National Aeronautics and Space Administration

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

OCT–DEC 2015 | Quarter 1

Patent Office Issues DWR Patent 3

Final UAS Traffic Management 

Build One Test Completed

7

www.nasa.gov
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Patent Office Issues 

DWR Patent

POC: DAVE MCNALLY

On October 27, the United States 

Patent Office issued Patent 9,171,473, 

titled “Method and System for 

Dynamic Automated Corrections to 

Weather Avoidance Routes for 

Aircraft in En Route Airspace.” The 

patent application was initially filed 

in December 2012. NASA has developed the Dynamic Weather Routes 

(DWR) ground-based automation 

system that continuously and automatically analyzes in-flight aircraft in 

en route airspace to identify potential time and fuel-saving corrections 

to weather avoidance routes. DWR 

is estimated to have saved more than 

1,200 minutes in flying time for 260 

American Airlines revenue flights 

in Fort Worth Center during testing conducted from July 31, 2012 to 

November 5, 2013. 

FAA Flow Evaluation 

Team Visits NTX

POC: PAUL BORCHERS

Industry and government members of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Flow Evaluation 

Team visited NASA’s North Texas 

Research Station (NTX) on 

November 4. The team observed 

video demonstrations of the humanin-the-loop evaluation of the integrated demand management 

concept that was conducted in the 

Airspace Operations Laboratory 

at NASA Ames Research Center 

in August 2015. NTX personnel provided an overview of their 

facility, and provided additional 

demonstrations of the Precision 

Departure Release Capability and 

Dynamic Weather Routes tools.

NASA Attends Boeing 

Technical Interchange Meeting

POC: SHERI BROWN

Boeing Flight Services (BFS) hosted 

NASA researchers at the BFS Miami 

Training Campus on November 8-10 

to observe numerous line-oriented 

flight training sessions, and to evaluate experimental scenarios and a 

NASA-designed training protocol. The protocol was specifically 

designed for upcoming research in 

a full-motion, high-fidelity commercial aircraft simulator at NASA 

Langley Research Center. 

NASA is leading research chartered 

by the government-industry group 

known as the Commercial Aviation Safety Team in order to develop 

and assess commercial flight training methods and flight deck technologies focused on enhancement of 

energy and attitude state awareness; 

mitigation of the effects of attentionrelated human performance limiting states; and prevention of unusual 

attitudes and control upsets during commercial flight operations. 

The Technologies for Airplane State 

Awareness (TASA) Sub-Project of 

the Airspace Technology Demonstration Project sponsored the travel 

to enable the NASA researchers to 

brief and receive feedback on proposed scenarios designed to induce 

DWR user display at American Airlines Integrated Operations Control Center, Fort Worth, Texas. channelized attention and startle/
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015 3

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

surprise. The scenarios will be used 

to test innovative crew state monitoring and detection technologies, 

synthetic vision systems (SVS), 

and other flight-deck-display avionic concepts. Researchers will also 

evaluate the efficacy of training and 

AHPLS detection measures, and 

investigate whether the established 

attitude and energy awareness benefits afforded by SVS and other flightdeck displays could be extended 

to prevent unusual attitudes for 

commercial aircraft operations. 

Loss of control in flight represents 

the single largest category of aircraft accidents and incidents, and 

the present work is expected to 

deliver solutions complementary 

to other NASA efforts ongoing in 

TASA and other research projects, 

both within and outside NASA. 

TASAR Meetings with Boeing 

Working Group and the FAA

Research engineer David Wing 

of NASA Langley Research Center gave an invited briefing to the 

Boeing Company’s Airline Data 

Communications Working Group 

(DCWG) on NASA’s concept and 

technology for Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) 

on November 10. The Working 

Group was started four years ago by 

Boeing, and is widely attended by 

airlines and vendors from around 

the world to track the latest international happenings in air/ground 

data communications and related 

technologies. The DCWG promotes a common understanding of 

current events and trends and how 

they will affect aircraft equipage. 

NASA’s TASAR concept offers 

onboard automation to advise 

pilots of traffic-compatible trajectory changes that would benefit 

their flights. Whereas TASAR supports today’s voice communications 

environment to enable immediate operational use, integration of 

TASAR with data communications 

could benefit users and air traffic controllers by enabling more 

complex requests, reducing workload and frequency congestion, and 

reducing communications errors. 

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) data communications program is one of several 

Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) technologies being considered by NASA’s 

Third Airspace Technology Demonstration (ATD-3) sub-project 

for air/ground TASAR integration. 

Other NextGen technologies being 

considered include System Wide 

Information Management (SWIM) 

and Time-Based Flow Management 

(TBFM). Outreach activities have 

confirmed a significant and growing interest within the operational 

community of linking TASAR’s 

airborne route optimization capabilities with SWIM and TBFM. 

At another meeting on November 

20, David Wing and NASA Langley research engineer Mike Guminsky met with Jon Standley, portfolio 

manager for the FAA’s SWIM effort. 

Because SWIM offers a common 

real-time source for such operational 

data such as aviation weather, traffic 

data, airspace status, and flow management constraints, Mr. Standley 

feels TASAR provides complemenTASAR Pilot User 

Interface Display
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

tary capability to the FAA’s SWIM 

aircraft access initiative. 

NASA has been investigating 

SWIM as a one-stop data source, 

and discussions continue regarding a possible integrated air/ground 

demonstration of connectivity 

between NASA’s Traffic Aware 

Planner software and SWIM, via 

the third Airspace Technology 

Demonstration (ATD-3) Subproject of AOSP’s ATD Project. As lead 

for the Shadow Mode Assessment 

Using Realistic Technologies for the 

National Airspace System Project 

(SMART-NAS), Mr. Guminsky is 

working to establish a SWIM access 

point at NASA Langley to support 

widespread research and development activities. Partnerships with 

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America 

may be a viable early test case for 

the SMART-NAS connection to 

SWIM through TASAR.

Final UAS Traffic Management 

Build One Test Completed

POC: MARCUS JOHNSON

On November 18, the Unmanned 

Aerial Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) team conducted 

a final demonstration at Moffett 

Airfield in Sunnyvale, Calif. The 

UTM team successfully tested the 

connection of a UAS ground control station to the UTM system over 

a cellular network, as well as the 

UTM system that alerts UAS operators of non-conformance with an 

operational plan (i.e. flying outside the designated flight area), 

and messaging between the UTM 

manager and the UAS operator. 

In order to accomplish these objectives, an Iris+ UAS was flown on 

the airfield and a simulated vehicle was flown virtually from the 

UTM field testing.

Human Systems Integration Laboratory.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015 5

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Multi-Aircraft Control System. 

Both live and virtual aircraft were 

shown on a UTM manager display 

in the Human Systems Integration 

Laboratory, in the field via an iOS 

app, and in NASA Ames Research 

Center’s SMART-NAS (Shadow 

Mode Assessment Using Realistic Technologies for the National 

Airspace System) Testbed. This 

live-virtual-constructive environment allowed for the UTM system 

to interact via alerts and messages 

with both the UAS airfield operator and an operator in the lab. 

NLR visit to NASA 

Langley’s CSAOB 

POC: NEIL O’CONNOR

On November 19, 2015, NASA 

Langley Research Center engineers 

from Langley’s Crew Systems and 

Aviation Operations Branch hosted 

the Division Manager for Aerospace Operations Marja Eijkman 

and Head of Air Traffic Management and Airports Rolandus W. 

Vercammen, both from the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR). 

NLR is one of the Netherland’s 

major technological institutes, and 

performs a large part of the applied 

research within the country. Its 

activities are market-oriented, independent, with a socially relevant 

emphasis. NLR works under research 

contracts, amounting to 75% of its 

activities, with the remaining 25% 

funded by the Dutch government for 

basic demand-oriented research programs and development of research 

equipment. NLR has a staff of about 

650 people, and maintains operations in Amsterdam and Marknesse. 

Ms. Eijkman and Mr. Vercammen 

were provided an overview of the 

Air Traffic Operations Laboratory, 

and a demonstration of the SMARTNAS (Shadow Mode Assessment 

Using Realistic Technologies for the 

National Airspace System) Testbed 

capabilities. Other discussion topics included trajectory based operations, and the Traffic Aware Strategic 

Aircrew Requests and Pairwise 

Trajectory Management tools.

 

NASA Langley and NLR currently 

have an active agreement in flight 

deck interval management, and 

have a long history of collaboration 

focused on air traffic management 

research. They continue to collaborate on Traffic Manager, a multiple 

aircraft desktop simulation program 

created by NLR and further developed jointly with NASA. Opportunities for continuing collaborations 

were also explored, including a 

demonstration of some of Langley’s 

acoustics simulation capabilities. 

TASAR Technology Evaluation 

Licenses Issued

POC: DAVID WING

Evaluation licenses for NASA’s Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests 

(TASAR) technology have been 

issued to two prominent commercial aviation system providers: the 

Information Management Systems 

(IMS) Division of Rockwell Collins International and Gogo LLC. 

A third company, United Technologies Corporation Aeronautical 

Systems (UTAS), has also applied 

for a TASAR evaluation license. 

A precursor to a full commercial 

license, an evaluation license is a key 

step in NASA’s technology transfer 

process. The core of TASAR technology is the Traffic Aware Planner 

(TAP), a software application developed by Engility Corporation for 

NASA that is hosted on an electronic 

flight bag (EFB) in the cockpit. TAP 

reads aircraft and traffic data directly 

from onboard avionics and, through 

internet connectivity, leverages an 

array of external data sources relevant to flight optimization, such 

as wind predictions, convective 

weather, and restricted airspace status. Processing all this information, 

TAP computes flight optimizing trajectory changes in real time and provides these advisories to the aircrew. 

Rockwell Collins IMS is already 

in discussions with a major U.S. 

air carrier about their involvement 

as a potential launch customer for 

TASAR commercialization. Gogo is 

an inflight communications service 

provider, partnering with 11 major 

commercial airlines, including 

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America, 

NASA’s two TASAR airline partners. 
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Gogo is supporting upcoming Alaska 

Airlines operational trials by hosting TAP software on their onboard 

server and by providing internet 

connectivity to the application. 

UTAS is similarly involved in the 

Alaska Airlines TASAR trials, providing avionics connectivity to Alaska’s 

iPad EFBs in the cockpit and also 

hosting TAP on their hardware. 

NASA is working directly with 

UTAS and Gogo to have the TAP 

application tested and ready for 

operational trials by Alaska Airlines 

in spring 2016. 

NASA Commences ATD-1 

Avionics Phase 2

POC: SHERI BROWN

Early this past quarter, NASA 

Langley Research Center received 

official commitment for aircraft 

in support of a Boeing Companymanaged flight test demonstration 

under the terms of a $10.9 million, 

two-year flight-critical systems 

research contract task entitled “Air 

Traffic Management Technology 

Demonstration 1 (ATD-1) Avionics 

Phase 2.” ATD-1 is a major applied 

research and development activity of 

the Airspace Operations and Safety 

Program (AOSP), and the first of a 

series of AOSP sub-projects advancing the technology readiness level 

of innovative NASA technologies 

through system-level demonstrations in relevant environments. 

A primary goal of ATD-1 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 have 

developed the Airborne Spacing for 

Terminal Arrival Routes algorithm for 

trajectory-based control law for timebased spacing of Flight Deck Interval 

Management System (FIM) operations. The Avionics Phase 2 task leverages Phase 1-identified solutions for 

equipping existing in-service aircraft 

with FIM airborne spacing tool technology under development at NASA 

for flight test demonstrations slated 

for January through March 2017. 

The Avionics Phase 2 team is comprised of recognized leaders in the 

community. The Boeing Company, 

in partnership with Honeywell and 

United Airlines, will build, test and 

fly the ATD-1 avionics prototype 

FIM system, which NASA plans to 

eventually transfer to the Federal 

Aviation Administration. Both 

Honeywell and United provided 

official letters of commitment confirming the availability of flight test 

assets. Honeywell is providing two 

ASD-B In & Required TCAS Data

Radio

Altimeter ADIRU DirectionalAntennae Xponders

TCAS

Application

Target Aircraft

State Data

(ADS-B In Rcvr)

Ownship

State Data

(Ownship Sensors)

DO-317B

Surveillance Processing

ARINC 735B TCAS\Traffic Processor LRU

ND & PFD ADC Data FMS Data

Ownship State & Performance Data

GNSS Data

Speed Command & Status

(CGD1)

(CGD2)

Data Entry & Situation

Awareness – HMI/CDTI (EFB1)

(EFB2)

NDB ASTAR TG

Legend:

= FIM avionics platform

= Aircraft interfaces needed for ASTAR

= Aircraft interfaces needed for TCAS

* Note: NDB = Navigation Database

System Architecture for ATD-1 Avionics Phase II and Flight Test
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015 7

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

test aircraft at no cost: a 757 flying 

test bed and a Falcon 900/Sabreliner 

65 as a lead aircraft. United is providing a commercial service B737-

700/800/900 aircraft at just $8,000 

per flight hour, and is not charging 

for any lost revenue while the plane is 

participating in these flight test demonstration trials. Boeing’s partnership 

with Honeywell and United will 

provide a very large cost savings to the 

government, leveraging the expertise 

of highly experienced contractors to 

conduct a flight test demonstration 

using commercial aircraft, underscoring industry’s commitment to ensure 

flight-test success and the advancement of the FIM prototype. 

NASA Langley engineers attended 

an initial flight demonstration air 

traffic control coordination meeting 

hosted at Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC). The 

Phase 2 flight test demonstration 

follows the Phase 1 787 ecoDemonstrator and T-38 concept demonstration held in December 2014, but 

with wider and more complex testing of FIM operations. This latest 

effort will utilize the three aircraft 

mentioned above, conducting four 

different flight deck spacing procedures with custom arrivals and published approaches into Moses Lake, 

Washington in non-revenue flight 

operations. Variability will include 

different arrival procedures and en 

route transitions, diverse starting 

altitudes and descent speed profiles 

of the lead aircraft, and variation 

of the amount of delay the spacing 

algorithm must resolve. 

The objective of the coordination 

meeting was to familiarize the Seattle 

ARTCC staff with the flight test 

demonstration plans and needs, to 

understand their airspace procedures 

and constraints, solicit feedback 

about the proposed flight test routes, 

discuss methods to minimize the 

need for controller intervention during each test procedure, and to plan 

follow-on coordination meetings. 

The next meeting is planned in late 

January 2016 and will also include 

staff from the Moses Lake Terminal 

Radar Approach Control Facility.

Denise Scearce will be the ATD-1 

avionics lead and technical point of 

contact for the Phase 2 task. Brian 

Baxley is the ATD-1 flight test lead, 

and Will Johnson is the ATD-1 subproject manager and chief engineer. 

SMART-NAS Testbed 

Demonstration

POC: JOHN ROBINSON, KEE PALOPO

On December 2, the Shadow Mode 

Assessment Using Realistic Technologies for the National Airspace 

System (SMART-NAS) Testbed team 

demonstrated initial data integration and visualization capabilities. 

The Testbed is intended to accelerate transformation of the NAS by 

enabling high-fidelity human-in-theloop and automation-in-the-loop 

simulations and tests that are either 

impractical or not achievable today. 

The Testbed will also harmonize 

test and evaluation activities of the 

entire product development lifecycle, 

from NASA research to routine use. 

It will use operational systems and 

high-fidelity models to evaluate 

realistic current and future traffic 

scenarios for all phases of air traffic 

operations, leveraging cloud-based 

services to provide cost-effective 

scalability for large, multi-facility, 

multi-organization simulations. 

In the past year, the SMART-NAS 

Testbed team focused on developing a proof-of-concept implementation of a distributed simulation 

environment used to perform 

technology evaluation of potential 

middleware and client software 

solutions. The high-throughput, 

publish-and-subscribe messaging 

system called Apache-Kafka (used 

by Twitter, Netflix, and LinkedIn) 

and the cluster-computing engine 

for big-data processing called 

Apache-Spark were evaluated. The 

WebGL-based Cesium framework 

and NASA’s Java-based WorldWind 

geospatial visualization capabilities 

were used to create both a Testbed 

mobile and desktop application.

Initial SMART-NAS Testbed capabilities that were demonstrated 

included: 

• Automation of simulation 

design and execution using a 

graphical, drag-and-drop editor of simulation components; 
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

• Communication between distributed simulation components at 

NASA Ames and NASA Langley 

Research Centers using NASA’s 

GovCloud infrastructure;

• Integration of live, recorded, 

and simulated air traffic and 

airport vehicle position Information from the Federal Aviation 

Administration, NASA’s Ames, 

Glenn and Langley Research 

Centers, and the University 

of California at Santa Cruz;

• Prediction of aircraft trajectories 

using each aircraft’s flight plan 

and surveillance information; 

• Visualization of air traffic tracks and flight plans, 

weather information, and 

airspace boundaries on a highresolution, three-dimensional 

geo-spatial viewer; and 

SMART-NAS Testbed Distributed Collaboration Tool for Plugging-in Modules, Configuring and Running Simulations. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

• Execution of real-time analytics 

to evaluate operational metrics 

like delay and sector transit 

time, as well as health metrics 

like message rates and latencies.

In 2016, the Testbed team will extend 

and mature the proof-of-concept 

capabilities to include account/session management services, automated 

simulation scenario generation and 

validation using big-data analytics, 

on-demand creation of simulated aircraft from live traffic conditions, and 

distributed voice communications for 

remote simulation participants. 

FAA Interest in DWR 

Technology

POC: DAVE MCNALLY, KAPIL SHETH

During the Federal Aviation Administration/NASA quarterly meeting 

held at NASA Ames Research Center on December 1-3, senior FAA 

managers expressed strong interest in 

the Dynamic Weather Routes System 

(DWR) technology as a candidate for 

inclusion in the FAA’s Collaborative 

Air Traffic Management Technologies Work Package 5, now scheduled 

for a final investment decision in 

2019. In preparation for meeting its 

milestones, the FAA indicated that 

the technology would be targeted for 

the Traffic Flow Management System, and requested that additional 

information, including shortfall 

analysis, operating concepts, functional requirements, technical papers, 

and prototype software be provided 

by the end of calendar year 2016. 

The FAA also expressed interest in 

NASA’s extensions of DWR, which 

are proposed components of NASA’s 

Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration (ATD)-3 subproject, including the Multi-Flight 

Common Route (MFCR), which 

finds common air traffic controllerfriendly routes for multiple flights, 

and Dynamic Routes for Arrivals in Weather (DRAW), which 

extends DWR for merging arrivals and metering during weather 

events. The FAA expressed strong 

interest in connecting the Airborne Reroute (ABRR) mechanism 

with NASA’s MFCR technology. 

The FAA-developed ABRR sends 

reroutes from the traffic manager 

to the controller electronically. 
SEMINARS AND PRESENTATIONS

10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2015

Cognitive Engagement 

Presentation at Tech3Lab, 

HEC Montreal 

POC: SHERI BROWN

Dr. Alan Pope of NASA Langley 

Research Center was the invited guest 

speaker on November 12 at HEC 

(École des hautes études commerciales) Montreal for World Usability Day. Dr. Pope held technical 

interchanges with researchers in the 

Tech3Lab of HEC, a research laboratory in human-computer interaction specializing in the business-user 

experience. The laboratory uses an 

array of behavioral and neurophysiological measurement instruments 

to observe and analyze people’s 

interactions with technology – such 

as eye movements, cardiac activity 

and electroencephalography – to 

analyze interactions among organizations’ technological interfaces 

and employees or consumers. 

Dr. Pope presented research conducted by NASA Langley’s crew 

state monitoring (CSM) team that 

included development of an electroencephalographic (EEG) index 

of cognitive engagement. The CSM 

team is currently conducting studies employing EEG, functional 

near infrared spectroscopy, and 

sympathetic nervous system measures to detect attentional state 

during motion-based flight simulation. Overall, the work aims to 

reduce commercial aviation accidents and incidents by mitigating 

the effects of attentional human 

performance limiting states, thus 

improving crew awareness. 

The work is in response to the 

Commercial Aviation Safety 

Team Safety Enhancement 211 

entitled “Training for Attention 

Management” supported by the 

Airspace Operations and Safety 

Program’s Technologies for Airplane 

State Awareness Sub-Project.

Duke University Optical 

Neuroimaging Talk 

POC: SHERI BROWN

On November 18, Dr. Angela 

Harrivel of NASA Langley Research 

Center was invited by Dr. Missy 

Cummings at Duke University to 

speak about her work using functional near infrared spectroscopy 

(fNIRS). Professor Cummings 

directs the Humans and Autonomy 

Laboratory in the Duke Institute for 

Brain Sciences in the Pratt School 

of Engineering, and is a member 

of the NASA Advisory Council’s 

Aeronautics Committee. Her group 

is interested in detecting vigilance 

decrement by employing dualchannel fNIRS to measure brain 

activity in human subjects during 

long-duration driving simulations, 

assessing oxygenation changes in the 

prefrontal cortex coincident with 

driving-performance metrics. 

Dr. Harrivel’s discussion included 

a presentation, followed by a 

questions-and-answers session 

regarding her recent research sensing executive attention and restingstate networks in the brain with 

multi-channel fNIRS, and using 

adaptive signal filtering, behavioral 

responses and pattern classification to predict task engagement. 

Invited Talk at the Stanford 

University Department of 

Computer Science

POC: BANAVAR SRIDHAR

Invited by Dr. David Cheriton, 

Professor of Computer Science at 

Stanford University, NASA Ames 

Senior Scientist for Air Transportation Dr. Banavar Sridhar on 

November 19 presented a freshman 

seminar entitled “What is Aviation 

Operations and How Does Computational Thinking Influence Its 

Design?” The talk was organized 

as a series of dozen questions, 

with a third of the time devoted 

to the impact of new technology 

on future aviation operations. 
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