National Aeronautics and Space Administration

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

OCT-DEC 2016 | Quarter 1

Real-Time Safety Monitoring 

Demo to FAA

14

UTM TLC2 Test Flights Completed 4

www.nasa.gov
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016

AOSP IN THE NEWS

NASA, France Forge 

Aircraft Noise Reduction 

Research Partnership; 

Jaiwon Shin Comments

ExecutiveGov (10/04) reports 

that NASA and France’s aerospace 

research agency ONERA have 

entered into an agreement to 

conduct studies to help mitigate the 

impacts of civil air transportation 

noise on communities.

NASA and Chinese 

Aeronautical Establishment 

to Jointly Research Air 

Traffic Management

Airport Technology (10/03) 

reports that NASA has signed a 

memorandum of understanding 

with the Chinese Aeronautical 

Establishment to conduct research 

that will help airport operators 

in the United States and Chine 

manage traffic. The five-year deal 

will help both countries improve 

their respective air transportation 

automation systems.

NASA & CAE Partner Up 

for Research on ‘Air Traffic 

Management’: Towards 

A Strong International 

Academic Bond?

University Herald (10/06) reports 

that NASA has recently signed 

a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Aeronautical 

Establishment to collaborate for 

research on “Air Traffic Management.” Civil aviation domains 

consider the results of the collaboration to be essential for building a 

strong international academic bond 

between aeronautics industries.

NASA Plans First BVLOS Drone 

Demonstration

Air Traffic Management (10/13) 

reports NASA partners will fly five 

unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) 

beyond the visual line-of-sight of 

their operators to test planning, 

tracking, and alerting capabilities 

of NASA’s UAS traffic management 

research platform.

Tests Seek to Bring Order 

to Drone Wild West

Jason Hidalgo of USA Today 

(10/19) reports that NASA, in 

partnership with the Nevada 

Unmanned, Autonomous and 

NextGen Collaborative Environment 

Laboratory of the University of 

Nevada, Reno, recently held the 

second stage of testing for an air 

traffic management system designed 

to coordinate multiple drones flown 

by different operators.

NASA Conducts ‘Out of Sight’ 

Drones Tests at Reno-Stead 

Airport in United States

Airport Technology (10/24) reports 

that a team from NASA’s Ames 

Research Center, along with the U.S. 

Federal Aviation Administration 

and other industry partners, has 

successfully conducted ‘out-of-sight’ 

drone tests at Reno-Stead Airport in 

Reno, Nevada.

New NASA Tech to Help 

Aircraft Land on Time

NDTV (11/01) reports that NASA 

is working with its partners on a 

new air traffic control technology 

that promises to safely increase the 

number of airplanes that can land on 

the same runway at busy airports by 

more precisely managing the time or 

interval between each aircraft’s arrival.

NASA to Equip Alaska 

Airlines With ADS-B in Tool

John Croft of Aviation Week (11/01) 

reports that NASA’s Langley Research 

Center plans to purchase Automatic 

Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast 

(ADS-B) In avionics for three Alaska 

Airlines Boeing 737-900ERs to 

begin operational testing of a NASAdeveloped fuel-and-time-saving 

software application in revenue 

operations in early 2017.

2017 to Witness Test of NASA’s 

Aircraft Arrival Technology

Science World Report (11/03) 

reports that NASA recently 

announced that it is working with 

partners on innovative traffic control 

technology, called Flight Deck 

Interval Management.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016 3

AOSP IN THE NEWS

NASA Aircraft Arrival Tech 

Will Get Big Test in 2017

Avionics Magazine (11/08) reports 

that a coordinated effort involving 

NASA, the Federal Aviation 

Administration, and the aviation 

industry to develop and evaluate new 

technologies and procedures related 

to aircraft scheduling and airport 

arrivals will get a major test in 2017.

NASA: Anomalies Drive 

UAS Traffic Management

John Croft of Aviation Week (11/18) 

reports a salvo of increasingly complex tests of unmanned aircraft using 

newly developed air traffic management aids and conflict-avoidance 

tools for smaller unmanned air 

vehicles flying beyond visual-lineof-sight are uncovering the realistic 

factors that will affect large-scale 

multi-vehicle operations.

Multiple Drones Flying Beyond 

Line of Sight Perform in 

First-Ever Tests by NASA

Nevada Today (11/29) reports 

the first-ever testing of NASA’s 

air traffic management platform 

concepts with drones flying beyond 

visual-line-of-sight. The tests were 

held at the end of October at the 

Nevada Unmanned, Autonomous 

and NextGen Collaborative 

Environment Laboratory at the 

University of Nevada, Reno, which 

is the collaborative workspace 

for the University and NASA for 

the research and development of 

autonomous systems.

FAA to Approve Drone 

Flights Beyond Visual Line 

of Sight at Test Site

Robotic Trends (12/27) reports that 

in October 2016, the FAAand NASA 

tested beyond visual-line-of-sight 

drone flights at the Reno-Stead 

Airport in Reno, Nevada. The test 

was part of the research that NASA is 

doing in partnership with the FAA to 

develop a comprehensive unmanned 

air traffic control system, which will 

allow for integration of drones into 

the National Airspace System.
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

UTM TCL2 Test Flights 

Completed

POC: MARCUS JOHNSON

This quarter successfully marked the 

demonstration of the first tests of 

NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) 

research platform, held at Reno-Stead 

Airport in Reno, Nevada. From 

October 3 through 7, 2016, the 

UTM subproject team completed a 

second shakedown event in support 

of Technology Capability Level 

2 (TCL2) testing. Seven partner 

organizations flew vehicles and 

two partner organizations provided 

ground equipment and support, 

accomplishing over 50 sorties during 

the week. The team tested various 

scenarios with extended visual lineof-site operations. The UTM system 

functioned well during the shakedown, and performed as expected 

during its formal demonstration, 

which took place from October 17 

through 25, 2016. On October 19, 

during the demonstration period, a 

media day was held. During the tests, 

drones flew beyond the line-of-sight 

of their operators to test the planning, tracking, and alerting capabilities of NASA’s UTM platform. 

Here are links to some national 

and local coverage of the event: 

NASA Plans First Beyond 

Visual Line-Of-Sight Drone 

Demonstration in Nevada

ECNmag.com, October 13

NASA Plans First Beyond Visual 

Line-of-Sight Drone Demo

Aerotech News (blog), October 14

NASA Air Traffic Control 

System for Drones, Manned 

Aircraft Gets Test in Reno

Las Vegas Review Journal, Oct. 17 

Tests Seek to Bring Order 

to Drone Wild West

USA Today, October 19

Silent Falcon UAS Technologies Granted Airworthiness 

Statement by NASA

UASweekly.com, October 19

Drone Traffic Management 

Tested in Stead

KOLO, October 19

NASA Tests Unmanned 

Aircraft Management Design 

at Reno-Stead Airport

CBS 2 KTVN, October 19

For more information 

about this test, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/2dV35z9

Explicate Work on SystemLevel Prognostics for 

the National Airspace

POC: KAI GOEBEL

Matt Daigle, Indranil Roychoudhury, 

and Kai Goebel from NASA’s Ames 

Research Center presented recent 

findings on calculating system-level 

time-to-safety margin violations at the 

Prognostics and Health Management 

(PHM) Society Meeting, in Denver, 

Colorado, from October 3 through 

6, 2016. Safety can be increased 

by the introduction of tools and 

methodologies from PHM. PHM 

will enable the National Airspace 

System (NAS) to predict unsafe states 

stochastically, enabling a proactive 

and preventative response strategy, as 

opposed to a reactive and mitigative 

one. However, PHM methods do not 

currently apply directly to the NAS 

for several reasons: they typically 

apply only at the component level; 

they are implemented in a centralized 

manner; and they are focused only on 

predicting remaining useful life. In 

the paper that Daigle, Roychoudhury, 

and Goebel presented, the modelbased prognostics approach to 

PHM was extended to provide a 

framework that can be applied to the 

NAS. To that end, they provided a 

system-level approach that supports 

a distributed implementation, 

along with algorithms to predict the 

probability of an unsafe state-either 

at a specific time or within a time 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016 5

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

interval–and that predicts the time 

of an unsafe state. Placing the 

algorithms in this context helped 

the audience understand the benefits 

that real-time safety will provide. 

Systems Architecture 

Virtual Integration 

Semiannual Meeting

POC: KURT WOODHAM

Kurt Woodham from NASA’s 

Langley Research Center hosted a 

semiannual working group meeting 

of the Systems Architecture Virtual 

Integration (SAVI) project in 

Hampton, Virginia, from October 

10 through 14, 2016. The Aerospace 

Vehicle Systems Institute (AVSI) at 

the National Institute of Aerospace 

managed the meeting. SAVI seeks 

to significantly reduce requirement 

and design defects introduced during 

the development of large, complex 

systems, such as modern transport 

aircraft. SAVI uses model-based 

engineering practices, coupled 

with early integration of models, to 

expose inconsistencies well before 

physical system integration occurs. 

AVSI is a cooperative industry, 

university, and government research 

environment supported by the 

Texas A&M University System. 

NASA participates in AVSI projects 

with the Texas A&M Engineering 

Experiment Station through the 

Space Act Agreement (SAA-1056A). 

SAVI members from AVSI, NASA, 

the Federal Aviation Administration, 

Department of Defense, Carnegie 

Mellon Software Engineering 

Institute, Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, 

Rockwell Collins, Honeywell, 

General Electric Aviation, and 

Lockheed Martin participated in the 

week-long meeting that addressed 

closeout of 2016 SAVI activities 

and plans for 2017. SAVI Tool 

Partner Eurostep also presented 

progress on tools and methods 

for representing, in a common 

environment using STEP AP239, 

models expressed in otherwise 

disparate modeling languages, and 

subsequent visualization of model 

relationships for evaluating consistent 

use of common properties prior to 

integration. Members of the Langley 

Research Center Model-Based 

Systems Engineering community also 

attended the Eurostep presentation. 

ATD-3/DRAW NASA/

NATCA Meeting

POC: KAPIL SHETH

NASA Airspace Technology Demonstration-3 (ATD-3) team members met with National Air Traffic 

Controller Association (NATCA) 

representatives on October 12, 2016, 

at NATCA Headquarters in Washington, DC. NASA provided an 

overview of the ATD-3 subproject, 

and the groups identified a need for 

greater interaction on ATD-3 technologies. The Dynamic Reroutes 

for Arrivals in Weather (DRAW) 

concept was presented, along with 

potential benefit mechanisms for 

traffic managers and controllers, 

and implementation details. DRAW 

addresses a need for the TimeBased Flow Management system to 

maintain schedule accuracy during 

convective weather events. DRAW 

accomplishes this using a trialplanning feature. NATCA provided 

positive feedback, and the ATD-3 

team anticipates further collaboration between the organizations. 

Demonstrated Integration 

of TASAR and Data 

Communications 

Explored with FAA

POC: DAVID WING

On October 12, 2016, NASA’s 

Langley Research Center engineer 

David Wing briefed Jesse Wijntjes, 

the FAA’s Program Manager for 

Data Communications, and his 

staff, and demonstrated the Traffic 

Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests 

(TASAR) tool. NASA consultant 

Captain Bob Hilb and Airspace 

Technology Demonstration (ATD) 

project personnel–including Mike 

Madson and Kapil Sheth–attended 

the meeting, which explored 

potential operational demonstration 

opportunities in ATD-3. These 

opportunities would involve airline 

partner aircraft equipped with 

TASAR technology to leverage 
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

the emerging FAA Data Comm 

program for sending and receiving 

reroute requests in digital form. The 

FAA expressed significant interest 

in a cooperative demonstration, 

as attendees discussed possible 

scenarios involving shadow-mode 

tests of prototype Data Comm 

capabilities at the FAA Technical 

Center. The ATD-3 “Integrated Air 

Ground” project planning phase, 

which includes outreach meetings 

with airline partnership candidates, 

will explore these opportunities 

further. The planning phase and 

meetings will take place during 

the first half of fiscal year 2017. 

AFRL/NASA Executive 

Research Council Meeting 

POC: SHON GRABBE

Members of the Shadow Mode 

Assessment Using Realistic 

Technologies for the National 

Airspace System (SMART-NAS) 

Test-bed for the Safe Trajectory Based 

Operations Project collaborated 

with Air Force Research Laboratory 

(AFRL) researchers to develop a 

briefing for the Air Force and NASA 

Executive Research Council (ERC). 

The groups met on October 12, 

2016, in Dayton, Ohio, just outside 

of Wright Patterson Air Force Base. 

The briefing covered several topics, 

including the fruitful historical 

collaborations between AFRL and 

NASA in the area of Verification and 

Validation (for autonomous systems). 

The briefing also identified likely 

areas of valuable collaboration in the 

future, and proposed a follow-up 

meeting with the ERC at their next 

meeting in February 2017, to lay out 

a roadmap for more collaboration 

between the two groups in the future. 

Dynamic Weather 

Routes (DWR) Technical 

Interchange Meeting

POC: KAPIL SHETH

Under the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-3 (ATD-3) subproject, NASA is performing research 

and development of technologies 

that help airspace users avoid 

convective weather while gaining 

flight time and fuel savings via flight 

plan route corrections in en route 

airspace. The first of three research 

transition products defined by the 

Applied Traffic Flow Management 

Research Transition Team Plan was 

transferred to the FAA on September 

23. The products include NASA’s 

Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) 

concept of operations, twenty-three 

DWR-focused technical publications, functional and performance 

requirements, and prototype 

software and documentation. On 

October 13, 2016, a NASA-FAA 

Technical Interchange Meeting took 

place at the FAA Headquarters in 

Washington, DC. The FAA and 

MITRE Corporation representatives who attended observed a 

DWR concept presentation and 

examined a description of the 

technology transfer documents. The 

groups discussed implementation 

details of the delivered products. 

Presentation to RTCA 

Combined Surveillance 

Committee

POC: AARON DUTLE

Aaron Dutle of NASA’s Langley 

Research Center gave a presentation 

at the fourth meeting of the Combined Surveillance Committee at 

RTCA headquarters in Washington, 

DC on October 17 through 21. The 

committee is composed of members 

from RTCA Special Committees 209 

and 186, and EUROCAE Working 

Groups 49 and 51. Dutle presented 

an update on the analysis of the 

Compact Position Reporting (CPR) 

algorithm that he, Langley’s César 

Muñoz, the National Institute of 

Aerospace’s Mariano Moscato and 

Laura Titolo, and the University of 

Virginia’s Greg Anderson have been 

working on. The CPR algorithm 

reduces the amount of information transmitted by an automatic 

dependent surveillance – broadcast 

(ADS-B) application by use of 

encoding and decoding techniques 

for the position of an aircraft. 

The analysis uncovered gaps in the 

requirements and identified numerically sensitive points in the algorithm 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016 7

that can lead to incorrect position 

reports. As a result, researchers are 

identifying alterations to the requirements and providing a verifiably 

reliable reference implementation 

of the algorithms to mitigate these 

issues. The committee reacted favorably to NASA Langley’s research, and 

the recommendations for changes 

to the requirements are under consideration for the next version of 

the RTCA Minimum Operational 

Performance Standards for ADS-B.

Eighteenth Workshop/

Meeting of the ICAO SAM 

Implementation Group

POC: RAFAEL APAZA

On October 17 through 21, 2016, in 

Lima, Peru, engineers from NASA’s 

Glenn Research Center delivered the 

Aeronautical Mobil Airport Communications System (AeroMACS) 

technology development and 

standardization status presentation at 

the Eighteenth Workshop/Meeting 

of the International Civil Aviation 

Organization (ICAO) South America 

(SAM) Implementation Group 

(SAM/IG/18), and participated in 

the Communications, Navigation, 

and Surveillance Working Group 

discussions. Meeting participants 

included representatives from South 

American States and industry, and 

ICAO technical staff. Onofrio 

Smarrelli of the ICAO chaired the 

agenda item presentations and 

working group discussions. Technical 

discussions included AeroMACS’ 

protected spectrum allocation, critical 

and non-critical data segregation, and 

implementation of Internet Protocol 

Suite for transport over AeroMACS 

technology. As noted during the 

presentation, the recent Amendment 

90 of the ICAO Aeronautical Telecommunications Volume III, Anex10 

publication includes information 

about the AeroMACS technology. 

Korean Aerospace Research 

Institute (KARI) Workshop

POC: YOON JUNG

The NASA Ames Research Center 

hosted a joint workshop with representatives from the Korea Agency 

for Infrastructure Technology 

Advancement (KAIA) and the Korea 

Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) 

from October 24 through 26, 2016. 

Researchers and managers from the 

airport surface research area, the 

Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) subproject, and 

NASA headquarters convened to 

share progress from collaborative 

research conducted in the past six 

months. The groups also discussed 

plans for collaborating on airport 

surface and terminal area research 

under a Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and KAIA/

KARI signed in November 2014. 

The KARI delegation provided 

briefings on current Air Traffic Management research, which included 

the Management on Integrated 

Operations of Departure, Arrival, 

and Surface (MIDAS) project, which 

has a similar research focus as that of 

ATD-2. The NASA team provided 

briefings and demonstrations of the 

NASA Ames Research Center hosted a joint workshop with researchers from KAIA and KARI to discuss 

the progress in collaborative research on the Integrated Arrival, Departure, Surface (IADS) management 

(Oct 24-26, 2016).
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

ATD-2 system surface optimization 

algorithms and fast-time simulation 

and modeling capabilities. The teams 

discussed specific areas of research 

collaboration to advance NASA’s 

surface research portfolio, and 

provided insights into how KAIA 

and KARI can further develop their 

high-fidelity surface and terminal 

air traffic simulation and research 

tools. The next meeting is tentatively 

scheduled for May 2017 in Korea. 

FAA/NASA Trajectory Based 

Operations Roadmap Technical 

Interchange Meeting

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

On October 25 and 26, 2016, the 

NASA Langley Research Center 

hosted FAA representatives from the 

NextGen Portfolio Management & 

Technology Development Office, 

including FAA Assistant Administrator for NextGen, Jim Eck. NASA 

representatives included members 

of the Trajectory-Based Operations 

(TBO) project formulation team 

from Langley and the NASA Ames 

Research Centers. The meeting 

included these goals: strategize ways 

the two agencies can broaden collaborations in the development and 

implementation of Full 4D TBO in 

the National Airspace System; initiate collaboration between the two 

agencies for the development of an 

organizationally implemented 4D 

TBO Roadmap; and initiate a quarterly technical interchange between 

NASA and the FAA related to 4D 

TBO. The meeting was very successful, and produced an exchange of 

information that included approximately 15 technical talks and an 

introduction to FAA and NASA 

planning activities. Additionally, Eck 

was given a tour of the Air Traffic 

Operations Laboratory and Autonomy Incubator. The next meeting is 

scheduled for February 2017. In the 

meantime, NASA will continue to 

work on roadmaps for 4D TBO. 

AOSP Annual Project Reviews

POC: KENNY MCCOMBS

From October 26 through 28, 2016, 

Airspace Operations and Safety 

Program (AOSP) hosted its Annual 

Project Reviews for Fiscal Year 2016. 

The meeting was held at NASA HQ 

and included an Independent Review 

Panel, with members from the 

Federal Aviation Administration, the 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration, the United States Air 

Force, and the National Transportation and Safety Board. The panel 

reviewed AOSP projects, including 

the Airspace Technology Demonstration Project, Shadow Mode Assessment Using Realistic Technologies 

for the National Airspace System 

(SMART-NAS) test-bed for Safe 

Trajectory Based Operations 

project, and the Safe Autonomous 

Systems Operations Project. Project 

managers presented results for 

Fiscal Year 2016, and stated their 

relevance, quality, and technical 

and managerial performance. 

Subject Matter Expert 

(SME) Evaluation of MFCR 

POC: KARL BILIMORIA

The NASA Ames Research Center 

hosted a Subject Matter Expert 

(SME) evaluation of the Multi-Flight 

Common Routes (MFCR) tool on 

November 1 through 4, 2016, in 

the Air Traffic Control Laboratory. 

MFCR is a NASA-developed concept 

and associated decision support tool 

designed to assist air traffic flow managers to efficiently update weather 

avoidance routes in the event of convective weather system. The MFCR 

groups together multiple flights to 

reduce the number of advisories 

evaluated by the traffic flow manager, 

and merges these grouped flights on 

a common route segment to provide 

an orderly flow of rerouted traffic. 

Five SMEs—all recently retired FAA 

traffic flow managers—provided 

feedback on the MFCR tool and 

its concept of use. Specific topics of 

evaluation included the operational 

acceptability of MFCR reroute 

advisories, the usability of MFCR’s 

graphical user interface, and the 

overall viability of MFCR’s concept 

of use. Based on a total of 200 evaluation points, the SMEs provided 

positive feedback, indicating that 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

MFCR presented many timesaving 

rerouting opportunities that would 

otherwise be difficult to identify 

manually during air traffic operations in bad weather conditions. 

National Airspace System 

Flow Advisory Manager 

Undergoes First Evaluation at 

North Texas Research Station 

POC: PAUL BORCHERS

Traffic management coordinators 

from Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center evaluated the 

National Airspace System Flow 

Advisory Manager (NFAM) at the 

NASA North Texas Research Station 

(NTX) in Fort Worth, Texas, from 

November 8 through 11, 2016. Thirteen participants provided feedback 

during the seven sessions. Under a 

Small Business Innovative Research 

contract, Mosaic ATM is developing 

and evaluating a software tool that 

provides a predictive capability to 

allow air traffic managers to visualize 

the impact of existing and proposed 

traffic management initiatives several 

hours in advance. The NFAM 

concept is based on the Generalized 

Brownian Motion model algorithms 

that provide time-varying demand, 

capacity, and uncertainty in demand 

and capacity assessments. NFAM is a 

candidate contributor to the Federal 

Aviation Administration’s overall 

Advanced Methods project and 

Collaborative Air Traffic Management (CATM) under Work Package 

5. A second evaluation of NFAM 

will occur at NTX in March 2017. 

 

Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-3 

(ATD-1) Meeting on Air/

Ground Integration 

POC: KAPIL SHETH

On November 15 and 16, 2016, 

Airspace Technology Demonstration-3 team members met at the 

NASA Langley Research Center to 

discuss the air and ground integration of cockpit-based and groundbased rerouting tools. The team 

discussed concepts and analyses 

that included technical objectives, 

benefit mechanisms, and future 

technologies. The ATD-3 team also 

discussed project objectives, budget 

guidelines, performance metrics, and 

risks associated with air and ground 

integration milestones, partnerships, 

and outreach. The team worked 

on plans for developing a concept 

of operations due in March 2017, 

as well as a plan to achieve a demonstration in 2020. The strengths 

of cockpit-based technology Traffic 

Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests 

Retired Houston Center Traffic Management Coordinator assessing MFCR tool for its Concept of Use and 

operational acceptability.
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

The ATD-3 team discussing the Concept of Operations for Air/Ground Integration, and the eventual 

demonstration with a commercial airline in 2020.

and Traffic Aware Planner, and the 

ground-based technology MultiFlight Common Route and NAS 

Constraint Evaluation and Notification Tool, were considered in the 

development of high-level concepts 

for integration of these technologies. 

ATD-2 Shadow Evaluations 

Completed in CLTlab

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

This past quarter marked the 

successful completion of the 

fourth and fifth Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) 

Shadow Mode Evaluations, held 

at the Charlotte International 

Airport ATD-2 Lab (CLT). 

The fourth Shadow Mode Evaluation 

took place on October 18 and 19, 

2016, and included traffic managers from Washington Air Route 

Traffic Control Center (ZDC), 

who met with staff from the CLT 

Air Traffic Control Tower (CLT 

ATCT) and FAA headquarters, and 

NASA personnel at the CLT lab. 

On the first day, the team presented 

information to the ZDC personnel 

on topics such as the CLT lab and 

the latest ATD-2 tools and the 

shadow evaluation process. On the 

second day, the team reviewed the 

plan to integrate ATD-2 technologies 

with the operational Time-Based 

Flow Management (TBFM) system 

for field demonstration, and the 

airspace scenarios that the electronic 

coordination technology would 

likely use. Strong collaboration and 

fast progress in this meeting resulted 

in ample time for system shadow 

familiarization. On October 20, 

CLT ATCT, American Airlines CLT 

ramp, CLT airport operations, and 

FAA and NASA personnel met in 

the CLT lab for a follow-up session 

to clarify ATD-2 requirements for 

data exchange and integration. 

The fifth Shadow Mode Evaluation 

took place on November 16 and 

17, 2016, where CLT ATCT traffic 

managers, American Airlines ramp 

controllers, CLT airport operations 

representatives, and FAA and NASA 

personnel met again in the CLT 

lab. Over the two days of evaluations, discussions focused on the 

following: the development of a 

capability for real time monitoring 

of capacity and efficiency of operations; benefits-related measures of 

performance; a presentation and 

analysis of CLT operational data 

and methods used to automatically 

include National Airspace Systems 

status information into the system; 

and proposed adaptation changes 

to refine the system. The shadow 

session also included the first successful demonstration of a live-data 

system at the NASA Ames Research 

Center, presented remotely to Field 

Demo Partners in the CLT lab, a 

capability that permitted discussion 

on TBFM integration and other 

development items. The shadow 

session enabled further collaboration and the exchange of ideas and 

input to improve model accuracy. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

ATD-2 Integrated Surface and 

Airspace Simulations (ISAS)

POC: SAVITA VERMA

This past quarter, the ATD-2 

Experiment Team performed a series 

of successful human-in-the-loop 

(HITL) tests connecting the airspace 

and surface traffic simulators. On 

October 12, the team connected 

the airspace and surface traffic 

simulators, Multi-Aircraft Control 

System (MACS), and Air Traffic 

Generator (ATG) at two NASA 

Ames Research Center facilities, 

FutureFlight Central (FFC) and 

the Airspace Operations Laboratory 

(AOL). The test series involved the 

Charlotte Douglas International 

Airport (CLT) and the surrounding 

airspace for approximately 100 

simulated flights that included both 

arrivals and departures. Participants 

included one CLT Ground and 

two Local Controllers managing 

flights using the ATG system at 

FFC, and a total of five feeder and 

departure sector controllers using 

MACS at the AOL. The FFC also 

featured a smaller-scale virtual 

CLT Air Traffic Control Tower to 

support the tests. On November 

18, the team continued HITL 

testing, integrating several ATD-2 

prototype system components—the 

Surface Trajectory-Based Operations 

subsystem, the Time-Based Flow 

Management/ Integrated Departure 

Arrival Capability subsystem, and 

Surface Collaborative Decision 

Making. The scenario simulated 580 

flights at present-day traffic levels 

with arrivals, departures, overhead 

traffic, turnaround flights, and 

manipulations of pushback time 

compliance and spool-up time in the 

ramp area. Future work will integrate 

the 360-degree American Airlines 

ramp tower simulator to include 

the evaluation of the ATD-2 ramp 

management tool. More complex test 

NASA ATD-2 researchers and developers testing Air Traffic Control Tower tools at NASA Ames Research 

Center’s FutureFlight Central facility.

Air Traffic Control Tower simulator used for the ISAS HITL tests.
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

scenarios will be developed to include 

different runway configurations 

and the integration of surface 

metering and tactical departure 

scheduling. These tests are major 

steps towards a HITL demonstration 

of the full suite of the ATD-2 tools 

planned for early March 2017 with 

participants from American Airlines 

and FAA operational facilities. 

ATD-2 Tactical Scheduling 

and Metering Technical 

Interchange with 

American Airlines

POC: YOON JUNG

On November 22, 2016, NASA 

researchers met at the American 

Airlines (AA) Integrated Operations Center (IOC) in Fort Worth, 

Texas, for a technical interchange 

with personnel from AA’s Operations Systems and Decision Support Group. The NASA team 

presented an update on a tactical 

scheduling and metering capability that originated out of the Spot 

and Runway Departure Advisor 

(SARDA) research activity, currently 

being developed for application 

to the ATD-2 subproject. NASA 

is collaborating with the FAA to 

demonstrate ATD-2 technologies at 

CLT beginning in September 2017. 

The FAA has designated AA as the 

lead air carrier for ATD-2. This 

technical exchange provided NASA 

with valuable air-carrier feedback 

that will help further refine tactical 

scheduling and metering capability 

prior to shadow evaluations and 

simulation experiments with the 

full complement of field demonstration partners in early 2017. 

Discussion and Demonstration 

of IDM Concept for FAA’s 

TFMS Deployment Team

POC: NANCY SMITH

On November 29, 2016, Nancy 

Smith and the Integrated Demand 

Management (IDM) research team 

met with Omar Baradi, Acting 

Traffic Flow Management System 

(TFMS) Program Manager for the 

Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA), and his TFMS deployment 

team at the NASA Ames Research 

Center, to discuss the IDM concept. 

The meeting included discussions 

on the results from the August 2016 

simulation, and the next steps for 

IDM concept development. Baradi 

and his TFMS deployment team 

decided to meet at Ames to discuss 

IDM, so that the team can further 

collaborate with IDM researchers. 

Pat Somersall, Operations Manager 

for the FAA, who has been an early 

supporter and stakeholder for the 

IDM concept, also attended. During the meeting, Baradi and his 

team showed great interest in IDM, 

provided considerable insight into 

the traffic flow management issues 

related to current operations and 

identified key challenges for the 

IDM concept. Baradi commented 

that IDM’s focus on integrating and 

coordinating TFMS and TBFM was 

in accordance with their own efforts, 

which involve deploying and eventually integrating the “3Ts” (TFMS, 

Time Based Flow Management, and 

the Terminal Flight Data Manager). 

The group is concerned that without 

proper integration, users could take 

multiple penalties across the three 

systems. Therefore, efforts such as 

IDM offer a way to minimize such 

negative impacts in future systems. 

NASA ATD-2 researchers met with American Airlines’ Operations Systems and Decision Support Group to 

discuss the tactical surface scheduling and metering capability of the ATD-2 IADS system (Nov 22, 2016).
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016 13

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

American Airlines hub managers were given an ATD-2 overview at NASA’s ATD-2 Laboratory in 

Charlotte, NC (Nov 30, 2016).

ATD-2 Familiarization 

for American Airlines 

(AA) Hub Managers

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

On November 30, 2016 approximately 30 American Airlines (AA) 

Hub Directors and ramp managers 

from across the country met in the 

ATD-2 lab CLT lab for an overview 

and demonstration of the ATD-2 

system and associated technologies. The ATD-2 system overview 

included a description of the goals, 

benefits, and tools developed for use 

across the various user groups, from 

Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) 

personnel to ramp managers and 

controllers. The demonstration in 

the lab allowed the ramp managers 

to see firsthand the data integration 

and exchange between ATCT and 

the ramp that the system will enable, 

as well as key differences in features 

between ramp controller and ramp 

manager tools. In addition, descriptions of a real-time dashboard and 

monitoring tool were provided as a 

way for users to gauge benefits and 

efficiency metrics. This demonstration provided a venue for a unique 

discussion and thoughtful comments 

from the ramp managers’ perspective. 

Meeting with American 

Airlines (AA)

POC: DAVID WING AND KAPIL SHETH

On November 30, 2016, David 

Wing and Kelly Burke from NASA’s 

Langley Research Center briefed 

key personnel at American Airlines 

(AA) headquarters in Ft. Worth, 

Texas, on the Traffic Aware Strategic 

Aircrew Requests (TASAR) concept, 

and demonstrated the Traffic Aware 

Planner (TAP), a NASA-developed 

flight-deck trajectory optimization 

software application. Among the 

AA personnel in attendance were 

Capt. Brian Will (Director, Airspace 

and Avionics Modernization), 

Mike Byham (Director, Operations 

Engineering), First Officer Brian 

Norris (EFB Program Manager), and 

Tom O’Neill (Director of Dispatch 

Operations). The meeting also 

included additional TASAR team 

members, NASA consultants Capt. 

Bill Cotton and Jeff Henderson, and 

NASA ATD project personnel Mike 

Madson and Kapil Sheth, among 

others. In 2013, Capt. Will evaluated TAP in the first TASAR Flight 

Trial. With the US Airways merger 

now nearly completed, he requested 

this meeting to assess the feasibility 

of implementing TASAR in the AA 

fleet. The group discussed technical 

requirements in detail, and AA 

representatives identified no showstoppers for proceeding forward. 

Additional discussions will be held 

to determine next steps. The meeting also explored potential airline 

partnership opportunities within the 

ATD-3 project for conducting an 

“air/ground integration” operational 

demonstration in years 2018 

through 2020. These opportunities 

would involve equipping partner 

airline aircraft with the TASAR 

technology and installing NASA’s 

National Airspace System Constraint 

Evaluation and Notification Tool 

(NASCENT) technology in the 

partner airline’s Operations Center. 

AA already has NASCENT installed 

and expressed significant interest 

in the air and ground integration 

of these technologies. ATD-3 will 

demonstrate how the integration 

of NASA-developed ground and 
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

flight-deck-based automation tools 

can improve trajectory efficiency 

in the en route phase of flight. 

These NASA technologies enable 

airspace users to continuously assess 

weather, wind, traffic, and other 

information to identify, evaluate, 

and implement dynamic flight 

plan route corrections that can 

significantly reduce flight times and 

fuel costs in en route airspace. These 

airline partnership opportunities will 

continue to be explored in ATD-3’s 

“Air Ground Integration” project 

planning phase, currently underway. 

SBIR Phase 1 Close-Out for 

Weather Scenario Generator

POC: SHERI BROWN

The final review meeting of the 

Phase I Small Business Innovation 

Research (SBIR) awarded to AvMet 

Applications Inc., was held on 

December 1, 2016, at NASA’s 

Langley Research Center. The 

meeting was attended by Colleen 

Reiche (AvMet), Mark Klopfenstein (AvMet), Jeff Smith (Metron 

Aviation), and Langley Research 

Center researchers. Reiche gave 

the final out-brief presentation 

on the design and capabilities of a 

weather-scenario generator. NASA is 

developing advanced modeling and 

simulation capabilities for air traffic 

management (ATM) applications 

within the Airspace Operations 

and Safety Program. Weather is 

a major design constraint in the 

development of advanced, efficient, 

and capacity-enhancing ATM 

concepts. This SBIR effort focused 

on developing software that would 

allow ATM researchers to generate 

realistic weather in a controlled 

manner for ATM simulations 

without solely relying on historic 

records. This will allow researchers 

to set a range of weather parameters of interest for their study and 

produce representative and realistic 

weather conditions. The output 

of the weather scenario generator 

would include weather observations 

and high-resolution deterministic 

and probabilistic weather forecasts 

based on grid model data from 

numerical weather prediction 

models such as the High Resolution 

Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model. 

SBIR Phase 1 Closeout 

for Integrated Multi-Mode 

Automation 

POC: SHERI BROWN

On December 2, 2016, Architecture 

Technology Corporation presented 

a final briefing at NASA’s Langley 

Research Center for a Phase I Small 

Business Innovation Research titled 

“Integrated Multi-Mode Automation (IMMA) for Trajectory Based 

Operations (TBO).” Attendees 

included personnel from NASA, 

the Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA), and MITRE Corporation. 

The lack of support from the Air 

Traffic Management regarding 

aircraft with different capabilities 

is a longstanding and persistent 

issue that can limit the ability of the 

National Airspace System (NAS) to 

take full advantage of advanced aircraft capabilities. To fully utilize the 

variety of TBO concepts planned 

for the NAS, some of which use 

advanced aircraft capabilities for 

implementing trajectories, an air 

traffic controller (ATC) must be able 

to simultaneously support a variety 

of TBO concepts using different 

aircraft automation systems to fly 

the desired trajectory. To accomplish 

this, the ATC needs automation 

support to simplify the inherent 

complexities of using a variety of 

different TBO concepts and trajectory implementation strategies, 

and the tools to execute the desired 

trajectories, maintain situational 

awareness at all times, and support 

off-nominal situations. IMMA provides the automation to simplify the 

inherent complexities of using multiple TBO concepts by focusing the 

controller interactions on common 

core functions that all TBO concepts must support. Phase I efforts 

saw the development of near- and 

far-term integrated TBO Concepts 

of Operations (ConOps), the identification of IMMA initial functional 

requirements, and a demonstration 

of IMMA through a cognitive walkthrough. Plans were also presented 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016 15

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

for a proposed Phase II effort in 

which IMMA prototypes that target 

near- and far-term ConOps would 

be created and verified through 

real-time simulations. Both NASA 

and the FAA see the potential of 

IMMA technology to advance the 

state-of-the-art for NextGen TBO. 

Real-Time Safety 

Monitoring Demo to FAA 

POC: MATT DAIGLE

On December 11, 2016, Matt 

Daigle from NASA’s Langley 

Research Center conducted a RealTime Safety Monitoring (RTSM) 

demonstration for several FAA 

visitors at the Langley facility. Six 

people from attended, including 

Aleta Best, Tom Tessitore, George 

Steinmetz, Tirolu Bati, and Pradip 

Som. The demonstration was well 

received and the group identified 

elements for exchanging information. For example, there are several 

modules that have been developed 

at the FAA for wake encounter, loss 

of control, go-around and opposite 

landing that may be of interest to 

RTSM—either for consideration as 

future-use cases or as plug-ins—as 

model enhancements to existing 

models. It was suggested that a faceto-face meeting might make sense to 

further explore these opportunities. 

FAA 4D Trajectory 

Demonstration at Embry 

Riddle Florida Test-Bed

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

On December 13 and 14, 2016, 

Bryan Barmore and Nelson Guerreiro of NASA’s Langley Research 

Center attended the Federal 

Aviation Administration’s (FAA) 4D 

Trajectory demonstration, hosted by 

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, at the Florida NextGen TestBed in Daytona, Beach, Florida. 

The demonstration highlighted 

possible operational benefits from 

the data communication standards 

recently published by RTCA. These 

standards are for the ATN Baseline 

2 (ATN B2) protocol and associated 

message set that includes support 

for Dynamic Required Navigation 

Performance (DRNP) routes and 

Advanced Interval Management 

(A-IM). Both direct communications (Controller Pilot Data Link 

Communications) and automationto-automation communications 

(Automatic Dependent Broadcast 

– Contract) are supported. Industry 

partners provided two different 

simulated flight management systems (Honeywell and GE), controller automation platforms (Leidos), 

and communication network 

systems (Rockwell Collins/ARINC). 

Jarrett Larrow from the FAA was the 

designated DRNP stakeholder and 

provided a liaison with the DRNP 

community, including RTCA 

SC-227. Barmore provided a similar 

role for NASA, the A-IM community, and RTCA SC-186. The 

demonstration offered two scenarios 

to show methods of keeping aircraft 

on known trajectories using DRNP 

and maintaining throughput using 

A-IM. The presentation raised 

many questions relating to implementation impediments and system 

flexibility. Most of these questions 

will be addressed by NASA’s TBO 

Project, currently being formulated. 
16 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2016

RECOGNITION

PHM Contributor of 

the Year Award

POC: KAI GOEBEL

Real-Time Safety Monitoring 

team members Matt Daigle, Kai 

Goebel, Edward Balaban, Indranil Roychoudhury, Chris Teubert, 

John Ossenfort, Scott Poll, Chetan 

Kulkarni, Shankar Sankararaman, 

Susan Frost, and George Gorospe 

received the “Contributor of the 

Year” award from the Prognostics 

and Health Management (PHM) 

Society for their leadership, teamwork, and sustained dedication to 

the work in the field. The PHM 

Society is a non-profit professional organization dedicated to the 

advancement of PHM as an engineering discipline. It is founded 

on three basic principles: to provide free and unrestricted access 

to PHM knowledge; to promote 

interdisciplinary and international 

collaboration in PHM; and to lead 

the advancement of PHM as an 

engineering discipline. Team members have held various volunteer 

positions as technical chairs at the 

annual conference, given tutorials, and held positions as associate 

editors of the organization’s International Journal of Prognostics and 

Health Management. The recipients were recognized at this year’s 

event, held in Denver, Colorado, 

from October 3 through 6, with this 

award for their individual sustained 

support over the last few years. 

Best Papers at Digital 

Avionics Systems 

Conference (DASC) 2016 

POC: KATHARINE LEE

The theme of the recent Digital 

Avionics System Conference 

(DASC) 2016, held in Sacramento, California, on October 3 

through 6, was “Enabling Avionics for UAS/UTM (UAS Traffic 

Management).” Ames UTM team 

members Joseph Rios, Daniel 

Mulfinger, Jeffrey Homola, and 

Priya Venkatesan’s paper, “NASA 

UAS Traffic Management National 

Campaign: Operations across Six 

UAS Test Sites,” was awarded Best 

of Sessio and Best of Track (out of 

seven tracks at the conference). 

AIAA-HRS Robert A. 

Mitcheltree Young Engineer 

of the Year Award 

POC: SHERI BROWN

On October 17, 2016, Kurt A. 

Swieringa of NASA’s Langley 

Research Center was chosen as 

the 2017 AIAA-HRS Robert A. 

Mitcheltree Young Engineer of the 

Year Award. This award recognizes 

one member of the AIAA Hampton 

Roads Section (HRS) each year 

for distinguished service in some 

facet of aerospace engineering 

practice as a young professional. 

With this award, Swieringa automatically becomes the Hampton 

Road Section’s nominee for the 

peninsula-wide Doug Ensor Award 

for Young Engineer of the Year. 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov