National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

OCT-DEC 2019 | Quarter 1

NASA-Uber X-2 Engineering 

Evaluations

3

UTM Pathfinder Flight Concluded 6
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019

AOSP IN THE NEWS

NASA And Uber Plan 

Tests to Support Future 

Air Travel Over Cities

SlashGear (10/5, Roston) “Experts 

at NASA’s Ames Research Center 

will work alongside a team from 

Uber this week to run computer 

simulation tests of future air travel 

over urban environments. The tests 

will be conducted in order to get data 

on ‘certain things we already know 

and others we still need to invent,’ 

according to the space agency.”

NASA News: Space Agency 

and Uber Team-Up To Develop 

‘A New Future’ Of Flying Cars

Daily Express (UK) (10/7, Kettley) 

“The NASA and Uber scheme has 

been dubbed Urban Air Mobility 

or UAM. The US space agency 

hopes to introduce a ‘new future 

for city transport’ through the 

development of flying personal 

vehicles. Under Urban Air Mobility, 

NASA’s engineers will test and 

develop systems of low altitude 

flight control.”

An Uber Boss Insists Its 

Flying Taxis Will Be Fully 

Functional By 2023, and 

Says The Company Is Talking 

With NASA To Find A Way 

To Manage Air Traffic

Aviation Week (3/25) reports “NASA 

has renamed its Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge the Advanced 

Air Mobility National Campaign, a 

seemingly simple name change that 

signals recognition that industry’s 

interest is in more than just downtown air transportation.”

In Focusing On What Pilots Do 

Wrong, We May Be Missing 

Valuable Lessons From 

What They Quietly Do Right

Forbes (11/14, Kiernan) reports “the 

industry knows a lot about what 

pilots do wrong, but not nearly 

enough about what pilots do right. 

Human error accounts for 80% of 

aircraft accidents. Because these 

errors are so deadly, the aviation 

industry studies them carefully. ... 

But recent research from the NASA 

Engineering and Safety Center 

suggests that by concentrating on 

what people do wrong, we have been 

missing opportunities to learn about 

what people do right.”

Meet NASA’s Air Taxi Simulator

Aerospace America (11/26, Hofacker) 

reports “the Vertical Motion 

Simulator at NASA’s Ames Research 

Center has a storied past, helping 

train astronauts and F-35 pilots alike. 

Now, the world’s largest full-motion 

simulator could pave the way for 

urban air mobility, a future in which 

passenger air taxis could share the 

skies with package delivery drones 

and other cargo vehicles.”
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019 3

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

NASA-Uber X-2 

Engineering Evaluations 

POC: SAVITA VERMA

NASA, in collaboration with Uber, 

completed a series of engineering 

evaluations of the Urban Air 

Mobility (UAM) air traffic 

management (ATM) system at 

NASA’s Ames Research Center in 

California from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3. 

These UAM simulations, known as 

X-2, were built on the capabilities 

developed for NASA’s Unmanned 

Aircraft System Traffic Management 

(UTM) system and testbed, and 

were enhanced by the ATMeXploration (ATM-X) project’s 

UAM team to meet the increased 

density, tempo, and complexity 

of anticipated UAM operations. 

During the X-2 activity (consisting 

of 19 simulation runs), NASA and 

Uber submitted operations for 

different sets of flights, resulting 

in hundreds of simulated vehicles 

within a common airspace. Uber’s 

lab was connected remotely to 

NASA’s X-2 airspace management 

system, which will be further 

extended for NASA’s UAM Grand 

Challenge testing. NASA algorithms 

for scheduling and separation were 

evaluated in X-2, and the early 

results show that the algorithms 

were able to maintain safe 

separation and establish efficient 

operations, with the exception 

of a few select situations due to 

uncertainties in the simulated UAM 

trajectories. In addition, the teams 

gained insights with respect to using 

the UTM system architecture as a 

basis for UAM operations. These 

findings are being documented for 

the benefit of the Grand Challenge 

effort and the broader UAM 

community. The ATM-X project is 

committed to delivering a lab-tested, 

UAM airspace system backbone 

for Grand Challenge activities 

and performing laboratory testing/

simulation of scenarios with Grand 

Challenge partners prior to flight 

testing. The X-2 activity with Uber 

reduces risk and expedites the future 

integration of Grand Challenge 

partners for future activities. 

System-Wide Safety 

Project Engagement at the 

AUVSI Safety Summit

POC: JOHN KOELLING

On Oct. 2, representatives from 

NASA’s System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) project hosted a booth at 

the Association for Unmanned 

Vehicle Systems International’s 

(AUVSI) World Safety Summit 

on Autonomous Technology at 

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, 

California. Over the course of six 

hours, representatives from the 

SWS project engaged with industry 

partners, other safety organizations, 

and students. There were more 

than 900 attendees at the event. 

X-2 engineering simulation of NASA and Uber operations in a common 

airspace

Dashboard sumMarchy of NASA and Uber operations in X-2 engineering 

simulation
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

The SWS team described the 

project’s goals and achievements, 

including demonstrations showing 

that “In-Time System Wide Safety 

Assurance” (NASA Aeronautics 

Research Mission Directorate’s 

Strategic Thrust 5) can help the 

United States improve safety in 

the near future and maintain 

or improve safety as we move 

toward emerging operations.

ATD-2 Phase 3 Field 

User’s Meeting 

POC: GREG JURO

On Oct. 2, the NASA Airspace 

Technology Demonstration (ATD) 

team conducted an ATD-2 Phase 

3 review meeting with the six field 

user groups that are involved in 

the evaluation process at Dallas 

Fort Worth International Airport 

(DFW). This included groups 

from the DFW tower, Dallas Love 

Field tower, DFW Terminal Radar 

Approach Control Center, Fort 

Worth air route traffic control center, 

American Airlines, and Southwest 

Airlines. The primary objectives of 

the meeting were to determine if 

the field facilities desire to continue 

utilizing the Trajectory Options Set 

(TOS) feature in ATD-2 during 

the upcoming months and discuss 

potential enhancements to the 

system as part of the fiscal year 

2020 evaluation. The field users 

unanimously affirmed that they 

would like to continue utilizing 

the TOS feature in the upcoming 

months on a target of opportunity 

basis. Discussion on the activation 

of the TOS ensued between the field 

facilities and a determination was 

made that Fort Worth Center would 

be the focal point for TOS activation 

and coordination. The ATD-2 team 

will continue to provide support 

during this time frame including 

additional training and onsite 

support as needed. Additionally, 

several enhancements for fiscal year 

2020 were discussed, and extensive 

valuable feedback was obtained on 

the potential enhancements. The 

ATD-2 team will now evaluate 

and prioritize the potential 

enhancements and provide feedback 

to the field users in coming weeks. 

UTM Hosts Senate and 

House Staff Members 

and NASA Astronaut 

POC: RON JOHNSON

From Oct. 4 to 9, the Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems Traffic Management 

(UTM) project provided briefings 

to various groups at the Airspace 

Operations Laboratory at NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California. 

The hosted groups included: staff 

members from the U.S. Senate 

Sub-Committee on Commerce, on 

Oct. 4; staff members from the U.S. 

House Committee on Science, Space, 

and Technology, on Oct. 7; and 

former NASA astronaut, George D. 

Zamka, on Oct. 9. Each group was 

provided an update on the recent 

UTM Technical Capability Level 4 

flight tests which were conducted 

this past summer in Reno, Nevada, 

and Corpus Christi, Texas. 

ATD-2 Provides Briefing 

for Collaborative DecisionMaking Automation Team 

POC: BOB STAUDENMEIER

On Oct. 9, NASA’s Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-2 

(ATD-2) team provided the 

Collaborative Decision-Making 

Automation Team (CAT) with a 

briefing on the National Traffic 

Management Logs (NTML), in 

conjunction with the System Wide 

Information Management (SWIM) 

data it produces, in Santa Fe, New 

Mexico. The briefing provided 

updates on ATD-2 research and 

findings regarding the translation 

of the NTML logs into the SWIM 

feed. Examples of SWIM data that 

were extracted from the NTML 

logs were discussed along with 

how the ATD-2 system parsed and 

SWS project engagement at the AUVSI Safety 

Summit
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

made use of the data. Data utilized 

for the ATD-2 Phase 3 demo were 

also discussed. Lessons learned 

from developing the functionality 

were also of much interest to the 

group. The CAT team plans to use 

this information in planning their 

tasking regarding NTML usage 

procedures and best practices. 

Joint NASA-FAA-Uber Meeting 

on High-Priority Research 

POC: SAVITA VERMA

A collaborative meeting between 

NASA’s Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) team, the 

FAA and Uber was held from Oct. 

16 to 17, at NASA’s Ames Research 

Center in California. Most of the 

FAA personnel were from the 

FAA’s Air Traffic Organization 

and NextGen offices. The focus of 

the meeting was to discuss Urban 

Air Mobility (UAM) procedures 

in the near and mid-term and 

identification of high-priority 

research items that would guide 

research in the next few years. The 

discussion included using the 

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic 

Management construct to manage 

UAM operations and where that 

would be applicable. The NASA 

team also took the opportunity 

to demonstrate the recent X-2 

simulation and its different uses 

cases. The demonstration included 

a live connection to Uber facilities 

and their flights participated in 

the simulation. This collaboration 

also included a meeting between 

NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility 

Grand Challenge group and FAA 

and Uber visitors. The meeting 

ended with discussion on long-term 

research needs for new entrants into 

the National Airspace System that 

was led by members of the ATM-X 

Increasing Diverse Operations 

subproject team. This was a meeting 

to kick off a series of collaborative 

meetings between NASA, FAA, 

and Uber. Regular future meetings 

will be scheduled and discussion of 

refining the research needs for UAM 

operations in controlled airspace 

will continue.

System-Wide Safety Hosts 

ISSA ConOps Development 

Webinars and Workshop 

POC: KYLE ELLIS

The System-Wide Safety project 

hosted a series of three “In-Time 

System-Wide Safety Assurance” 

(ISSA) Concept of Operations 

(ConOps) development webinars 

during September and October, 

led by Kyle Ellis and Paul Krois. 

The ConOps development team – 

consisting of Ellis, Krois and Laura 

Bass – hosted an all-day face-toface ISSA ConOps Workshop at 

the National Institute of Aerospace 

in Hampton, Virginia, on Oct. 

23. The webinars and workshop 

offered opportunities for NASA to 

engage with industry collaborators 

focused on advancing emerging 

5

CAT team briefing, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Demonstration of X-2 to FAA and Uber visitors
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

operations that leverage vehicles 

such as Urban Air Mobility or 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The 

ISSA ConOps seeks to provide 

a framework for the aeronautics 

industry to reference, in developing 

a service-oriented architecture 

for In-Time Aviation Safety 

Management Systems (IASMS). 

Several industry collaborators 

participated in the events providing 

highly valuable input to the NASA 

ISSA ConOps. The three webinars 

focused on emerging operations risk 

identification, IASMS services, and 

the data and system architecture 

necessary to support the 

envisioned services. Considerations 

surrounding use cases, proprietary 

data sharing concerns, scalability, 

and cybersecurity were also 

discussed. Follow-on face-to-face 

workshops were held in Arlington, 

Virginia, and Mountain View, 

California, in November and 

December, respectively.

UTM Pathfinder 

Flights Concluded

POC: LOUIS GLAAB

Project Pathfinder, an activity 

sponsored by NASA’s Unmanned 

Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic 

Management (UTM) project, 

completed flight testing on Oct. 26. 

These pathfinder endeavors 

provided critical test data to address 

several key technological barriers 

confronting the widespread use 

of small UAS within the National 

Airspace System. Test data 

included the effects of autonomous 

contingency management systems 

on a UTM system and its 

operators. Technologies developed 

at NASA’s Langley Research 

Center in Virginia and tested in 

Pathfinder were Autonomous Safe 

Landing systems, as exemplified by 

Safe2Ditch, and Autonomous Sense 

and Avoid systems, as provided 

by the Independent Configurable 

Architecture for Reliable Operations 

of Unmanned Systems (ICAROUS). 

Safe2Ditch and ICAROUS were 

integrated for Pathfinder testing. 

The Air Traffic Operations Lab 

(ATOL) was configured to provide 

a series of test stations to acquire 

human factors data associated with 

nominal as well as off-nominal 

UTM-style operations. Langley’s 

City Environment Range Testing for 

Autonomous Integrated Navigation 

(CERTAIN) UAS test range was 

used to conduct multivehicle flight 

operations and presented a series 

of traffic encounters for the test 

subjects who were assuming the 

Kyle Ellis, ISSA ConOps development team

UAS outfitted with Safe2Ditch and ICAROUS 

technologies

Pilot station in ATOL used for the human factors 

data collection
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

roles of UTM operators in the 

ATOL for Phase 2 testing. Phase 3 

testing involved long range flights 

across Langley and were performed 

to broaden the test capabilities 

of Langley’s CERTAIN test range 

and to prepare for Phase 4. The 

route from CERTAIN Range-2 to 

Langley’s integrated engineering 

services building was approximately 

one mile long and was flown at an 

altitude of 375 feet above ground 

level. Phase 4 flights, completed 

on Oct. 26, included two vehicles 

operating simultaneously. One 

vehicle performed long range 

flights while the other flew a 

nominal flight path and acquired 

data regarding the capability of 

flight alarm avionics to provide 

vehicle-to-vehicle communication 

to support Autonomous Sense and 

Avoid systems. Overall, Pathfinder 

performed 262 flights over 31 

flight days, requiring five months 

to complete all developmental and 

research flight testing. 

ATM-X Increasing 

Diverse Operations 

Element 2 Workshop 2

POC: MATTHEW UNDERWOOD

From Oct. 28 to 30, NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia 

hosted a workshop to support 

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

Increasing Diverse Operations 

(IDO) subproject’s Exploration 

of Air Traffic Management 

Services element. This workshop 

focused on generating use cases 

and architectures to support an 

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic 

Management (UTM)-inspired 

airspace system for commercial 

subsonic aircraft operations. The 

ATM-X IDO subproject is focused 

on defining a service-based airspace 

system for the 2035-2045 time 

frame that improves efficiency 

and predictability for commercial 

subsonic transport aircraft (i.e., 

traditional users of controlled 

airspace), while also preparing 

the system for increased diversity 

associated with new entrants’ use 

of the National Airspace System. 

This service-based airspace system 

leverages the design architecture of 

the UTM system and extends the 

philosophy and design principles 

of UTM to Class A airspace. The 

attendees discussed three use-casespecific concepts and associated 

technologies under development in 

the element, discussed operational 

use cases that highlight the 

integration of these technologies, 

and proposed an initial system 

architecture for consideration. 

Furthermore, discussions were held 

between the three elements of the 

IDO subproject to synchronize 

efforts across the various activities. 

The workshop was organized by 

Matt Underwood, the technical lead 

for IDO Element 2, and included 

approximately 20 researchers and 

engineers representing Langley, 

NASA’s Ames Research Center 

in California, and NASA’s Glenn 

Research Center in Cleveland, as 

well as members of the ATM-X 

project management team. 

System-Wide Safety 

Project Meetings with 

Key Stakeholders at 

InfoShare Conference

POC: NIKUNJ OZA, JOHN KOELLING

AND MISTY D. DAVIES

From Oct. 29 to 30, several 

members of the System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project held 

meetings with key stakeholders 

during their participation at the 

InfoShare 2019 Conference, in 

Bellevue, Washington. The first 

meeting, on Oct. 29, was with 

members of the Aviation Safety 

Information Analysis and Sharing 

(ASIAS) system to discuss recent 

activities and upcoming plans 

involving ASIAS and its partner 

organizations. Some of the key 

meeting topics discussed included 

the ASIAS Dashboard, Directed 

Studies Updates, ASIAS Expansion, 

and Vulnerability Discovery Update. 

Nothing immediately actionable 

for SWS was discussed during this 

meeting, although Nikunj Oza 

plans to inquire about the general 

aviation and rotorcraft versions 

of ASIAS to see where SWS can 

potentially make its machine 

learning algorithms readily available. 

On Oct. 30, a discussion was held 

with American Airlines (AAL) to 

discuss a potential agreement with 

7
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

AAL to make their operations data 

available. In turn, the SWS project 

team will use that data to test their 

algorithms and, in exchange, make 

those machine learning algorithms 

available to AAL as part of their 

operational dashboard. There is a 

tentative plan to have follow-up 

meetings with AAL the weeks of 

Dec. 9 and 16 to learn more about 

their methods of preparing and 

analyzing their data currently, and 

to prepare a set of milestones and 

responsibilities that would go into 

a Space Act Agreement. Lastly, a 

meeting was held on Oct. 30, with 

the International Air Transport 

Association (IATA) to discuss the 

types of data to which IATA could 

provide access , and the ways 

that SWS can apply its machine 

learning algorithms to provide 

useful insights. This meeting was 

a follow-up to a past telecon. A 

follow-up telecon was held on 

Nov. 14, in which the SWS project 

was described, more details on the 

nature of the machine learning 

problems that we can work on were 

given, and IATA displayed their 

dashboard describing statistics on 

the underlying flights. 

Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 FY20 

Vision Workshop

POC: AL CAPPS

The Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) team 

held a fiscal year 2020 (FY20) 

Vision Workshop at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California, from 

Oct. 29 to 30. The objectives of the 

workshop were to layout current 

plans for FY20 and discuss potential 

future work. More than 60 ATD-2 

team members participated in the 

workshop, which included new 

additions to the team. 

Agenda items included a recap of last 

year’s achievements, recognition of 

team members, transition planning 

for the ATD-2 system at Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport with 

the FAA and airline operators, fuser 

technology updates, and data-driven 

capabilities, use cases, and tools. 

Insights on plans after ATD-2 were 

also shared by the management. The 

FY20 Vision Workshop provided the 

ATD-2 team an overview of FY20 

plans, and a general timeline of 

necessary activities to be completed 

by the end of the project. Further 

discussions with tech leads to add 

details to the plans are scheduled for 

Dec. 4 through 6. 

ATM-X Urban Air Mobility 

Research Workshop 1

POC: KARL BILIMORIA, LINDSAY STEVENS

AND DAVID THIPPHAVONG

From Oct. 29 to 31, the Air 

Traffic Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) subproject held a UAM 

research workshop at NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia. 

The objective of the ATM-X 

UAM subproject is to enable 

routine airspace access for UAM 

operations. During the workshop, 

the team worked together toward 

ATD-2 team participants in the FY20 Vision Workshop at NASA Ames
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

developing common airspace 

management concepts, simulation 

scenarios, and performance metrics 

for the fiscal year 2020 focus 

area: the information exchange 

requirements and protocols needed 

for UAM airspace management 

services to interoperate and 

support scalable operations. 

The team will explore both an 

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic 

Management-like federated 

concept and a more centralized 

concept and characterize the 

differences between those two 

paradigms. During the course 

of this effort, it is expected that 

insights will be gained, reference 

research technologies will be 

developed, and data will be 

collected that will guide the 

UAM community in the design, 

development, and integration of the 

UAM airspace system, including 

in the UAM Grand Challenge. It 

is also expected that core technical 

challenges for UAM airspace 

management, to be tackled in Phase 

2 of the ATM-X project, will be 

uncovered. A follow-up workshop is 

being planned for spring 2020. 

Completion of Tailored 

Arrival Manager-2 Testing 

with FAA Tech Center

POC: ARWA AWEISS

On Oct. 31, the ecoDemonstrator 

(ecoD) and Air Traffic ManagementeXploration testbed team 

successfully completed the second 

of the 10 scheduled “lab shots” in 

preparation for the ecoD Flight 

Demonstration scheduled for July 

2020. The objective of this test was 

to generate trajectory-based arrival 

solutions from NASA’s Tailored 

Arrival Manager (TAM) tool and 

send them electronically to the 

Data Communication Avionics 

Lab (DCAL) at the FAA William 

J. Hughes Technical Center. Data 

obtained from the FAA’s Boeing 

737 Max simulator cab during 

previous TAM-1 testing were 

played back in the testbed software 

platform to create arrival scenarios 

to Moses Lake, Washington, which 

is the expected destination for 

ecoD flights in 2020. For each 

of the scenarios, conflict-free 

path solutions were generated by 

TAM, using NASA’s Autoresolver 

algorithm, in response to manually 

set delay values representing 

time-based metering operations. 

Once received by the FAA, each 

TAM solution was converted 

into a Controller Pilot Data Link 

Communications message and 

loaded into a Flight Management 

System (FMS) test bench in the 

DCAL. Loading TAM solutions 

into the FMS revealed issues 

with merging path-stretch route 

modifications with the aircraft’s 

nominal route. These issues were 

debugged and resolved during 

testing, resulting in successful FMS 

loads prior to test completion. Test 

findings were communicated with 

FAA and Boeing partners and used 

to establish modified TAM interface 

requirements for future ecoD testing 

and flight demonstrations. 

TAM traffic viewer with chosen time delay in grey box and corresponding flight path in yellow
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Grand Challenge Team 

Meeting between 

NASA and the FAA

POC: ANNIE CHENG

From Nov. 13 to 15, a series of 

face-to-face meetings between 

NASA and the FAA were held at the 

FAA’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical 

Center in Oklahoma City. The 

purpose of the meetings was to 

discuss potential collaborations on 

NASA’s Grand Challenge planning 

activities for developmental testing 

planned during the summer of 

2020. The meetings included 

discussions focused on defining, 

developing, and refining Grand 

Challenge scenarios. These Grand 

Challenge scenarios cover a range 

of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

operational concepts that will aim 

at informing requirements and 

system development for scalable, 

commercial UAM through 

integrated demonstrations of 

realistic operational scenarios within 

Grand Challenge activities. The Air 

Traffic Management-eXploration 

UAM subproject participated in 

discussions related to airspace and 

flight procedures concepts for UAM, 

to inform future FAA requirements, 

including flight procedures and 

heliport designs that might need 

to be reviewed to support UAM 

operations. It is expected the 

outcome of these discussions will 

have follow-up efforts between 

NASA and FAA points of contact 

to further refine and develop the 

Grand Challenge scenarios and 

operational assumptions. 

Testbed Presentation at NASA 

Goddard Space Flight Center

POC: ALAN LEE AND KEE PALOPO

On Nov. 14, the testbed subproject 

team gave a presentation to 

Jacqueline Lemoigne-Stewart, the 

head of the New Observing Systems 

(NOS) area, within the Advanced 

Information Systems Technology 

program at NASA’s Goddard Space 

Flight Center. NOS is concerned 

with setting up multiple sensor 

platforms (space-based, airborne, 

ground-based) and facilitating their 

coordination for making earth 

observations. Their interest in the 

testbed platform was to determine if 

it may be helpful to test their multiplatform observing systems. Credit 

should be given to AOSP researcher 

Nikunj C. Oza, leader of the data 

sciences group at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California for 

facilitating the meeting. 

ATD-2 Phase 3 Flight 

Operator Meeting

POC: GREG JURO, JEREMY COUPE

AND ERIC CHEVALLEY

On Nov. 19, the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 

(ATD-2) team hosted a flight 

operator meeting at NASA’s North 

Texas Facility in Dallas. The purpose 

of the meeting was to continue 

the process of developing real-time 

metrics for flight operators to 

use during the ATD-2 Phase 3 

evaluation in 2020. Currently, the 

ATD-2 system only projects the 

delay savings for the specific aircraft 

identified as a candidate for a reroute. 

The real-time metrics concepts that 

were presented at this meeting assess 

the prediction accuracy of the ATD-2 

system for a specific time period and 

project aggregate delay savings for all 

aircraft that are impacted by a flight 

operator’s decision to submit a flight 

for a reroute. Both real-time metrics 

are anticipated to result in an increase 

of airline Trajectory Option Set 

submissions in the 2020 Phase 3 

evaluation. Several representatives 

from both American Airlines and 

Southwest Airlines participated in the 

meeting. The ATD-2 team described 

the metrics calculations as well as 

potential methods to display the 

information to the flight operators 

in the operational environment. The 

meeting was an excellent forum for 

exchanging information and ideas 

regarding the objective of providing 

real-time metric information. The 

NASA, American Airlines, and Southwest Airlines 

personnel participate in a round table discussion of 

real-time metrics
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

flight operators concurred that 

the initial concepts presented by 

the ATD-2 team were on target 

to meet their needs and provided 

some valuable feedback for potential 

enhancements. The ATD-2 team 

will present an update at a follow-up 

development meeting scheduled for 

Dec. 10.

Autonomous Freighter 

Operations Tabletop 

Exercise with Boeing

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR, IRENE GREGORY

AND MARK BALLIN

On Nov. 20, NASA and Boeing 

held a table-top exercise to 

identify research issues related to 

autonomous freighter operations. 

At the meeting, NASA and Boeing 

representatives went through various 

autonomous freighter operations 

scenarios and identified information 

flows, decisions, technology needs, 

procedural considerations, and 

gaps in understanding. Outcomes 

of the meeting included a 

preliminary list of recommendations, 

including a proposed simulation 

testbed and next steps for continued 

NASA-Boeing research and 

development collaboration.

ATM-X Technologies 

Showcased in New Jersey

POC: RICH COPPENBARGER, ARWA AWEISS

AND NELSON GUERREIRO

In coordination with the arrival of 

the 2019 Boeing ecoDemonstrator 

(ecoD) 777 aircraft from Frankfurt, 

Germany, to Atlantic City, New 

Jersey, NASA’s testbed and Tailored 

Arrival Manager (TAM) technologies 

were exhibited at the newly-founded 

National Aviation Research and 

Technology Park (NARTP) and 

the Atlantic City International 

Airport, both located near the FAA 

William J. Hughes Technical Center 

(FAATC). The NARTP exhibit, held 

on Nov. 21, was visited by FAA 

managers and FAATC employees, 

including FAATC Director Shelley 

Yak. Presentations and software 

demos focused on testbed as a 

systems integration and simulation 

platform for validating air traffic 

technologies and procedures, such as 

those required by TAM in support 

of ecoD 2020. The Urban Air 

Mobility (UAM) Vehicle Simulation 

(UVS) and UAM Mission Planner 

at NASA’s Langley Research Center 

in Virginia were also demonstrated. 

The UAM Mission Planner is 

a prototype capability for predeparture trajectory planning in the 

presence of known constraints, such 

as fleet, airspace, traffic, and weather. 

AOSP researchers demonstrate the UAM Vertical Simulation capability to Boeing’s Director for Technology 

Integration and the ecoDemonstrator, Jeanne Yu
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

The UVS is a medium-fidelity 

flight simulator with the ability to 

take off and land vertically; to fly a 

preplanned, 4D trajectory in fully 

automated or manual mode; and 

whose flight models are based on 

NASA Revolutionary Vertical Lift 

Technology reference configurations 

for UAM. On Nov. 22, the 

technology exhibits were relocated 

to Atlantic City International 

Airport and were located near the 

gate where the ecoD aircraft was 

parked, conducting onboard tours. 

Attendees included government and 

industry personnel with interest 

or involvement in ecoD, including 

Pete Dumont, the president and 

CEO of the Air Traffic Control 

Association, as well as members 

of the FAA’s Continuous Lower 

Energy, Emissions, and Noise 

consortium including industry 

partners, who showed considerable 

interest in TAM as a technology 

for enabling low energy descents in 

busy traffic conditions, supported 

by data communications and flight 

deck integration. The exhibit was 

also attended by groups of local 

high school students pursing 

science, technology, engineering, 

and math studies.

Grand Challenge Completes 

Internal Test for Development 

Test Flight Demonstrations

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

On Dec. 4, the Grand Challenge 

Airspace Test Infrastructure (ATI) 

team conducted an internal 

software-in-the-loop test, as a 

first step in preparing for Grand 

Challenge Development Test flight 

demonstrations, scheduled for late 

summer 2020 at the flight test 

range at NASA’s Armstrong Flight 

Research Center in California. The 

Grand Challenge Development Test 

is the first activity in a series of tests 

with vehicle and airspace industry 

partners focused on establishing 

the certification requirements and 

standards needed for the Urban 

Air Mobility (UAM) market to 

move forward. The ATI team 

has developed a flight test system 

architecture to support airspace 

partners and vehicle partners in 

a variety of configurations. The 

system, predominantly a cloudbased infrastructure, will be able 

to integrate Unmanned Aircraft 

System Traffic Management 

(UTM)-inspired UAM Service 

Suppliers, live flight vehicle 

telemetry monitoring, and data 

collection required to enable a 

successful integrated Development 

Test flight demonstration. The 

internal software-in-the-loop test 

included a concrete demonstration 

of progress across two software 

teams (Grand Challenge ATI and 

Air Traffic Management-eXploration 

UAM) along with a test of the first 

delivery of the first UAM core 

services build for flight test. The 

test demonstrated virtual traffic 

to emulate UAM aircraft flying in 

the first scenario planned for the 

Grand Challenge, along with key 

infrastructure such as the discovery 

service and situational displays in 

the Airspace Operations Lab, which 

will serve as the primary execution 

center for the ATI team during 

the Grand Challenge. The test also 

included an initial verification of an 

updated data collection system and 

validation of data persistence based 

on lessons learned from UTM’s 

Technology Capability Level 4. A 

follow-up test is planned for Dec. 

17, where additional functionality 

will be explored in preparation for 

Grand Challenge Development Test 

flight test activities. 

UTM Hosts Australian 

Air Services

POC: JAEWOO JUNG AND JOSEPH RIOS

On Dec. 10, Unmanned Aircraft 

System Traffic Management (UTM) 

project personnel met with visitors 

from the Australian Air Services 

(AAS) to discuss UTM’s progress 

at NASA’s Ames Research Center 

in California. Representing AAS 

were Kristian Cruickshank, LowLevel Airspace program manager, 

Matthew Booth, Commercial and 

Strategic Partnership manager, and 

Paul Stoddart, Strategy Stakeholder 

manager. Joseph Rios, chief engineer, 

and Jaewoo Jung, acting deputy 

project manager, represented the 

UTM project team at the meeting. 

The UTM’s Technical Capability 

Levels (TCLs) 1 through 4 were 

described, along with the flight 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019 13

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

demonstrations that took place 

for each TCL. The roles and 

responsibilities of Flight Information 

Management System and UAS 

Service Supplier were also discussed, 

reflecting the differences between 

the United States and Australia. 

The merits and challenges of flight 

demonstrations were also discussed. 

The meeting ended positively with 

a conversation on potential future 

collaboration. 

ATM-X Completes Initial UAM 

Airspace System Software

POC: DAVID THIPPHAVONG AND SPENCER MONHEIM

On Dec. 23, the Air Traffic 

Management-eXploration (ATM-X) 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) team 

completed development and delivery 

of the initial UAM airspace system 

software, known as X-2, with the 

delivery of documentation and 

reporting of analysis results. The 

X-2 system supports NASA’s UAM 

Grand Challenge Development 

Test flight activities, starting 

during spring 2020. X-2 integrated 

components of NASA’s Unmanned 

Aircraft System Traffic Management 

system and ATM-X’s testbed 

platform, with enhancements to 

enable the density, tempo, and 

complexity of anticipated UAM 

operations. As part of the X-2 

development, NASA collaborated 

with Uber on a series of engineering 

evaluations. Afterward, the X-2 team 

implemented additional changes 

to enhance system performance, 

increase system capacity, raise system 

resilience, improve configuration 

management, and add verification 

and validation capabilities based 

on what was learned during the 

X-2 engineering evaluations. 

The enhanced X-2 system was 

successfully tested recently during 

internal tests with the NASA 

Grand Challenge Airspace Test 

Infrastructure team, in preparation 

for Grand Challenge Development 

Test flight activities. The ATM-X 

UAM team will continue to 

develop and mature the UAM 

airspace system in support of Grand 

Challenge-1 (the follow-up to the 

Grand Challenge Development Test) 

in 2022, conducting engineering 

simulations on Grand Challenge 

scenarios in summer 2020 (X-3) and 

summer 2021 (X-4) with additional 

industry partners.
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019

RECOGNITION

Participation at the 3rd World 

Congress on Formal Methods 

POC: CÉSAR MUÑOZ

Researcher César Muñoz, from 

NASA’s Langley Research Center 

in Virginia, attended the 3rd World 

Congress on Formal Methods 

(FM2019) in Porto, Portugal, from 

Oct. 7 to 11. FM2019 is the 23rd 

edition of the Formal Methods 

symposium. This year’s symposium 

took the form of a world congress, 

which is organized every 10 years. 

The Formal Methods symposium 

is the prime conference on 

research and application of formal 

methods to software development 

of safety-critical systems. At the 

symposium, Muñoz served as the 

“Specification Languages” session 

chair. Furthermore, two papers, 

co-authored by Muñoz, were 

presented: “Provably Correct 

Floating-Point Implementation 

of a Point-in-Polygon Algorithm,” 

by M. Moscato (NIA), L. Titolo 

(NIA), M. Feliu (NIA), and C. 

Muñoz (NASA), and “An Integrated 

Development Environment for 

the Prototype Verification System,” 

by P. Masci (NIA) and C. Muñoz 

(NASA). The first paper concerns 

the problem of determining 

whether a point lies inside a given 

polygon. In air traffic management 

concepts, the point-in-polygon 

problem is used in geofencing 

systems for Unmanned Aerial 

Vehicles and in weather avoidance 

applications. Many mathematical 

methods can be used to solve 

the point-in-polygon problem. 

Unfortunately, a straightforward 

computer implementation of these 

methods can lead to incorrect 

results due to round-off errors 

in finite precision computations. 

These errors potentially result 

in an incorrect point-in-polygon 

determination even when the point 

is far from the edges of the polygon. 

The paper presents a formally 

verified correct implementation 

of a point-in-polygon method 

that is used in NASA’s PolyCARP 

geofencing system. The second 

paper presents a modern integrated 

development environment for the 

Prototype Verification System, a 

system used at Langley for the 

verification and validation of air 

traffic management systems. 

The website for the event is: 

http://formalmethods2019.

inesctec.pt/

NASA Langley Researcher 

Invited to Speak at the 

Assured Autonomy 

Workshop 1

POC: NATASHA NEOGI

From Oct. 16 to 17, researcher 

Natasha Neogi from NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in 

Virginia was invited to speak at 

the Assured Autonomy Workshop 

1 in Arlington, Virginia. Neogi 

participated on the mobility panel, 

organized by the Computing 

Research Association/Computing 

Community Consortium, and 

gave a talk entitled, “Urban Air 

Mobility: Challenges and Issues,” 

which addressed regulatory issues 

inherent in the acceptance of 

the UAM operational concept, 

specifically focusing on the 

increasingly autonomous nature of 

these vehicles. Neogi is collaborating 

on a workshop report surveying 

the commonalities and contrasts 

between the barriers to regulatory 

acceptance of autonomy in groundbased vehicles and airborne vehicles.

Her presentation can be viewed at 

the following link: 

https://cra.org/ccc/wp-content/

uploads/sites/2/2019/10/

Natasha-Neogi.pdf 

System-Wide Safety 

Presentation and Panel 

at AUVSI-Hampton 

Roads Symposium 

POC: KYLE ELLIS

On Oct. 24, Kyle Ellis, associate 

project manager for the SystemWide Safety (SWS) project, 

presented an overview of “NASA’s 

Notional UAM Scenario
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019 15

RECOGNITION

SWS Project and the industrywide challenges surrounding safety 

assurance in the NAS,” at the 

First Annual AUVSI-Hampton 

Roads Symposium, held at the 

Hampton Roads Convention Center 

in Hampton, Virginia. Ellis also 

moderated an industry-wide panel 

that included members from several 

distinct elements of the scalable 

emerging operations industry. Ellis 

discussed the vision of a transformed 

National Airspace System that 

incorporates emerging operations, 

the technical challenges surrounding 

scalability that leverages increased 

levels of autonomy, the need for 

in-time aviation safety management 

systems, and the opportunities 

that exist for those involved in the 

industry. Following the talk, Ellis 

moderated an industry-wide panel 

that included members from several 

distinct elements of the scalable 

industry “Gearamid”: Foundational 

Technology, Maturation, Application 

Domain, Certification/ Regulation, 

and Policy. Chris Woolsey (Virginia 

Tech), Evan Dill (NASA), Cathy 

McGhee, (director of Innovation 

and Research for the Virginia 

Department of Transportation), 

Paul Krois (Crown Consulting and 

formerly with the FAA), and Tom 

Walker (Drone Up) all participated 

in the panel. The panel, “When 

will my Package Land at My 

Door? Safety Barriers to Emerging 

Operations,” was well received and 

resulted in several new opportunities 

for partnership and collaboration 

between NASA, industry, and 

the Virginia state government. 

Invited Speaker: 9th 

International Conference on 

Model and Data Engineering 

POC: CÉSAR MUÑOZ

César Muñoz, a researcher from 

NASA’s Langley Research Center 

in Virginia, delivered an invited 

talk at the 9th International 

Conference on Model & Data 

Engineering (MEDI 2019) held in 

Toulouse, France, on Oct. 30. The 

conference aimed at providing 

a forum for the dissemination 

of research and promoting the 

interaction and collaboration 

between communities on modeling 

(formal methods, software 

engineering) and data theory 

(Big Data, NoSql databases, data 

integration, and interoperability). 

Muñoz’s presentation on “Formal 

Methods in the Development 

of Highly Assured Software 

for Unmanned Aircraft Systems” 

provided an overview of formal 

methods technology developed at 

Langley for the design, validation, 

and verification of highly assured 

autonomous Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems. Muñoz’s talk emphasized 

the use of formal notations since 

the early stages of the software 

development process. These 

notations enable verification and 

validation techniques where safetycritical systems can be checked 

against functional and operational 

requirements in a rigorous way. 

Muñoz’s travel was sponsored by 

the Ecole Nationale Superieure 

d’Electrotechnique, d’Electronique, 

d’Informatique, d’Hydraulique, 

et des Telecommunications 

in Toulouse, France. 

U.S. Patent Office Issues 

Research Patent 

POC: KAPIL SHETH

On Nov. 12, the U.S. Patent and 

Trademarks Office issued Patent 

10,475,346, “Miles-in-Trail Passback 

Industry panel at the AUVSI- Hampton Roads Symposium
16 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019

RECOGNITION

Restrictions for Use in Air Traffic 

Management,” to authors Kapil 

Sheth and Sebastian GutierrezNolasco (previously employed 

by UC Santa Cruz, currently by 

Crown Consulting, Inc.). The 

patent application was initially 

filed on Oct. 8, 2015. Air traffic 

managers in the National Airspace 

System regularly prescribe Miles-inTrail restrictions, a common traffic 

management initiative, to efficiently 

handle air traffic. Imposed Milesin-Trail is the value of spacing 

required between aircraft flying 

along a certain path and it is used 

when downstream traffic congestion 

is anticipated. Miles-in-Trails may 

be implemented independently 

or in conjunction with other 

initiatives (e.g., a severe weather 

avoidance plan route or a playbook 

route, ground delay programs, 

etc.). This patent was issued for 

computation of Miles-in-Trail values 

passed back to upstream centers 

for real-time implementation in 

dynamically changing actual traffic 

scenarios. The paper describing 

this technology is available at www.

aviationsystems.arc.nasa.gov. 

NASA ARMD Hosted “Night 

of Flight” on Capitol Hill

POC: LAUREN CLAUDATOS, AL CAPPS

AND NELSON GUERREIRO

NASA’s Aeronautics Research 

Mission Directorate (ARMD) 

hosted a “Night of Flight” event 

for Capitol Hill on Nov. 20, where 

folks were invited to grab a bite to 

eat, drink, and learn about more 

than a dozen NASA aeronautics 

projects in an interactive showcase. 

This event, which took place at the 

Rayburn House Office Building on 

Capitol Hill, allowed congressional 

personnel and their staff to get 

hands-on experience with some 

of the latest technologies being 

developed within ARMD’s projects. 

Eight members of Congress and 

approximately 375 congressional 

staffers attended the event. Several 

AOSP projects participated in the 

event. As part of the event, the 

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) 

Traffic Management project was 

showcased in a highlight reel of flight 

test and concept videos alongside 

an interactive Fly a Drone! activity, 

where people could learn about the 

different kinds of small UAS, the 

many applications for use, and 

experience first-hand the challenges 

(and fun!) of remotely piloting one. 

The feedback was overwhelmingly 

positive as people learned more about 

the increasingly complex operations 

NASA demonstrated in successful 

collaboration with industry and 

how those lessons learned can help 

inform future policy and research. 

Additionally, the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) team 

also participated in the event by 

highlighting the strong partnerships 

between NASA, the FAA, and 

industry, which has resulted in an 

Integrated Arrival, Departure, and 

Surface concept demonstration 

with new system capabilities for 

Scott Pressley, American Airlines southeastern air traffic manager, Mike Hoprich, CLT National Air Traffic 

Controllers Association ATD-2 point of contact, Bob Staudenmeier, Cavan Solutions, NASA Support
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2019 17

RECOGNITION

complex National Airspace System 

challenges. An additional area of 

outreach was communicating ATD2’s significant fuel savings benefits, 

reduced passenger time on the 

airport surface, reduced engine run 

time, and environmental benefits, 

such as reduced greenhouse gas 

emissions. Staff were very interested 

in the efforts by NASA and its 

partners, as well as savings seen to 

date and potential for additional 

savings as the program moves into 

additional airports nationwide 

through the FAA’s Terminal Flight 

Data Manager program. Also, several 

researchers demonstrated the Air 

Traffic Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) project’s Urban Air 

Mobility (UAM) Vehicle Simulation 

(UVS) and UAM Mission Planner 

capabilities. The UAM Mission 

Planner is a prototype capability for 

predeparture trajectory planning in 

the presence of known constraints, 

such as fleet, airspace, traffic, and 

weather. The UVS is a mediumfidelity flight simulator with the 

ability to take off and land vertically; 

fly a preplanned, 4D trajectory 

in fully automated or manual 

mode; and whose flight models are 

based on NASA’s Revolutionary 

Vertical Lift Technology reference 

configurations for UAM. Attendees 

of the “Night of Flight” event were 

able to observe the planning of a set 

of operations in the Atlantic City, 

New Jersey region in an airspace with 

a defined set of routes (provided 

to NASA by the FAA), observe 

the UVS executing a given flight 

trajectory, and even try their hand 

at manually flying the UVS along a 

preplanned trajectory. Congressman 

Bobby Scott of Virginia as well 

as ARMD’s Bob Pearce, acting 

associate administrator, Jay Dryer, 

deputy associate administrator for 

programs, and Jon Montgomery, 

deputy associate administrator 

for policy, were among those who 

participated in in-depth discussions 

with AOSP representatives about the 

functionality demonstrated by the 

UVS and UAM Mission Planner.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov