AIRSPACE OPERATIONS 

AND SAFETY PROGRAM NEWSLETTER

FY 2015 Quarter 3: April — June 2015

NASA's NTX Hosts 

FAA's NextGen Assistant Administrator

On June 22, the NASA North Texas Research Station (NTX) in Fort 

Worth hosted a visit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s 

Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) organization, 

including FAA Assistant Administrator Edward Bolton, Chief Scientist 

Steve Bradford, and Director for Portfolio Management and Technology Development Paul Fontaine. Mr. Bolton and his colleagues were 

briefed on Air Traffic Management (ATM) Technology Demonstration2 (ATD-2) technologies, and tools such as the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) and the Precision 

Departure Release Capability (PDRC), which were demonstrated with live data from Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The tour also included a presentation on novel surveillance technologies for under-equipped 

airports, observation of PDRC in operational use at Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center, and an American Airlines (AA) demonstration of the DWR tool at the AA Integrated Operations Center. NTX capabilities and 

research partnerships were also highlighted. (POC: Paul Borchers)

In This Issue

AOSP In The News......................... P. 2

Technical/Programmatic 

Highlights........................................P. 5

 April ...................................................P. 5

 May...................................................P. 10

 June...................................................P. 14

Awards, Papers & 

Appointments...............................P. 17
// AOSP in the News

Emerging Business Opportunities

for UAVs

In an article penned on April 2, the Syracuse (NY) PostStandard reported that Parimal Kopardekar, principal 

investigator for NASA’s unmanned aerial systems (UAS) 

traffic management (UTM) initiative, discussed the financial potential for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) 

at the CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity annual meeting. Kopardekar highlighted those 

companies participating in the Northeast UAS Airspace 

Integration Research Alliance’s efforts to integrate 

UAVs into civilian airspace. Kopardekar was quoted as 

saying that the biggest challenge currently is to develop 

a system that would allow UAVs to avoid collisions. 

Kopardekar cautioned that the “safety and security of 

these operations is missing.” 

-

-

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UAV Rules Are the FAA’s 

“Highest Priority” 

The Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel edition of May 1 featured 

an article on the Drone, Data X conference at the Kaiser 

Permamente Arena. The Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA)’s Jim Williams said that because of the expected 

growth of the commercial unmanned aerial vehicle 

(UAV) industry, the FAA’s highest priority would be to 

devise rules. Parimal Kopardekar, principal investigator 

for NASA’s unmanned aerial systems traffic management 

initiative, observed that “every home is going to have a 

drone pretty soon ... Right now there is no congestion 

management problem, but eventually there will be.” Phil 

McNamara, who organized the conference, said that he 

was happy that 550 people attended the event, and expects next year’s conference to be even bigger. 

NASA, AUVSI to Host UAV Conference 

in July

On May 13, David Lumb at Fast Company announced 

that NASA and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle 

Systems International (AUVSI) will host a conference in 

July to discuss unmanned aerial vehicles in the national 

airspace. Members of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were slated to be in attendance. In a blog 

post, Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, wrote that 

“Today, we see the need to establish a safe, low altitude 

unmanned aerial traffic management system. Bringing 

together a broad spectrum of people interested in 

[unmanned aerial systems] technology will help us develop a well coordinated plan that will guide us in the future.” Lumb thought it was “admirable” that NASA was 

“jumping ahead of hard line government drone regulation.” In contrast, Lumb criticized the FAA for the way it 

“clamped down on commercial drones,” instead of proposing “solid laws.” (The May 13 issue of the publication 

Engadget also addressed the July conference.)

An InstantEye unmanned aircraft system is operated in 

Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, California during Coastal 

Trident 2015 field experimentation and exercise activities 

Credits: NASA Ames/Eric James 
NASA Will Attempt to Make 

“Coherent Plan” for UTM 

Steve Dent at Engadget wrote on June 12 concerning 

NASA’s efforts to develop a unmanned aerial system 

(UAS) traffic management system (UTM) by connecting 

UAS to a control system that would “’geo-fence’ them 

off from trouble.” With multiple companies working 

on similar system, Dent said that NASA will attempt to 

form “a coherent plan with that jumble of technology” 

at the July UTM convention at NASA’s Ames Research 

Center.

NASA, Verizon Exploring Ways to Use 

Cell Towers to Monitor UAS

On June 6, The Guardian (UK) newspaper reported that 

it obtained an agreement between NASA and Verizon to 

jointly explore whether cell towers could support communications and surveillance of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) at low altitudes: work now underway at the 

NASA’s Ames Research Center, which plans to test the 

Verizon system in 2017. The article notes, however, that 

NASA’s research on unmanned aerial systems traffic 

management is a “massive undertaking that would 

stretch NASA’s shrinking budget.” Missy Cummings, professor of aeronautics at Duke University, said that she 

doesn’t think that NASA can accomplish much unless the 

government provides more money for the “incredibly 

underfunded” project. (Related stories appeared on 

June 3 in Fierce Mobile IT, RT, Next Web, and Engadget.)

FAA Deploys New NASA-Developed 

Software 

On June 24, Aviation Today reported that the Federal 

Aviation Administration (FAA) is deploying new software 

to improve national air traffic control. To that end, NASA 

developed the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS) 

tool, which was tested at NASA’s Ames Research Center 

before being handed over to the FAA in 2014 for further 

testing and evaluation.

NASA Research Focusing on Two 

Complementary UTM Systems

In the July 25 edition of Government Computer News,

coverage continued on NASA’s efforts, in conjunction 

with the Federal Aviation System, to develop a unmanned aerial system (UAS) traffic management (UTM) 

system to track unmanned vehicles flying at low altitudes. Parimal Kopardekar, manager of NASA’s Safe Autonomous Systems Operations Project, was quoted as 

saying that NASA wants to create a system to keep track 

of and deliver important information to UAS operators, 

areas those operators should avoid, other UAS flying in 

the same airspace, and weather conditions. NASA researchers are testing ways to communicate updated, 

real-time data to UAS, including geo-fences and virtual 

barriers. The article notes NASA will develop two systems: one would be a portable system to monitor operations in various geographic locations, and the second 

would be a stationary UTM system that would continuously monitor low-flying drones over a specific geographic area.

NASA Future Flight Central, a national Air Traffic Control/Air 

Traffic Management (ATC/ATM) simulation facility at NASA 

Ames Research Center
NASA Plans Test of UTM this August at Armstrong Research Center

Inside Unmanned Systems (5/31, Knight) reported May 31 on NASA’s efforts to develop unmanned aerial system (UAS) traffic management (UTM) protocols. UTM principal investigator Parimal Kopardekar was quoted as 

saying that NASA believes there is a need to coordinate UAS traffic so [it] could operate safely at low altitudes. 

“It’s just like with autonomous cars,“ Kopardekar said. “Even though they’re autonomous, you still need roads 

and traffic lights. We need a way to organize UAS traffic, whether that’s by crisscrossing, or with a bike lane, or 

HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lane kind of construct. The system can make these things happen based on demand. UTM is a virtual system.” 

The article noted that one of the first tests of the system will take place this August at NASA’s Armstrong Research Center, with Kopardekar highlighting how many partners are helping with this effort. “If we do everything by ourselves in our own labs, it will take more time,” Kopardekar said. “We need the collaboration of ideas and technologies to allow for faster innovation of the different subsystems and overall integrated operations.”

NASA’s near-term goal is to safely enable initial low-altitude UAS as early as possible. While the long-term 

goal is to accommodate increased demand with highest safety, efficiency and capacity
// Technical and Programmatic Highlights

NASA Researchers Host 

South Korean Collaborators

On April 28-29, NASA researchers and managers representing NASA’s airport surface research, the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-2 Project and NASA Headquarters held a technical interchange meeting with representatives from the Korean Agency for Infrastructure 

Technology Advancement (KAIA), the Korea Aerospace 

Research Institute (KARI), and Incheon International Airport Corporation. The meeting was held at NASA Ames 

Research Center, where the two parties discussed in detail the plans for collaborating on airport surface and 

terminal area research, under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between NASA and KAIA in November 2014. 

The KAIA delegation provided briefings on Incheon Airport operations, as well as airspace and airport issues 

encountered in the Republic of Korea. The NASA team 

provided background and demonstrations of some of 

NASA's fast-time simulation and modeling capabilities. 

The teams discussed specific areas of research collaboration to advance NASA's surface research portfolio, and 

ways that KAIA can develop simulation and research 

tools in order to address its own air traffic management 

challenges. Another meeting between technical team 

members is tentatively scheduled for the October/

November timeframe. (POC: Yoon Jung) 

UTM Activity Accelerates 

NASA’s Safe Autonomous System Operations (SASO) 

Project staff has completed an initial draft of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management 

(UTM) Concept of Operations. The draft is being reviewed by partners, while planning and implementation 

of an August 2015 demonstration is ongoing. Included 

were shake-out tests, completed from March through 

June, to prepare for that Build 1 demonstration. Site selection is complete, and partners have been briefed on 

their demonstration roles and responsibilities. 

SASO staff continue to develop and test an initial UTM 

system software prototype. Several partners are developing client software for UTM communication. An intermediate test with partners was completed in May utilizing a NASA vehicle. A memorandum of understanding 

(MOU) was executed with the U.S. Navy to access protected UAS mishap data. The Project is also establishing 

MOUs with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army to access 

protected mishap data, establishing a hazards analysis 

team, and initiating work on hazards analysis based on 

public access Air Force mishap data. 

(POC: Dr. Parimal Kopardekar) 

First Flight Test, 6 May 

Technical interchange meeting participants
FAA Approves TSS Deployment

In April, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decided to proceed with full-scale implementation of the latest 

NASA-developed air traffic management (ATM) tools that allow air traffic controllers to maximize the benefits of 

performance based navigation (PBN) procedures on runway approach. These tools, collectively known as the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing System (TSS), combine time-based arrival scheduling and display aids for air traffic controllers. 

TSS allows use of fuel-efficient area navigation and required navigation performance arrival procedures in terminal 

airspace during the busiest traffic conditions to avoid disruptions. The increased use of PBN procedures will reduce 

vectoring, require less level-offs at intermediate altitudes, and result in fewer verbal communications between controllers and pilots. Starting in 2018, the FAA plans to deploy TSS to five busy airports: Phoenix Sky Harbor, Houston 

Intercontinental, Atlanta Hartsfield, Seattle -Tacoma and Los Angeles.

Leveraging several decades of ATM research, development of TSS began in 2009 under NASA's Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration-1, or ATD-1 effort. Between 2009 and 2014, NASA conducted 26 large-scale, human-in-the-loop simulations to refine TSS algorithms, displays and procedures. Additional simulations were performed in collaboration with the FAA, the MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development, 

and the National Air Traffic Controller Association (NATCA). During development of TSS, two FAA operational systems – the Time-Based Flow Management System and the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System – 

were modified to include the TSS technologies. NASA transferred these operational prototypes at Technology Readiness Level 6 to the FAA in 2014. The final joint TSS simulation, called the Operational Integration Assessment, involving NASA, the FAA and NATCA, was completed in May 2015. (POC: John Robinson)

Today's air traffic management operations with TSS tools and without (inset) 
NASA Completes OIA of TSS

NASA engineers, in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), have completed experimental 

runs in support of the Operational Integration Assessment (OIA). The OIA was a joint operational assessment 

of the FAA's Ground-based Interval Management for 

Spacing (GIM-S) integrated with NASA's Terminal Sequencing and Spacing System (TSS) ground automation 

technology in an operational-like environment at the 

FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC). The 

OIA, with participation from the National Air Traffic Controller Association (NATCA), had the objective to identify 

TSS operational risks that need to be addressed prior to 

transitioning TSS from the laboratory to deployment in 

the national airspace system (NAS). Operational risks 

are broad and include technical, policy and procedures, 

training, and TSS computer-human interface considerations. 

Over the last few months, a series of shakedowns were 

completed prior to conducting the actual data runs. The 

first shakedown was completed April 7-9. Twenty-two 

pseudo-pilots and 18 controllers participated, including 

NATCA controllers and traffic management coordinators 

(TMCs) from Seattle, Houston, Denver, Indianapolis, 

Memphis and Cleveland terminals and en route air 

traffic facilities. The objectives of this shakedown were 

to retire the highest OIA risks, pertaining to the target 

generation facility automation defects/radar surveillance/pseudo-piloting errors and the en 

route configuration, including extended 

metering. Other objectives included evaluating scenarios for the OIA, providing 

familiarization and training for the subject participants, and testing data collection methods and procedures, including 

the daily schedule. Most of the objectives were met, leaving the team to address some remaining issues. 

The second OIA shakedown was completed April 28-30 and included the participation of 22 pseudo pilots and 18 controllers, including NATCA TMCs from the Memphis and Cleveland Centers, the Houston Terminal Area Approach Control, and 

NATCA controllers from Washington, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Miami, Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia and Central Florida. Ten simulation runs were conducted, and 

the OIA risks were addressed satisfactorily, thus leading 

to the OIA team to conclude that run-for-record simulations should proceed as scheduled starting May 12. Additional work in preparation for the simulations proceeded, in an effort to finalize the daily run schedule 

and modifications to improve controller training.

Formal data collection for the OIA – the run for record – 

was held May 12-21. For these runs, about 40 participants took part, including 22 pseudo-pilots, 15 controllers, and three traffic manager coordinators. The first 

two days were dedicated to training with both classroom and simulation training. The run for record targeted 18 data collection runs, each carefully crafted to 

tease out certain potential risks. Three contingency runs 

were reserved on the last day to be used if needed. At 

the end of the run for record, 20 data collection runs 

were successfully conducted, each one essentially 

unique. Over the course of the next few months, the 

data, including controller feedback, will be consolidated 

and analyzed. The first planned OIA report is an executive summary, which is expected to be completed in 

June. (POC: Kevin Witzberger)

The 2015 NASA/FAA OIA Team at the FAA Tech Center
PTM Team Conducts HMI Workshops

On March 30-April 3, the Pair-wise Trajectory Management (PTM) team conducted multiple, single-day workshops with groups of commercial airline pilots to gather feedback on the PTM Human Machine Interface 

(HMI). A total of 20 active and recently retired pilots 

with oceanic routes flying experience received an introduction to the PTM concept, and were then asked to 

discuss and comment on detailed schematics of a proposed airborne PTM HMI. 

The intention of the workshops was to share current 

design ideas and gather feedback from subject matter 

experts and potential PTM HMI end-users to ensure 

that flight crews are ultimately provided with an optimized, intuitive PTM tool. PTM team members will use 

the feedback gathered at the workshop from the pilot 

participants to refine the PTM HMI. The HMI will be 

assessed in conjunction with flight crew PTM procedures during upcoming human-in-the-loop (HITL) 

testing. 

Dr. Jennifer Kibler and Mr. Ryan Chartrand from NASA 

Langley Research Center and Mr. Ken Jones and Mr. 

Tom Graff from the National Institute of Aerospace 

conducted the PTM HMI workshops, and are planning 

a PTM HITL experiment to be conducted at NASA Langley in support of the Airspace Technology Demonstration-3 subproject during fiscal year 2016. (POC: Sheri 

Brown)

AFDC-1 Experiment Completed 

On April 9, the Augmented Flight Deck Countermeasures 1 (AFDC-1) experiment completed data collection 

with the involvement of 12 regional air transport pilots. 

Members of the experiment team included Chad Stephens, Alan Pope, Angela Harrivel, Vincent Houston, 

and Kyle Ellis, all from NASA Langley Research Center. 

AFDC-1 was developed to investigate technologies to 

mitigate spatial disorientation leading to aircraft loss of 

control, a leading cause of aviation fatalities in current 

operations. Research focused on improving pilot attitude awareness through the use of advanced flight 

deck interface avionics, including a photo-realistic synthetic vision system and a concept called the 

"background attitude indicator," capable of presenting 

an artificial horizon across all four head- down display 

panels. 

Separately during this experiment, initial flight scenarios aimed at inducing attention-related human performance limitations (AHPL) were evaluated. Benchmark 

tasks were implemented for AHPL state classification 

purposes, and psychophysiological instrumentation 

was integrated toward crew-state-monitoring technology development. 

The team is eager to move into data processing, and 

results and lessons learned will be applied to future 

higher-fidelity simulation studies as planned. This research is supported under the Airspace Technology 

Demonstrations (ATD) Project. (POC: Kyle Ellis)

NASA Langley Research Center engineers in Hampton, Va., 

use the Research Flight Deck flight simulator to continue 

developing new cockpit technologies, to make airliners safer and more efficient
ATD-1 GIM-S Study Completed

The Airspace Operations Lab at NASA Ames Research 

Center successfully completed a human-in-the-loop simulation using Ground Based Interval Management-Spacing 

(GIM-S) for NASA’s Air Traffic Management (ATM) Technology Demonstration-1 (ATD-1) activity. The objective 

was to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of time-based 

metering operations using the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s time-based flow management (TBFM) 

system with different delay indications and speed advisories for controllers operating in Center airspace. 

Two retired controller teams each staffed seven positions 

in the Albuquerque, Denver and Kansas City Centers, and 

Phoenix Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON). 

TBFM version 4.2.3 provided Center controllers with 

scheduling and time-based metering information, and 

Terminal Spacing and Sequencing System (TSS) information to TRACON personnel. The study varied the delay-display accuracy between tens of seconds and rounded minutes, as well as the availability of GIM-S speed advisories to Center controllers. 

Initial observations and feedback during debriefs indicate 

controllers were able to deliver aircraft with sufficient 

accuracy to the TRACON in all conditions. Tens-ofseconds delay indication appeared more accurate to TRACON controllers. Detailed analysis of delivery accuracy, 

flight efficiency, safety, controller workload, and acceptability is underway. This activity supports operational integration of TSS ground tools that ATD-1 successfully transitioned from NASA to the FAA, and is supported under the 

Airspace Technology Demonstrations Project. (POCs: 

Tom Prevot, Todd Callantine)

Completion of Regulatory Compliance 

Study 

Engineers from NASA Langley Research Center recently 

completed a study on regulatory compliance with multitier supplier networks, which compounds safety assurance problems for increasingly complex computer-based 

airborne systems. A solicitation was sent to a range of 

potential bidders with a wide range of technical and cultural backgrounds and levels of experience. Findings include that existing compliance guidelines are fragmented, 

obscure, and inadequate to mitigate risks of system and 

supplier network complexity. Recommendations include 

new guidelines for multi-tier contracting and system 

model-based design; revisions to existing guidelines; development of a product-driven structure; and strengthening the guidelines to include a more robust systemsengineering perspective. 

The impact of this effort was shared with several FAA 

stakeholders, including Kirk Baker of the FAA’s Airborne 

Systems; Barbara Lingberg, the FAA’s software and airborne electronic hardware team lead; Natesh Manikoth 

of the FAA’s ground software effort; and Peter Skaves of 

FAA advanced avionics. Findings were presented at the 

September 2014 National Systems, Software and Airborne Electronic Hardware Standardization Conference 

held in Los Angeles. (POC: Sheri Brown)
Researchers Discuss SARDA Field Testing 

with AA Ramp Managers

NASA researchers visited the American Airlines (AA) 

Ramp Tower at Charlotte Douglas International Airport 

North Carolina on April 14-15. Per the terms of a Space 

Act Agreement between NASA and AA, the NASA team 

discussed requirements for an operational test of 

NASA's Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) 

technology. SARDA was developed to reduce taxi times 

and fuel emissions by monitoring gate delays and 

providing ramp controllers with departure pushback advisories. The technology has been tested in human-inthe-loop simulations at NASA’s Ames Research Center, 

most recently with participation from American’s ramp 

personnel. 

During this trip, the NASA team observed ramp operations, especially the operational changes occurring in 

three sectors – in-bound traffic, out-bound traffic, and 

north-sector traffic – as well as the compass cardinal 

points of north, east, south and west. Discussions were 

held about field test procedures and logistics, such as 

how to suspend testing and revert to current-day operations, and training requirements. (POC: Savvy Verma) 

Benchmarks Achieved as RCO Planning 

Continues

In April, NASA engineers completed a reduced crew operations (RCO) Build 1 preliminary design review, and 

developed an RCO concept of operations. The effort was 

in connection with the award of a NASA Research Announcement to Rockwell-Collins. Prototype aircraft 

monitoring agents are being developed for select scenario events, using the Plan Execution Interchange Language (PLEXIL), and Autonomous Constrained Flight 

Planner (AFCP) capabilities are being developed as a 

ground station tool for generating and evaluating 

routes.

Technologies to enable speech interface capabilities are 

also progressing. Discussions continue with the Air Force 

Research Laboratory to establish partnering opportunities, including follow-on, deep-dive technical discussions 

in planning upcoming activities. Coordination with the 

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on an RCO baseline simulation is also ongoing. In late March, an Airspace and Operations Safety Program sub-project manager, Randy Bailey, traveled to the FAA’s Civil Aerospace 

Medical Institute in Oklahoma City to explore mutual 

research interests. Discussions with the FAA’s Flight Operations Simulation Branch were also held, and cooperative research testing plans are being formulated for 

evaluation of baseline RCO issues. Baseline RCO testing 

is tentatively planned for September. (POC: Sharon 

Graves)

NASA Langley Researcher Attends 

TPC/TIM Meetings in Japan

On May 11, William C. Johnson of NASA Langley Research Center participated in the technical program 

committee (TPC) meeting for the Japanese government’s 2015 Electronic Navigation Research Institute 

(ENRI) International Workshop on Air Traffic Management/Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance 

(EIWAC2015) in Tokyo. On the following day, May 12, 

Mr. Johnson participated in a technical interchange 

meeting hosted by ENRI and attended by other international aeronautics organizations, where he presented an 

overview of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate portfolio. 

Mr. Johnson was the sole United States representative 

invited to the ENRI TPC gathering for EIWAC2015, where 

he is working with ENRI to develop EIWAC2015 into 

Asia’s premiere forum for air traffic management technical exchange. Mr. Johnson will return to Tokyo in November for the next TPC meeting and the EIWAC2015 

event. (POC: William C. Johnson)
NASA Langley Multi-Disciplinary Student Projects 

On May 1, a team of eight NASA Langley Research Center student researchers presented their semesterlong projects to managers at NASA Headquarters during a video conference. Disciplines included aerospace, mechanical, energy and software engineering, and computer science. Students came from across 

the nation to spend 15 weeks at NASA Langley for a hands-on, real-world research experience. Their projects supported the Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program and the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP).

The student abstract entitled “Flight Adjustment Logging and Communication Network (FALCN)” was in 

support of AOSP’s Shadow Mode Assessment Using Realistic Technologies for the National Airspace System Project, as well as networked air traffic management. The group was led by Matthew Underwood 

with the involvement of Lindsey Carboneau, Daniel Merlino, Drew Wilder and Logan Wilson. 

In part, the abstract reads: “There is an overwhelming desire to advance communication mechanisms between entities that operate within the national airspace system. Furthermore, due to the rise of fuel 

costs, airlines are extremely interested in increasing the efficiency of their flights. FALCN is an innovative 

system prototype that improves collaborative decision-making without modifying infrastructure or operational procedures within the current air traffic management system. This software enables flight crew and 

airline dispatchers to share and assess optimized flight routes through an Internet connection. This system prototype will result in an unprecedented use of in-flight Internet to facilitate effective communication with airline operations centers, which may contribute to increased flight efficiency for the airlines.” 

(POC: Elizabeth Ward)

Pictured above are the team members, from left to right: Andrew Todd, Alyssa Sylvester, Craig 

Schmidt, Andrew Olguin, Logan Wilson, Lindsey Carboneau, Drew Wilder, and Daniel Merlino
NASA Works with CAST to Develop New 

Training Methods

NASA is leading research chartered by the Commercial 

Aviation Safety Team (CAST) to develop and assess 

commercial flight training methods focused on mitigating the effects of attentional human performance 

limiting states (AHPLS). This includes the development 

of realistic simulation scenarios designed to induce 

AHPLS, and methods to detect and measure these 

states for induction validation and training purposes. 

AHPLS contribute to the loss of flight crew airplane 

state awareness, and remain a causal factor in commercial aviation accidents and incidents. The challenge 

is ultimately to create new training methods, which 

reduce the occurrence of, and enable recovery from, 

AHPLS in situ. Transitioning effective and useful research and development products to the international 

commercial aviation training community is key to the 

success of this work, so the NASA team of Lance 

Prinzel, Kyle Ellis, Chad Stephens, Angela Harrivel, and 

the National Institute of Aerospace(NIA)’s Dan Kiggins 

sought exposure to real airline training sessions early in 

the task life-cycle. 

The NIA’s Kiggins arranged for observation of training 

sessions and discussions with Boeing and Pan Am personnel for the NASA Langley Research Center’s team in 

Miami, Fla. at the Boeing Flight Services (BFS) Training 

Center on May 19-20, and at the Pan Am International 

Flight Academy on May 21. The visit informed an NIA 

workshop hosted June 16-17, in Hampton, Va. Approximately, 30 invitees attended the workshop, including 

representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, industry, unions, and foreign, domestic and regional airlines. 

Workshop outcomes are expected to include a NASA 

publication describing new scenarios, and documenting relevant analyses and recommendations for 

the ongoing work. The team is also pursuing relationships with BFS, Pan Am and other partners to access 

their training facilities for road show demonstrations of 

new technology and training mitigation concepts. This 

work is being conducted in response to CAST Safety 

Enhancement 211 entitled “Training for Attention 

Management” which supports the ATD Project. (POC: 

Sheri Brown)

ORC Project Site Visit in Houston, Texas

The Optimized Route Capability (ORC) project is an 

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)/MITRE Corporation/NASA collaboration that is developing traffic management unit (TMU) decision support for intelligent 

arrival meter fix offloading. At many airports, including 

Houston Intercontinental, the arrival gates or meter 

fixes are major bottlenecks for arrival traffic, rather 

than runways. NASA is developing an algorithm to 

identify projected periods of meter fix overload, and 

suggest individual flight reroutes to alternate meter 

fixes.

The algorithm monitors estimated time-based flow 

management arrival scheduling delay pushback on a 

large planning horizon: up to two hours from the meter 

fix. Excessive estimated delay pushback triggers the 

algorithm to search for suitable flights (both airborne 

and pre-departure) to reroute to an alternate meter fix 

at minimal cost. In most cases the reroute should reduce the flight delay with minimal flight-distance increase.

ORC team members from the FAA, MITRE and NASA 

visited the Houston center, tower, and terminal area 

air traffic facilities May 12-14 to engage facility supervisors, traffic management coordinators, and controllers 

(including several National Air Traffic Controller Association representatives) in discussions on ORC. In addition to positive feedback on proposed ORC functionality, facility personnel provided valuable insight into current operations and their greatest challenges, and how 

ORC could help address those challenges. Periodic follow-up visits to the Houston facilities are envisioned as 

the algorithm is refined, leading up to a prototype ORC 

demonstration in March 2016. (POC: Shannon Zelinski)
Initial state of ASDI live data displayed on Cesium with the red 

dots representing flights

SMART-NAS Distributed Display Evaluation

As one of the first steps in demonstrating progress towards the goal of building a testbed platform, the Shadow 

Mode Assessment using Realistic Technologies for the National Airspace System (SMART-NAS) Test Bed (SNTB) 

team has developed both an initial distributed aircraft situation display to industry (ASDI) live-data feed, as well as 

the Aircraft Simulation for Traffic Operations Research (ASTOR) software. The display is part of the platform infrastructure, and it takes advantage of a trending technology, running on the NASA/Amazon cloud, enabling the display to be visible nationwide. 

Currently, both the ASDI feed and ASTOR run independently on the cloud. As display platforms, the former uses 

Cesium – a free, open-source Web Graphics Library virtual globe and map engine – whereas the latter uses Google 

Earth. Part of the next research step is to integrate the two into a single display. In both displays, one can examine 

the flights closely by zooming into an airport. 

The upper two figures below show the ASDI live data display on Cesium. The first figure shows an initial state of 

the live data with the red dots showing the flights. The second figure shows a zoomed-in San Francisco airport 

(SFO) with a yellow flight icon representing an arrival. The bottom figure shows the ASTOR display on Google 

Earth, with the blue flight icons representing 50 instances of ASTORs in a test scenario. 

The team is currently evaluating the Prysm system, wall and 85-inch displays shown below, for their potential use 

as a collaborative and distributed display platform for the testbed. The first runs in one location, while the second 

could run in elsewhere in the country. (POC: Kee Palopo)

ASDI live data display on Cesium zoomed-in on SFO 

with a yellow flight icon showing an arrival

ASTOR display on Google Earth with blue flight icons 

representing 50 instances of ASTORs in a test scenario
The Boeing Company Awarded $10.9 Million Contract for ATD Phase 2 Task

On June 5, the Airspace Technology Demonstrations Project (ATD) awarded The Boeing Company a $10.9 million, 

two-year contract for its avionics Phase 2 task. ATD is focused on advancing the technology readiness level of innovative NASA technologies through system-level 

demonstrations in relevant environments. One primary 

ATD Project goal is to operationally demonstrate an integrated set of NASA arrival management technologies for 

planning and executing efficient arrival operations in the 

terminal environment of a high-density airport. These 

technologies are intended to assist flight crews, controllers, and air traffic managers with meeting the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) objective of 

increased fuel efficiency during periods of high runway 

throughput. 

Researchers at NASA Langley Research Center have developed airborne spacing for terminal arrival routes 

(ASTAR) algorithms for trajectory-based control law for 

time-based spacing of flight deck interval management 

(FIM) operations. The avionics Phase 2 task leverages 

Phase 1- identified solutions for equipping existing inservice aircraft with FIM equipment, an airborne spacing 

tool leveraging technology under development at NASA, 

for a 2017 flight test demonstration. The avionics Phase 2 

team is comprised of organizations and individuals from 

each organization that are recognized leaders in the community. 

The Boeing Company, in partnership with Honeywell and 

United Airlines will build, test, and fly the ATD avionics 

prototype FIM system. Additionally, United Airlines is 

providing significant cost sharing which, combined with 

Honeywell's cost structure, allows NASA to conduct flight 

testing at significantly less expense. Honeywell will incorporate the latest version of NASA’s ASTAR algorithm 

paired with their latest trajectory generator into a prototype FIM system built on Honeywell's latest Automatic 

Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) platform 

hosting the oceanic in-trail procedures (ITP) application 

created by NASA. Flight testing is planned for the second 

quarter of fiscal year 2017 with three aircraft, including a 

Dassault business jet as an ADS-B Out target, a Honeywell 

757 with FIM, and a United Airlines 737NG with FIM. The 

tests will be conducted in the Moses Lake and Seattle airspace, where the EcoDemonstrator ASTAR Guided Arrival 

Research (EAGAR)/ASTAR flight test successfully occurred 

in December 2014.

Eighty flight hours are allocated to each test aircraft allowing for the development of a flight test plan addressing stakeholder questions. NASA Langley is working to 

include the Federal Aviation Administration in key planning efforts throughout the contract. Honeywell has also 

indicated interest in incorporating ASTAR into their future 

product lines following this work. (POC: Sheri Brown)

ATM Data Warehouse Kickoff Meeting 

Held 

On June 15, a kickoff meeting for the augmentationfunded contract with the ATAC Corporation of Santa 

Clara, Calif. was held at NASA Ames Research Center. The 

purpose of the effort was to add new capabilities to the 

air traffic management (ATM) data warehouse – known 

as Sherlock – to greatly increase the ability of researchers 

to quickly analyze real-track data from the entire national 

airspace systems (NAS) in a cleanly-fused format. The 

work will include real-time streaming of data to clients 

such as the Shadow Mode Assessment Using Realistic 

Technologies for the National Airspace System Project’s 

testbed.

The contract task will also include integration of ATAC's 

SkyView product with Sherlock. SkyView is the commercial version of the FAA's Performance Data Analysis and 

Reporting System, and has the capacity to examine everything from NAS performance to airspace design. The contract was awarded through SGT, Inc. and has a period of 

performance of one year. (POC: Michelle Eshow)
TASAR Demonstrated During Industry 

Forum 

David Wing, project lead for NASA’s Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) research and development 

activity, gave a presentation and demonstration of the 

TASAR technology at the Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) Users 

Forum on June 2-4, in Denver, Colo. The Forum, attended 

this year by more than 400 participants from around the 

globe, is a central medium for the exchange of information among airlines, regulatory authorities, installers, 

suppliers, and designers of avionics systems and components. Mr. Wing briefed TASAR in the “EFB Applications” 

session, where he described the concept and associated 

EFB software application, the Traffic Aware Planner (TAP). 

During the Technology Expo on opening day, he demonstrated the technology running with its newly developed 

iPad interface. 

Substantial interest was indicated from a variety of domestic and international airlines, avionics vendors, and 

data connectivity suppliers. Several companies expressed 

interest in the process for commercializing the TAP software. Specific airline interest was received from United, 

FedEx, NetJets, and British Airways, the first three of 

which are supplying evaluation pilots to the upcoming 

TASAR Flight Trial 2. The Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA) expressed interest in collaboration, citing a potential 

linkage of TASAR to the FAA’s Aircraft Access to SWIM 

(System Wide Information Management) Program. The 

TASAR work is supported under NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstrations Project. (POC: David Wing)

ATD Project Hosts TASAR VIP Demonstration Days

On June 12 and June 19, the NASA Langley Research Center’s Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) 

team hosted VIP demonstration events at Newport News/

Williamsburg International Airport. TASAR is a research 

task under the Airspace Technology Demonstrations (ATD) 

Project, within the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP). The first event was attended by AOSP Director John Cavolowsky, ATD Project Manager Leighton 

Quon, Clayton Turner, NASA LaRC Deputy Center Director, 

and Captains Scott Sander and Paul Harrison from Alaska 

Airlines and Virgin America, respectively. The latter are 

representatives from the two partner airlines involved in 

the TASAR project who shared their perspectives. TASAR 

contractors Engility Corporation and Advanced Aerospace 

Solutions were also recognized for their 2014 Small Business Award nominations by NASA Langley. 

NASA has been developing and testing the TASAR concept 

for aircraft operations featuring a NASA-developed cockpit 

automation tool to improve flight efficiency. Known as TAP 

– for Traffic Aware Planner – the technology is anticipated

to save fuel and flight time, thereby providing immediate

and pervasive benefits to the aircraft operator, as well as

improving flight schedule compliance and pilot and controller workload. The flight trials are were conducted in

conjunction with prospective airline partners with the goal

of increasing overall readiness for upcoming integration of

TAP in partner-airline aircraft and operational-use testing

in revenue service by the airlines. (POC: Sheri Brown)

DWR Demonstration for Sabre Airline 

Solutions

Representatives from Sabre Airline Solutions visited NASA 

Ames Research Center on June 18 for a demonstration of 

the Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) system. Dave McNally and Kapil Sheth provided a detailed briefing and demonstration of DWR capabilities and testing that occurred at 

American Airlines. Sabre representatives were interested 

in whether DWR route advisories could be output to a system like Flight Explorer, a Sabre product used by airline 

operators and others, to facilitate easy alerting to flight 

dispatchers. Such an approach would be a potential implementation path for systems like DWR. Sabre visitors 

included Daria Pulyaeva, Flight Explorer senior product 

manager; Steve Hansen, solutions manager, Flight Planning and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS); and Michael Hoppin, Global 

SCOE/AirCentre. (POC: Dave McNally)
Meetings with DLR at AIAA AVIATION 

2015 

To discuss the ongoing joint research and planned milestones for wake research under an agency-level collaboration agreement, Dr. Nashat Ahmad of NASA Langley 

Research Center held meetings with Dr. Frank Holzapfel 

and Mr. Stephan Korner of Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft 

und Raumfahrt (DLR) during the American Institute of 

Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) AVIATION 2015 

conference June 23-24 in Dallas. The meetings included 

productive discussions on the feasibility of different 

ensemble techniques for wake applications, methodologies for model evaluation, the possibility of data exchange for model evaluation, and potential joint publications. The goal is to develop a validated wake vortex 

prediction model that can be used in support of the 

development and use of new procedures in the national airspace system. The progress on the collaboration 

was also presented at the conference in a paper entitled “Multi-Model Ensemble Wake Vortex Prediction.” 

The paper is co-authored by the DLR’s Stephan Korner 

and Frank Holzapfel, and NASA’s Nashat Ahmad and 

Randal Van Valkenburg. (POC: Sheri Brown)

NASA Researchers Present at AIAA AVIATION 2015

Researchers supporting the Airspace Operations and 

Safety Program (AOSP) participated in the American 

Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) AVIATION 2015 Forum held in Dallas, Texas June 22-26. The 

forum combined several different technical disciplines, 

including aeroacoustics, aircraft design, modeling and 

simulation technologies, and aviation technology, integration and operations. This annual conference is 

attended by approximately 1,500 researchers and professionals throughout government, industry and academia. 

During the conference, AOSP researchers presented 

technical papers covering a number of research areas 

including integrated arrival, departure, and surface operations; global aircraft trajectory simulation; the Shadow Mode Assessment using Realistic Technologies for 

the National Airspace System testbed development; 

dynamic arrival routes; environmental impacts; airport 

surface and terminal area scheduling; conflict alerting; 

weather rerouting; and flight simulation motion parameters. The forum also included several sessions with 

expert panelists speaking on various aspects of air 

traffic management, including Next Generation Air 

Transportation System stakeholder engagement, current air-traffic operations, unmanned aerial systems 

integration, and transformation concepts in aviation. 

Forum keynote speakers included NASA Administrator 

Charles Bolden and Tom Enders, chief executive officer 

of the Airbus Group. (POC: Kathy Lee)

NTX Hosts Modeling and Simulation 

Technical Committee

On June 26, the NASA North Texas Research Station 

(NTX) in Fort Worth hosted a visit from the American 

Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Modeling and Simulation Technical Committee. The committee was briefed on the NTX’s history and current 

operations, including its working relationships with the 

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Dallas-Fort 

Worth International Airport, and American Airlines. A 

laboratory tour included demonstrations of NASA’s Precision Departure Release Capability (PDRC) and Dynamic Weather Routing (DWR) technologies for novel surveillance at lesser-equipped airports, and discussion of 

time-based flow control. This was followed by a visit to 

the FAA's Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center 

Traffic Management Unit, where the group observed 

PDRC in use. The AIAA group also visited American Airlines to get a demonstration of airline dispatch procedures at their Integrated Operations Center. (POC: 

Paul Borchers)
// Awards, Papers and Appointments

Invention of the Year Awards for 2014

The Office of the General Counsel has announced the 2014 commercial invention of the year: the “Direct-To 

Controller Tool” from NASA Ames Research Center. This invention provides smart direct routes that are uplinked to flight crews within seconds after being identified, enabling commercial airline flights to fly more directly to their destinations. The tool has been licensed to a commercial entity, which has identified annual savings of about one million flight minutes and about $75 million in airline operating costs. (POC: Mark Dvorscak)

NASA Honored at ATM 2015

The 11th USA/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar (ATM 2015) was held June 

23-26 in Lisbon, Portugal, and focused on global ATM research topics, with participation from the United

States, Europe, Australia and Asia. Sixty-six papers were presented (nine from NASA), in 13 research themes/

tracks, including airport operations, trajectory management, weather, and unmanned air vehicle operations.

NASA’s Dr. Parimal Kopardekar served on a panel entitled “Special Session on Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Research” as a technical expert in unmanned vehicle operations. NASA's outstanding technical

work was acknowledged with four papers selected as “best in track” at the conference: three papers from

NASA Ames Research Center and one from NASA Langley Research Center. (POC: Sandy Lozito)

ATM Seminar Paper Awarded Best in Track

William C. Johnson of NASA Langley Research Center attended the 11th USA/Europe Air Traffic Management 

Research and Development Seminar on June 23-26 in Lisbon, Portugal. Mr. Johnson coauthored a paper 

awarded the best paper in the Trajectory and Queue Management Track: “Enabling Performance-Based Navigation Arrivals: Development and Simulation Testing of the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing System” that was 

presented at the event. The paper summarized two key performance improvements found in the testing of 

the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing System developed within the Air Traffic Management Technology 

Demonstration-1 subproject. 

During the event, Mr. Johnson also had several discussions with U.S. and European leaders regarding air traffic 

management research and development (ATM R&D). One key topic addressed with transatlantic leaders during the final plenary session was NASA’s participation in the international ATM R&D community. Both Federal 

Aviation Administration and European leadership at the event recognized NASA’s significant advances in ATM 

R&D, and expressed a desire to involve NASA in more international ATM R&D initiatives. (POC: William C. 

Johnson)