National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

OCT-DEC 2017 | Quarter 1

ATD-2 Field Demonstrations 

Underway

4

Urban Air Mobility Discussion 13
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

AOSP IN THE NEWS

Commercial UAS Industry 

Gathers at Drone World Expo

Aviation International News 

(10/04) reports that Dr. Parimal 

Kopardekar, NASA Manager of 

the Safe Autonomous Systems 

Operation project, reassured the 

audience that the U.S. government 

is trying to help the commercial 

drone industry. “We’re trying to 

make sure your businesses flourish 

by giving you access to airspace 

and interoperability with other 

operators,” he said.

NASA, NUAIR Partner 

to Grow Central New 

York Drone Industry

Business Facilities Magazine 

(10/04) reports that NASA and the 

Northeast UAS Airspace Integration 

Research Alliance (NUAIR) 

have formed a groundbreaking 

agreement to grow the drone 

industry in Central New York and 

the Mohawk Valley. The agreement 

formalizes a partnership in support 

of two elements of the state’s UAS 

strategy: the launch of the world’s 

first 50-mile UTM Corridor and 

creation of NUSTAR, the most 

comprehensive UAS test facility in 

the nation.

State Advances Drone 

Industry with Planned Testing 

Corridor in Rome, N.Y.

The Daily Freeman (10/22) reports 

that companies will be able to use 

the corridor to test hardware in 

airspace and where manned aircraft 

also fly. Part of the concept is to 

help NASA to test technology that 

will allow the FAA to create regulation opening the national airspace to 

commercial drone industry.

NASA, Boeing Partner 

to Conduct Flight Safety 

Research with Synthetic 

Vision Tech

ExecutiveBiz (11/02) reports 

Boeing and NASA have entered 

into a Space Act Agreement to 

study pilot awareness and response 

to unplanned situations as part of 

efforts to help improve aviation 

safety and flight training.

NASA Creates Industry Day to 

Talk Drone/NAS Integration 

with Academia, Industry

Aviation Today (11/03) reports 

NASA is further calling on the 

industry to help with unmanned 

aircraft system (UAS) integration 

into the U.S. NAS. The agency is 

hosting an industry day at the end 

of the month to galvanize interested 

parties in preparation of a 2020 

demonstration under its “UAS in the 

NAS” project.

NASA Holding UAS Industry 

Day on November 30

Unmanned Aerial (11/03) reports 

the purpose of NASA’s Industry Day 

is to gather input from commercial 

and academic partners who have 

an interest in or have technologies 

available that can support NASA’s 

projects that work in lockstep with 

the FAA to address the challenges 

facing UAS integration.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 3

AOSP IN THE NEWS

NASA and Boeing Partner to 

Test Synthetic Vision Systems

Aerospace Technology (11/06) 

reports NASA has collaborated with 

Boeing to test and certify synthetic 

vision systems as part of a research 

program that aims to enhance flight 

training and aviation safety.

Reaping the Benefits of 

Safe Drone Technology

The Hill (11/06) reports UAS 

technology, or Drones, has evolved 

much the same as computers, which 

went from room-sized machines 

operated by NASA to laptops and 

then smart phones carried around in 

our pockets.

Boeing, NASA to Test NextGen 

Synthetic Vision in 787 Sims

Aviation Today (12/18) reports 

NASA research technical lead Kyle 

Ellis hopes the collaboration with 

Boeing and other industry partners 

will help identify what makes up 

a best synthetic vision system for 

attitude state awareness for all pilots 

– not just seasoned veterans.

NASA, FAA Partner to 

Upgrade Air Traffic Control

KJZZ (12/26) reports that “NASA 

brings some sort of scheduling 

capability and tools and interfaces 

it to the existing systems, and on 

to the controller and flight crews 

in order for them to conform to 

those schedules,” said NASA project 

manager Leighton Quon. NASA 

projects a 40 percent reduction 

in departure delays at congested 

airports like Sky Harbor, where 

tower controllers already use FAA 

prototype software to track flights.
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

ATD-2 Field Demonstrations 

Underway

POC: SHAWN ENGELLAND AND SHIVANJLI SHARMA

The Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) Phase 

1 Integrated Arrival Departure 

Surface Operations (IADS) Baseline 

Demonstration commenced 

on September 29 and is being 

conducted in a series of “microphases.” Phase 1A was conducted 

in the NASA ATD-2 Lab located 

at Charlotte Douglas International 

Airport (CLT), and involved using 

the ATD-2 system for all data 

exchange features between the 

Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA) Air Traffic Control Tower 

(ATCT) and the American Airlines 

(AAL) ramp. Running in tandem 

with Phase 1A, Operational Shadow 

Evaluation (OSE) Session 13 was 

conducted to review Phase 1A, 

demonstrate new features of the 

recent software release, and discuss 

procedures for Phase 1B. Field 

Demo Partners from National Air 

Traffic Controllers Association, 

AAL, FAA Headquarters, 

Washington Air Route Traffic 

Control Center (ARTCC), and 

CLT ATCT participated in the 

OSE1 session. The NASA team 

reviewed current feedback received, 

tech support resolutions, and 

planned improvements in the IADS 

system based on user feedback. 

Discussions provided valuable 

feedback on the progress of the 

Phase 1 Field Demonstration, and 

Field Demo Partners expressed their 

excitement for Phase 1B. Phase 1A 

was completed on October 25. 

Phase 1B operations began 

November 1. In this microphase, FAA Traffic Management 

Coordinators (TMCs) at the 

CLT ATCT and Washington 

ARTCC used the ATD-2 system 

to electronically negotiate takeoff 

times for Call for Release (also 

known as Approval Request 

or APREQ) departures being 

scheduled into busy northeast 

corridor overhead traffic flows. 

The ATD-2 electronic negotiation 

feature builds on the Integrated 

Departure Arrival Capability 

(IDAC) in the FAA’s Time Based 

Flow Management (TBFM) system. 

In the ATD-2 implementation, 

the standard IDAC tower user 

interface is replaced by the ATD-2 

IADS Surface Trajectory Based 

Operations (STBO) component, 

enabling ATCT TMCs to perform 

IDAC-style scheduling for APREQ 

flights with their primary surface 

tool. Additionally, the ATD-2 

implementation automatically 

delivers predicted takeoff times 

from the STBO surface tool to 

the Washington ARTCC tool, 

thereby improving CLT departure 

demand predictions used by 

the TBFM scheduling system. 

The ATD-2 IADS system also 

includes user interfaces at the 

CLT ramp tower that provide 

Display depicting ATD-2 Phase 1B Operations. ramp managers and controllers 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

5

with information on negotiated 

APREQ release times and pushback 

advisories to meet APREQ times. 

This achievement represented 17 

months of collaboration between 

the NASA ATD-2 team, multiple 

FAA organizations, and the TBFM 

contractor, to implement a secure 

and reliable network interface 

between the NASA ATD-2 IADS 

system at CLT and the operational 

FAA TBFM system at Washington 

ARTCC. The collaboration 

produced a new interface without 

requiring any code changes to the 

TBFM system, which will serve as 

a model for future FAA efforts to 

integrate TBFM with other decision 

support systems. The Phase 1B 

field demo plan called for CLT 

ATCT and Washington ARTCC to 

use the ATD-2 electronic APREQ 

scheduling in a semi-automatic 

mode, which would require the 

ARTCC TMC to acknowledge 

a negotiated release time. This 

process would be supplemented 

with a phone call—the same as 

manual APREQ scheduling. After 

an initial confidence-building 

period, the supplemental phone 

call will be dropped, and the 

ATD-2 system will be routinely 

operated in semi-automatic mode. 

The goal of this was to demonstrate 

sufficient APREQ compliance 

performance for the ATD-2 system 

to be operated in fully-automatic 

mode for APREQ scheduling. Phase 

1B concluded in late November.

On November 29, ATD-2 began 

Phase 1C operations. In this microphase, FAA Traffic Management 

Coordinators (TMCs) at the 

CLT ATCT and AAL Ramp 

Traffic Managers and Controllers 

collaboratively used the ATD-2 

IADS system to meter flights 

departing from CLT Airport. 

ATD-2 departure metering alleviates 

demand/capacity imbalances on the 

airport surface by advising controllers 

to hold some departing flights at 

the gate instead of having the flights 

wait in long departure queues at the 

end of the runway. Shifting some 

of the departure wait time from 

the taxiway to the gate saves fuel, 

reduces emissions, and gives airlines 

and passengers more options in the 

period prior to pushback. The surface 

departure metering capability being 

demonstrated at CLT is consistent 

with the Surface Collaborative 

Decision Making (CDM) concept 

developed by the FAA and industry 

over a number of years. NASA 

combined Surface CDM principles 

with advanced trajectory-based 

scheduling technology to create the 

ATD-2 IADS system, which also 

features multi-facility data exchange 

and integration capabilities, and a 

departure scheduling interface with 

the FAA’s en-route TBFM system 

to provide a comprehensive IADS 

traffic management solution. With 

the introduction of surface departure 

metering, NASA has now deployed 

all capabilities planned for Phase 1 

of the ATD-2 Field Demonstration. 

FAA TMCs and AAL Ramp Traffic 

Managers and Controllers will use 

the ATD-2 IADS system in daily 

operations at CLT and Washington 

ARTCC while NASA researchers 

collect and analyze Phase 1 data and 

further develop the ATD-2 IADS 

system to implement capabilities for 

Phase 2 of the Field Demonstration, 

which begins in the Fall of 2018. 

ATD-2 Tools in Live Operations at CLT.
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Kickoff Meeting with 

National Test Sites

POC: ARWA AWEISS

The Technical Capability Level 

(TCL) 3 Testing Awards were issued 

to six UAS Test Sites on October 

2. Following the announcement of 

the awards, the Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems (UAS) Traffic Management 

team held a kickoff teleconference 

with the UAS National Test Sites 

to discuss making preparations for 

testing. Draft test plans are due 

October 27, and the testing period 

will commence shortly thereafter. 

The TCL 3 testing will build on 

TCL 2 capabilities and investigate 

technologies and procedures for 

flying small UAS beyond line of sight 

in a more congested environment. 

Tests will include communication, 

navigation and surveillance with 

UAS in locations where there may 

be interrupted signals because of 

man-made and terrain features; 

sense and avoid flights to evaluate 

the effectiveness of detecting 

and resolving airborne conflicts; 

evaluations of system robustness 

using induced failures in the Flight 

Information Management System 

and UAS Service Supplier; and UAS 

landings and takeoffs from beyond 

visual line of sight locations. 

Visual-Vestibular 

Active Psychophysics 

Experiment at the VMS

POC: SCOTT REARDON AND PETER ZAAL

On January 5, Airspace Operations 

and Safety Program researchers 

provided a demonstration 

of the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) system 

to the Collaborative DecisionMaking (CDM) Flow Evaluation 

Team (FET) at NASA’s ATD-2 

laboratory located at the Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport. 

The team is a joint government 

and industry initiative aimed 

at improving air traffic flow 

management through increased 

information exchange among 

aviation community stakeholders. 

The FET is a CDM sub-team that 

strives to increase system efficiency 

by reducing route coordination 

time and enhancing system 

planning through the creation 

of common situational awareness 

of potential route alternatives, 

procedures and coordination 

processes. The FET requested that 

a regular quarterly meeting be held 

in conjunction with the ATD-2 lab 

visit. The ATD-2 team presented a 

system overview and described the 

goals, benefits, and tools developed 

across the various user groups, 

from Air Traffic Control Tower 

personnel to ramp managers and 

controllers. A description of the 

data exchange, integration activities, 

Primary Flight Display with Stall Recovery Guidance Symbology
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

7

surface modeling, scheduling and 

metering also were provided. The 

FET expressed interest in the 

results of the field demonstrations. 

TASAR Weather Integration 

Flight Trial 3 Pilot Focus Group 

Conducted in the ATOL

POC: KELLY BURKE

On January 12, Airspace Operations 

and Safety Program researchers 

provided an ATD-2 update to the 

FAA’s NextGen Advisory Committee 

Subcommittee (NACSC) at 

their monthly meeting held in 

Washington, DC. The NextGen 

Advisory Committee (NAC) 

provides a venue where the FAA 

can solicit a consensus-based set 

of recommendations on issues 

that are critical to the successful 

implementation of NextGen. The 

NAC is also a forum to obtain 

a commitment of resources and 

synchronized planning between 

government and industry partners. 

The NACSC supports the NAC, 

and is composed of FAA and 

aviation industry representatives 

with broad knowledge and expertise 

related to the implementation of 

NextGen. The NACSC meeting 

included remarks from FAA 

Deputy Administrator (Acting) 

Victoria Wassmer and other regular 

participants. The ATD-2 briefing 

detailed past accomplishments, 

featured the concept animation 

video and highlighted ATD-2 

partnerships and stakeholder 

engagement activities. Under 

ATD-2, NASA is collaborating 

with the FAA and industry to 

conduct a field demonstration 

of surface departure metering, in 

response to a recommendation 

from the NAC. Several NACSC 

members expressed their support 

for ATD-2 and an interest in results 

from the field demonstration. 

ATM-X Successfully Completes 

Key Decision Point-A Review

POC: WILLIAM CHAN

A multi-center planning team 

tasked with defining the Air Traffic 

Management-eXploration (ATMX) Project successfully passed its 

Key Decision Point-A (KDP-A) 

milestone at NASA Headquarters 

on October 10. The ATM-X team 

was given approval to proceed to 

initial implementation and continue 

formulating project plans for the 

remainder of the three-year Phase 

1 effort. ATM-X aims to enable 

equitable access to the airspace for 

all users, vehicles and missions by 

developing and demonstrating a 

new service-based paradigm by 

leveraging UTM principles and 

using a build and test approach. 

This KDP-A review was chaired by 

the ARMD Associate Administrator 

and supported by the Directorate 

Program Management Council, 

AOSP’s Independent Review 

Panel and the Center Aeronautics 

Research Directors. The review 

assessed the Phase 1 plans, Phase 2 

planning and the trade space and 

development of a future ATM vision. 

Early Tech Transfer of 

ATD-2 Technologies

POC: JANE THIPPHAVONG

The FAA Integrated Arrival 

Departure Surface (IADS) 

Research Transition Team (RTT) 

lead requested an early technical 

transfer of the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) 

technologies. The FAA NextGen 

office is the sponsoring organization 

for this effort. A technical 

interchange meeting was held on 

October 10 to discuss details of the 

early Tech Transfer of the IADS 

system for the Limited-Trajectory 

Based Operations (L-TBO) Project. 

The L-TBO team is interested in 

using the ATD-2 IADS system, 

particularly the Integrated Departure 

Arrival Capability, to demonstrate a 

subset of the TBO-based operational 

improvement increments identified 

for delivery into the National 

Airspace System (NAS) in 2025. 

Demonstration capabilities will be 

selected and integrated across all 

phases of flight to illustrate “closed 

loop” operations, collaboration, 

information sharing, feedback, 

synchronization and negotiation. 
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

The L-TBO project will also 

connect previous demonstration 

efforts supported by NextGen at 

the Florida Test Bed, including 

Mini Global, Aircraft Access 

to System Wide Information 

Management, 4D-Trajectory 

Datacomm and Advanced 

Trajectory Modeling. The early 

Tech Transfer provides another 

application of the ATD-2 system, 

and the FAA L-TBO Team will 

continue engagement with the 

NASA team to review progress and 

lessons learned. The FAA expressed 

appreciation for the work that the 

NASA ATD-2 Team has done so far, 

and is looking forward to continued 

partnership to improve the NAS. 

NASA-KARI Collaboration on 

Airport Departure/Surface 

Management Capabilities 

POC: YOON JUNG

NASA and the Korea Aerospace 

Research Institution (KARI) 

have been collaborating on 

surface management research 

since an agreement between the 

two organizations was signed in 

November 2014. This collaboration 

has recently led to a new 

Memorandum of Understanding 

(MOU) between KARI and the 

Incheon International Airport 

Corporation (IIAC), signed on 

September 29, to develop and 

deploy KARI’s Airport Departure 

Management and Surface 

Management Capabilities at Incheon 

International Airport. KARI and 

IIAC will jointly develop system 

requirements and test plans, and 

KARI will develop software and 

algorithms. KARI will also conduct 

human-in-the-loop simulations 

prior to system installation, 

which are scheduled to begin in 

early 2019. Shadow operations 

and field demonstrations will 

follow through 2020. In October, 

Daekeun Jeon, project manager of 

the field demonstration project,

congratulated and credited the 

NASA-KARI collaboration team 

on this MOU and wrote the 

following statement: “...the field 

demonstration at IIAC would be 

a wonderful chance for us in that 

our technology can be applied 

to one of the best airports in the 

world. And also, there is no doubt 

that this chance was from the 

result of our research collaboration, 

so I would like to congratulate 

on this with you together.” 

NASA Contributes to the 

FAA’s TFD Build 2 System 

Requirements Review

POC: ANDREW GING

On January 25, NASA participated 

in the joint government-industry 

Surface Collaborative Decision 

Making Team (SCT) Meeting, 

held in Washington, DC. The 

team meets quarterly and consists 

of representatives from major 

U.S. passenger and cargo airlines, 

general aviation, the FAA and the 

National Air Traffic Controller 

Association. The team provides 

broad stakeholder input regarding 

requirements, policy, and procedures 

related to surface traffic-flow 

automation and data exchange. 

The morning sessions included an 

update on the status and deployment 

plans for the Terminal Flight Data 

Manager Program, and a briefing 

by the MITRE Corporation on the 

effects of early scheduling departures 

into time-based traffic flows. The 

rest of the day was devoted to 

technical interchange on Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-2 

(ATD-2). ATD-2 researchers 

presented an update on recent 

progress made towards the Phase 1 

field demonstration at Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport. 

ATD-2 topics also included the 

status of the cost-benefits analysis 

and a preliminary study of the 

accuracy of airline gate departure 

intent data at Charlotte as a 

function of look-ahead time and 

airline category. Such analysis is 

critical for establishing expectations 

for the performance of ATD-2 

departure scheduling functions 

in Phase 1. Interactions during 

the meeting provided valuable 

input on ATD-2 data collection 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

plans for measuring benefits and 

for refining the investigation of 

departure intent accuracy. The 

team expressed their appreciation 

for NASA’s overviews and technical 

discussions, and reaffirmed their 

desire for continued engagement 

on ATD-2 going forward. 

Virtual Training on 

ATD-2 New Features 

POC: LINDSAY STEVENS

On October 23, the NASA Airspace 

Technology Demonstration 2 

(ATD-2) team conducted a virtual 

training session for American 

Airlines (AAL) Ramp Managers 

and the Ramp Managing Director 

on new features in the Ramp 

Management Tools. The Ramp 

Management Tools are part of 

the Integrated Arrival Departure 

Surface system deployed at Charlotte 

Douglass International Airport 

(CLT) and are in daily operational 

use in the AAL Ramp Tower as part 

of the Phase 1 Field Demonstration. 

The Ramp Management tools 

consist of the Ramp Traffic Console 

(RTC) and Ramp Manager Traffic 

Console (RMTC). There are 

currently four RTCs and one RMTC 

deployed on the operational floor 

in the AAL CLT Ramp Tower. The 

new features include the ability to 

create a target for an existing flight, 

the ability to reposition flights on 

the display, and updates to the 

flight menus. The Ramp Managers 

are looking forward to using 

these new features in the updated 

software release on October 24. 

Interview Study 

Collaboration Meeting

POC: PAUL LEE

On October 11, Paul Lee met with 

FAA Human Performance Manager 

Jason Demalgalski, his team 

members, Ed Davis, Rachel Seely, 

and National Air Traffic Controller 

Association Human Performance 

representative Jay Barrett. The group 

discussed potential collaboration 

on an interview study with active 

controllers to identify human 

performance markers. The study 

probes markers that can lead to 

system breakdown under nominal 

and off-nominal situations, such 

as technology failure or an offnominal even. The discussion was 

focused initially on getting access 

to three facilities – En Route, 

TRACON and Tower – to conduct 

one-hour interviews with more 

than 10 controllers per facility. 

ATD-3 HITL Simulation 

for DRAW

POC: CHESTER GONG

The Airspace Technology 

Demonstration 3 sub-project 

completed the second humanin-the-loop (HITL) simulation 

data runs of the Dynamic Routes 

for Arrivals in Weather (DRAW) 

concept in October at the Ames 

Research Center’s Air Traffic Control 

Laboratory. DRAW provides 

the ability to preserve metering 

operations during adverse weather 

conditions by using dynamic 

rerouting of arrival flights and 

balancing arrival demand across 

metering fixes. The DRAW HITL 

simulation number 2 featured a 

unique, two-part experiment design 

that focused separately on Traffic 

Management Coordinators (TMCs) 

and air traffic controllers. This set 

of simulations improved on the first 

DRAW HITL simulation that took 

place in May 2017 by collecting 

more data and using a design 

that addressed TMC-controller 

team technique dependencies. 

TMC simulation sessions were 

conducted from October 4 through 

6 and from October 11 through 13. 

Both sessions included two teams 

of two recently-retired Fort Worth 

Center TMCs. The controller session 

Summer Matter Experts Participating in DRAW 

Experiment.
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

was conducted from October 23 

through 27, using scenarios derived 

from the TMC session. Controller 

test participants included seven 

recently-retired controllers from Los 

Angeles; Oakland, Calif. and Fort 

Worth, Texas En Route Centers. 

Two different controller-sector 

seating arrangements were used to 

create two sets of controller teams. 

Researchers observed differences 

in TMC management strategies, 

rerouting behavior and controller 

team performance, and validated 

the decision to utilize a two-part 

experiment design. Preliminary 

results indicate TMCs were able 

to evaluate and reroute weatherimpacted arrival flights earlier with 

DRAW than without the concept. 

Trajectory-Based Operations 

Exchange with FAA NextGen 

and MITRE CAASD

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

On February 8 and 9, the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-3 

(ATD-3) project held a technical 

interchange meeting (TIM) for 

the Dynamic Routes for Arrivals 

in Weather (DRAW) technology 

at FAA Headquarters. More than 

20 representatives from NASA, 

FAA, and the MITRE Corporation 

attended, as well as a representative 

from the National Air Traffic 

Controllers Association. At the 

meeting, NASA was represented 

by Stephanie Harrison from the 

Langley Research Center in Virginia, 

as well as Kapil Sheth and Chester 

Gong from the Ames Research 

Center in California. The meeting 

prompted an engaging discussion 

that successfully accomplished the 

objectives of the TIM, which were 

to first, provide detailed answers to 

FAA questions regarding DRAW 

technology and a Concept of 

Operations (ConOps); second, 

to receive feedback to help NASA 

revise the draft DRAW ConOps 

document; and finally, to present 

and receive feedback on the 

experiment plan for the first DRAW 

controllers-in-the-loop simulation, 

scheduled for May 2017. 

AOSP Annual Project Reviews

POC: TAMARA CROOM

On October 30 and 31, AOSP 

conducted its Annual Project Review. 

The projects included the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration project, 

the Shadow Mode Assessment 

Using Realistic Technologies for 

the National Airspace System 

Testbed for Safe Trajectory-Based 

Operations project and the Safe 

Autonomous Systems Operations 

project. The primary purpose 

was to assess the demonstrated 

quality and performance for each 

of the projects during FY2017. 

The review process included 

the AOSP Program Director 

and two panels of government 

technical management experts. 

The Independent Review Panel 

consists of non-NASA government 

experts—primarily representing the 

FAA and National Transportation 

Safety Board—and the Performance 

Review Panel includes key members 

of the Aeronautics Research 

Mission Directive leadership team. 

Those involved in this review 

provided independent perspective 

and input for consideration in 

their assessment of the projects. 

ATM-X Project Activities 

Commenced 

POC: WILLIAM CHAN

Following the successful Key 

Decision Point-A review, several 

activities commenced in support 

of the Air Traffic ManagementeXploration Project. This included 

work related to Trajectory Based 

Operations (TBO) graceful 

degradation; Communications, 

Navigation, Surveillance (CNS) 

test-bed; airport architecture 

development and Aeronautical 

Telecommunications Network/

Internet Protocol Suite (ATN/

IPS) Standards development. 

With regard to the TBO graceful 

degradation work, the team finished 

collecting interview data from retired 

controllers to explore interactions 

between degradation of the following 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

three categories: (1) technology (e.g., 

DataComm); (2) severe weather; 

and (3) human performance (e.g., 

fatigue, high workload). The study 

explored the interactions between 

failures in technology, environment 

and human operators. Analyses 

of the data is in progress. 

For the CNS test-bed, the team 

initiated a review of the Airborne 

Stand-off Radar (ASTOR) 

avionics system capabilities 

for implementation of CNS 

requirements into the test-bed 

capability. Specifically, an initial 

evaluation of system interface 

options is being considered for use 

in evaluation of network protocol 

profiles. Recent upgrades included 

installation of new Aeronautical 

Mobile Airport Communication 

System (AeroMACS) technology, 

including two new base station 

systems with transceiver equipment, 

antenna systems, power units and 

associated cabling. Additionally, the 

CNS test-bed will have continued 

security compliance upgrades and a 

security vulnerability assessment. 

In support of the airport architecture 

development, the team initiated 

development of a virtualization 

design to enable airport architecture 

framework test and evaluation. 

Additionally, network design and 

configuration has started for initial 

capability simulation testing. In 

support of the ATN/IPS Standards 

development, the team completed an 

initial draft of Domain Name System 

for an aviation use case. This work 

supports RTCA Special Committee 

223, AeroMACS and Internet 

Protocol Suite profile development. 

The principal objective of this 

Minimum Operational Performance 

Standards effort is to modernize 

air-ground information exchange 

through the use of selected Internet 

Protocol version 6 protocols. 

Visitors from ENAC 

POC: BANAVAR SRIDHAR

Professors Daniel Delahaye and 

Marcel Mongeau from Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile (ENAC) 

in Toulouse, France, visited Ames 

Research Center from October 31 

through November 2. The visit was 

part of a proposed NASA-ENAC 

collaboration agreement in air traffic 

management (ATM) research. 

ENAC is a major contributor to 

aviation research in Europe. Delahaye 

heads the Optimization and Automatic Control Group, Laboratory in 

Applied Mathematics, and Computer 

Science and Automatics for Air Transport. The research by the Optimization and Automatic Control Group 

has been applied to ATM in the areas 

of air traffic complexity, forecasting 

air traffic controller workload, air 

traffic planning, ground aircraft 

taxiing, trajectory prediction and 

detection and resolution of conflicts. 

Delahaye met with Banavar Sridhar, 

Husni Idris, Eric Mueller, Antony 

Evans and Shannon Zelinski to gain 

a better understanding of the ATM 

research being conducted at Ames. 

Technical Interchange 

Meeting for the Management 

by Trajectory (MBT) NRA 

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

Langley Research Center’s Advanced 

4D Trajectory-Based Operations 

(4DT) research team conducted a 

technical interchange meeting with 

Mosaic ATM, Inc., regarding the 

company’s ongoing Management by 

Trajectory (MBT) NASA Research 

Announcement (NRA) contract on 

November 2. The MBT NRA team 

is tasked with developing an MBT 

concept of operations, studying 

the impacts of possible changes in 

roles and responsibilities between 

various agents in the air traffic 

system and identifying the concept’s 

potential impact on environment. 

Langley engineers and Mosaic 

discussed the contractor’s evolving 

concept of operations, including 

details regarding assigned 4D 

trajectories, the National Airspace 

System (NAS) and trajectory 

constraints and the process of 

trajectory negotiation within an 

MBT air traffic environment. 
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

The NRA is supported by the Air 

Traffic Management-eXploration 

project and is focused on 

improving and enhancing the 

management and flow of airspace 

traffic within the NAS. 

CAMPO Briefing Provided 

to FAA Chief Scientist 

POC: JENNIFER KIBLER

A Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) 

evaluation of the Multi-Flight 

Common Routes (MFCR) tool 

took place at the Air Traffic Control 

Laboratory at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California, 

March 6 through 8. The evaluation 

was a “shakedown” rehearsal in 

preparation for a formal evaluation 

by FAA traffic flow managers, 

scheduled for March 28 through 

30. MFCR is a NASA-developed 

concept and associated decision 

support tool designed to assist air 

traffic flow managers in efficiently 

and continuously updating 

weather avoidance routes in case of 

convective weather system changes. 

MFCR groups together multiple 

flights to reduce the number of 

advisories that the traffic flow 

manager needs to evaluate, and 

merge these flights on a common 

route segment to provide an orderly 

flow of rerouted traffic. Four recently 

retired FAA traffic flow managers 

provided feedback on the MFCR 

tool and its concept of use. Specific 

topics of evaluation included 

the operational acceptability of 

MFCR reroute advisories, the 

usability of MFCR’s graphical user 

interface, and the overall viability 

of MFCR’s concept of use. Data 

was collected across 120 evaluation 

points. Overall, the SMEs provided 

positive feedback, indicating that 

MFCR identified many time-saving 

rerouting opportunities that would 

be difficult to manually identify 

during air traffic operations 

in bad weather conditions. 

American Airlines’ Visit to ARC 

POC: PAUL LEE

On November 8, Mike Sterenchuk, 

Air Traffic Controller Coordinator 

from the American Airlines (AAL) 

Integrated Operations Center 

(IOC), visited Ames Research 

Center to observe and discuss 

Integrated Demand Management 

(IDM) operations with the 

NASA IDM team. NASA’s team 

demonstrated IDM operations 

under a convective weather scenario 

that efficiently distributed traffic 

flow across multiple meter fixes to 

Newark Airport by utilizing the 

Collaborative Trajectory Options 

Program (CTOP) and coordinating 

the demand management across 

Traffic Flow Management and 

Time Based Flow Management 

systems to reroute aircraft through 

less constrained airspace. During 

the meeting, Tim Niznik from 

American Airlines’ IOC joined 

via teleconference to brief the 

teams about recently completed 

CTOP trials at Dallas Fort-Worth 

International Airport (DFW). 

During the trials, AAL used the 

CTOP to distribute its DFW arrival 

traffic across multiple meter fixes 

and generate route alternatives to 

balance the traffic load and minimize 

airborne delays. Preliminary results 

suggested a good distribution 

of traffic across all of the meter 

fixes, showing few airborne delays 

and minimal departure delays for 

short-haul flights that often incur 

ground delays when the overhead 

traffic becomes too heavy. Although 

AAL’s field trial at DFW is much 

less complex than the setup in the 

current IDM operations concept, 

the conceptual approaches between 

them have significant overlap and 

yield similar results, providing an 

encouraging input that IDM benefits 

can translate into actual operations. 

NITRD Cyber-Physical 

Security Meeting 

POC: PAUL NELSON

On November 16, Paul Nelson, 

AOSP Integration Manager for 

Cybersecurity and Communications, 

traveled to Washington to represent 

AOSP at a series of meetings 

related to the Networking and 

Information Technology Research 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 13

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

and Development Cyber-Physical 

Security. The purpose of the 

meeting was to review and 

discuss the draft charter update 

for the Cyber-Physical Systems 

Interagency Working Group. 

NASA-DHS-MIT Meeting 

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR AND SHON GRABBE

On November 16 and 17, AOSP 

researchers hosted a meeting with 

industry partners and academia 

to develop a detailed roadmap for 

Unmanned Aerial System operations 

in the National Capital Region. 

The roadmap will balance the needs 

of security, safety and businesses. 

Parimal Kopardekar and Shon 

Grabbe hosted representatives from 

the Department of Homeland 

Security and the Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology at Ames 

Research Center for this two-day 

meeting. Additional subject matter 

experts participated remotely. 

Urban Air Mobility Discussion 

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR

On November 20, Eric Mueller and 

Ken Goodrich led a discussion on 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) as a 

follow-up to their UAM presentation 

at the recent AOSP Strategy Meeting 

held at Ames Research Center on 

October 12 and 13. Attendees shared 

information regarding ongoing and 

upcoming UAM research efforts 

by partners in academia, industry 

and across several NASA projects. 

Attendees also discussed the need 

to communicate, coordinate, 

collaborate and leverage each other’s 

research efforts, especially for the 

UAM Grand Challenge. UAM 

vehicle capabilities and UAM 

airspace integration were presented 

as part of a two-part UAM Grand 

Challenge. NASA is planning 

internal follow-up discussions and 

internal outreach activities for the 

broader aviation community. 

Airline Executives visit 

ATD-2 Field Demonstration

POC: SHAWN ENGELLAND

On November 28, NASA hosted 

vice presidents from United Airlines 

and American Airlines (AAL) at 

Charlotte Douglas International 

Airport (CLT), the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-2 

(ATD-2) Field Demonstration site. 

AAL Vice President of Integrated 

Operations Control Lorne Cass 

and United Airlines Vice President 

of Network Operations Tracy Lee 

participated in ATD-2 Shadow 

Session 14. During this session, 

NASA researchers briefed the 

FAA and Airline Field Demo 

Partners on Phase 1B results and 

expectations for Phase 1C. These 

briefings were followed by a visit 

to the FAA Air Traffic Control 

Tower and Terminal RADAR 

Approach Control facilities where 

FAA traffic managers demonstrated 

how the ATD-2 Integrated/Arrival/

Departure/Surface (IADS) system 

was being used in daily operations. 

Later, the executives visited the 

CLT ramp tower where AAL traffic 

managers and controllers manage 

traffic in the non-movement areas, 

such as the ramp tower, of CLT 

airport. Here, the executives saw 

the ATD-2 IADS system in use at 

five traffic management and control 

positions in the ramp tower. 

This familiarization visit was 

significant because both executives 

have strong connections to the 

ATD-2 Field Demonstration. 

Cass has been instrumental in 

developing the Surface Collaborative 

Decision Making concept, which 

is foundational to NASA’s ATD-2 

IADS system. In addition to 

his duties at United Airlines, 

Lee serves as co-chair of the 

NextGen Advisory Committee 

Subcommittee (NACSC), which 

is the implementing organization 

for the NextGen Advisory 

Committee (NAC). The NAC 

provides a venue where the FAA 

can solicit a consensus-based set 

of recommendations on issues 

that are critical to the successful 

implementation of NextGen. 

It is also a forum to obtain a 

commitment of resources and/

or synchronized planning between 
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

government and industry. The 

ATD-2 Field Demonstration at 

CLT is a collaboration among FAA, 

industry and NASA in response 

to NAC recommendations and 

supported by the NACSC. 

General Aviation (GA) 

User Forum at CLT

POC: DEBI BAKOWSKI AND BECKY HOOEY

On November 29, MITRE, the FAA 

NextGen Organization (ANG) and 

NASA held a General Aviation (GA) 

User Forum at Charlotte Douglas 

International Airport (CLT). The 

forum focused on information 

sharing for GA flight operations at 

CLT. In addition to representatives 

from MITRE, NASA and FAA/

ANG, participants included 

representatives from the National 

Air Traffic Controller Association, 

CLT Air Traffic Control Tower, 

American Airlines, National Business 

Aviation Association and corporate 

flight operators at CLT. An overview 

of the Air Traffic Demonstration-2 

(ATD-2) Field Demonstration 

and the role of data exchange 

and integration in the ATD-2 

Integrated/Arrival/Departure/

Surface system was presented by 

NASA. NASA also discussed 

the importance of information 

sharing for GA operations at CLT 

and lesser-equipped airports. 

MITRE described a prototype 

mobile device application they 

developed under FAA/ANG 

sponsorship. They also outlined the 

procedures that GA pilots are using 

to submit an Earliest Off-Block 

Time/Ready-to-Taxi Time in the 

current beta-test of the Mobile 

App. Pilots provided feedback that 

NASA can use to understand GA 

operations and their departure 

procedures at CLT. Specific data 

elements that may be available to 

pilots were also discussed. Pilots 

provided additional feedback on 

the potential usefulness of receiving 

each of the data elements. 

DWG Tech Transfer Package 

#1 and FAA/UTM Discussion 

POC: JOEY RIOS

On December 5, NASA researchers 

supporting the Unmanned Aerial 

System (UAS) Traffic Management 

Project (UTM) project hosted FAA 

colleagues under the Data Exchange 

and Information Architecture 

Working Group (DWG) for a 

daylong discussion of UTM and 

the FAA Pilot Program at Ames 

Research Center. Additionally, 

NASA transferred its own artifacts 

to the FAA as part of DWG Package 

#1. The artifacts consisted of the 

Flight Interval Management System 

Software Architecture, the UTM 

Support System Specifications, 

the UAS Operator Interface 

Control Document and the UTM 

Application Programming Interfaces. 

This technology transfer provides the 

FAA with important information for 

the development of the UTM system 

to be tested and deployed in 2019 by 

the FAA, and supported by NASA. 

ATM-X Partnership 

Engagement Meetings 

POC: WILLIAM CHAN

From December 5 through 7, the 

Air Traffic Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) project staff was in 

Washington to participate in various 

partnership meetings with representatives from industry, academia and 

the FAA. William Chan, ATM-X 

Project Manager, met with Massachusetts Institute of Technology/

Lincoln Laboratory for an Air Traffic 

Controller workshop. Chan also 

attended a meeting with FAA and 

JetBlue for discussions about the 

Northeast Corridor, as well as other 

meetings with industry partners 

for follow-on discussions related to 

trajectory negotiation, data communications and time-based metering. 

UTM USS Implementers 

Collaborative Demonstration 

POC: JOEY RIOS

On December 13, the Unmanned 

Aerial Systems (UAS) Traffic 

Management (UTM) project team 

hosted a collaborative demonstration 

with nine external UTM Support 

System (USS) implementers in the 

largest UTM interoperability test 

to date. The external implementers 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 15

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

included Airmap, General Electric, 

Amazon, ANRA Technologies, 

Avision Robotics, the Texas FAA 

Test Site, Rockwell Collins, Simulyze 

and Transtrex. With NASA’s 

participation, 10 USSs shared data 

and simulated small UAS operations 

in a demonstration that prepared 

the participants for the Technical 

Capabilities Level (TCL) 3 flight 

testing, which will start in February 

2018. Most of the organizations 

participating will be supporting 

at least one TCL 3 test site in a 

USS role. Ames Research Center 

researchers managed the NASA USS, 

the USS data collection and the 

Flight Interval Management System. 

Training of Alaska Airlines 

Personnel at ARC 

POC: KAPIL SHETH

The air-ground integration effort 

within the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-3 sub-project, called 

Multi-Agent Air-Ground Integrated 

Coordination (MAAGIC), is 

currently underway with Alaska 

Airlines (ASA) as the prime industry 

partner. The ground-based reroute 

advisory component, National 

Airspace System Constraint 

Evaluation and Notification Tool 

(NASCENT), is close to virtual 

deployment at the ASA System 

Operations Center in Seattle. Six 

members of the ASA team—four 

dispatchers and two pilots—visited 

Ames Research Center on December 

13 for additional information 

and training on operating the 

NASCENT system. NASA provided 

the ASA team with an introduction 

of the concept, algorithm and 

benefits, and a demonstration 

of the software in the Air Traffic 

Control Lab that included hands-on 

experience. The ASA participants 

exhibited their enthusiasm about 

having NASCENT running at ASA, 

and about the entire MAAGIC 

effort to gain more efficiencies 

from their flight operations. 

MFCR Technology 

Transfer to the FAA

POC: KAPIL SHETH

Multi-Flight Common Route 

(MFCR) forms part of the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-3 

(ATD-3) suite of technologies, 

and includes the National Airspace 

System Constraint Evaluation and 

Notification Tool (NASCENT), 

an implementation of NASA’s 

single-flight rerouting Dynamic 

Weather Routes (DWR) concept 

in NASA’s Future Air Traffic 

Management Concepts Evaluation 

Tool. NASCENT calculates 

time- and fuel-saving advisories 

that provide efficient routes by 

avoiding known airspace constraints, 

such as convective weather and 

special-use airspace. The DWR 

concept was extended within 

NASCENT by clustering similar 

advisories for multiple flights and 

groups of flights sharing common 

route characteristics. With technical 

and subject matter expert support 

from the FAA, NASA performed 

human-in-the-loop simulation 

evaluations, the results of which 

were detailed in the MFCR Concept 

of Operations and Functional/

Performance Requirements. On 

December 14, the ATD-3 subproject proudly transferred the 

MFCR technology to the FAA. 

The FAA has closely monitored 

the MFCR efforts, which have 

been found to be applicable to its 

Advanced Flight-Specific Trajectories 

(AFST) program. AFST is a part of 

the next generation Collaborative 

Air Traffic Management 

Technologies Work Package 5. 
16 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

RECOGNITION

TASAR Presentation to 

NASA Industry Forum

POC: DAVID WING

On October 3, David Wing from 

Langley Research Center was invited 

to speak at the NASA Industry 

Forum sponsored by the NASA 

Office of Small Business Programs 

(OSBP). Glenn Delgado, Associate 

Administrator of OSBP, had specifically requested a presentation of a 

current Langley research program 

involving both small and large 

businesses. The Langley Office 

of Procurement invited Wing to 

give the briefing. His presentation, 

entitled “Traffic Aware Strategic 

Aircrew Requests (TASAR) NASA 

Flight Deck Application for En 

Route Flight Optimization,” was well 

received and elicited many questions 

from forum participants. The use of 

multiple NASA Research Announcement contracts, a Space Act Agreement with a U.S. airline and the 

positive response and interest in 

commercialization by industry made 

TASAR the perfect selection for 

this presentation. In 2014, TASAR 

contractors Engility Corporation and 

Advanced Aerospace Solutions won 

awards for Langley Small Business 

Contractor of the Year and Agency 

Small Business Subcontractor of the 

Year, respectively.TASAR research is 

sponsored by the Airspace Technology Demonstration Project in AOSP.

TASAR Presentation to 

Aviation Weather Panel 

POC: TIMOTHY LEWIS

Langley Research Center researcher 

Timothy Lewis was invited to speak 

to the NextGen Weather User’s 

Forum at the Friends and Partners 

in Aviation Weather Fall Forum on 

October 12. The subject of the talk 

was the ongoing flight trial activity 

to integrate convective weather 

data into the Traffic Aware Strategic 

Aircrew Requests (TASAR) Traffic 

Aware Planner (TAP). TASAR 

Flight Trial 3 is being conducted 

on board the NASA Langley 

HU-25A aircraft to develop and 

evaluate the integration of onboard 

weather radar with ground-based 

weather products within the TAP 

software. This integration will 

allow TAP to provide weatheraware trajectory optimization 

recommendations to the aircrew 

during en route operations. The 

development of this capability is in 

support of the Multi-Agent AirGround Integrated Coordination 

sub-project under Airspace 

Technology Demonstration-3. 

This meeting supported TASAR’s 

goals for outreach, partnership and 

technology transfer. In particular, 

this was a forum to present the 

weather data needs for TAP to 

a broad range of interests in the 

aviation weather community. 

The ultimate goal of the TASAR 

project is to transfer NASA’s 

technology to industry vendors to 

maximize operational benefit to 

airlines and other airspace users. 

Parimal Kopardekar 

receives ATCA Award 

POC: KATHARINE LEE

On October 19, Ames Research 

Center’s Senior Scientist for Air 

Transportation Systems Parimal 

Kopardekar was presented with 

an Air Traffic Control Association 

(ATCA) President’s Citation of 

Merit Award. ATCA recognizes 

the outstanding achievement of 

individuals and organizations 

engaged in the development, 

operation or maintenance of 

the worldwide air traffic control 

system. Kopardekar’s award was 

The 2017 ATCA President’s Citation of Merit Award
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 17

RECOGNITION

for his technical and community 

leadership in Unmanned 

Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic 

Management, and advancing 

safe UAS integration forward. 

TASA Research Highlighted 

in Boeing and NASA 

Media Releases

POC: KYLE ELLIS

NASA’s Technologies for Airplane 

State Awareness (TASA) research 

on advanced flight deck concepts 

and technologies to improve safety 

was recently highlighted in a series 

of media releases from Boeing and 

NASA. Researchers from the TASA 

sub-project have been evaluating 

Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) 

for their ability to improve attitude 

state awareness in pilots. The 

TASA research paves the way for 

certification standards to integrate 

such systems as a baseline capability 

in future transport category 

aircraft to improve aviation 

safety. The SVS research 

was conducted as a series of 

evaluations called the Augmented 

Flight Deck Countermeasures 

(AFDC) experiment series. 

The current instantiation of the 

experiment series highlighted in 

the referenced media releases, 

AFDC-3B, is scheduled to be 

completed by the first quarter of 

FY18. Thanks to a newly signed 

Space Act Agreement between 

NASA and Boeing, AFDC-3B will 

evaluate international pilot trainees, 

some with fewer than 500 hours 

of experience, for their ability to 

maintain attitude state awareness 

with and without SVS during 

several off-nominal, compound 

failure event scenarios. The testing 

will take place in Boeing’s 787 full 

flight simulator (FFS) in Miami, 

fully integrated with SVS displays 

and other NASA technologies. The 

Boeing Miami 787 FFS will be the 

first FFS certified for training to be 

integrated with SVS for research 

purposes. This newly established 

collaboration with Boeing opens 

the door to a multitude of future 

research opportunities by providing 

access to the international pilot 

community in a real-world training 

environment, enabling NASA to 

better inform the development of 

SVS and other advanced flight deck 

technologies with an increased level 

of diverse perspective. The findings 

from the AFDC-series of research 

experiments are being directly 

reported to the international RTCA 

subcommittee-213 to support 

development of Minimum Aviation 

System Performance Standards for 

SVS for attitude state awareness. 

Related Links:

http://www.boeing.com/

features/2017/10/space-actagreement-10-17.page

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/

langley/nasa-boeing-testingsynthetic-vision-technologies

http://www.aviationtoday.

com/2017/12/18/boeing-nasatest-nextgen-synthetic-vision-787-

sims/#.WjhNzXOtx4w.email

Commercial UAV Show

POC: MARCUS JOHNSON

From November 15 through 16, 

the Commercial Unmanned Aerial 

Vehicle Show in London highlighted 

technology advancements from 

the Unmanned Aerial Systems 

(UAS) industry, and hosted 

speakers and panels to discuss 

ongoing issues and challenges for 

UAS integration. NASA’s Marcus 

Johnson gave the opening keynote 

speech entitled “Developing 

an Autonomous Air Traffic 

Management System and Defining 

the Future of the Drone Industry.” 

NAC Aeronautics 

Committee Meeting 

POC: TAMARA CROOM

Dana Gould and John Koelling 

from Langley Research Center 

participated in the NASA Advisory 

Council (NAC) Aeronautics 

Committee meeting at NASA’s 

Armstrong Flight Research Center 

on November 15 and 16. The 

Associate Administrator for 

Aeronautics, Jaiwon Shin, and 

the Aeronautics Research Mission 

Directorate Program Directors 

were in attendance. Agenda topics 

included the Low Boom Flight 

Demonstrator, Hypersonics and 
18 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

RECOGNITION

the System Wide Safety Assurance 

Project Objectives and Content. 

ATD-1 Flight Test Paper 

Selected Among Best at 

EIWAC 2017 Conference 

POC: BRIAN BAXLEY

A presentation of results from 

NASA’s Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-1 (ATD-1) 

19-day flight test of an Interval 

Management (IM) avionics 

prototype was presented at 

the 5th Electronic Navigation 

Research Institute (ENRI) 

International Workshop on Air 

Traffic Management (ATM)/

Communications Navigation 

Surveillance (CNS) (EIWAC2017), 

held in Tokyo, Japan, on November 

16. ENRI is the Japanese 

government research entity for 

ATM and CNS. The NASA IM 

concept entails assigning an aircraft 

to a specific spacing interval behind 

a preceding aircraft, and adding 

new onboard IM avionics that 

calculate the airspeed at which 

pilots should fly to achieve the 

required spacing interval. The flight 

test results demonstrated that the 

predominately NASA-developed 

IM concept and aircraft spacing 

algorithm met the 5-second design 

goal for many of the IM operations. 

This is a substantial improvement 

over the spacing interval typically 

observed today, which can be as 

much as 15 to 20 seconds greater 

than the desired spacing. MITRE, 

NASA, the FAA and the aviation 

industry are key contributors to 

the IM concept and in creating 

the international standards for 

ICAO. MITRE has calculated that 

delivering aircraft to the airport 

with a 5-second standard deviation 

could potentially allow for up to 

10 more arrivals per hour in certain 

environments— a substantial 

improvement in airport throughput 

and a significant reduction in the 

delay aircraft experience during 

high-traffic conditions. The 

paper was presented by Langley 

Research Center’s Brian Baxley, 

with co-authors from Honeywell 

and Boeing, and was selected by 

the EIWAC2017 committee to be 

included in a book that compiles 

the best papers from the conference, 

to be published in 2019. 

ARC Researchers Present 

at the Conference on 

Modeling and Simulation in 

POC: BIMAL APONSO

From March 27 through 29, 

John Cavolowsky, NASA’s Airspace 

Operations and Safety Program 

director, attended and participated 

as a panel member at the 2nd 

Annual FAA Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems (UAS) Symposium. 

The event was co-hosted by 

the FAA and the Association 

for Unmanned Vehicle Systems 

International in Reston, VA. 

The Symposium focused on the 

potential for UAS and methods 

to achieve its full integration into 

the National Airspace System 

(NAS). Attendees heard directly 

from senior FAA officials about 

the UAS regulatory environment, 

and had an opportunity to talk 

face-to-face with FAA experts about 

the operational challenges facing 

UAS pilots today. Cavolowsky 

participated in one of the workshop 

sessions covering topics such as 

options for operating in the NAS, 

the future of airspace authorization 

and how to address challenges 

around traffic management, 

infrastructure and security. 

RTCA AeroMACS Internet 

Protocol Suite (IPS) 

SC-223 Plenary Meeting 

POC: RAFAEL APAZA

NASA researchers supporting 

the Airspace Technology 

Demonstration project participated 

in the RTCA Aeronautical Mobile 

Airport Communication System 

(AeroMACS) IPS SC-223 Plenary 

Meeting in Washington from 

December 4 through 6. Researchers 

have been supporting the design, 

testing and standardization of 

Internet Protocol technology, 

including protocol profile 

performance evaluation at all 

levels. Participation at this meeting 

supports the critical development 

of IPS mobility protocol standards 

for Communications Service 

Network access that will enable 

information exchange between 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017 19

RECOGNITION

aircraft avionics, Airline Dispatch, 

new vehicle entries into the airspace 

and Air Traffic Service Provider. 

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Air 

Traffic Control Workshop

POC: BRYAN BARMORE

Langley Research Center researcher 

Bryan Barmore, attended the 7th 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL) Air 

Traffic Controller Workshop held at 

FAA Headquarters in Washington 

on December 5. MIT/LL hosts this 

annual workshop to highlight some 

of the research in air traffic control. 

This year’s workshop focused on 

improved weather sensing and data 

sharing, future airborne surveillance, 

ADS-B uses and the integration of 

small and large Unmanned Aerial 

Systems. Tom Prevot, Uber’s lead 

for airspace integration and formerly 

with NASA, presented the keynote 

talk and presented Uber’s vision 

for Urban Air Mobility. More than 

100 people attended the workshop 

and represented government, 

industry and academia. Several 

topics discussed will help focus 

research in the new Air Traffic 

Management-eXploration Project. 

UAS Technical Analysis 

and Applications Center 

(TAAC) Conference 

POC: MARCUS JOHNSON

Marcus Johnson, Deputy Project 

Manager, Unmanned Aerial 

System (UAS) Traffic Management 

(UTM) project, represented the 

Airspace Operations and Safety 

Program at the UAS Technical 

Analysis and Applications Center 

(TAAC) Conference in Santa Fe, 

New Mexico, from December 5 

through 7. The TAAC Conference 

is a gathering of government 

and industry leaders who discuss 

critical issues regarding UAS 

in a productive, value-added 

environment. Speakers from 

several federal agencies, aviation 

user groups, private industry 

and universities attended. UAS 

TAAC attracts a diverse group 

of attendees, and offers timely 

and relevant topics presented in 

both open and classified venues. 

Johnson, who works primarily at 

Ames Research Center, presented 

the results from UTM’s Technical 

Capabilities Level (TCL) 2 testing 

and discussed plans for future 

TCL 3 and TCL 4 technology 

development and flight tests. 

High Confidence Software 

and Systems (HCSS) Meeting

POC: JOHN KOELLING

On December 6, NASA researchers 

supporting the System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) project attended the High 

Confidence Software and Systems 

(HCSS) meeting in Washington. 

HCSS is part of the Networking 

and Information Technology 

Research and Development 

program, which is the United 

States’ primary source of federally 

funded work on advanced IT. The 

agenda included the following two 

topics of significant interest to 

SWS research: a presentation on 

the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 

“Summer of Innovation” 

program, and a workshop on the 

industrialization of formal methods. 

ARMD Mission Directorate 

Review (MDR) 

POC: TAMARA CROOM

On December 11 and 12, the 

Associate Administrator for 

Aeronautics, Jaiwon Shin, hosted 

the Aeronautics Research Mission 

Directorate (ARMD) Review at 

Ames Research Center. All ARMD 

program offices reported the 

status of their programs during 

FY17 to track and document 

the progress made towards the 

strategic thrusts and outcomes. 

Center management, aeronautics 

research directors and project 

managers were in attendance. 

ICAO UTM Panel Presentation

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR

Parimal Kopardekar, the NASA 

Senior Technologist for Air 

Transportation Systems, 

was invited to be a panelist at 

the International Civil Aviation 

Organization’s (ICAO) second 

Global Air Navigation Industry 

Symposium in Montreal on 

December 12. The conference 
20 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2017

RECOGNITION

featured two Unmanned Aerial 

Systems Traffic Management 

(UTM) panels, the first of which 

focused on low-altitude operations, 

and the second on a discussion 

of high-altitude, upper-class E 

airspace, which is more than 60,000 

feet in elevation. Kopardekar’s 

panel included participants 

representing Amazon Prime Air, 

Thales, Google X and the Nanyang 

Technological University from 

Singapore. Participants showed 

interest in applying the NASAdeveloped UTM construct for 

high-altitude operations.

NASA Aeronautics 

Management Offsite

POC: TAMARA CROOM

From December 13 through 15, the 

NASA Associate Administrator for 

Aeronautics, Jaiwon Shin, held an 

Aero Management Offsite at Ames 

Research Center. Attendees included 

Aeronautics employees from NASA 

Headquarters and the four Aero 

Centers. The theme for this year’s 

offsite was learning from people 

and organizations outside of NASA, 

including both the traditional 

aviation market and new emerging 

markets, to better understand new 

developments in the industry. 

This year’s agenda featured 

speakers from Boeing, Zee Aero 

and Intuit, and included industry 

tours in the Silicon Valley area. 

Committee on Assessing 

the Risks of Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems (UAS) 

Integration Meeting 

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKAR

From December 13 through 15, 

Parimal Kopardekar represented 

AOSP at a presentation to the 

Committee on Assessing the 

Risks of Unmanned Aerial System 

(UAS) Integration in Irvine, 

Calif. The National Academies 

of Sciences, Engineering, and 

Medicine appointed an ad hoc 

committee with representation 

from industry, academia and 

government to conduct a study. This 

study will evaluate the potential 

of probabilistic assessments of 

risks, review other risk assessment 

methods for streamlining the 

process of integrating UAS into 

the National Airspace System 

and identify supporting research 

and development opportunities 

in the aviation field. 

Alaska Airlines TASAR 

Flight Trials Highlighted in 

Avionics Magazine Article

POC: DAVID WING

The feature article in the December 

2017-January 2018 online issue 

of Avionics Magazine highlights 

Alaska Airlines’ Traffic Aware 

Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) 

operational trials in partnership 

with NASA to test NASA’s Traffic 

Awareness Planner (TAP) software 

application while in operational 

use. TAP enables the NASA TASAR 

concept—the software installed on 

a connected Electronic Flight Bag— 

identifies reroute opportunities 

to optimize the aircraft’s en-route 

trajectory, saving flight time and 

fuel. TAP also takes into account 

local traffic, weather and special use 

airspace, all of which increase the 

likelihood of Air Traffic Controller 

approval of the requested reroute. 

The TAP software was installed 

on three aircraft in late 2017, and 

has undergone several months of 

preliminary testing. Pilot use of the 

technology will begin in early 2018. 

Related Link:

http://interactive.aviationtoday.com/

avionicsmagazine/december-2017-

january-2018/alaska-airlines-fleetupgrades-and-flight-innovation/
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov