National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

JUL-SEP 2019 | Quarter 4

UTM Successfully Completes 

TCL 4 Testing

4

UTM Wins Software of the Year 16
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019

AOSP IN THE NEWS

Two Corpus Christi Parks 

Close Briefly For Drone Testing

Corpus Christi (TX) Business News 

(7/25) reports that “drone testing by 

NASA in two Corpus Christi parks 

Friday, July 26, and Monday, July 29, 

will close those parks to the public 

for a short period of time each of 

those days. Watergarden Park closes 

10AM-2PM Friday, while Cole Park 

closes 8:30AM-3:30PM Monday 

for drone testing in an urban setting 

by NASA and the Lone Star UAS 

Center for Excellence and Innovation 

at Texas A&M University-Corpus 

Christi. NASA selected Corpus 

Christi as one of two sites in the 

nation for these tests.” 

Meet George Jetson’s Ride: 

Air Taxis Are Closer To Reality 

Than Many Commuters 

And Travelers Realize

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/25) 

reports “the Jetsons may be closer to 

reality than we think. Americans of 

a certain age who watched George 

Jetson commute to work at Spacely 

Space Sprockets in his personal 

spaceship have been wondering 

when we’ll get to fly to work and 

soar above traffic jams. ... Many of 

the urban air mobility designers at 

EAA AirVenture are participating in 

Boeing’s GoFly Prize, a $2 million 

contest to create new ways of flying. 

Last year NASA launched the Urban 

Air Mobility Grand Challenge 

to help companies through the 

regulatory process.”

NASA’s Air Traffic Control 

System For Drones 

Nearing Completion

Discover Magazine (8/15) reports 

that “highways in the sky are one 

step closer to becoming reality as 

NASA conducts the final planned 

tests of its traffic management system for unmanned drones in Corpus 

Christi, Texas this week. The system 

would act like air traffic control 

for drones, tracking them to help 

avoid collisions and ensure smooth 

flight paths. Testing the cloud-based 

system’s capabilities in windy urban 

areas like Corpus Christi is one 

of the biggest remaining obstacles 

before drone traffic oversight can 

be transferred from the aeronautics 

division of NASA to the FAA 

(Federal Aviation Administration).”

NASA Testing Urban Drone 

Safety Over Corpus Christi

Associated Press (8/20) reports 

“NASA is flying drones over a southeast Texas city to test the safety of 

the unmanned devices in a dense 

urban environment. The tests this 

month in Corpus Christi are part of 

a four-year project with the Federal 

Aviation Administration to develop 

a national drone traffic management 

system. NASA said in an Aug. 9 

news release that the drones are flying at altitudes between 200 and 400 

feet. It says a city presents obstacles 

that can reduce line of sight and 

hinder communication. Urban 

weather conditions can hamper 

flight, and cities often lack safe landing options.”
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019 3

AOSP IN THE NEWS

NASA Advances UTM 

Concept With Dual Drone 

Flight Demonstrations

Aviation Week (9/2) reports “results 

from NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems Traffic Management (UTM) 

project point to the complexity of 

managing small drone operations at 

low altitudes. The space and aeronautics agency completed successive 

rounds of drone flight demonstrations in two U.S. cities on Aug. 23 

using a UTM construct for traffic 

management.”

Grand Challenge Will Bring 

NASA, FAA And Industry 

Together On UAM

Aviation Week (9/18) “For the many 

new entrants in the nascent urban 

air mobility (UAM) market, dealing 

with the different parts of the FAA 

responsible for aircraft certification, 

pilot licensing, operating approval 

and airspace integration is a challenge. To streamline that interface, 

NASA has formulated its UAM 

Grand Challenge (GC) as both a 

proving ground for vehicles and procedures and an environment where 

industry and regulators can work 

together to understand the requirements and work toward consensus.”

NASA Grand Challenge 

Structured To Advance 

Urban Air Market

Aviation Week (9/25) “With a 

White House shout-out, NASA has 

launched a grand challenge aimed at 

accelerating electric vertical-takeoffand-landing (eVTOL) technology 

and the urban air mobility (UAM) 

market. But what is the role for a 

government research agency in a 

sector driven by entrepreneurial 

startups?”
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

UTM Successfully 

Completes TCL 4 Testing 

POC: RON JOHNSON

The Unmanned Aircraft System 

(UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) 

project successfully completed the 

second set of Technical Capability 

Level 4 (TCL 4) flight tests in 

Corpus Christi, Texas, this past 

quarter. The first set of TCL 4 

demonstrations took place in 

June, in Reno, Nevada. This 

second round of testing began 

with shakedown tests conducted 

during the week of July 25, at the 

Corpus Christi test ranges, with 

actual data runs being conducted 

from August 12-23. The Lone 

Star UAS Center of Excellence 

(LSUASC) coordinated the 

Corpus Christi testing, which 

included over a dozen industry 

partners and the Corpus Christi 

fire department. During the tests, 

eight live UAS (with as many 

as seven flying simultaneously) 

executed beyond-visual-line-ofsight operations in a true urban 

environment in downtown Corpus 

Christi, along the shoreline, and 

in a nearby park. Throughout the 

test period, over 419 live flights and 

647 simulated flights were flown to 

create high density UAS operations. 

The vehicles were outfitted with 

onboard systems to investigate 

their communication, navigation, 

and identification performance. 

Seven industry partners provided 

UAS Service Suppliers (USS) 

connected to the NASA Flight 

Information Management System. 

The USS controlled the drone air 

traffic through multiple scenarios 

including remote launch and 

land, building rooftop-to-rooftop 

operations, emergency responder 

Three UAS flying over the waterfront area. operations, and airspace volume 

UAS takeoff from USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier Museum for flight to Corpus Christi.

TCL 4 test team in Corpus Christi.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

restrictions. Early results indicate 

that the UTM system performed 

well in the traffic management 

functions, and areas of improvement 

were noted regarding radio 

frequency interference on UAS 

controls, global positioning system 

errors due to tall buildings, and 

micro weather in urban canyons. A 

media day was held on August 15 

and was attended by local television 

and print media. The UTM system 

was demonstrated and the press 

could see live flight operations. 

Speakers at the press conference 

included Jay Dryer, deputy associate 

administrator for aeronautics 

programs; Huy Tran, director of 

aeronautics at NASA Ames Research 

Center in California; and Ronald 

Johnson, UTM project manager. 

Discussion and Demo of IDM 

Concept with FAA’s Northeast 

Corridor Operations Team

POC: NANCY SMITH AND PAUL LEE

From July 9–10, Integrated Demand 

Management (IDM) researchers 

held discussions and demonstration 

sessions of NASA’s IDM concept 

for FAA representatives from 

the Northeast Corridor (NEC) 

operations team at the NASA Ames 

Research Center in California. The 

team consisted of Mike Benson, 

Greg Hendricks, Larry Larkin, Blake 

Locke, and Brian Reddy. Vern Payne, 

the district traffic management 

officer for Philadelphia International 

Airport (PHL) and Washington 

Center (ZDC), was also present. 

NEC operations team members 

were present to view and evaluate 

collaborative trajectory options 

program (CTOP) preconditioning of 

Newark Liberty International Airport 

(EWR) arrival flights before entering 

the Time-Based Flow Management 

(TBFM) environment. They also 

came to view NASA’s PHL CTOP/

TBFM adaptation and compare 

it with their own PHL setup for 

TBFM that uses extended metering 

exclusively. They wanted to evaluate 

if NASA’s IDM concept would be 

a beneficial addition to their work. 

The initial day one discussion was a 

summary of past work on the IDM 

project to the NEC operations team 

representatives. IDM simulations of 

EWR and PHL airport operations 

were shown to illustrate the benefits 

of preconditioning traffic destined 

for EWR/PHL. This preconditioning 

would replace miles-in-trail 

restrictions that are currently used 

for flights before they enter the 

TBFM environment. Arrival fix 

balancing is also being used in the 

simulations. An additional discussion 

concerned the concept of the 

continued use of TBFM in weather 

conditions. Currently, weather causes 

a cancellation of TBFM in the 

northeast (EWR and PHL). CTOP 

preconditioning, in conjunction 

with TBFM, allowed aircraft to 

reroute around weather when one of 

the arrival fixes was blocked by the 

weather. The second day included 

a presentation of a PHL CTOP/

TBFM simulation. The feedback 

received from the visitors was 

encouraging. The visiting team does 

have their own solution for the PHL 

TBFM problem, namely extended 

metering, but they saw significant 

value in implementing the IDM 

concept with CTOP preconditioning 

in testing and evaluation of new 

adaptations. They believe that 

CTOP could be used effectively 

in conjunction with extended 

metering. The visitors saw NASA’s 

capabilities as an attractive early 

alternative to their work. The NEC 

project requires the participation 

of approximately 10 facilities and 

will take years to complete. The 

NASA setup could be tested almost 

immediately, significantly reducing 

the testing and evaluation time frame. 

In the wrap up discussion, the NEC 

operations team presented the idea 

of NASA going to the FAA technical 

center with their CTOP software 

and creating a joint simulation 

of the PHL TBFM concept. 

ATM-X Completes 

Shakedown Tests with 

the FAA for 2020 Boeing 

EcoDemonstrator Flights

POC: RICH COPPENBARGER

The Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) project team 

conducted a couple of shakedown 

simulation flights this past quarter 

5
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

between the NASA Ames Research 

Center in California testbed 

and the William J. Hughes FAA 

technical center cockpit simulation 

facility (CSF) near Atlantic 

City, New Jersey. The purpose 

of these shakedown flights was 

to test the communications data 

that will be used in the upcoming 

Boeing EcoDemonstrator flight 

demonstrations in 2020. The first 

test was conducted on July 2 and the 

second test on July 18. The purpose 

of the flight simulations were to 

test data transfer and flight plan 

execution aimed at acquiring detailed 

flight data for NASA’s tailored arrival 

manager (TAM). TAM relies on 

NASA’s autoresolver technology to 

compute trajectory solutions that 

ensure safe separation from other 

aircraft, while managing time-based 

metering constraints in busy arrival 

airspace. TAM will be used in the 

upcoming EcoDemonstrator 2020 

flight demonstration to calculate 

and send trajectory-based advisories 

over Controller Pilot Data Link 

Communications. TAM solutions 

are designed to be flown using the 

aircraft’s Flight Management System. 

During the first flight, four piloted 

simulation runs were conducted 

over a six-hour test period. This 

second shakedown simulation was 

used to evaluate fixes for a number 

of issues discovered during the 

first shakedown tests. These issues 

included the transfer of top-ofdescent and arrival time predictions 

from the aircraft, flight routing 

anomalies, and data frequency 

concerns. Results from the recent 

testing, which included three arrivals 

to Moses Lake, Washington, where 

the 2020 flight will occur, have 

shown that all previously identified 

issues were successfully resolved. 

For the actual EcoDemonstrator 

flights in 2020, aircraft data 

reporting will rely on Automatic 

Dependent Surveillance Contract 

services, supported by Future 

Aircraft Navigation System avionics. 

Dynamic Routes for Arrivals 

in Weather Human-inthe-Loop Simulation #5

POC: DOUG ISAACSON

The fifth in a series of human-in-theloop (HITL) studies of the Dynamic 

Routes for Arrivals in Weather 

(DRAW) tool was conducted from 

July 24–August 1 in the air traffic 

control laboratory at the NASA 

Ames Research Center in California. 

DRAW HITL #5 was the final 

DRAW HITL study and the first to 

use a DRAW-enhanced version of the 

FAA’s Time-Based Flow Management 

(TBFM) system; the culmination 

of over three years of development 

and testing within a NASA rapid 

prototyping system and two years of 

software development to modify and 

enhance TBFM software to include 

core DRAW capabilities. This study 

investigated the use of DRAW in an 

arrival metering context within the 

Fort Worth (ZFW) Air Route Traffic 

Control Center airspace. Study 

participants included four recently 

retired ZFW Traffic Management 

Coordinators (TMCs). Two TMCs 

participated each week of the 

Testbed laboratory showing flight data received from the FAA technical center on July 18.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

study, with each participating as 

the primary DRAW user in parallel, 

independent simulations. Each 

TMC was presented with four 

weather-impacted arrival traffic 

scenarios, both with and without 

DRAW functionality (32 total 

runs). DRAW provided TMCs with 

reroute advisories and schedule 

impact/delay information. TMCs 

used the DRAW trial planning 

capability to evaluate candidate 

reroutes for weather avoidance, assess 

their schedule delay impact, and 

amend flight routes as necessary to 

maintain effective arrival metering. 

Questionnaires were administered 

to the TMC participants and data 

was collected to analyze arrival 

metering and DRAW performance. 

The objectives of DRAW HITL #5 

were to evaluate the stability and 

reliability of DRAW as part of the 

enhanced version of TBFM and to 

assess DRAW performance for fourcorner-post arrival operations into 

the Dallas-Fort Worth International 

Airport Terminal Radar Approach 

Control Center. DRAW exceeded 

all expectations for performance, 

stability, and reliability, even with 

scenarios designed to represent a 

very high traffic demand for weather 

impacted airspace. Representatives of 

the FAA’s NextGen office observed 

DRAW HITL #5 activities during 

the second week of the study and 

discussed technology transfer and 

next steps with DRAW researchers 

and the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration project management. 

Results are being analyzed by 

DRAW team researchers and will 

be shared in a project out-brief 

planned for September 2019. 

NASA and MITRE Collaborate 

on ATD-2/Mobile App 

at EAA AirVenture

POC: DEBI BAKOWSKI

NASA and the MITRE 

Corporation collaborated in 

supporting the Airspace Technology 

Demonstraion-2 (ATD-2)/mobile 

app exhibit at the Experimental 

Aircraft Association’s (EAA) 

AirVenture, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 

from July 22–28. EAA AirVenture, 

often referred to as Oshkosh, is a 

week-long air show and the largest 

fly-in air show in the world, with 

more than 640,000 attendees this 

year. NASA and MITRE team 

members worked together to support 

the ATD-2/mobile app exhibit 

table inside the NASA pavilion 

at Oshkosh. NASA and MITRE 

used this opportunity to introduce 

ATD-2 to the general aviation pilot 

community and demonstrate how 

mobile app technology can enable 

their engagement with ATD-2. 

NASA’s presentation highlighted the 

ATD-2 Phase 2 field demonstration 

at Charlotte Douglas International 

Airport (CLT). Visitors learned 

how short gate holds enable surface 

TMC participant uses DRAW to reroute flights around weather while maintaining acceptable delays. 

7
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

metering and how more efficient 

overhead stream insertion can reduce 

delay. Team members described the 

use of NASA-developed software 

tools at CLT, the ramp traffic 

console and surface trajectorybased operations client; and the role 

of NASA’s FutureFlight Central 

simulation facility in software 

development and testing. NASA 

highlighted the benefits of ATD-2 

since its October 2017 deployment 

to CLT, which include 357,181 

gallons of fuel saved, CO2 savings 

equivalent to 55,954 urban trees, 

and 298.2 hours of surface delay 

saved (through May 2019). MITRE 

demonstrated several examples of 

their mobile app technology and 

highlighted how this technology 

allows the general aviation or 

corporate pilot to participate in, and 

benefit from, ATD-2. Visitors used 

an iPhone to interact with MITRE’s 

prototype Pacer app, which enables 

general aviation or corporate pilots 

to submit a ready-time for their 

flight and provides users with a view 

of predicted surface demand at the 

airport. Better predictions of readytimes for general aviation flights 

enable the ATD-2 scheduler to more 

accurately predict demand at the 

runway and terminal-area boundary 

departure fixes. In coordination with 

the FAA’s NextGen program office, 

the National Business Aviation 

Association, and NASA, MITRE is 

testing the Pacer app this summer 

at Dallas Love Field Airport. The 

team also discussed their work at 

CLT, where corporate pilots submit 

a ready-time for their flight via 

MITRE’s prototype mobile texting 

capability. At CLT, information 

generated by the ATD-2 scheduler is 

passed to the user via the Terminal 

Flight Data Manager terminal 

publication that NASA is publishing 

on the System Wide Information 

Management research and 

development network. In addition, 

MITRE demonstrated an air traffic 

control interface that enables the 

delivery of instrument flight rules 

clearances to a mobile device and the 

negotiation of an instrument flight 

rules release/cancellation at nontowered airports. Visitors also had 

the opportunity to fly an approach 

using an interactive flight simulator 

as part of MITRE’s trajectory-based 

operations app demonstration. The 

trajectory-based operations app 

provides en route speed guidance 

to pilots to enable compliance 

with a required time of arrival at a 

fix. NASA organizers estimate that 

approximately 50,000 Oshkosh 

attendees visited the NASA pavilion 

during the week-long airshow.

ATM-X EcoDemonstrator 

2020 Team Holds Critical 

Design Review

POC: BARBARA BURIAN

On July 25, the Air Traffic 

Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) EcoDemonstrator 2020 

team conducted a critical design 

Demonstration provided by NASA Ames researcher Ehsan Talebi.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

review (CDR) at the NASA Ames 

Research Center in California. 

The purpose of the CDR was to 

review work and progress to date 

in testing, planning, and preparing 

for participation with Boeing and 

FAA colleagues in EcoDemonstrator 

2020 flights demonstrating: 1) 

digital data transfer among NASA, 

Boeing, and FAA technologies, 

facilities, and a Boeing aircraft, 

and 2) a tailored arrival manager 

solution when a flight crew is 

informed of a change to their 

materials in preparation for the 

CDR, which lasted three hours. The 

CDR was divided into two main 

sections. In the first section, new 

information beyond the read-ahead 

material was presented, and critical 

issues (including some from the 

read-ahead material) were discussed. 

In the second section, a deep dive 

into the technical aspects of one of 

the critical steps to be completed 

during the demonstration was 

presented. Cross-cutting issues 

associated with completion of 

that step, such as testing and the 

testing schedule, risks and their 

mitigations, and contingency 

planning, were discussed. Reviewers 

and stakeholders provided 

feedback, and actions (if any) were 

completed within two weeks.

Enabling Autonomous 

Flight & Operations in the 

National Airspace System

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR

From August 6–7, the NASA 

Aeronautics Research Institute 

(NARI) hosted the second event in 

the Enabling Autonomous Flight 

& Operations in the National 

Airspace series at the NASA Ames 

Research Center in California. The 

event included over 200 attendees, 

from aircraft manufacturers to 

operators of passenger, cargo or 

delivery services, venture capitalists, 

airport designers, machine learning 

specialists, and more. NASA is 

taking the initiative to gather input 

from the full spectrum of players 

contributing to the development of 

increasing autonomy in aviation. 

For more technical information, 

visit the NARI website: 

https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/

FAA-NASA Quarterly Research 

Transition Team Meeting

POC: MIKE MADSON

On August 13, FAA representatives 

met with AOSP researchers at the 

NASA Ames Research Center in 

California to coordinate several 

topics in the ATM-X research 

portfolio such as Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) and the upcoming Boeing 

EcoDemonstrator 2020 flight 

tests. NASA described how they 

are building a UAM management 

system by extending the existing 

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic 

Management system and testing 

it with an external UAM partner. 

Both the FAA and NASA have 

separate activities on the same 

EcoDemonstrator flight. During 

this meeting, the participants also 

discussed tighter collaboration for 

going forward in creating a farterm airspace management concept 

document. Both parties agreed to 

continue discussing these topics 

at the next FAA quarterly meeting 

scheduled in early December 2019. 

Urban Air Mobility 

Listening Session

POC: JEREMY COUPE

On August 14, both the Air Traffic 

Management-eXploration (ATM-X) 

and Advanced Air Mobility projects 

attended an Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) listening session organized 

by the NASA Aeronautics 

Research Institute (NARI) at the 

EcoDemonstrator CDR participants at NASA Ames human factors integration facility.
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

NASA Ames Research Center in 

California. NARI hosted several 

UAM companies to discuss their 

progress and perspective of the 

UAM market. Vehicle development 

and airspace management topics 

were discussed with the attendees, 

allowing the audience to better 

understand industry plans to 

reach full-scale UAM operations 

in the near future. This session 

will help ATM-X planning and 

focus its UAM-related research.

Simulation Evaluation of IDM 

Concept for Two Airports 

in Convective Weather

POC: PAUL LEE

AOSP researchers in the Integrated 

Demand Management (IDM) team 

have built a capability called Traffic 

Management Initiative Automated 

Simulation, or TMIAutoSim, 

that can run the IDM humanin-the-loop simulation software 

in a mode that mimics human 

traffic management and air traffic 

clearances without direct participant 

inputs. This enables both fast 

time simulation and evaluation 

of full-day scenarios that would 

not be possible using humans in 

the loop. This capability has been 

developed to run the IDM concept 

under many different weather 

scenarios for multiple airports 

and evaluate its impact over the 

course of a day. The simulation 

capability has been adapted to run 

six different representative weather 

scenario days in the Northeast 

Corridor region, specifically for 

Newark and LaGuardia airports, 

under three different experimental 

conditions. The conditions 

compare IDM operations with 

different baseline conditions 

to assess potential benefits and 

challenges. The simulation capability 

and the airspace adaptation was 

successfully built and validated 

in late August. The IDM team 

subsequently began collecting data 

for the study, and expect to have 

preliminary results of the study by 

late September. Final analyses and 

results are expected by December. 

ATD-2 Completes Phase 3 

Initial Concept Evaluation

POC: ERIC CHEVALLEY, KEENAN ROACH,

GREG JURO AND BOB STAUDENMEIER

NASA’s Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) team 

and its North Texas-area field 

demonstration partners have 

completed the Phase 3 initial 

concept evaluation that targeted 

the 2019 storm season. The Phase 3 

live testing began on June 10, with 

additional capabilities introduced 

in July and August. The six field 

facilities involved as demonstration 

partners include: American Airlines 

Integrated Operations Center, 

Southwest Airlines Network 

Operations Center, Dallas-Fort 

Worth tower, Dallas-Fort Worth 

Terminal Radar Approach Control 

Center, Dallas Love tower, and 

Fort Worth center. Approximately 

90 individuals from the six 

field facilities received training 

from NASA ATD-2 personnel 

in preparation for the testing. 

Additionally, NASA personnel 

provided onsite and telecon support 

during numerous test periods to 

accelerate operational personnel 

ATD-2 reroute approval on July 22, 2019, saves Southwest Airlines seven minutes of flight time.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

familiarization with the ATD-2 

system. Between July 22–August 26, 

the team logged 54 hours during 

11 days of operational testing. Both 

airlines successfully submitted 

multiple flights for reroutes to air 

traffic control which resulted in delay 

savings and positive impacts for the 

National Airspace System (NAS). 

Following this initial testing 

period, the field facilities have 

continued Phase 3 testing on a 

target of opportunity basis. The 

use of ATD-2 Phase 3 has resulted 

in key findings and lessons 

learned that are being utilized 

to refine system requirements 

in preparation for the fiscal year 

2020 Phase 3 telecons conducted 

by NASA personnel with the field 

users. Several of the refinements 

are associated with expanding 

the integration capabilities of 

the system to incorporate other 

traffic management initiatives that 

are in place in the NAS. These 

improvements will assist the 

field users in more expeditiously 

identifying aircraft that are eligible 

for delay savings. A follow-up review 

and planning meeting is scheduled 

to discuss enhancements and prepare 

for the 2020 evaluation. Additionally, 

NASA personnel are conducting 

follow-up training with personnel 

from the participating field facilities 

on an as-needed basis. Consistent 

positive feedback has been received 

from all field facility participants 

during the evaluation period.

German Aerospace Center 

Visit to NASA Ames

POC: JEFF MCCANDLESS AND MIKE FLETCHER

The NASA Ames Research Center 

in California hosted a visit from 

the German Aerospace Center 

(DLR) on August 29. The DLR 

attendees included Jean Daniel 

Sülberg, founding director, DLR 

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) 

Test Center, Cochstedt; Oliver Pape, 

deputy director, DLR Washington 

liaison office; and Charles Ben, 

assistant to the DLR executive 

board member for aeronautics. Also 

in attendance were Kent Bress, 

director, Aeronautics and Cross 

Agency Support Division, Office 

of International and Interagency 

Relations, NASA headquarters; 

and Terry Pagaduan, Ames’ lead 

for international relations. A day of 

briefings and tours was held. Recent 

DLR activities were presented by 

Sülberg. For NASA, overviews 

were presented by Jay Shively for 

the UAS in the National Airspace 

System project, Mike Madson 

for the Air Traffic ManagementeXploration project, and Gloria 

Yamauchi for the Revolutionary 

Vertical Lift Technologies project. 

Tours followed, including a visit 

to the Vertical Motion Simulator 

led by Steve Beard, a UAS Traffic 

Management lab demonstration 

and Technical Capability Level 4 

summary with Ron Johnson, and 

a FutureFlight Central demo 

with Steve Beard. The day ended 

with an open discussion about 

potential research collaborations.

NASA Ames hosts the German Aerospace Center.
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

NASA ATD-2 Team Hosts 

Industry Workshop

POC: AL CAPPS AND WILLIAM CHAN

From September 4–5, AOSP 

hosted its Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) 

industry workshop in Dallas, 

Texas. The workshop objectives 

were: to transfer to National 

Airspace System (NAS) users the 

lessons learned from the field 

demonstration of NASA’s ATD-2 

technologies; identify emerging 

needs for tools, services, and 

platforms for the aviation market; 

provide a deeper understanding 

of the transformational potential 

of the future surface system; and 

enable industry operators to meet 

upcoming Terminal Flight Data 

Manager (TFDM) requirements for 

their organization while achieving 

benefits. Over 200 attendees 

participated in the workshop, 

including representatives from 

the FAA, the National Air Traffic 

Controllers Association, academia, 

airlines, airports, and aviation 

industry solution providers. Three 

panel sessions focused on: 

1) capabilities the aviation 

community will need to be ready 

for TFDM; 2) communicating 

initial results from an ongoing 

field demonstration that is focused 

on the integration of surface 

and metroplex departures; and 

3) providing an opportunity for 

formulation input into NASA’s 

future aviation research plans. 

NASA, along with other ATD-2 

partners, presented over 20 hours 

of material on surface system 

capabilities, understanding and 

quantifying NAS performance 

and benefits, understanding 

TFDM from a multi-system 

decision support viewpoint, and 

the future vision and needs of 

the NAS. The ATD-2 industry 

workshop facilitated active 

engagement across various groups 

and provided additional insights on 

any remaining tech transfer needs. 

Recordings and presentations 

from the ATD-2 industry 

workshop can be found at: https://

aviationsystems.arc.nasa.gov/

atd2-industry-workshop/

Additionally, the Air Traffic 

Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) project participated on a 

joint panel with the ATD-2 team 

at the workshop. The joint panel 

gave the audience an opportunity 

to provide input to the ATM-X and 

ATD-2 teams for their planning 

activities. ATM-X is interested in 

leveraging ATD-2 technologies 

and identifying collaborative 

research activities for traditional 

operations to inform Phase 2 

planning of the ATM-X project.

ATD-2 Supports the Surface 

Collabortive Making Team 

and Flow Evaluation Team

POC: ERIC CHEVALLEY

On September 6, the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-2 

(ATD-2) team met with the joint 

surface collaborative decision 

making team (SCT) and flow 

evaluation team (FET) at Southwest 

Panel discussion as part of the ATD-2 industry workshop. Airlines headquarters in Dallas, 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019 13

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Texas. The group discussed lessons 

learned from the initial field test 

of Phase 3 capability in the North 

Texas region during the summer 

of 2019. The group discussed 

how to extend ATD-2 Phase 3 

capability to leverage trajectory 

option sets in conjunction with 

National Airspace System (NAS)-

wide restrictions in order to 

increase situational awareness and 

account for the impact of NASwide constraints, which leads to 

more efficient rerouting of traffic 

to mitigate flight delay. This input 

will be used by the ATD-2 team in 

its Phase 3 planning. The inputs 

from the collaborative decision 

making teams consisted of both 

FAA and flight operator comments, 

which were useful in identifying 

improvements for the entire 

aviation community. A follow-up 

meeting with the joint group is 

scheduled for October to discuss 

additional details of Phase 3 plans. 

Non-Reimbursable Space 

Act Agreement between 

NASA and GE Flight 

Efficiency Services, Inc. 

POC: KEE PALOPO

On September 12, NASA and 

GE Flight Efficiency Services, Inc. 

signed a Non-Reimbursable Space 

Act Agreement consisting of a 

five-year umbrella and a one-year 

annex (Annex One). The agreement 

is intended for collaborative 

development and use of the 

NASA Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) testbed for 

integrated air traffic management 

research. Specific to Annex One 

with the ATM-X testbed, the 

testbed team will prepare the 

connectivity infrastructure with GE 

to support any future collaborative 

research. The team will work with 

GE to establish a connectivity 

between a designated GE facility 

and testbed, test the connection, 

and document the results. Future 

candidate collaborations for 

subsequent annexes includes 

other ATM-X research and the 

System-Wide Safety project. 

NASA-Uber End-to-End 

X-2 Test Simulation 

POC: DAVID THIPPHAVONG

On September 17, the Air Traffic 

Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) team completed its first 

end-to-end test of the first NASA 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) air 

traffic management system with an 

external partner ahead of a series 

of engineering evaluations, named 

X-2, scheduled for the end of the 

month. The ATM-X UAM team 

coordinated and collaborated 

with the Uber team to run a 

complete 40-minute simulation 

in which hundreds of flights were 

simulated, with NASA submitting 

operations for one set of flights 

and Uber doing the same for a 

different set of flights, all operating 

in a common airspace. During the 

X-2 build up, NASA and Uber 

identified several scalability issues 

and developed and tested solutions 

to mitigate these issues. NASA 

and Uber are on track to complete 

Joint SCT and FET at Southwest Airlines headquarters in Dallas, Texas.
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

the X-2 engineering evaluations 

at the end of September. During 

the simulation, Uber remotely 

connected from their lab to the 

X-2 airspace management system 

developed by the NASA UAM team. 

NASA will further adapt and extend 

this system for use in the NASA 

UAM Grand Challenge (GC). This 

activity with Uber reduces risk and 

expedites the future integration 

of GC partners into this system 

for GC activities. With X-2, the 

ATM-X UAM sub-project is on 

track to fulfill its responsibilities 

for the GC, including running 

GC scenarios with GC partners 

in lab simulations to demonstrate 

their capabilities and components 

prior to GC flight test activities. 

ATD-2 Exhibit at NATCA 

Communicating for 

Safety Conference 

POC: SHAWN ENGELLAND

AOSP researchers collaborated 

with American Airlines to 

exhibit Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) 

technologies at the National Air 

Traffic Controllers Association 

(NATCA) hosted Communicating 

for Safety (CFS) conference, in Las 

Vegas, Nevada, from September 

16-18. The CFS conference was 

attended by over 1,500 participants 

and approximately 70 sponsors and 

exhibitors. This year’s CFS theme, 

“Every Day is a Training Day,” is 

also the name of the NATCA’s 

important new safety initiative. 

The NASA team presented livedata views of the ATD-2 Integrated 

Arrival/Departure/Surface system 

running at Charlotte Douglas 

International Airport (CLT) to 

familiarize CFS attendees with the 

technology and how it will impact 

operations at airports across the 

country in the near future. The 

ATD-2 system currently being 

demonstrated at CLT is blazing the 

trail for the FAA Terminal Flight 

Data Manager (TFDM) program. 

Beginning at CLT in the spring of 

2021, the FAA TFDM program will 

deploy surface traffic management 

capabilities similar to the ATD-2 

system to 27 airports across the 

country. The NASA ATD-2 system 

includes decision support tools for 

both FAA air traffic controllers and 

for the American Airlines personnel 

that control ramp operations at 

CLT. FAA TFDM decision support 

tools, which were also exhibited at 

the CFS conference, will replace 

the ATD-2 system in the CLT air 

traffic control tower. The TFDM 

program will provide data feeds 

which airline and airport operators 

will use to run their decision 

support tools. NASA and American 

Airlines used this CFS exhibit to 

emphasize the need for industry 

(i.e., flight operators, airport 

End-to-end X-2 test simulation of NASA and Uber 

operations in a common airspace.

Pictured left to right: Bernie Davis, American Airlines; Shawn Gorman, NASA/Mosaic-ATM;

John Short, NATCA; and Shawn Engelland, NASA.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019 15

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

operators, and solution providers) 

to equip in a timely manner so as 

to be ready for TFDM deployment. 

FAA’s 14th Annual Verification 

& Validation Summit

POC: TERRY MORRIS

The FAA held its 14th Annual 

Verification & Validation (V&V) 

Summit from September 25–26, 

in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The 

purpose of the summit was to 

address innovative methods and 

strategies that embrace V&V 

philosophies and principles. The 

focus of the summit was on 

resilience. Terry Morris from the 

NASA Ames Research Center in 

California attended the summit to 

understand how V&V strategies 

and philosophies of the FAA align 

with the V&V strategies resident 

within the technical challenges of 

the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project. The summit included 

representative presentations 

from the FAA (air traffic control, 

technology development, chief data 

officer, etc.), military (Air Force 

test & evaluation divisions and the 

Air Force Research Laboratory), 

academia (Rowan University), 

industry partners (Boeing, CACI, 

Noblis, Objectstream, etc.), and 

other government agencies (U.S. 

DOT Volpe Center). The essence 

of the summit appeared to focus 

on ensuring that the National 

Airspace System (NAS) design and 

architecture is robust and resilient 

enough to handle the emerging 

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic 

Management system. Creating 

a more resilient NAS involves 

ensuring that the system can 

handle the volatility, uncertainty, 

complexity, and ambiguity 

involved with the transition to 

increasing automation. Although 

the principles of the FAA approach 

to V&V are similar to SWS, the 

focus and presentations appeared 

to be geared more towards ground 

test and evaluation, versus the 

tough reality of ensuring that 

automation in the NAS is verified 

and validated end to end. 

FAA’s 14th Annual Verification and Validation Summit, held from September 25-26, 2019.
16 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JUL-SEP 2019

RECOGNITION

UTM Wins Software 

of the Year Award

POC: JOSEPH RIOS

The Unmanned Aircraft System 

(UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) 

project was recently selected as the 

winner of the 2019 NASA Software 

of the Year award for the UTM 

software. The NASA-wide annual 

Software of the Year competition 

rewards high-quality, innovative, 

and robust software using efficient 

software engineering processes 

that meet NASA’s stringent safety 

and reliability standards. Sponsors 

of the competition include the 

NASA chief engineer, the NASA 

chief information officer, and the 

NASA office of safety and mission 

assurance. The UTM software 

is a novel concept with the goal 

of enabling small UAS to access 

low-altitude airspace in a safe, 

efficient, and fair manner. The true 

innovation of UTM is the overall 

concept embodied within the system 

architecture. Traditional air traffic 

management relies on a central 

body (like the FAA) to manage 

and control the airspace. UTM 

allows for distributed management 

of the airspace wherein private 

companies collaborate to maintain 

a safe and accessible environment. 

National Transportation 

Safety Board Accident 

Investigation Training

POC: JOHN KOELLING

John Koelling attended and 

completed the National 

Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) 

basic accident investigation course 

AS-101 in Ashburn, Virginia, from 

September 9-20. John was offered 

an opportunity to attend by Dana 

Schulze, the newly named director 

of the NTSB office of aviation 

safety. While the focus of the course 

was on topics directly related to 

accident investigation, it also gave 

significant insight into the kinds 

of forensic analysis that will be 

required in accident investigations 

for future concepts like Urban 

Air Mobility. In addition, it also 

provided insight into the kinds of 

data required for analysis supporting 

these investigations. Of particular 

interest was a half-day workshop 

on Asiana Flight #214, which is 

often used as an example of where 

an In-Time Aviation Management 

System could likely have prevented 

an accident that resulted in a loss 

of life and significant resources.

Vertical Flight Society 

Workshop

POC: JOHN KOELLING

On September 11, John Koelling 

gave a presentation at the Vertical 

Flight Society’s workshop on 

“eVTOL Defining Challenges 

for Urban Air Mobility: System 

Safety, Infrastructure, and Airspace 

Management.” This talk was titled, 

“How Does the Transition to a More 

Autonomous Mobile Future Affect 

Aviation Safety?” and was given at 

the Navy Memorial visitors center 

in Washington, DC. The talk was 

very well received, with individuals 

from several organizations asking 

for contact information and for 

the talk to be repeated at another 

meeting or for their organization. 

UTM software at work in the airspace operations 

lab at the NASA Ames Research Center 

in California.

Accident investigation exercise at the National 

Transportation Safety Board.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov