests include Amazon Prime 

Air, Airmap, the Reno Tahoe Airport 

Authority, the University of Nevada 

Reno, Carbon Autonomous, and 

Flirtey UAS. A second media day will 

be held on June 6, when the other 

test sites conduct flight evaluations.

NSF Center for HighPerformance Reconfigurable 

Computing Workshop 

POC: CESAR MUNOZ

On June 5 and 6, Cesar Munoz 

from NASA’s Langley Research 

Center in Virginia attended the 

mid-year Workshop of the National 

Science Foundation Center for 

High-Performance Reconfigurable 

Computing (CHREC), held by 

the University of Pittsburgh in 

Pittsburgh. CHREC, which was 

founded in 2007, conducts basic 

and applied research on advanced 

computing for embedded aerospace 

systems. As part of its research 

portfolio on Advanced Systems 

and Missions, CHREC is currently 

investigating protocols and services 

for robust distributed computing, 

such as NASA’s Core Flight Systems 

(CFS) and Object Management 

Group’s Data Distribution Service 

Standards. Langley recently 

re-joined CHREC to work on 

the integration of CFS and Data 

Distribution Services as a reliable 

middleware for the development 

of autonomous Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems applications. At 

the meeting, Munoz presented 

the Integrated Configurable 

Algorithms for Reliable Operations 

of Unmanned Systems (ICAROUS) 

software architecture. He also 

proposed a preliminary research 

plan for a collaborative work with 

the University of Pittsburgh under 

CHREC’s Advanced Systems and 

Missions project. ICAROUS is 

being developed under NASA’s UAS 

Traffic Management subproject. 

AIAA Aviation 2017–ATD-3 

Panel

POC: LEIGHTON QUON 

Researchers from the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration 

3 (ATD-3) project hosted a 

panel during the Aviation 2017 

Conference on June 7, in Denver. 

ATD-3 is the third in a series of 

subprojects under ATD, and deals 

with the Applied Traffic Flow 

Management aspect in domestic 

en route airspace. The panel was 

moderated by Pete Kostiuk from 

Robust Analytics, and Kapil Sheth, 

Karl Bilimoria, Leighton Quon, 

and David Wing from NASA. The 

panel members briefly described 

the ATD project’s overall goal 

and its three focus areas, and the 

ATD-3 team leads described the 

technologies being developed under 

ATD-3. These technologies are 

the Multi-Flight Common Route, 

Dynamic Routes for Arrivals in 

Weather, Traffic Aware Strategic 

Aircrew Requests, and Air-Ground 

Integration. Attendees specifically 

commented on the benefit of seeing 

the overall context of the ATD 

project and the overall context of 

the ATD-3 subproject technologies. 

NASA ATD-3 team at the Aviation 2017 Conference
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RECOGNITION

ATD-2 Highlighted at 

National Customer Forum 

POC: AL CAPPS

On June 15, NASA was invited to 

speak at the National Customer 

Forum held at the FAA David J. 

Hurley Air Traffic Control System 

Command Center in Warrenton, 

VA. The audience included 

representatives from the major 

U.S passenger and cargo airlines, 

general aviation, FAA, and the 

National Air Traffic Controllers 

Association. NASA presented 

an overview of the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-2 

(ATD-2) concept and technology 

maturation effort leading up to 

the Phase 1 Field Demonstration, 

focusing on the benefit to 

industry and FAA at Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport. 

Interactions during the meeting 

provided unique perspectives on 

the benefits of ATD-2 technology, 

and further emphasized the need 

for strong collaboration. The 

audience expressed its appreciation 

for the NASA-led overviews and 

technical discussions and the 

desire for continued engagement 

on ATD-2 going forward. 

TASAR Presented at 

EFB Users Forum

POC: DAVID WING

The State of California’s “Aerospace 

and Aviation Days” event, held 

on March 28 at the state capitol 

in Sacramento, presented NASA’s 

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) 

Traffic Management (UTM) 

concept and project. Joseph Rios, 

Technical Lead for NASA’s UTM 

effort, sat on a panel to describe 

the joint effort between NASA 

and the FAA to enable access 

to the low-altitude airspace for 

small UAS. Attendees included 

California assembly members and 

industry group representatives. 

NASA Participates in 

Global UTM Conference

POC: JOSEPH RIOS

Joseph Rios, Acting Chief Engineer 

for the UTM Project, attended 

the Global Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems Traffic Management 

(UTM) Conference in Montreal 

on June 26. Approximately 100 

participants attended this conference 

sponsored by the Global UTM 

Association. Rios served as a 

panelist on the topic of UTM 

perspectives from around the world, 

which included participants from 

Japan, Europe, and Singapore. 

Science and Research 

Panel (SARP) Multiple UAS, 

Single Operator Workshop

POC: SHARON GRAVES

On June 27 and 28, a workshop 

was held by the Unmanned Aircraft 

System (UAS) ExCom Science and 

Research Panel (SARP) at MITRE’s 

McLean, Va. facility to discuss issues 

related to multi-UAS simultaneous 

operations. Participants included 

a broad cross-section of public 

UAS users, such as Alameda 

County Sheriff’s Department, 

state agencies, and government 

agencies like the Department of 

Justice, Department of Homeland 

Security, National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration, and 

NASA. The workshop identified a 

number of high-value “use cases” 

where multi-UAS operations 

using a single operator or a small 

number of operators would be the 

only way such a use case would be 

feasible. These use cases typically 

fell into two main categories: 

synchronous and asynchronous 

operations, where synchronous 

operations refer to multiple UAS 

that are focused on one goal, and 

asynchronous operations refer to 

multiple simultaneous operations 

that perform multiple tasks. 

Next, attendees identified gaps 

and barriers—both technological 

and regulatory—that prevent 

those applications from coming 

to fruition. Discussions also were 

held on policy questions such as 

whether a swarm of aircraft flying in 

unison should be treated as a single 

aircraft, or whether each individual 

aircraft should be treated as a 

separate entity, as is currently the 

case. Next steps are for the SARP 

to disseminate the results of the 

workshop and, ultimately, present 

it to the Executive Committee, 

where agencies can address gaps. 
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RECOGNITION

Air Traffic Management 

in the National Airspace 

System Presentation

POC: MATT UNDERWOOD

On June 29, Matthew Underwood 

of NASA’s Langley Research 

Center in Virginia presented 

Air Traffic Management in the 

National Airspace System (NAS) 

to a group of students and civil 

servants. The talk was part of the 

American Institute of Aeronautics 

and Astronautics Hampton Roads 

Section Career and Professional 

Development Seminars. 

Approximately 50 students and 

civil servants attended. Discussion 

focused on defining the NAS, 

highlighting the operational and 

technological complexities of the 

NAS, explaining a brief history of 

Air Traffic Control, describing what 

the future state of the NAS will 

look like, and discussing NASA’s 

role in developing that future state. 

Furthermore, an interactive demo 

was given with crowd participation 

that illustrated how a typical flight 

from Los Angeles International 

Airport to Baltimore-Washington 

International Airport is managed by 

air traffic control. The presentation 

was well received by the audience, 

and additional information and 

follow-up were requested by 

several attendees— some of whom 

were students interested in career 

opportunities with NASA. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov