National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

APR-JUL 2020 | Quarter 3

ATM-X Completes TAM 5A and 

5B Simulation Tests with the FAA 

and Boeing

3

X-3 Simulation Design Review 10
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020

AOSP IN THE NEWS

UNT-Led Team Collaborates 

with NASA on Advanced 

Air Mobility Project

Phys (UK) (4/14) reports “In the 

next 10 years, low-flying traffic 

over cities in the United States is 

expected to increase significantly and 

a University of North Texas-led team 

of academic and industry experts is 

working together to ensure safe skies 

through proper communication and 

coordination. ... The UNT-led team 

is one of eleven teams selected to 

work with NASA on their Advanced 

Air Mobility National Campaign.”

Why Flying Taxi Makers 

are Hitting Turbulence

Fortune (4/21, Alsever) reports 

“Imagine, in a few years, climbing 

into a small four-seat air taxi to get 

to the airport. The craft resembles 

an airplane but takes off and lands 

vertically like a helicopter. Its 

electric motors make for an eerily 

quiet ride. And as for the cockpit, 

well, there isn’t one because there’s 

no pilot. ... Parimal Kopardekar, 

Director of NASA’s Aeronautics 

Research Institute, says: ‘’getting 

off the ground and making sure 

safety is assured will be the biggest 

challenge ahead. But how do you 

prove that you’re safe through 

operation and design? And then 

how do you scale it in airspace 

and manufacturing?’ At the NASA 

Ames Research Center in Mountain 

View, Kopardekar’s team is working 

to sort those questions out with the 

Federal Aviation Administration.”

OSU Receives NASA Award 

to Study Weather for Drones

Oklahoman (4/22, Denwalt) 

reports “NASA awarded a team 

of Oklahoma State University 

researchers $5.2 million over the 

next four years to study low-level 

wind and turbulence forecasting. 

The research aims to improve the 

safe operation of drones in both 

urban and rural environments, 

particularly in the field of advanced 

air mobility that could one day 

include autonomous transport of 

people and cargo.”
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020 3

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

ATM-X Completes TAM 5A 

and 5B Simulation Tests 

with the FAA and Boeing 

POC: RICH COPPENBARGER, 

KEE PALOPO AND ARWA AWEISS

Despite the impact of COVID19 these past few months, the Air 

Traffic Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) project was able to 

complete multiple simulation tests 

with the FAA and Boeing this past 

quarter. On May 6, a simulation 

test, referred to as Tailored Arrival 

Manager (TAM) 5A, was carried 

out in collaboration with FAA and 

Boeing to further prepare for the 

ecoDemonstrator (ecoD) flight 

demonstration involving NASA’s 

TAM prototype. The simulation 

test was successfully completed with 

all partners working remotely, due 

to COVID-19 restrictions. The 

NASA team was able to operate 

systems in the testbed laboratory 

to generate TAM solutions using 

periodic input data from Boeing’s 

virtual B737 simulator and Flight 

Management System (FMS). With 

the FAA unable to access their 

data communications laboratory 

in New Jersey, a manual method 

was devised for delivering TAM 

trajectory solutions to the Boeing 

flight deck. The method relied on 

text messaging to first send the 

TAM solution from NASA to FAA 

for translation into a Controller 

Pilot Data Link Communications 

(CPDLC) uplink message. The 

translated uplink message was then 

routed via text messaging from 

FAA to Boeing for loading into the 

FMS. The test provided valuable 

insight into how best to conduct 

remote simulation test activities 

where connectivity and automated 

processes are limited. Furthermore, 

all technical objectives were 

met. These included testing the 

integration of new flight plan 

messages from Boeing, testing a 

new potential ecoD 2020 arrival 

route in Montana airspace, further 

validating the FAA’s CPDLC 

translation process, and testing 

fallback procedures in response to 

advisory-generation contingencies. 

On May 27, a second simulation 

test was conducted, known as 

TAM 5B. The simulation was 

a follow-on test in preparation 

for the upcoming ecoD flight 

demonstration involving NASA’s 

TAM prototype for August 

and September 2020. TAM-5B 

also was completed successfully 

despite only Boeing having 

physical access to their laboratory 

facilities. The NASA team once 

again operated systems in the 

testbed lab remotely to generate 

TAM solutions using periodic 

input data from a B787 simulator 

and FMS in Boeing’s Integrated 

Aircraft Systems Laboratory.

TAM trajectory solutions were 

relayed manually to the Boeing 

flight deck. TAM-5B marked the 

first opportunity to integrate with 

real-world avionics representing 

TAM advisory solution for simulated ecoD aircraft arriving at Glasgow, Montana
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

a B787, which was confirmed 

recently by Boeing as the aircraft 

type for the upcoming ecoD 2020 

flight. Key accomplishments of 

the test included the acquisition 

of 1 hertz track data representing 

Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast (ADS-B) and the 

verification of coordinate 

transformations performed by the 

FAA in translating TAM solutions 

into CPDLC messages. ADS-Blike data from the B787 relied on 

Boeing sending data to the FAA 

using a simulation data exchange 

standard known as Test and Training 

and Enabling Architecture (TENA). 

After receiving TENA data from 

Boeing, the FAA’s Target Generation 

Facility formatted the data into 

track messages and sent them to 

TAM via testbed. This data interface 

with testbed can conceivably be 

used to acquire ADS-B data from 

any live flight in National Airspace 

System. The availability of ADS-B 

data for the ecoD flights will 

provide an additional source of 

aircraft position and velocity in 

the event of data contingencies.

NASA ATM-X UAM Research 

Virtual Workshop 

POC: HEATHER ARNESON

The Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) Urban 

Air Mobility (UAM) subproject 

research team hosted a virtual 

workshop from March 31–April 2. 

Participants included UAM research 

principal investigators, their teams 

and collaborators, UAM subproject 

management, as well as ATM-X 

project management and line 

management. Attendees’ affiliations 

included NASA’s Ames Research 

Center in California, NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia, 

and NASA’s Glenn Research Center 

in Cleveland. The objective of the 

workshop was to discuss UAM 

research in the context of ongoing 

work related to the development of 

a UAM concept of operations, the 

National Campaign, and ATM-X 

Phase 2 planning efforts. Technical 

discussions developed consensus 

on cross-cutting assumptions 

and additional input required 

to complete fiscal year 2020 

research and to coordinate results 

of the research being conducted 

across 12 research threads. 

ATM-X Participates in Acoustic 

Technical Working Group 

POC: HOK NG

The Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) Urban Air 

Mobility (UAM) subproject team 

participated virtually in both 

the Acoustic Technical Working 

Group and the UAM Noise 

Working Group meetings from 

April 7–9. During these meetings, 

there was substantial technical 

exchange on ongoing cross-project 

collaborations between ATM-X 

and the Revolutionary Vertical Lift 

View of B787 navigation display after loading TAM path-stretch solution
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Technology (RVLT) projects related 

to development of a Noise Power 

Distance database and preliminary 

noise abatement recommendations 

for UAM operations. There 

were also technical discussions 

on how to incorporate acoustic 

measurements collected during 

National Campaign Development 

Testing flight activities into research 

planned by ATM-X and RVLT 

for fiscal year 2021 and beyond. 

NASA/FAA UTM 

Quarterly Meeting

POC: RON JOHNSON

The latest NASA/FAA quarterly 

meeting was held on April 9 to 

discuss recent developments in the 

FAA-led Unmanned Aircraft System 

Traffic Management (UTM) Pilot 

Program (UPP) and the UTM 

project. UPP awards have been 

made to the two FAA designated 

UAS test sites at New York and 

Virginia to conduct a series of flight 

tests later this year. The tests will 

have multiple UAS fly scenarios 

that will demonstrate critical UTM 

system functions such as remote 

identification of the vehicle, priority 

operations by first responders, 

and implementation of airspace 

restrictions called UAS volume 

reservations. Previously, the UTM 

project transferred to the FAA the 

UTM software that UPP will be 

using as the backbone of the system 

to be tested. In addition, the project 

has supported UPP by providing 

guidance on scenario development, 

field testing with the test sites, 

selection of industry partners, and 

the data collection process. The 

UTM project will continue to assist 

during preparations and flight tests. 

Other topics covered at the meeting 

included the latest developments on 

defining performance authorizations 

and the categorizing UAS Service 

Supplier functionality and operations.

System-Wide Safety 

Participation in DARPA 

ARCOS Kickoff

POC: MALLORY GRAYDON, 

NATASHA NEOGI AND PAUL MINER

From April 22–23, researchers 

Mallory Graydon, Paul Miner, 

and Natasha Neogi from NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in 

Virginia participated virtually 

in the kickoff of the Defense 

Advanced Research Projects 

Agency’s (DARPA’s) Automated 

Rapid Certification of Software 

(ARCOS) project. Graydon gave 

a keynote presentation outlining 

her research on the efficacy of 

proposed techniques for creating 

and assessing the assurance 

arguments in safety cases and other 

assurance cases. ARCOS project 

participants also gave briefings on 

their proposals for research into 

generating, curating, and presenting 

evidence of software fitness for 

use in military applications where 

there is risk of death, injury, or 

cyberattack. Subject matter experts 

representing NASA’s System-Wide 

Safety project and other agencies 

will participate on the ARCOS 

review board, helping to assess and 

guide this research toward a goal of 

reducing critical military systems’ 

certification costs. Techniques that 

reduce military certification costs 

may have application to software 

used in aviation and spaceflight 

applications. The website for the 

event is as follows: https://www.

darpa.mil/program/automatedrapid-certification-of-software.

Virtual Workshop with 

National Campaign 

Airspace Partners

POC: SPENCER MONHEIM AND SAVVY VERMA

In April, the Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) Urban 

Air Mobility (UAM) subproject 

hosted two virtual workshops with 

National Campaign partners. The 

first workshop, held on April 21, 

included about 50 participants who 

have signed an annex for National 

Campaign simulations, as well as the 

FAA. The purpose of the workshop 

was to update industry partners with 

information on the X-3 simulation 

scheduled for summer 2020. The 

discussion included updates to the 

annex and simulation schedule due 

to COVID-19 and other changes 

required to update the NASA UAM 

airspace management system to the 

latest industry standards. National 

Campaign scenarios or use cases 

focusing on nominal operations 

5
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

as well as off-nominal operations 

were also discussed, along with 

the requirements associated with 

those scenarios. The last workshop 

topic discussed was emulated 

airspace that will be provided to 

industry partners for exercising the 

scenarios. The second workshop, 

held April 29, included about 60 

participants. The meeting’s purpose 

was to update industry partners 

with X-3 simulation software-related 

information and included an update 

to the simulation requirements based 

on the latest industry standards that 

impact UAM airspace management 

system core services; a discussion 

on data collection and example 

metrics followed. The session also 

provided information to industry 

partners on connectivity tests with 

NASA’s system. Plans for providing 

validation tests, functional tests, and 

scenario tests were also discussed. 

Partners provided feedback on 

data collection and shared some 

of the validation tests that they are 

collectively working on for the new 

Discovery system. The feedback 

will be used to inform the software 

systems and their development. The 

ATM-X National Campaign team 

will continue to have virtual weekly 

tag-ups with industry partners 

to ensure project continuity. 

Unmanned Aircraft 

Safety Team Meeting

POC: STEVE YOUNG AND BECKY HOOEY

On May 7, Steve Young from 

NASA’s Langley Research Center 

in Virginia and Becky Hooey from 

NASA’s Ames Research Center in 

California participated virtually in 

the Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team 

(UAST) meeting. The UAST is a 

government/industry group chartered 

in 2016 to develop consensus-based 

and data-driven safety enhancements 

for unmanned aircraft systems 

(UAS) and operations. The team 

consists of more than 75 leaders 

representing organizations that 

span the UAS community. At this 

meeting, agenda topics included 

status reports from the four active 

working groups. As part of the data 

working group status report, Hooey 

described her team’s work with the 

FAA to enhance NASA’s Aviation 

Safety Reporting System to enable 

better reporting of UAS incidents, 

as well as better analysis of reports 

to identify safety-relevant trends 

and precursors. Hooey reported 

the project is on schedule and 

estimated to go live by the end of the 

year. In parallel, the FAA is taking 

steps to confirm that those who 

submit reports are protected from 

retribution or enforcement actions 

regarding violations (unless a crime 

was committed). Young serves as 

co-chair of the safety mitigation 

working group and contributes to 

multiple initiatives based in part 

on research within NASA’s SystemWide Safety project. At the meeting, 

updates on safety enhancement 

initiatives were provided. For 

example, safety enhancement-1 

recommends improvements in 

airspace awareness; and an initial 

action recommendation has been 

published describing how to 

protect commercial airports from 

inadvertent incursions by small 

UAS. Impact is expected soon as 

UAST member organizations begin 

to implement this recommendation. 

Additional safety enhancements are 

in development to cover automated 

vehicle responses to failures and 

procedure/checklist best-practices. 

The safety assurance working group 

discussed the development status of 

a set of safety performance indicators 

that the UAST and others can use 

to monitor and track trends. Also 

presented at the meeting was a 

status of policy/regulatory activities 

as reported by the FAA. For 

example, community response to 

the “RemoteID” notice of proposed 

rulemaking, and processing of 

exception requests for new carriagefor-hire operations (e.g., for the 

transport of COVID-19 test kits 

and samples) was discussed. 

UAST website: http://

unmannedaircraftsafetyteam.org

A recent UAST white 

paper describing a safety 

enhancement recommendation 

for manufacturers to provide 

out-of-the-box protections of 

commercial airport airspaces: 

http://unmannedaircraftsafetyteam.

org/cdn/UAST_SE-1_

AA-Geofencing_05-01-2020.pdf 

Aviation Safety Reporting System 

website: https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

ATM-X Insight Assessment 

Workshops

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

Several Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) insight 

assessment workshops were held 

this past quarter. The first was 

hosted by NASA and Booz Allen 

Hamilton on May 7, and was the 

second of three insight assessment 

workshops for the ATM-X 

project. About a dozen industry 

and government representatives 

participated in reviewing ATM-X 

findings on safety and human factors 

of future air traffic management 

systems. Results will help inform 

the ATM-X Phase 2 priorities. 

The insight assessment was 

recommended during ATM-X 

formulation as an additional way to 

engage with the growing aviation 

community beyond typical academic 

conferences. In calendar years 2018 

and 2019, Booz Allen Hamilton 

reviewed ATM-X publications and 

interviewed researchers from ATM-X 

(and what is now the Advanced 

Air Mobility project) to collect and 

synthesize findings and insights. 

That process is culminating with 

three industry workshops where the 

outcomes are presented, and industry 

representatives can give feedback 

and identify areas of need to them. 

The workshop was to be held at the 

National Institutes of Aerospace in 

early April; however, COVID-19 

canceled that workshop, so a series 

of three virtual workshops was 

planned in its place instead. This 

workshop was focused on safety, 

human factors and workload, and 

emergency procedures for future 

aviation concepts. Hyo-Sang Yoo 

from NASA’s Ames Research Center 

in California and Matt Daus from 

Windels Marx Law Firm facilitated 

the conversations during the 

two-hour workshop. There was 

good, lively discussion on several 

topics. This followed the previous 

workshop on noise and weather held 

on May 1. The final workshop on 

concepts of operation and air traffic 

management was held on May 13. 

About 20 industry and government 

representatives participated by 

reviewing ATM-X findings on air 

traffic management and concept 

of operation topics, which was 

the focus of this workshop. Rosa 

Oseguera-Lohr from NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia and 

Husni Idris from Ames facilitated 

conversations during the two-hour 

workshop. Once again, there was 

good, lively discussion on the various 

research topics. A final report will be 

delivered by Booz Allen Hamilton 

in July and will be shared with the 

participants and be made publicly 

available following their delivery. 

12th NASA Formal 

Methods Symposium

POC: DIMITRA GIANNAKOPOULOU, RITCHIE LEE, 

AND ANASTASIA MAVRIDOU

The 12th NASA Formal Methods 

(NFM) Symposium (NFM 2020) 

was successfully held as a virtual 

event with a record number 

of registrations and very high 

participation, from May 12–14, 

with two affiliated workshops on AI 

safety and cryptographic proofs on 

May 11 and May 15, respectively. 

The NFM Symposium is a forum 

to foster collaboration between 

theoreticians and practitioners from 

NASA, academia, and industry, with 

the goal of identifying challenges 

and providing solutions toward 

achieving assurance for safety-critical 

systems. The NFM Symposium is an 

annual event organized by the NFM 

Steering Committee, comprised of 

researchers spanning several NASA 

centers. NFM 2020 was organized 

by researchers from NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California, 

including Anastasia Mavridou and 

Dimitra Giannakopoulou as general 

chairs, Ritchie Lee and Susmit Jha 

as program co-chairs, and Hamza 

Bourbouh and Maxime Arthaud 

as local chairs. Guy Power handled 

registrations, and the NASA 

Aeronautics Research Institute team, 

in particular Christine Clark, Alina 

Eskridge, and Michael Tsairides, 

handled the platforms that hosted 

the event. The NFM 2020 featured 

six keynote talks covering all aspects 

of safety-critical systems, including: 

the cloud, presented by Byron 

Cook from Amazon Web Services 

and University College London; 

blockchain, presented by David 

Dill from Facebook and Stanford 

University; transportation, presented 

by Dana Schulze from the National 

Transportation Safety Board; and 

7
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

autonomy on the ground, in the 

air, and in other planets, presented 

by Sanjit Seshia from UC Berkeley, 

Leonard Bouygues from Google 

Loon, and Vandi Verma from NASA’s 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Twentyfive research papers, carefully selected 

from 62 full paper submissions, were 

presented over nine technical sessions. 

Each paper received at least three 

reviews from the NFM program 

committee. Keynote speakers gave 

live talks; authors of the research 

papers recorded their talks and were 

available live for questions and 

answers. Finally, a special session was 

presented by the joint SAE G-34/

EUROCAE WG-114 committee, 

committed to producing a means 

of compliance for the certification 

of safety-critical artificial intelligent 

systems for both airborne and ground 

air traffic control platforms. Overall, 

there was overwhelming community 

interest in the virtual event. There 

was a total of 858 registrations from 

48 different countries. During NFM 

2020’s three days, the number of 

active participants ranged between 

148 and 288. COVID-19 placed 

a real challenge for the organizing 

and steering committees. Making 

the event virtual not only turned 

out to be the correct decision, but it 

also gave NFM the opportunity to 

discover a global interest in formal 

methods. Even though a physical 

conference has a lot of benefits, the 

community appreciated being able to 

attend talks of interest without having 

to commit to the travel, resulting in 

a much higher participation than 

previous NFM events. There is hope 

that future NFMs will consider 

supporting virtual participation in 

addition to physical attendance. 

ATD-2 Phase 3 Briefing at the 

FAA National Customer Forum

POC: GREG JURO

From February 10–11, NASA’s Air 

Traffic Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) 

team visited field demonstration 

partners at Charlotte Douglas 

International Airport (CLT). The 

purpose of the visit was to observe 

and assess how the system has 

been performing since metering 

has been turned on for all banks of 

flights at CLT since February 1,

2020. Initial feedback from the 

FAA and airline participants at 

CLT describe a positive effect on 

managing traffic on the surface at 

CLT, as well as the surrounding 

Terminal Radar Approach 

Control (TRACON) airspace. 

During periods of highly irregular 

operations, such as during recent 

severe weather events that affected 

flights along the eastern half of 

the country, ATD-2 users retained 

the option to temporarily suspend 

metering. The ATD-2 team also 

met with the new American Airlines 

manager for air traffic operations 

for the southeast, who was given 

a tour of the Traffic Management 

Units at CLT tower and TRACON 

to gain a more comprehensive 

understanding of how the ATD-2 

system affects and improves traffic 

flow at CLT. The group also toured 

the new CLT tower to observe 

the progress being made toward 

the expected commissioning of 

the new tower on June 21. 

ATM-X Testbed Demo for 

FAA NextGen Office 

POC: KEE PALOPO

On May 19, the Air Traffic 

Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) project conducted an 

ATM-X testbed online demonstration 

for representatives from the FAA and 

its support organization, Concepts 

Beyond, as requested by Matt 

Modderno from FAA’s NextGen 

office. The demonstration included 

a discussion on an example use-case 

from a recent ecoDemonstrator test 

to show how the testbed is used 

along with its simulation tools. 

The demonstration included the 

software development kit’s adapter 

template code, generation Wizard. 

An adapter is an interface code 

between the testbed and a user’s 

application. NASA also provided 

the testbed’s documentation, 

including its interface control 

document, to the FAA. 

Unmanned Aircraft System 

Traffic Management Kicks Off 

Lessons Learned Activities

POC: RON JOHNSON AND JAEWOO JUNG

The Unmanned Aircraft System 

Traffic Management project is in 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

its closeout year and it is important 

to capture positive and negative 

lessons learned, as well as best 

practices employed, to help other 

projects achieve success in execution 

and formulation phases. To this end, 

a contract was awarded to Crown 

Consulting in early May to conduct 

an extensive lessons learned data 

collection and analysis activity that 

will engage project personnel, the 

office of the associate administrator, 

and stakeholders, to document 

their experiences with the project. 

The data collection process 

will entail virtual face-to-face 

interviews, surveys, initial analysis, 

and supplemental interviews that 

will last three months. A final 

report and brief out is planned 

for August. The results will be 

shared with other projects within 

the Aeronautics Research Mission 

Directorate, as well as broader 

lessons entered into NASA’s Lessons 

Learned Information System. 

UAS Casualty Risk 

Assessment Technology 

Transfer Meetings with FAA 

and North Carolina IPP

POC: ERSIN ANCEL AND KYLE ELLIS

System-Wide Safety project leadership and researchers held several 

virtual meetings with the FAA’s 

aircraft evaluations division (AED) 

and North Carolina UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) regarding 

the use of NASA’s Non-Participant 

Risk Casualty Estimation Tool to 

support the safety case development 

as part of Part 107 waivers that 

allow commercial UAS flights over 

people and moving vehicles. Initiated within the Unmanned Aircraft 

System Traffic Management project, 

NASA’s System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project continues the development 

of a casualty metric and subsequent 

Non-Participant Casualty Risk 

Assessment Technology that uses a 

combination of cell phone generated population density data and 

several models to assess the number 

of potential individuals along a 

proposed flight route that could be 

impacted by a UAS catastrophic failure. The tool was presented to the 

FAA’s AED, which is responsible for 

evaluating and granting UAS operator waiver/exception requests. The 

AED representatives showed interest 

in the use of the tool by commercial 

applicants as part of their safety 

case development. Additionally, the 

SWS project has connected with 

the North Carolina UAS IPP about 

the use of the Non-Participant 

Casualty Risk Assessment Technology to assist IPP participants obtain 

approval for UAS operations including drone COVID-19 response/personal protective equipment delivery. 

Ongoing communication is pursued 

with the FAA, North Carolina UAS 

IPP, and commercial companies to 

help NASA identify critical needs 

for the industry and initiate collaborative partnerships to develop 

innovative new tools and concepts 

designed to assure the safety of 

Advanced Air Mobility operations. 

Advancements in safety assurance 

capabilities and services such as 

the Non-Participant Risk Casualty 

Estimation Tool will accelerate 

industry efforts toward approval 

from the regulatory bodies to enable 

commercial solutions/operations.

Delivery of Aircraft Flight 

Performance model to 

National Campaign

POC: JOHN FOSTER, DAVID HARTMAN

AND CHRIS HARTMAN

A flight performance model for a sixpassenger Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

quadrotor aircraft was delivered to 

the National Campaign subproject 

on May 26. Due to the lack of 

existing models for UAM vehicles, 

this model was designed using the 

Base of Aircraft Data format and 

was the first developed by NASA 

for air traffic management research 

using this approach. This model was 

based on conceptual designs and 

performance prediction software 

provided by the Revolutionary 

Vertical Lift Technology project. 

Documentation describing the 

database development process 

was also provided to the National 

Campaign to enable partners to 

further develop and implement 

future models. Feedback from the 

partners indicated a desire for models 

of other configurations and efforts 

are continuing to provide models to 

UAM research principal investigators 

to support project research objectives. 
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Advanced Air Mobility 

Ecosystem Working 

Groups Kickoff 

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR

On May 18 and 28, the Aeronautics 

Research Mission Directorate 

kicked off the second and third of 

four Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) 

ecosystem working groups. The 

community integration working 

group virtual meeting was held on 

May 18 and was attended by just 

under 250 people. Seven panel 

participants represented community 

acceptance stakeholders including 

North Carolina Department of 

Transportation, Airports Council 

International, the non-profit 

Community Air Mobility Initiative 

thought leaders in the areas of 

vertiports (Alpha 5), local decision 

makers (Duetto Group), and local 

development companies (Deloitte 

supporting Hillwood). The group 

discussed community needs related 

to UAM, barriers to community 

integration, the need for education 

initiatives, and current initiatives to 

address the community acceptance 

barriers to enabling UAM. The 

aircraft working group virtual 

meeting was held on May 28 and 

was attended by approximately 

200 people. Six panel participants 

represented the aircraft community 

including Aerospace Industries 

Association, Boeing NeXT, Bell, 

Joby, Uber Elevate, and Wisk. The 

group discussed barriers related to 

new vehicle certification, design 

trade space, challenges with the 

public acceptance of automation, 

electric propulsion, and European 

Union Aviation Safety Agency 

development of certification rules. 

The Conference.io system enabled 

online participants to actively engage 

during the meetings. Recordings 

and slides from both meetings 

will be posted at https://nari.arc.

nasa.gov/aamecosystem along 

with the two National Campaign 

virtual breakout sessions.

X-3 Simulation Design Review

POC: ANNIE CHENG

The Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) project’s 

initial Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

subproject conducted the X-3 

simulation design review (SDR) for 

airspace simulations with industry 

partners scheduled to begin at the 

end of June 2020. The X-3 effort 

is intended to support NASA’s 

National Campaign-1 testing and 

review, conducted on June 3, assess 

the extent that the X-3 system design 

meets the X-3 requirements, and 

that the verification and validation 

plan is well defined and acceptable. 

The review was a collaborative 

effort, which included presentations 

of the X-3 design by the ATM-X 

UAM subproject, as well as data 

collection efforts by the Advanced 

Air Mobility (AAM) project’s 

National Campaign subproject’s 

airspace test infrastructure team. An 

independent NASA review panel 

and internal stakeholders took 

part in the SDR. They conveyed 

appreciation for the quality of work 

in the X-3 simulation planning 

and design, with suggested actions 

and feedback along with ratings 

for each individual exit criteria. 

They provided valuable feedback 

and recommendations to the 

UAM team to ensure that the 

X-3 simulation system design and 

verification and validation plan will 

support the goals and objectives 

of UAM and ATM-X, as well as 

those for the AAM project and the 

National Campaign subproject. 

X-3 Connectivity Testing 

with Partners Begins

POC: SPENCER MONHEIM

Connectivity tests were conducted 

with partners for the upcoming 

X-3 Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

airspace simulation between June 

12–24. These connectivity tests are 

an important foundational step for 

the upcoming X-3 simulation, in 

which the airspace partners connect 

to the NASA Flight Information 

Management System-Authorization 

(FIMS-AZ) service and exchange 

data utilizing an FAA or self-signed 

authorization token. These tests 

are beneficial to both partners 

and the Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) project 

because they provide feedback on 

the efficacy of the FIMS-AZ service, 

and are an important predecessor 

to more integrated testing. To 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

date, the ATM-X UAM subproject 

has completed connectivity tests 

with six airspace partners: ANRA 

Technologies, University of North 

Texas (UNT/Frequentis USA), 

Avision, Metron/Airbus, Uber, and 

AirMap. More tests with partners are 

expected to be completed in July. 

UTM and Smart Mobility 

at Ames Team Returns to 

Center for Flight Operations

POC: JAEWOO JUNG AND BIMAL APONSO

From June 29–30, the Unmanned 

Aircraft System Traffic Management 

(UTM) project and Smart Mobility 

at Ames team conducted a small 

UAS flight test at the Moffett 

Field airport ramp area. The flight 

test’s purpose was to research 

the feasibility of the Time-Based 

Conformance Monitoring (TBCM) 

concept using several carefully 

designed flight profiles. The TBCM 

concept may be included in a future 

UTM environment as an advanced 

UAS Service Supplier feature 

designed to enable the continuation 

of a planned UAS mission in a 

communications-challenged area. 

Due to COVID-19 impacts, the 

flight tests were governed by a 

center-approved return-to-work 

plan that contained strict safety 

guidelines, such as social distancing 

and personal protective equipment 

use, which was developed by the 

Smart Mobility at Ames team 

along with input from center 

operations and safety organizations. 

Five specifically designed flight 

profiles were successfully tested 

over 26 flights. The test data will 

be analyzed and used to assess 

the feasibility of the TBCM 

concept. The team is planning 

on conducting another flight test 

soon to strengthen the data and 

address any gaps in understanding. 

UTM Project Delivers 

Research Transition Team 

Products to the FAA

POC: MARCUS JOHNSON AND RONALD JOHNSON

NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft System 

Traffic Management (UTM) project 

made multiple deliveries of research 

transition team (RTT) products 

to the FAA this past quarter. On 

May 21, NASA delivered one of its 

last remaining research transition 

products (RTP) to the FAA as part 

of its UTM activity within AOSP. 

The RTP was completed by the RTT 

Sense and Avoid (SAA) subgroup 

for Technical Work Package #3 

on Large-scale Contingencies 

Mitigation. Included in the RTP 

package was an updated UTM 

conflict management model that is 

a concept overview paper describing 

the conflict mitigation methodology 

that supports the use-cases described 

in Technical Capability Level 4 

(TCL 4) operating environments 

(urban beyond visual line of 

sight operations) and capturing 

the minimal level of separation 

provisions that are necessary for 

safe airspace operations. The 

RTP package also included a set 

of eight conference publications 

on SAA system-level performance 

metrics and analyses that were 

conducted during TCL 4, and 

the relevant UTM technologies 

which are designed to enable 

UAS operations safely in 

low-altitude airspace.

UTM project and Smart Mobility at Ames Team Safely Operating Unmanned Aircraft at Moffett Field
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

NASA Delivers 

Next Installment of 

Technology Transition

POC: MARCUS JOHNSON AND RONALD JOHNSON

On June 30, NASA delivered the 

eleventh installment of technology 

transition products to the FAA 

as part of the joint FAA-NASA 

RTT collaboration as detailed 

in the RTT plan, that is known 

to Congress. This installment 

featured a UTM project TCL 4 

flight demonstration report that 

provided an executive summary of 

the demonstration and a collection 

of the TCL 4 flight demonstration 

final reports from Nevada and 

Texas FAA UAS designated test 

site organizations that participated 

in the demonstrations. The 

installment also contains a 

report “Flight Demonstration 

of UAS Traffic Management 

(UTM) at Technical Capability 

Level 4,” which was presented 

at the 2020 American Institute 

of Aeronautics and Astronautics 

aviation forum and exposition 

virtual event, and an appendix of 

references from this report that 

captures further TCL 4 results and 

analysis. This delivery marked the 

final technology transition from 

NASA to the FAA under the UTM 

RTT joint management plan.

Safety Enhancement Research 

Presented to Industry Group

POC: ERSIN ANCEL AND KYLE ELLIS

On June 30, Steve Young from 

NASA’s Langley Research Center 

in Virginia provided a summary of 

research completed over the period 

2014–2020 to industry’s joint 

implementation measurement and 

data analysis team (JIMDAT). The 

JIMDAT is a government/industry 

group chartered in the late 1990s 

to track the implementation and 

effectiveness of safety enhancements 

(SEs) that have been defined by 

JIMDAT’s parent organization, the 

Commercial Aviation Safety Team 

(CAST). Young’s presentation 

marked the completion of SE-207 

and SE-208, which were defined 

by CAST in 2014 with the goal 

of developing and demonstrating 

technology-based interventions 

to mitigate loss of airplane state 

awareness by flight crews. This 

includes loss of awareness regarding 

energy, automation, attitude, and 

system states, particularly in offnominal situations. Over the 

course of six years of research, 13 

technology concepts were developed, 

evaluated, and advanced as part of 

11 high-fidelity flight simulation 

studies that spanned six test 

platforms. These platforms included 

advanced flight deck simulators at 

Langley and NASA’s Ames Research 

Center in California, Honeywell, 

the University of Iowa, and the FAA 

Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma 

City. During these studies, more 

than 200 airline flight crews and test 

pilots participated. They completed 

more than 1,700 complex scenarios 

such as had occurred in prior 

accidents, incidents, or similar 

events. Overall, 49 reports in total 

were published either as conference/

journal articles or as NASA 

technical reports. In recognition of 

its efforts, the team of more than 

100 individuals that completed the 

2019 flight simulation studies was 

recently awarded a NASA Group 

Achievement Award. This team was 

led by Lynda Kramer from Langley. 

Following Young’s presentation, 

JIMDAT complimented the 

team’s extensive work and 

discussed plans for follow-on 

activities regarding the findings. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020 13

RECOGNITION

AUVSI Cascade Chapter, 

Webinar on UAM/AAM

POC: SPENCER MONHEIM

On May 22, researcher Spencer 

Monheim from NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California 

participated virtually as a panel 

member at an Association for 

Unmanned Vehicle Systems 

International (AUVSI) cascade 

chapter webinar on Urban Air 

Mobility (UAM) and Advanced Air 

Mobility (AAM). Almost 100 people 

attended the webinar comprised 

of mostly people outside of the 

UAM industry. Monheim answered 

multiple questions involving what 

approach NASA is taking with 

UAM, including the five pillars 

for UAM as outlined by the AAM 

project; what is the expectation in 

terms of how UAM will fit into the 

current airspace system; will UAM 

be naturally phased in, or will we see 

changes to the airspace as a whole 

as a result of UAM; what are the 

concerns with cybersecurity; and how 

integral is safety to UAM, compared 

to cars or traditional commercial air 

traffic. The panel participants gave 

insight on how external stakeholders 

see UAM, as well as their thoughts 

and concerns. It allowed the Air 

Traffic Management-eXploration 

project to share their plans and 

vision for UAM, including the 

National Campaign and other 

research threads. A recording of 

the meeting was posted online.

Parimal Kopardekar 

Elected Chair of ICAO’s 

UAS Advisory Group 

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR

On May 27, Parimal Kopardekar, 

director of the NASA Aeronautics 

Research Institute, was elected 

by members as the new chair for 

the International Civil Aviation 

Organization’s (ICAO) Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems-Advisory Group 

(UAS-AG). In this capacity, Parimal 

Kopardekar will represent the 

United States at ICAO, and the 

FAA supported his nomination. 

The group’s charter is to harmonize 

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic 

Management (UTM) across the 

globe. UAS-AG Phase II will 

support and guide ICAO member 

states to establish a common global 

framework for UTM to allow 

further developments and to focus 

on better defined issues, whether 

technical, operational, or legal. 

Flight Demonstration of 

UTM TCL 4 - Presentation at 

2020 AIAA Aviation Forum

POC: JOSEPH RIOS

On June 17, Unmanned Aircraft 

System Traffic Management (UTM) 

project Chief Engineer Joseph 

Rios virtually presented “Flight 

Demonstration of Unmanned 

Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic 

Management (UTM) at Technical 

Capability Level 4” at the 2020 

American Institute of Aeronautics 

and Astronautics Aviation 

Forum, using a video recording. 

In the presentation, the flight 

demonstration scenarios that 

contained research objectives, test 

characteristics that defined the flight 

environment in each scenario, and 

test events that were designed to 

induce changes to the environments 

or operations for testing different 

technologies and procedures were 

discussed. The summer 2019 

demonstration took place in Reno, 

Nevada, and Corpus Christi, Texas, 

and unmanned aircraft tracks and 

associated operation volumes from 

some operations were shown. The 

presentation concluded with a 

discussion on how the viability of the 

UTM concept to manage large scale 

operations and contingencies in an 

urban environment was shown with 

the demonstration, and the potential 

use of the demonstration results 

for the FAA and other regulators 

to inform future rule making and 

identification of additional gaps 

that require further analysis. 

NASA’s Formal Requirements 

Elicitation Tool Received 

Honors and Awards

POC: DIMITRA GIANNAKOPOULOU

AND MISTY DAVIES

NASA’s Formal Requirements 

Elicitation Tool (FRET) received 

honors and awards at a significant 

international conference, the 

26th International Requirements 

Engineering: Foundation for 
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUL 2020

RECOGNITION

Software Quality (REFSQ 2020), 

held from June 23–26. FRET 

allows requirements to be precisely 

stated; this enables automated 

analysis and testing for complex 

systems, including increasingly 

autonomous systems. FRET is 

now available through an opensource license and is being used 

together with U.S. aviation partners 

as part of an effort to understand 

the safety cases that can enable 

innovative, highly automated 

aviation systems. FRET is part of 

the System-Wide Safety Assurance 

of Autonomy Technical Challenge. 

Twitter acknowledgment of NASA’s FRET receiving honors and awards at REFSQ 2020
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov