National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

JAN-MAR 2023 | Quarter 2

HDV Completes SAOPAO Simulation

3

SWS Human-Machine Teaming 

NRA Year 3 Closeout and 

Midterm Review

20
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

AOSP IN THE NEWS

U.S. FAA Names Experts 

to Review Boeing Safety 

Culture After Fatal Crashes

Reuters (1/5) reports “the Federal 

Aviation Administration (FAA) 

said Thursday it had named 24 

experts to review Boeing’s safety 

management processes and how 

they influence Boeing’s safety 

culture after two fatal 737 MAX 

crashes killed 346 people. The 

panel, which was required by 

Congress under a 2020 law to 

reform how the FAA certifies new 

airplanes, includes MIT lecturer 

and aerospace engineer Javier de 

Luis whose sister was killed in 

a MAX crash, as well as experts 

from NASA, the FAA, labor 

unions, Airbus, Southwest Airlines, 

American Airlines, United Airlines, 

GE Aviation, FedEx Express and 

Pratt & Whitney.”

Northrop Grumman and 

NASA Form Partnership for 

UAS Airspace Integration

Avionics International (1/12) 

reports “Northrop Grumman 

announced a new collaboration 

with NASA today. Their efforts 

will center around development 

and testing of solutions for the 

integration of large UAS (uncrewed 

aircraft systems) into the national 

airspace. The primary focus of the 

partnership is defining technologies 

and procedures to enable remotely 

piloted air cargo operations.” 

For NASA, Northrop 

Studies Flying Uncrewed 

Cargo Aircraft In NAS

Aviation Week (1/13) reports “NASA 

has contracted with Northrop 

Grumman to study integrating 

uncrewed cargo aircraft in the 

National Airspace System (NAS). 

For the project, the company plans 

to conduct a series of simulations, 

tests and demonstrations to come 

up with potential framework 

recommendations for operating 

autonomous...”

NASA Is Building an AAM 

System to Make Air Taxis, 

Drone Deliveries a Reality

Tech Times (2/3) reports “NASA 

is looking into the future, seeing 

taxis flying into the skies and 

drone deliveries becoming more 

widespread and advanced. The 

space agency is currently developing 

a system to make medical and 

emergency drones and air taxis 

soaring over traffic a reality.”

What Can We Do to 

Make Sure the FAA and 

Southwest Airlines Fiascos 

Never Happen Again?

Scientific American (3/2) reports 

“perhaps unknowingly, airline 

passengers who lived through the 

outage of the Federal Aviation 

Administration’s (FAA’s) Notice 

to Air Systems (NOTAM) system 

in January or Southwest Airlines’ 

meltdown in December were 

part of history. The NOTAM 

outage was the first time the FAA 

paused all domestic departures 

in the U.S. since 9/11. ... Niznik 

attributes this project’s success to 

multiple factors, including strong 

stakeholder participation, an agile 

software development process and 

the fact that NASA, which co-led 

this project with the FAA, had 

a dependable source of funding 

that accommodated unanticipated 

challenges.”
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 3

AOSP IN THE NEWS

Air Taxi Developers Expect 

ADS-B Tracking to Have a 

Big Role in Crowded Skies

Tech Times (2/3) reports “NASA 

is looking into the future, seeing 

taxis flying into the skies and 

drone deliveries becoming more 

widespread and advanced. The 

space agency is currently developing 

a system to make medical and 

emergency drones and air taxis 

soaring over traffic a reality.”

Op-Ed: Removing Airline 

Pilots from the Flight Deck 

Is A Gamble With Safety

Aviation Week (3/8) reports “if 

you’re planning an international trip 

this year, you’re not alone. Passengers 

in North America have returned 

to the international skies in greater 

numbers than anywhere else in the 

world. Passengers know that flying 

is safe—at least for now. ... Beyond 

our personal experience as airline 

captains who fly internationally, 

conclusive research, such as a 2017 

study by NASA and the FAA, 

clearly lays out the unacceptable 

safety risk posed by single-pilot 

flight operations, especially during 

abnormal events.”
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

HDV Completes SAOPAO Simulation 

POC: LOU GLAAB

The Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) 

project’s High Density Vertiplex 

(HDV) subproject research 

team successfully concluded its 

Scalable Autonomous Operations 

Prototype Assessment Operations 

(SAO-PAO) Human-Hardwarein-the-Loop simulation this past 

quarter. An initial step was the 

successful deployment of the 

HDV Client software on the 

government’s Amazon Web Services 

cloud – completed in January in 

collaboration with the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project 

and Freddie teams at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California. 

Deployment of the HDV Client 

enabled multicenter integration 

to proceed in support of the 

simulation testing. Following 

this deployment on Feb. 20–24 

the team began conducting 

integrated systems testing in 

preparation for the simulation, 

which began on March 1. The 

HDV ecosystem incorporating the 

vertiport automation system, fleet 

management, vehicle automation, 

airspace systems, infrastructure, and 

live virtual constructive capabilities 

were connected across facilities 

at both NASA Ames and NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia. 

The objectives of the SAO Schedule 

Work Package for HDV are to: 

HDV simulation shakedown with all systems in the loop and all facilities connected

Remote Operations for Autonomous Missions (ROAM) Used for Testing
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 5

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

1) connect fleet management tools 

and airspace management services to 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems ground 

control stations; 2) develop and 

test a vertiport automation system; 

and 3) conduct a demonstration 

of vehicle, airspace, and vertiport 

automation technologies supporting 

dense operations at a vertiport. The 

SAO-PAO simulation contributes 

to these objectives. For SAO-PAO, 

human test subjects include ground 

control station operators, a fleet 

manager, and vertiport manager. 

The HDV team completed the 

simulation on March 17, marking 

the conclusion of the phase of 

testing aimed at evaluation of the 

Urban Air Mobility ecosystem. The 

SAO-PAO simulation included 

representative onboard autonomous 

systems, airspace management 

systems, ground control and flight 

management systems, and vertiport 

automation systems. This test will 

be followed by the SAO-PAO flight 

test as well as the Beyond Visual 

Line of Sight simulation and flight 

testing later in Fiscal Year 2023.

SWS SME Named by FAA to 

Review Boeing Safety Culture 

POC: MISTY DAVIES

System-Wide Safety (SWS) project 

researcher Immanuel Barshi was 

named recently as one of 24 

subject matter experts selected by 

the FAA to review Boeing’s safety 

management processes and how they 

influence safety culture, following 

two fatal 737 MAX crashes which 

resulted in the deaths of 346 people. 

The panel is “required by Congress 

under a 2020 law to reform how 

the FAA certifies new airplanes, 

includes MIT lecturer and aerospace 

engineer Javier de Luis, whose sister 

was killed in a MAX crash, as well 

as experts from NASA, the FAA, 

labor unions, Airbus, Southwest 

Airlines, American Airlines, United 

Airlines, GE Aviation, FedEx 

Express and Pratt & Whitney.” 

DIP Team Holds 

Virtual Meeting with 

Collins Aerospace 

POC: MIRNA JOHNSON

On Jan. 9, the Air Traffic Management – Exploration (ATM-X) project’s Digital Information Platform 

(DIP) subproject team held a virtual 

meeting with a team from Collins 

Aerospace’s data science team, who 

are developing digital integrated 

aviation solutions. The Collins team 

provided an overview of their organization and the capabilities they are 

working on across the aviation value 

stream including airport operations, 

airline operations, ground operations, air traffic management, and 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management and Advanced Air 

Mobility operations. The DIP team 

provided an overview of the DIP 

platform concept and discussed DIP 

partnership opportunities for aviation service providers to research and 

evaluate the platform. Collins has 

aviation data services and ground 

prediction services that can be registered on the DIP platform to grow 

the ecosystem of digital aviation 

information. Some of the services 

are potential capabilities needed for 

DIP’s upcoming Sustainable Flight 

National Partnership Operations-2 

demonstration of flight profile optimization for contrail avoidance. The 

DIP team will release an Announcement for Collaboration to which 

Collins can respond to partner with 

NASA on these activities. The next 

step is to have a deep dive technical 

meeting on the services identified. 

SWS and AAM Conduct 

Informal Interagency and 

Industry Aviation Safety Forum

POC: NATASHA NEOGI AND MISTY DAVIES

On Jan. 9–13, researchers from 

NASA’s System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) 

projects met with members from 

the National Transportation Safety 

Board, the FAA, Joby Aviation, 

Collins Aerospace, and Reliable 

Robotics at NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia. The 

purpose of the meeting was to 

informally engage select members of 

the aviation community to identify 

challenges and potential research 

solutions to issues surrounding 

the assurance of increasingly 

autonomous systems in emerging 

aviation markets. Specific discussions 

centered on the following areas: 1) 

data collection and curation for 

accident investigation; 2) capturing 

human contributions to safety in 

novel (and existing) operations; 3) 
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

handling emerging technologies 

such as machine learning 

algorithms; and 4) complexity and 

change management. Representing 

the National Transportation Safety 

Board was managing director Dana 

Schulze, chief technical advisor of 

air carrier and space investigations 

Joe Sedor, and senior human 

performance investigator Dujuan 

Sevillian. The FAA representatives 

included chief scientific and 

technical advisor for aviation 

human factors Kathy Abbott, and 

chief data officer Natesh Manikoth. 

George Romanski, the FAA’s chief 

scientific and technical advisor 

for airborne computer software, 

attended virtually. Leaders in the 

safety efforts from Joby Aviation, 

Collins Aerospace, Reliable 

Robotics, and other conventional 

and emerging aviation industry 

stakeholders attended the forum 

and provided perspectives related 

to the tension between deploying 

novel technology and ensuring its 

safety in a timely and cost-effective 

manner. NASA participation 

encompassed members across both 

NASA Langley and NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California 

through a hybrid meeting format. 

Follow-up interactions have been 

scheduled to leverage potential 

partnership opportunities to 

provide a force multiplier across 

interagency and industrial 

research efforts. 

ETM Team Conducts 

Multi-Day Tabletop with 

Industry Operator Focus 

POC: CONNIE BRASIL

On Jan. 10–11, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project 

Extensible Traffic Management 

subproject’s Upper Class-E 

Traffic Management (ETM) team 

conducted a virtual tabletop session 

with high-altitude vehicle and 

operations experts representing 

seven different industry partners. 

The tabletop event utilized a fourhour time period for each of its 

two days, with interactive sessions 

focused on the development of 

Cooperative Operating Practices 

(COPs) in regard to strategic conflict 

detection between high-altitude, 

uncrewed, and slow High-Altitude 

Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft 

such as balloons, airships, and 

fixed-wing vehicles. The approach 

to the tabletop was to follow a 

roadmap that was developed by the 

ETM team to guide the participants 

along a path to understanding the 

ETM system research underway 

at NASA and how the further 

development of the concept will 

inform the future testing planned 

as part of the Extensible Traffic 

Management subproject. The first 

area of discussion focused on the 

fundamental elements pertaining to 

the creation of operation plans and 

corresponding operation intents. 

An initial familiarization session 

was followed by an interactive 

discussion with valuable participant 

input. The first day concluded with 

the administration of an online 

questionnaire corresponding with 

the day’s discussions on operation 

plans and intents. The second 

day focused on familiarization of 

strategic conflict detection research 

and a deep dive on the related topic 

of operational intent intersections. 

The final topic of discussion was 

the notion of using COPs as part of 

the strategic management process 

through the resolution of intent 

intersections. Each focus area on 

the second day concluded with the 

administration of a corresponding 

online questionnaire. Overall, the 

ETM tabletop event provided 

detailed insights to the NASA 

research team by the industry 

partners and vice versa. The main 

goal behind this tabletop was to 

drive the research and prototyping 

requirements to support conducting 

a collaborative evaluation with a 

set of partners later this calendar 

year. With the data and insight 

gained, the team will be ready and 

able to test and demonstrate an 

early reference ETM system that 

incorporates the current work with 

the community in designing COPs. 

In the near term, the ETM team 

will review the discussion sessions 

and questionnaire data with plans 

to produce a written report and 

6
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 7

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

subsequent presentations 

to stakeholders. 

ACERO Project Members 

Attend NASF Meeting 

POC: JOEY MERCER AND CHARLES SHEEHE

On Oct. 12, members of NASA’s Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

Airspace Management subproject 

visited the FAA’s William J. Hughes 

Technical Center. The UAM team 

was joined by Adam Yingling, the 

Advanced Air Mobility National 

Campaign integration of automated 

systems lead, and Gerrit Everso, 

the National Campaign partner 

demonstration technology lead. 

NASA representatives met with FAA 

personnel including Marty Suech, 

operational integration and test 

strategic coordinator; John Bradley, 

air traffic control subject matter 

expert; Tom Rubino, verification 

and validation strategies and 

practices branch representative; 

and Chuck Romano, the strategic 

initiatives coordinator for test and 

evaluation. The purpose of the 

meeting was to discuss the joint 

NASA/FAA UAM Maturity Level 

(UML)-3 Operational Integration 

Assessment (OIA) scheduled for 

2025. Discussion topics ranged from 

sharing lessons learned from Dallas/

Fort Worth International Airport and 

Atlantic City International Airport 

simulated airspace procedures and 

design efforts to NASA, FAA, and 

industry-expected UML-3 OIA roles 

and responsibilities. Two important 

outcomes of the meeting include: 

1) identifying a need to connect a 

facility at NASA’s Ames Research 

Center in California to the existing 

NASA/FAA Laboratory Integrated 

Test Environment to ensure the 

research objectives can be satisfied, 

while also establishing a persistent 

capability that other Advanced Air 

Mobility efforts can leverage after 

the UML-3 OIA is completed; 

and 2) informing opportunities for 

future NC flight tests with UAM 

airspace simulation efforts. During 

lunch, Kevin Witzberger, UAM 

subproject manager, and Ian Levitt, 

UAM principal engineer, met with 

Eric Neiderman, deputy director of 

the William J. Hughes Technical 

Center, and informally talked about 

Advanced Air Mobility ecosystem 

research needs and potential 

opportunities to establish shared 

capabilities across NASA/FAA 

organizations to help address the 

research needs.

DIP Team Visits JetBlue 

Systems Operation Center 

POC: MIRNA JOHNSON, JEREMY COUPE

 AND YOON JUNG

On Jan. 11, team members from 

the Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration project’s Digital 

Information Project (DIP) 

subproject visited the JetBlue 

Airways System Operations Center 

in New York for a technical 

information meeting on their 

operations and airspace procedures. 

The DIP team was welcomed by 

Christopher Gottlieb, manager of 

business intelligence at JetBlue, and 

his team consisting of data and 

operations analysts. In addition to a 

tour of the JetBlue facility, the teams 

discussed operational challenges in 

critical airspace, particularly related 

to reroute management and the 

potential benefits of Collaborative 

Digital Departure Reroute services 

developed by NASA. JetBlue 

expressed interest in other NASAdeveloped prediction services 

identified as potentially useful for 

data-driven analytics and decision 

making such as taxi time prediction 

and National Airspace System-wide 

traffic management initiatives 

digital services. JetBlue is looking 

forward to partnering with the DIP 

team to participate in upcoming 

demonstrations of the Collaborative 

Digital Departure Reroute services 

in a Fiscal Year 2024 sustainability 

demonstration. 

HDV Team Conducts 

sUAS Flight Operations 

at Fort Monroe 

POC: LOU GLAAB

On Oct. 15, the FAA released 

an announcement for their 2023 
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

FAA Data Challenge. The goal of 

the Data Challenge is to stimulate 

universities to apply artificial 

intelligence and machine learning 

to address aviation applications. 

As a regulator and operator, the 

FAA’s diverse mission activities 

collect and generate a tremendous 

amount of data. This data and 

information must be leveraged to 

its fullest extent possible to enable 

the mission, which is to provide the 

safest and most efficient aerospace 

system in the world, drive efficiency, 

improve accountability, fuel 

innovation, exploit the use of data, 

and embrace modern analytical 

techniques. The Data Challenge 

will provide proofs of concept for 

novel solutions and will also provide 

a pipeline for talented students 

at the intersection of computer 

science and aviation. System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project subject matter 

experts Misty Davies and Nikunj 

Oza are contributing to this effort. 

For more information, visit https://

faadatachallenge.nianet.org/2023-

competition-overview/

DIP SFNP Operations-2 

Team Meet with Google

POC: SWATI SAXENA

On Jan. 18, the Sustainable Flight 

National Partnership (SFNP) 

Operations-2 team within the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project’s Digital Information 

Platform (DIP) subproject met 

with the Google Climate Impact 

Research Team to discuss Google’s 

contrail research. Google presented 

their paper on quantifying the 

model uncertainty of climate 

impacts due to contrails by region 

and time of day and demonstrated 

their tool for predicting contrail 

formation regions in United States 

airspace. The DIP team provided 

an overview of their subproject 

and the objective of the SFNP 

Operations-2 demo. Next steps 

include identifying specific research 

opportunities between Google and 

the DIP team.

SWS and Embry Riddle 

Conduct Technical 

Interchange Meeting

POC: LANCE PRINZEL

The System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project and Embry-Riddle 

Aeronautical University conducted 

a technical interchange meeting at 

the latter’s Daytona Beach campus 

on Jan. 20. The purpose of the 

meeting was to explore partnership 

8

Photo of HDV test team with small-unmanned aircraft system
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

and collaboration opportunities 

focused on In-time Aviation Safety 

Management Systems (IASMS). 

Specific discussions were included: 

1) safety management structure 

at Embry-Riddle; 2) data types 

collected such as safety performance 

indicators, flight data monitoring, 

and flight data logged parameters; 

3) how Embry-Riddle works with 

and uses GE Aviation products; 

4) how Embry-Riddle analyzes 

the data collected from a safety 

management perspective (e.g. 

aggregated data analyses, how it 

is visualized, etc.); 5) which safety 

taxonomies and ontologies are used; 

and 6) opportunities Embry-Riddle 

is receptive to in terms of collecting 

other Safety Management System 

(SMS) type data not currently being 

collected (Embry-Riddle would 

like to have an active SMS program, 

such as Line Operations Safety 

Assessment). Because Embry-Riddle 

has an SMS International Standard 

for Business Aircraft Operations 

(ISO-BA Level 3), with similar 

data systems as Part 121 airlines 

but without some of the challenges 

of data sensitivities (e.g. Allied 

Pilots Association; Air Line Pilots 

Association, and complexities of 

SMS at major airlines), partnering 

with Embry-Riddle may provide an 

opportunity to continue to develop 

and mature requisite IASMS 

services, functions, and capabilities 

through research and development 

using Embry-Riddle as “surrogate” 

Part 121 SMS for SWS efforts, 

together with other partners 

and stakeholders. Embry-Riddle 

and SWS are currently exploring 

various vehicles such as Space 

Act Agreements, reimbursable 

cooperative research agreements, 

contracts, etc. focused on several 

specific areas of collaboration. 

SWS Members Establish 

New Space Act Agreement 

with Northrop Grumman 

POC: CHRIS TEUBERT

System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project researchers from the 

Intelligent Systems Division’s 

Diagnostics and Prognostics 

group have established a nonreimbursable Space Act Agreement 

with Northrop Grumman this 

month. The Space Act Agreement 

enables mutual collaboration on 

prognostic model development, 

algorithm development, and the 

Prognostics Python (ProgPy) 

packages. Under this agreement, 

Northrop Grumman is contributing 

to the ProgPy software and 

providing access to degradation 

data to support prognostic model 

development during the next two 

years. The result of the ProgPy 

software contributions will be a 

more robust and capable software 

– helping users at NASA develop 

new prognostic technologies. The 

degradation data provided by 

Northrop Grumman will help the 

SWS project mature, validate, and 

extend their prognostic models in 

support of a future In-time Aviation 

Safety Management System. 

Transitional UAM Tabletop 

Exercise 2 Conducted

POC: IAN LEVITT

On Jan. 24-26, representatives 

from the Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration (ATM-X) project’s 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

Airspace Management team 

participated in a tabletop exercise 

at the National Aerospace Research 

and Technology Park (NARTP) in 

New Jersey. The NARTP is adjacent 

to the FAA’s William J Hughes 

Technical Center (WJHTC). The 

Users attending the tabletop exercise and a graphic 

from the NFLITE
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

purpose of the tabletop was to 

explore an initial end-to-end 

use case for the transportation 

of passengers between an urban 

environment and nearby controlled 

airport utilizing new electric vertical 

takeoff and landing aircraft. This 

is one of a spectrum of use cases 

being considered in NASA’s ATM-X 

project in partnership with the 

WJHTC and industry partners. 

These use cases are being exercised 

in an immersive, integrated airspace 

simulation live-virtual-constructive 

environment, called the NASA/

FAA Laboratory Integrated Test 

Environment, as part of an effort to 

learn how UAM operations can scale 

beyond the as-is National Airspace 

System and through the transition to 

high-tempo and highly automated 

operations of the future. The threeday event was attended in-person 

by a range of participants from 

the Department of Transportation, 

the FAA, the National Air Traffic 

Controllers Association (NATCA), 

and industry representatives. 

Multiple organizations within the 

FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, 

Airports, Aviation Safety, and Office 

of NextGen attended and provided 

valuable insight and inputs into how 

to successfully execute and approve 

UAM operations. Support from 

Joby Aviation and Boeing added 

operator perspective, and NATCA 

provided deep operational and 

regulatory knowledge of airspace 

operations. Representatives from 

the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) 

project also participated. The NASA/

FAA team invited the group to a 

regular joint test session, providing 

the opportunity for the tabletop 

participants to experience the use 

cases first-hand in the 

test environment.

SWS Participates in 

VABA Aerospace Days 

POC: MICHAEL VINCENT

The System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project hosted a booth at the 

2023 Virginia Aviation Business 

Association’s (VABA) Aerospace 

Days to kick off the 2023 Virginia 

General Assembly legislative session. 

VABA’s Aerospace Days is an event 

that provides Virginian aviation 

businesses with an opportunity to 

network with state lawmakers and 

other businesses – traditionally 

hosting more than 450 attendees. 

The SWS project’s booth was part 

of a legislative reception on Jan. 25 

in downtown Richmond, where 

members of the business aviation 

community, state legislators, 

and legislative staffers were in 

attendance. Governor Glenn 

Younkin was also in attendance and 

provided the keynote statement at 

the legislative reception. Visitors 

to the SWS booth were able to 

learn about the project’s work 

developing In-time Aviation Safety 

Management Systems (IASMS) for 

emerging and autonomous aviation 

operations for future Advanced Air 

Mobility missions, commercial air 

carriers, and emergency response 

and public good missions. Visitors 

to the booth were also invited 

to experience SWS’s unique 

virtual-reality experience which 

demonstrates how an IASMS 

for Advanced Air Mobility 

operations would work in an 

urban environment. SWS associate 

project manager Michael Vincent 

supported the booth and spoke to 

attendees. VABA is a non-profit 

organization that promotes the 

development of aviation business 

within Virginia. 

Visitors to the booth were also able to experience SWS’s unique virtual-reality experience which demonstrates 

how an IASMS for Advanced Air Mobility operations would work in an urban environment.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

UAM Researcher Gives Invited 

Lightning Round Talk on MBSE 

POC: NIPA PHOJANAMONGKOLKIJ

On Jan. 29, Nipa Phojanamongkolkij, 

lead systems engineer for Urban 

Air Mobility (UAM) subproject 

within the Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration project, was invited to 

give an 18-minute lightning-round 

talk (similar to a TED talk) on an 

innovative systems engineering 

methodology at the International 

Council on Systems Engineering 

International Workshop 2023 in 

California. The UAM airspace 

subproject is conducting research 

that evolves UAM airspace towards a 

highly automated and operationally 

flexible system of the future. The 

complexity of UAM airspace, and 

its evolution through a series of 

transformative epochs, requires a 

planning tool to effectively organize, 

integrate, and communicate the 

research that will guide the evolution 

of UAM operations in the National 

Airspace System. The planning tool, 

called the UAM Airspace Research 

Roadmap, is being developed as a 

system engineering methodology 

leveraging Model-Based System 

Engineering (MBSE) and machine 

learning natural language processing 

capabilities. The talk, with a live 

demo, provided an overview of 

the natural language processing 

application for the requirement 

development process – enabling the 

UAM airspace subproject to meet 

its overarching research goals. This 

innovative application has proven a 

significant time savings (about 12 

times) in requirement discovery and 

analysis over today’s practices. For 

the UAM subproject, it could reduce 

one year of systems engineering 

work to only one day. 

NASA Releases SWSDeveloped VSCode-dL 

Software 

POC: TERRY MORRIS AND MISTY DAVIES

In January, NASA officially released 

the VSCode-dL software tool 

available for users. The VSCode-dL 

software was funded and developed 

by the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project. VSCode-dL provides a 

modern development and formal 

verification environment for hybrid 

programs using the Prototype 

Verification System. It also 

provides an interface to Plaidypvs, 

a formalization of differential 

dynamic logic in the Prototype 

Verification System. It allows a user 

to specify hybrid programs, which 

are characterized by their mix of 

discrete and continuous dynamics, 

in a simple and intuitive manner. 

Users can also specify properties 

that programs should have, such 

as liveness or safety properties, 

and interactively use the verified 

deduction rules of dynamic logic to 

prove them. VSCode-dL provides 

levels of abstraction as well as coding 

for the user. This NASA Software 

Release is designated LAR-20311 1. 

HDV SAO Team Reaches 

Breakthrough 

POC: LOU GLAAB

The Scalable Autonomous 

Operations (SAO) Multi-Center 

Simulation Team within the 

Advanced Air Mobility project’s 

High Density Vertiplex (HDV) 

subproject achieved a breakthrough 

regarding Vertiport Automation 

System integration. Since the HDV 

team is multi-center, enabling 

computers to communicate with 

each other requires extensive IT 

security measures. One critical 

computer was inadvertently omitted 

from a recent firewall port opening 

effort, leading to an inability to 

perform complete system integration. 

The team was able to review system 

requirements and identified an 

alternative laptop computer that 

could be leveraged while the IT 

security process proceeded. This 

allowed the team to start critical 

full-system integration testing and 

enable the SAO simulation team to 

remain on schedule to start testing 

on March 1. 

SWS Attends January 

JIMDAT Meetings 

POC: MICHAEL VINCENT AND LANCE PRINZEL

Representatives from the SystemWide Safety (SWS) project attended 

multiple meetings of the Joint 
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Implementation Measurement Data 

Analysis Team (JIMDAT). The first 

meeting was held at United Airlines 

Headquarters in Chicago on Jan. 

18–20. Michael Vincent, associate 

project manager for the SWS project, 

attended the meeting. JIMDAT 

monitors the implementation 

and effectiveness of Commercial 

Aviation Safety Team (CAST) safety 

enhancements and recommends 

modifications and changes to the 

CAST Safety Portfolio (https://

www.cast-safety.org). JIMDAT, in 

conjunction with the Aviation 

Safety Information Analysis and 

Sharing program, also identifies 

emerging risks and additional areas 

of study. Vincent discussed the 

potential of leveraging the machine 

learning and data analytics from 

the SWS project with the JIMDAT 

members. The SWS project may 

be able to utilize machine learning 

algorithms to help the JIMDAT 

team identify safety events and their 

precursors in flight data and monitor 

and categorize safety reports to 

identify growing safety trends that 

are reported by flight crews. NASA 

continues working multiple safety 

enhancement actions in support 

of JIMDAT leveraging the SWS 

project’s internationally renowned 

experts in aviation safety. The second 

meeting was at Boeing Headquarters 

in Virginia on Jan. 31-Feb. 1. Lance 

Prinzel, senior project technical 

advisor for the SWS project, 

attended the meeting. Prinzel 

represented SWS for commercial 

aviation safety challenges and 

issues that were addressed at the 

meeting. The status of research 

safety enhancement for the In-Time 

Aviation Safety Management System 

(IASMS) and extension of a past 

NASA research safety enhancement 

(SE-207) examining safety benefits 

of head-up displays and angle-ofattack indicators were also discussed. 

Through several technical discussions 

with JIMDAT members, there 

were continued efforts to establish 

potential for leveraging machine 

learning and data analytics from the 

SWS project to help address Part 121 

commercial aviation safety issues 

“in-time,” and to leverage JIMDAT 

member expertise and access 

to data (i.e. the Aviation Safety 

Information Analysis and Sharing 

program). The proposed JIMDAT 

safety enhancement focus is on 

IASMS to include machine learning 

algorithms and natural language 

processing to help the JIMDAT 

team identify safety events and their 

precursors in flight data and monitor 

and categorize safety reports to 

identify growing safety trends that 

are reported by flight crews. NASA 

continues work on multiple safety 

enhancement actions in support 

of JIMDAT, leveraging the SWS 

project’s internationally renowned 

experts in aviation safety. The SWS 

project participation in JIMDAT 

continues to ensure that NASA 

aviation safety expertise contributes 

to ensuring commercial aviation 

safety. It has also provided significant 

opportunities to communicate to 

the aviation safety community the 

need and potential of IASMS to 

provide for the evolution of safety 

management systems requisite 

to ensuring a safe Info-Centric 

National Airspace System and the 

NASA “Sky for All” concept of 

operation. For more information, 

visit: https://www.cast-safety.org. 

AAM Completes UML-2 

ConOps Simulation 

POC: KEN GOODRICH

On Feb. 1–2, Advanced Air Mobility 

(AAM) team members completed 

training and data collection for the 

“Piloted Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

Maturity Level-2 (UML-2) Concept 

of Operations (ConOps) Simulation” 

(PUCS) study. The study took 

place in the Air Traffic Operations 

Lab at NASA’s Langley Research 

Center in Virginia, included 10 

pilots participating in a real-time 

simulation of initial commercial 

UAM flight operations (i.e. Urban 

UML-2), and was representative 

of early flight operations between 

an isolated vertiport pair in Class 

E or G airspace. Current Visual 

Flight Rules and procedures for 

non-towered airport operations 

were used. Consistent with this 

environment, pilots self-sequenced 

takeoffs and landings using a 

combination of external visuals, 

Common Traffic Advisory Frequency 

self-announcements, and Automatic 

Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 13

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

in traffic information. The study had 

two primary goals: 1) evaluation of 

the suitability of low-cost “UAM 

Flyer” cockpits (e.g. PUCS Room) 

for evaluating and developing 

the UAM ConOps in a flexible, 

real-time, multi-agent simulation 

environment; and 2) conducting 

a preliminary baseline assessment 

of the feasibility and limitations 

of initial UAM operations under 

current Visual Flight Rules and 

regulations, while using currently 

operational technologies other than 

the basic electric vertical takeoff 

and landing aircraft. The simulated 

aircraft were an adaptation of 

the Revolutionary Vertical Lift 

Technology plus cruise reference 

configuration. Pilots with a range of 

experience levels (e.g. professional, 

private, and Part 107 certificates) 

from multiple NASA centers 

participated in the study. While 

data analysis is just beginning, the 

general impressions of the pilots 

included that the Flyers were 

suitable for the study, and that the 

multi-pilot environment was a useful 

compliment to more traditional 

simulation tools. The pilots also 

generally found the use of current, 

non-towered airport procedures 

reasonable for the operations 

assessed in the study (i.e., Visual 

Flight Rules operations between 

simply connected vertiports serving 

a homogenous fleet of electric 

vertical takeoff and landing vehicles). 

Sustained operations showed that 

takeoffs typically occupied the 

vertipad area for 30-40 seconds 

(Figure 2 shows the view from the 

#2 aircraft in the departure queue). 

Landings typically occupied the 

vertiport and approach area for 

approximately 60 seconds, though 

landing times were variable due to 

several factors including the absence 

of any flight deck guidance elements 

supporting the dynamic, decelerateto-hover phase of landing, handling 

quality limitations of the aircraft 

Figure 2. View from the #2 Aircraft

Figure 1. The PUCS Room
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

simulation, and limited training 

time for the evaluation pilots. 

PAAV Team Participates 

in ULI Roundtable 

POC: MIWA HAYASHI AND ARWA AWEISS

On February 6–7, several 

researchers from the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

project’s Pathfinding for Airspace 

with Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) 

subproject team virtually attended 

the University Leadership Initiative 

(ULI)’s Autonomous Aerial Cargo 

Operations at Scale Concept of 

Operations (ConOps) Roundtable. 

The roundtable consisted of 

experts from the University of 

Texas at Austin, Purdue University, 

the Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology (MIT), MIT Lincoln 

Labs, Morgan State University, and 

Cavan Solutions. The purpose of 

this group was to validate a research 

ConOps that characterizes five 

relevant operational scenarios to 

motivate, scope, and define research 

questions that the ULI team will 

address. The five scenarios are: 1) 

Intra-Appalachia Air Transport; 2) 

Intra-Appalachia Medical Delivery; 

3) Interregional between Appalachia 

and the Dallas-Fort Worth 

Metroplex; 4) Metroplex Last 

Mile; and 5) Metroplex Passenger 

Transport. The PAAV researchers 

participated in the breakout 

discussion sessions for each scenario 

in this two-day roundtable activity. 

This benefited both the PAAV and 

ULI teams by allowing the PAAV 

researchers to give inputs and gain 

insight that could inform both the 

ULI and PAAV ConOps. 

ACERO Researchers Host 

Multiple Meetings at Ames

POC: JOEY MERCER AND MARCUS JOHNSON

The Advanced Capabilities for 

Emergency Response Operations 

(ACERO) project hosted multiple 

meetings this quarter at NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California. 

The first meeting, held Jan. 17, 

hosted four wildland firefighters 

from California Department of 

Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL 

FIRE)’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

program in the Airspace Operations 

Laboratory at NASA Ames. NASA 

researchers provided the CAL FIRE 

staff a tour and demonstration of 

the AOL’s capabilities including 

traffic management tools and 

visualizations and a mixed-reality 

application featuring data 

previously collected at a CAL 

FIRE training exercise. The group 

discussed Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems Pilot kit technology 

transfer, as well as options for 

strengthening current and future 

collaborations. Researchers 

provided a high-level overview 

of ACERO’s vision, to which the 

CAL FIRE visitors committed 

to bringing the topic to their 

agency’s leadership. The second 

meeting was a Wildland Fire 

Interagency Working Group 

tabletop session on remote sensing 

technologies on Feb. 7. The 

meeting was hosted by the NASA 

Aeronautics Research Institute. 

This ACERO-led working group is 

developing an interagency concept 

of operations for wildland fire to 

ensure consistency of operational 

priorities, technology adoption, 

and programmatic alignment 

for national needs. During the 

remote sensing tabletop, the group 

identified existing gaps and made 

recommendations on how to 

better integrate and use remote 

sensing technologies to improve 

situational awareness, increase 

firefighters’ ability to perform 

their jobs more effectively and 

efficiently, and ultimately improve 

crew safety and public safety. 

The next interagency tabletop 

will be held May 2023 with a 

focus on wildland fire airspace 

management. Tabletop participants 

included the Army National 

Guard, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 

Bureau of Land Management, 

CAL FIRE, California National 

Guard, Cherokee Nation, Colorado 

Division of Fire Prevention and 

Control, Defense Innovation 

Unit, Department of the Interior, 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration, Air Force Air 

National Guard, Department of 

Agriculture, Fish and Wildlife 

Service, U.S. Forest Service, 

Geological Survey and NASA. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 15

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

PAAV Participates at 

Large UAS m:N Working 

Group Meeting 

POC: ARWA AWEISS AND CYNTHIA WOLTER

On Feb. 8, members of the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project’s Pathfinding for Airspace 

with Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) 

subproject team participated at the 

Large Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(UAS) m:N Working Group 

Meeting. The team presented and 

led discussions virtually at the 

dedicated two-hour meeting. The 

definition of m:N is “m” remote 

pilots supervising “N” aircraft. More 

than 30 participants joined in with 

representatives from government 

and industry including the FAA, 

Ohio Department of Transportation, 

Alaska Department of Transportation, 

Reliable Robotics, Xwing, Northrop 

Grumman, Boeing/Aurora Flight, 

and Joby Aviation. Cynthia Wolter 

presented a summary of results from 

the recent knowledge elicitation 

tabletop activity that PAAV and 

the Transformative Tools and 

Technologies project’s Human 

Autonomy Teaming Group jointly 

conducted recently. This activity 

was the fourth in a series of tabletop 

activities that PAAV has conducted. 

The first three tabletop activities 

focused on investigating challenges 

and solutions for seamlessly 

integrating 1:1 UAS operations 

into the National Airspace System. 

This fourth tabletop extended 

the investigation to identify the 

challenges and potential solutions 

for seamlessly integrating m:N 

remotely piloted cargo unmanned 

aircraft into the National Airspace 

System which will leverage work 

conducted to ensure 1:1 operations. 

PAAV team representatives David 

Thipphavong, Jordan Sakakeeny, and 

Miwa Hayashi concluded by guiding 

discussions about how meeting 

participants envision m:N operations 

to be conducted and presented an 

introduction to PAAV’s challenge 

and solution matrix, which will be 

further discussed at future Large 

UAS m:N Working Group Meetings.

PAAV Presents to AFWERX 

Agility Prime at Langley 

POC: ARWA AWEISS

On Feb. 8-9, AFWERX, a 

technology directorate of the Air 

Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) 

Agility Prime, visited NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia as part 

of a multi-center tour. AFWERX 

Agility Prime is the Air Force’s 

transformative vertical lift program 

with a goal of partnering with 

industry to advance a new class of 

air mobility systems. NASA Langley 

attendees included Sharon Monica 

Jones, Samantha McGill, and Steve 

Velotas. Representatives from the 

Advanced Air Mobility project, the 

System Wide Safety project, the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project, and the Revolutionary 

Vertical Lift Technology project 

provided brief presentations. Tod 

Lewis, technical lead for the 

Pathfinding for Airspace with 

Autonomous Vehicles subproject, 

provided a brief overview focusing 

on the traffic pattern integration 

work being performed at NASA 

Langley. Tours of other Langley 

facilities followed. Representing 

the AFWERX team were managers 

of Agility Prime and Autonomy 

Prime, as well as other fellows in 

various disciplines (e.g., air traffic 

control, weather, computational 

fluid dynamics, and small unmanned 

aircraft systems). Interest was 

also expressed in NASA Langley’s 

Remote Operations for Autonomous 

Missions facility supporting the High 

Density Vertiplex subproject. 

DIP Contrail Avoidance 

Work Proposal Approved 

for HECC Access 

POC: SWATI SAXENA

The NASA Advanced 

Supercomputing Division’s HighEnd Computing Capability (HECC) 

has agreed to provide the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project’s 

Digital Information Platform (DIP) 

subproject computational resources 

on their cluster for 2023 to run 

and evaluate contrail detection, 

prediction, and avoidance models 

being developed within and outside 

NASA as part of Code TN’s “AI 

Expansion” project. The DIP team is 

working on developing a sustainable 

aviation flight planning service to 

avoid contrails. This HECC resource 
16 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

will also provide the required 

infrastructure support and data 

science expertise. 

PAAV Participates at the 

2023 AirCargo Conference 

POC: JORDAN SAKAKEENY AND ARWA AWEISS

On Feb. 12–14, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

project’s Pathfinding for Airspace 

with Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) 

subproject participated at the 2023 

AirCargo Conference in Nashville. 

Jordon Sakakeeny and Tod Lewis 

represented the PAAV team and 

each learned more about how cargo 

moves via multiple modes, including 

air, and the issues facing the industry. 

The conference was hosted by 

three primary organizations: the 

Airforwarders Association, Airport 

Council International – North 

America, and Air and Expediated 

Motor Carriers Association. These 

companies organize and facilitate 

cargo movement and work with a 

combination of shippers, trucking 

companies, airlines, and others 

who are responsible for the actual 

cargo movement. The PAAV team 

shared potential PAAV concepts 

and research as well as soliciting 

industry feedback. Representatives 

from Alaska Airlines are interested in 

utilizing increasingly autonomous air 

cargo aircraft due to Alaska’s unique 

geographic considerations and high 

utilization of regional cargo aircraft. 

One major topic of discussion at this 

conference was the increased growth 

of cargo volume at large airports 

that has led to increased congestion 

– especially at the cargo terminals 

where cargo is exchanged between 

planes and trucks. The Airforwarders 

Association produced a 65-page 

white paper on the topic of air cargo 

congestion titled “Safeguarding the 

Future of Air Cargo.” 

AAM National Campaign 

IAS Team Completes 

Spiral-2A Flight Testing 

POC: ADAM YINGLING AND WANESSA PRIESMEYER

On Feb. 15, the Advanced Air 

Mobility (AAM) project National 

Campaign subproject’s Integration 

of Automated Systems (IAS) team 

executed the first flight test of the 

IAS Spiral-2 flight test campaign, 

building on the success of the IAS 

Spiral-1 tests conducted late last 

year. For this flight test the Sikorsky 

Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV), 

a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter 

developed with the Defense 

Advanced Research Projects Agency 

(DARPA) as part of the Aircrew 

Labor In-Cockpit Automation 

System program, was flown utilizing 

the IAS middleware software to 

execute a four-dimensional trajectory 

(4DT). The testing demonstrated 

that the OPV was successful in 

flying the specified 4DT flight path 

within conformance limits. This 

is an important step to pave the 

way for the subsequent flight tests 

in which the IAS middleware will 

command the OPV and the Sikorsky 

Autonomous Research Aircraft 

(SARA) in two-ship operations. 

The flight test incorporated NASA 

personnel from National Campaign’s 

IAS and Airspace Test Integration 

teams, as well as from the Aircraft 

Flight Contingency Management 

(AFCM)’s Flight Path Management 

(FPM) team. Participation also 

included Sikorsky, DARPA, and the 

Air Force’s Agility Prime program. 

Overall, the combined team included 

16 personnel. The next flight test is 

scheduled for May 2023 and will 

be the first integration of FPM and 

AFCM’s Hazard Perception and 

Avoidance algorithms onto SARA. 

Once those algorithms are verified, 

OPV will be incorporated into the 

testing as the “intruder” used to 

evoke a response from the algorithms 

under test conditions. 

PAAV Presents to EPFD Team 

POC: JORDAN SAKAKEENY AND ARWA AWEISS

On February 16, Jordan Sakakeeny 

of the Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration project’s Pathfinding 

for Airspace with Autonomous 

Vehicles (PAAV) subproject met 

with representatives from the 

Electrified Powertrain Flight 

Demonstration (EPFD) project 

within NASA’s Integrated Aviation 

Systems Program to present current 

air cargo operations analysis work. 

This work leverages data from 

Sherlock, the FAA, and the Bureau 

of Transportation Statistics (BTS) 

to provide insight into current 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 17

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

air cargo operations – both at the 

national scale with large jets and at 

the regional scale with turboprop 

aircraft. As the current EPFD use 

case is a short-haul, regional-type 

flight, there are several areas of 

overlap between the EPFD and 

PAAV use cases in the regional air 

cargo market. EPFD has been using 

Sherlock and BTS data to provide 

insight into passenger operations and 

has been planning to delve into cargo 

operations in the future. Research 

on cargo operations from the PAAV 

subproject can be leveraged for the 

EPFD project resulting in starting 

new research efforts from EPFD. The 

PAAV team will continue to attend a 

weekly Integrated EPFD/Sustainable 

Flight Demonstrator Testbed support 

meeting to keep apprised of efforts in 

EPFD and identify areas of overlap. 

SWS Researchers Visit 

American Airlines to 

Outline Collaboration 

POC: KYLE ELLIS AND MICHAEL VINCENT

On Feb. 16–17, researchers and 

managers with NASA’s System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project met with 

leaders and program managers from 

American Airlines’ Safety and Flight 

Operations groups in Dallas. The 

meeting was held at American’s 

headquarters and included experts 

from each organization, who 

discussed key areas of collaboration 

to advance safety and efficiency in 

flight operations for commercial 

carriers such as American. Together, 

they identified several opportunities 

and outlined specific work 

packages that will become part 

of a joint effort to advance safety 

management systems and expand 

efficiency of traditional aviation in a 

transformed airspace. The work areas 

identified are key deliverables to be 

incorporated into the SWS project’s 

future research portfolio focused on 

In-time Aviation Safety Management 

System for commercial aviation 

operations. This work is paramount 

to transforming the existing airspace 

system to incorporate Advanced 

Air Mobility operations safely 

and equitably with the existing 

transportation markets in the 

National Airspace System.

ATM-X Hosts DOT and 

ITSA at NASA Ames 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

On Feb. 21, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) project hosted members 

from the Department of 

Transportation (DOT) Office of 

Research and Technology (OST-R) 

along with leadership members 

from the Intelligent Transportation 

of Society of America (ITSA) at 

NASA’s Ames Research Center in 

California. The group discussed 

and engaged on a variety of 

topics regarding the Advanced Air 

Mobility Ecosystem in the context 

of developing a crosscutting multimodal transportation system for the 

United States. Participants included 

OST-R’s director of the Highly 

Automated Systems Safety Center of 

Excellence, OST-R’s senior scientist 

for Integration and Interoperability, 

ITSA’s chief operating officer, 

ITSA’s vice president for Innovative 

Mobility and Emerging Technology, 

and ITSA’s chair of the Digital 

Infrastructure Working Group. The 

SWS met with American Airlines to discuss key areas of collaboration to advance safety and efficiency in 

flight operations.

DOT representatives meet with the ATM-X team
18 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

visit included a tour of key NASA 

Ames research facilities developed 

to support research, as well as 

simulation and data collection, 

needed to address research 

questions of airspace integration, 

vehicle automation, and the 

intersection of airspace frameworks 

with ground considerations and 

modes of transportation. Topics 

of discussion included the need 

to develop a national reference 

architecture that leverages both 

ground and Advanced Air Mobility 

architecture concepts as well 

as mechanisms for continued 

collaboration. 

SWS Participates in 

DARPA ARCOS Meetings 

POC: MALLORY GRAYDON, PAUL MINER

AND NATASHA NEOGI

System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project researchers participated 

in meetings supporting the 

Defense Advanced Research 

Projects Agency (DARPA)’s 

Automated Rapid Certification of 

Software (ARCOS) project this 

quarter. The first meeting was the 

Quarter 1 Principal Investigator’s 

Meeting at the headquarters of 

the hosting organization, the 

Software Engineering Institute, 

in Pittsburgh on Jan. 24-25. 

SWS’s Mallory Graydon and 

Natasha Neogi participated in 

the meeting remotely while Paul 

Miner participated in person. 

ARCOS participants demonstrated 

assurance case-related tooling 

they are constructing. The SWS 

team used their expertise in safety 

assessment and assurance to provide 

feedback that will help DARPA 

staff determine whether ARCOS is 

on track to deliver rapid, low-cost 

means to assess and assure the safety 

and security of high-consequence 

software systems following changes. 

While ARCOS aims to reduce 

the cost of certifying softwareintensive military systems, the 

tools and techniques it results in 

may have applications to software 

used in aviation and spaceflight 

applications. A second set of 

meetings was held Feb. 10-24 in 

seven separate two-hour sessions. 

ARCOS participants demonstrated 

assurance case-related tooling they 

are constructing. Graydon, Miner, 

and Neogi again participated 

– providing their expertise in 

supporting ARCOS. For more 

information, visit: https://www.

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

AOSP and ATM-X Meet 

with Hillwood on sUAS 

Collaboration Opportunities 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

On Feb. 22, members from 

AOSP visited and met with the 

Hillwood Properties and Alliance 

Texas team to discuss and engage 

on topics regarding testing 

of small Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems (sUAS) use cases in a 

representative environment. The 

AOSP team included program 

office staff, members of the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) project office, researchers 

from ATM-X’s Extensible Traffic 

Management subproject, and the 

Advanced Air Mobility project’s 

High Density Vertiplex subproject 

teams. The visit and discussions 

were hosted by the executive vice 

president of strategic development 

and innovation for Hillwood, as 

well as the senior vice president of 

aviation business development for 

Alliance Air Services and Alliance 

Aviation Services at Hillwood 

Offices in Fort Worth. The visit 

included a discussion of past testing 

efforts between Hillwood, NASA, 

and other industry participants at 

the Mobile Innovation Zone – a test 

site that enables testing of airborne 

logistics and intermodal supply 

chain concepts. Visit the following 

website for additional information: 

https://www.alliancetexasmiz.com/. 

Additional topics included potential 

collaboration on research needed 

to enable regular and scalable sUAS 

operations when multiple operators 

may be providing sUAS services in 

the same geographical region. Next 

steps include several follow-on 

meetings to further understand 

use cases and concepts that can be 

collaboratively explored, as well as 

potential avenues for engaging in a 

future partnership. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 19

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

AOSP Visits the Choctaw 

Nation of Oklahoma’s EATC 

to Discuss Collaboration 

Opportunities 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

On Feb. 23, representatives from 

AOSP visited the Choctaw Nation 

of Oklahoma’s Emerging Aviation 

Technology Center (EATC) located 

in Atoka County, Oklahoma. 

Representing the AOSP team 

included program office staff 

and members of the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project 

office, including researchers from 

the Extensible Traffic Management 

subproject and the Advanced Air 

Mobility project’s High Density 

Vertiplex subproject teams. The 

visit and discussion were hosted 

by the executive director of 

advanced technology initiatives 

for the Choctaw Nation. The visit 

included a tour of the EATC, which 

maintains more than 44,000 acres 

(17,800 hectares) of land supporting 

innovative testing for emerging 

manned and unmanned aviation 

entrants. The test site’s history as 

part of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot 

Program and BEYOND program 

has positioned it be a strong 

candidate for future sUAS testing 

given the low-risk environment 

and the ability to conduct studies 

to inform methods of compliance 

for Beyond-Visual-Line-of-Sight 

sUAS flights. In addition to dialogue 

around leveraging the test site for a 

potential testing partnership, NASA 

and Choctaw Nation representatives 

also discussed key public-good 

use cases such as medical supply 

delivery as well as the potential for 

a Science, Technology, Engineering, 

and Mathematics (STEM) outreach 

program focused on sUAS and 

Advanced Air Mobility. 

Next steps include several technical 

interchange meetings to further 

understand use cases and concepts 

that can be collaboratively explored 

as well as potential avenues for 

engaging in a future partnership.

NASA Ames Aeronautics 

Directorate and ATM-X 

Visit Joby Aviation 

POC: WILLIAM CHAN

On Feb. 28, members from the 

Aeronautics Directorate at NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California 

and the Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration (ATM-X) project 

visited Joby Aviation. The purpose 

of the visit was to provide NASA 

participants the opportunity to 

learn more about the Joby aircraft 

and its capabilities and to continue 

discussions related to NASA/Joby 

collaboration. The visit included a 

viewing of the Joby experimental 

aircraft and aircraft fleet, a tour of 

their manufacturing facility, and 

the opportunity to fly their flight 

simulator. The visit concluded with 

a discussion of the upcoming joint 

NASA/Joby simulation utilizing 

Future Flight Central at NASA Ames. 

ACERO WAM Team Participates 

in Prescribed Burns Training 

POC: MARCUS JOHNSON

In February, members from 

AOSP Representatives at the EATC the Advanced Capabilities for 

NASA team visiting Joby Aviation
20 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Emergency Response Operations 

(ACERO) project’s Wildfire 

Airspace Management (WAM) 

team participated in the U.S. Forest 

Service Aerial Ignition Academy 

prescribed burn training. The team 

shadowed the Unmanned Aircraft 

System (UAS) crews training in the 

field and put the ACERO project’s 

UAS pilot kit through its paces as the 

trainees flew their prescribed burn 

practice flights. The UAS pilot kits 

provided drone operators awareness 

of nearby aircraft – making it safer 

to conduct these kinds of burns. 

Members of the WAM team are 

shadowing four units of trainees each 

using a UAS pilot kit. The crews are 

spread out in three states: Mississippi, 

South Carolina, and Florida. Each 

crew has been able to remotely 

operate the drones and prescribed 

burns. ACERO’s WAM research 

team is collecting feedback from the 

users and making observations on 

the ways crews are using their UAS 

pilot kits.

SWS Human-Machine 

Teaming NRA Year 3 Closeout 

and Midterm Review 

POC: NATASHA NEOGI

The System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project’s NASA Research 

Announcement (NRA) topic 

“Assuring Increasing Autonomous 

Systems with Non-Traditional 

Human-Machine Roles” conducted 

its Year 3 closeout review for the 

Penn State University and Collins 

Aerospace teams, and midterm 

review for the Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology (MIT) 

team, on Feb. 28-March 1. All 

three performing teams presented 

an in-person summary of their 

progress on the Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) case study. Amy Pritchett 

of Penn State presented a summary 

of efforts regarding the UAM 

Concept of Operations and task 

modelling in the Working Models 

that Compute framework, with 

a specific focus on a short-range 

cargo delivery service in a rural 

area (e.g. a delivery service) where 

vehicle (battery) health monitoring 

and workload across multiple role 

allocations were examined. The 

team from Collins, led by Jen 

Davis, aggregated the work they 

performed throughout the grant 

into a framework supported by 

a toolchain. They detailed and 

demonstrated their approach 

whereby they: 1) specified systems 

in the Architecture Analysis and 

Design Language modelling 

framework; 2) modelled and 

trained autonomous agents via 

reinforcement learning techniques 

for UAM-specific contingency 

conditions in the Soar Cognitive 

architecture framework; and 3) 

verified these learned agents in the 

NuXMV model checker. Nancy 

Leveson’s MIT team presented 

their work on the Systems 

Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) 

methodology. They focused on 

how STPA could be applied to 

capture inimical human-machine 

interactions as well as develop and 

evaluate architectures with tradeoffs 

between ranked requirements, 

assumptions, and constraints. 

Natasha Neogi, the NASA technical 

point of contact, along with 

Paul Miner and Jon Holbrook, 

arranged for each team to engage 

interactively during the questionand-answer sessions – enabling an 

exchange of ideas. Sessions were 

SWS Human-Machine Teaming NRA - Year 3 Closeout and Midterm Review
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 21

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

attended by external subject matter 

experts from the FAA and the Air 

Force Research Laboratory, who 

provided valuable feedback. 

UAM Completes AIS 

Experiment Review 

with Joby Aviation 

POC: SAVITA VERMA

On March 2, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

project’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

Airspace Management subproject 

team completed a joint Air Traffic 

Management Interoperability 

Simulation (AIS) experiment review 

with Joby Aviation. The NASA/

Joby Aviation Human-in-the-Loop 

Simulation will develop and test 

notional air traffic control UAM pilot 

communications and procedures 

for current-day and mid-term UAM 

operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth 

International Airport area, plus 

assess the information requirements, 

workload, and scalability/feasibility 

of candidate air traffic procedures 

for UAM operations. The multi-day 

simulation, informed by Joby use 

cases, will be conducted at NASA’s 

Future Flight Central in midSeptember 2023. 

Formal Requirements 

Elicitation Tool Used at Collins 

Aerospace and Galois 

POC: ANASTASIA MAVRIDOU

As of March 3, the System-Wide 

Safety project’s Formal Requirements 

Elicitation Tool (FRET) has been 

successfully used in two projects by 

Collins Aerospace and Galois. As 

part of VALU3S consortium, FRET 

was used by Collins Aerospace, 

Ireland in collaboration with 

Maynooth University to elicit and 

formalize the requirements of an 

aircraft engine software controller 

model. Additionally, FRET was 

also used in the High Assurance 

Rigorous Digital Engineering for 

Nuclear Safety (HARDENS) project 

by Galois to specify and analyze 

requirements for a safety-critical 

demonstration system for the 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

NASA Ames Hosts KARI Visit 

POC: WILLIAM CHAN

On March 6-7, representatives from 

the Korean Aerospace Research 

Institute (KARI) and the Korean 

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, 

and Transportation (MOLIT) in 

South Korea visited NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California 

as part of a joint NASA/KARI 

collaboration. Discussions were 

held on the three tasks outlined in 

the collaboration agreement: 1) the 

Advanced Air Mobility National 

Campaign and the K-Urban Air 

Mobility (UAM) Grand Challenge 

collaboration; 2) simulation 

requirements and evolution; and 

3) Advanced Air Mobility National 

Campaign and K-UAM Grand 

Challenge flight demonstration 

information exchange. The NASA 

team provided briefings on the 

National Campaign-1, UAM 

airspace research, and High Density 

Vertiplex subprojects. Subsequently, 

the KARI team provided multiple 

Group photo of South Korean Visitors
22 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

presentations about K-UAM Grand 

Challange. The representatives 

from KARI and MOLIT also 

toured the Airspace Operations Lab, 

Future Flight Central, Aerospace 

Cognitive Engineering Lab Rapid 

Automation Test Environment 

Laboratory, and Vertical Motion 

Simulator facilities. Next steps 

include a meeting between NASA 

and KARI to discuss takeaways 

from the workshop, refine the work 

in each task, and identify a date and 

location for a future workshop as 

part of fulfilling deliverables in the 

NASA/KARI agreement.

UAM CNS Team Completes 

Flight Test CDR at NASA Glenn

POC: RAFAEL APAZA

On March 14, the Communications, 

Navigation, and Surveillance 

(CNS) team supporting the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project’s Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) subproject successfully 

completed its commercial cellular 

communications flight test Critical 

Design Review (CDR). The 

design review process included an 

aircraft hazard analysis, electronic 

equipment installation review, 

equipment power configuration, 

electronic signal configuration, 

equipment rack configuration, and 

radio antenna deployment on the 

aircraft. Flight trials using the PC-12 

aircraft at NASA’s Glenn Research 

Center in Cleveland are scheduled 

to start in early-May 2023. 

NASA and FAA Sign UTM 

RTT Joint Management Plan 

Version 2 

POC: MIN XUE

On March 15, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project’s 

Extensible Traffic Management 

subproject team recently signed an 

updated version of their Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems Traffic Management 

(UTM) Research Transition Team 

(RTT) Joint Management Plan with 

the FAA. The Joint Management 

Plan Version 2 establishes the scope 

of collaboration and identifies 

impactful Research Transition 

Products that can address critical 

community needs for enabling 

Beyond Visual Line of Sight. This 

Joint Management Plan confirms 

NASA’s commitment to developing 

and continually maturing the 

federated UTM system and 

supporting multi-vehicle Beyond 

Visual Line of Sight operations. 

After the final approval, the 

subproject added new task plans 

to start working on the three 

Research Transition Products. Four 

Level 2 milestones and one Level 1 

milestone were created accordingly. 

SWS Briefs NASA Agency 

Program Management Council

POC: MISTY DAVIES

Misty Davies, manager of the SystemWide Safety (SWS) project, provided 

a presentation at the Agency’s 

Program Management Council 

(APMC) held March 16. The 

APMC consists of senior managers 

representing each of NASA’s mission 

directorates. The presentation was 

on the impacts of the Aeronautics 

Research Mission Directorate 

(ARMD)-funded Verification and 

Validation research. The intent of the 

presentation was to share knowledge 

about techniques that might be 

valuable across the agency and to 

inform NASA leadership of plans 

for ARMD-funded research. There 

were 63 attendees at the meeting, 

including representatives from all the 

NASA centers. 

DIP Hosts Workshop with 

Salesforce MuleSoft Team 

POC: SWATI SAXENA

On March 17, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project’s 

Digital Information Platform (DIP) 

subproject team hosted a workshop 

and whiteboarding session with 

Salesforce MuleSoft team. The 

purpose of the workshop was to learn 

more about Salesforce’s Anypoint 

KARI visitors touring Future Flight Central
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 23

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Platform and other products, as 

well as exploring the possibility 

of using their products in the 

reference implementation of the 

DIP platform. There is considerable 

overlap between their technology 

and capabilities the DIP platform 

has developed so far. The exercise 

of comparing the DIP technology 

stack with a complementary 

commercial product gave the DIP 

team a good understanding of the 

state of the art of the technology, 

as well as the standards used in 

the software development for 

Application Programming Interfaces, 

micro-services architecture and 

authorization, and authentication 

processes. The discussion was fruitful 

and will help the DIP team define 

the technology transfer elements for 

the Salesforce platform. The next step 

is to follow-up with the Salesforce 

Mulesoft team with remaining 

technical questions and learn about 

managing, securing, and running 

multiple Application Programming 

Interfaces from anywhere. 

SWS Completes Usability 

Study of SFC Interfaces 

POC: LYNNE MARTIN

On March 17, a team from the 

System-Wide Safety (SWS) project 

successfully concluded a cross-center 

usability study. The team tested 

the informativeness and usability 

of two example interfaces. One 

of the interfaces was hosted by 

NASA’s Langley Research Center in 

Virginia and the other by its Ames 

Research Center in California with 

the research team working from 

both centers to conduct the study at 

Ames. The two interfaces presented 

Services, Functions, and Capabilities 

(SFCs) developed by team members 

under different fleet manager flight 

planning scenarios. Participants were 

asked to interact with the interfaces, 

extract information from them, 

and discuss their decision-making 

reasoning using the tools. Sixteen 

participants completed the study. 

The results and conclusions from 

this work will be presented at AIAA 

Aviation 2023. 

DIP Hosts University 

Challenge #2 

POC: TIMOTHY SCOTT

The Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration project’s Digital 

Information Platform (DIP) 

subproject team is working with 

DrivenData to host a public 

competition for university teams to 

develop a machine learning model 

to predict airplane pushback times. 

The competition is split into two 

“arenas.” The first is an open arena 

which is open to the public, for 

anyone to participate. There is no 

prize for this arena, but DrivenData’s 

competition platform provides easy 

access to a 137-gigabyte dataset from 

10 U.S. airports which can be used 

for research and experimentation. 

It can also be used to practice for 

the prescreened arena, which is 

open to teams affiliated with U.S. 

universities, and has a total prize 

purse of $50,000. Both competitions 

conclude April 17 and have attracted 

a total of 263 participants thus far. 

DrivenData’s platform provides a 

live-updating leaderboard from the 

open arena, showing the gradual 

improvement of accuracy with each 

model submitted:

https://www.drivendata.org/

competitions/182/competitionnasa-airport-pushback-prescreened/

leaderboard/. Both competition 

arenas can be found here: 

https://www.drivendata.org/

competitions/group/competitionnasa-airport-pushback/

In addition to sending emails 

to mailing lists, NASA has also 

publicized this competition 

via social media: https://www.

facebook.com/631116826990989/

posts/576407354531082, https://

twitter.com/NASAaero/status/16263

66494031417345?s=20. 

UAM Team Publishes Research 

Roadmap Version 2.0 

POC: KEVIN WITZBERGER

The Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration project’s Urban 

Air Mobility (UAM) Airspace 

Management subproject team 

published Version 2.0 of their 

Research Roadmap in March. The 

UAM Airspace Research Roadmap 

was created to be an important tool 

for the execution of NASA’s research 

during the next ten years, with the 
24 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

goal of evolving UAM airspace 

operations to UAM Maturity Level 

4. It provides a basis for prioritizing 

and coordinating research efforts 

and for integrating results building 

towards NASA’s research goals. 

The Research Roadmap also has 

the potential to serve as a focal 

point for ongoing and continuous 

deliberation, as has been the case 

during its development. It naturally 

attracts questions and feedback 

that are beneficial to overall 

understanding, which is key to 

NASA’s leadership in defining the 

airspace of the future. The Research 

Roadmap Version 2.0 consists 

of updates from members of the 

Advanced Air Mobility project’s 

Ecosystem Working Group. 

SWS Researchers Present 

to Boeing and the FAA 

POC: GUILLAUME BRAT, DIVYA GOPINATH

AND CORINA PASAREANU

On March 20, System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) researchers Divya Gopinath 

and Corina Pasareanu presented 

their work on test coverage for deep 

neural networks to the FAA. The 

presentation was organized by 

Huafeng Yu of Boeing as part of 

Boeing’s effort to help the FAA create 

standards for the certification of 

systems that are machine-learning 

enabled. The audience consisted 

of George Romanski, the FAA’s 

chief scientist for software; Trung 

Pham, the FAA’s chief scientist for 

artificial intelligence); and Srini 

Mandapalu and Joseph Pastore for 

the FAA. Boeing representatives 

from their artificial intelligence 

technology office, defense space and 

security division, and regulatory 

affairs office were also in attendance. 

This presentation supports both the 

milestones NASA has with Boeing 

under the One-Boeing-NASA 

effort and the milestones under the 

Research Transition Team effort with 

the FAA. Gopinath and Pasareanu 

presented techniques related to the 

analysis of deep neural networks 

using typical software engineering 

practices such as testing. Test suite 

adequacy measured by coverage 

metrics is an important indicator of 

the effectiveness of testing. They also 

discussed popular structural coverage 

metrics proposed in literature, and 

then presented their tool, DNNCov, 

that evaluates test suites using popular 

structural coverage metrics and 

compares the metrics with respect 

to their sensitivity to functional 

diversity and defect detection 

ability of the tests. They showed 

that existing metrics which only 

measure the coverage of structural 

entities of a deep neural network 

suffer from the limitations of not 

having a connection with intended 

behavior or not being traceable back 

to requirements. They also presented 

their current work on rule-based 

testing of neural networks (to Appear 

in D’SyMLe 2023 workshop) in 

which, given a representative set 

of labelled data, they mine rules 

abstracting input-output behavior; 

both correct/intended and incorrect/

unintended. The rules are in terms 

of neuron constraints and thereby 

help make the connection between 

the structural entities of the deep 

neural network and model behavior. 

They demonstrated the usage of these 

rules are coverage obligations for test 

suites. In Feature-Guided Analysis 

of Neural Networks (to appear in 

FASE 2023), they also analyzed 

a deep neural network model in 

terms of human understandable 

domain-specific features by mining 

rules corresponding to them. They 

briefly discussed potential uses in 

requirement analysis, verification, 

debugging, runtime monitoring and 

conformance to Operational Design 

Domain requirements. The talk was 

very well received. Pham thanked 

them as the topic covered is extremely 

relevant to his effort to establish 

certification standards for machine 

learning-enabled systems. Romanski 

was also very enthusiastic and 

provided detailed feedback for future 

research directions

DIP/SFNP Conduct TIM 

on Contrails Mitigation 

POC: GEORGE SZATKOWSKI

On March 20-24, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project’s 

Digital Information Project (DIP) 

subproject team held a Technical 

Interchange Meeting (TIM) on 

contrail mitigation last week. The 

DIP team’s Sustainable Flight 

National Partnership (SFNP) 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 25

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Operations-2 team hosted the 

meeting which included a team 

from the Massachusetts Institute 

of Technology (MIT)’s Laboratory 

for Aviation and the Environment. 

The Operations-2 team members 

provided a briefing on the DIP 

subproject and shared the technical 

goals of the Sustainable Oceanic 

Airborne Re-Routing flight deck 

service being developed under the 

SFNP Operations-2 demonstration. 

MIT stated that the DIP platform 

could provide the missing piece 

for them to offer their contrail 

mitigation models to the community 

and they will seek a formal NASA 

partnership through the upcoming 

release of the “Announcement of 

Collaborative Opportunity.” The 

team from NASA’s Langley Research 

Center in Virginia presented their 

research using the Satellite Cloud 

and Radiation Property retrieval 

System (SatCorps) model to improve 

flight altitude meteorological 

estimates by fusing satellite sounding 

data sets. MIT was very interested 

in this work and believe the 

improved wind prediction model 

could help them better correlate 

satellite contrail observations with 

aircraft flight tracks. MIT presented 

their research aimed at improving 

the state of the art in contrail 

dispersion and lifetime modeling 

and the associated implications to 

the radiative forcing estimations. 

Sebastian Eastham, an MIT research 

scientist, shared his insights related 

to improving ice plume modeling 

by incorporating the Ostwald 

ripening effect. This work will 

directly lead to better climate impact 

assessments. MIT also briefed their 

flight campaign experiments being 

conducted with Delta Airlines to 

avoid Ice Super-Saturated Regions 

based on satellite imagery of 

observed contrail regions over the 

continental United States. The 

Operations 2 team will continue to 

engage with MIT and explore areas 

of opportunity which can support 

SNFP demonstrations and increase 

the Technology Readiness Level of 

the contrail mitigation solution. 

HDV Conducts Activities 

to Support Upcoming 

SAO-PAO Flight Tests 

POC: LOU GLAAB

The Advanced Air Mobility’s High 

Density Vertiplex (HDV) subproject 

team initiated various activities 

this past quarter to support the 

upcoming Scalable Autonomous 

Operations Prototype Assessment 

Operations (SAO-PAO) flight test 

activities scheduled for later in Fiscal 

Year 2023. On Jan. 9-13, the team 

conducted surveillance testing in 

support of Beyond Visual Line of 

Sight (BVLOS) efforts at NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia. 

Having a comprehensive view of the 

air traffic in the vicinity of NASA 

Langley is considered essential for 

safe, effective, small-Unmanned 

Aircraft System (sUAS) operations. 

After continued integration and 

checkout sessions with Anra and 

NASA’s HDV personnel, a major 

breakthrough was realized: through 

focused testing and collaboration, it 

was identified that transitioning the 

lightweight surveillance and target 

acquisition radar-2 (LSTAR-2) from 

UAS mode, originally recommended 

by SRC, to General Aviation mode 

Displays of Anra and LSTAR
26 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

greatly reduced the ground clutter 

generated from the LSTAR radar. 

The reduction of clutter greatly 

contributed to Anra SS CTR (an 

airspace management software 

platform) surveillance integration 

and testing. As illustrated in the 

figure below, aircraft tracks in 

Langley’s vicinity were established on 

the LSTAR Graphic User Interface 

that were accurately portrayed on 

the Anra SS CTR. In addition, 

effective fusion with Automatic 

Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast 

(ADS-B) surveillance was also 

demonstrated. One track to the 

north of Langley has just initiated 

on the LSTAR and was not 

portrayed on the Anra SS CTR as 

could be expected. Remaining work 

involves cleaning up some track 

identification and management 

and track labels along with efforts 

to refine fusion of ADS-B, Flight 

Alarm (FLARM), and radar.

On Jan. 27, Jake Schaefer, the HDV 

subproject Flight Operations team 

lead within the Advanced Air Mobility project, conducted the final review for the SAO-PAO Flight Tests 

(Flt) to the Eastern Region Aviation 

Review Board. The overarching 

objective of the SAO schedule work 

package was to develop and evaluate concepts, prototypes, procedures, 

and technologies supporting operations at increased scale from a vertiport. The HDV subproject effectively uses sUAS as surrogates for larger 

Urban Air Mobility aircraft. Testing 

includes coordinated and complementary simulation and flight 

techniques. SAO-PAO-Flt greatly 

expand sUAS operational capability 

at NASA and continue the transition from limited within visual line 

of sight operations towards BVLOS 

operations. This provides expanded 

testing capabilities and facilitates 

NASA technology transfer. Several 

significant milestones are included 

within SAO-PAO-Flt: 1) relocation 

of the Range Safety Officer to within 

the Remote Operations for Autonomous Missions UAS operations center and 2) the transition of ground 

Surveillance Testing Team at NASA Langley
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 27

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

control station operators to be 

pilots in command through focused 

training along with the removal of 

the visual/safety pilot in the field. A 

final step planned for the subsequent 

SAO-BVLOS flight test will seek to 

remove the visual observer in the 

field. While much work remains 

to be accomplished, the steps to be 

achieved in SAO-PAO Flt greatly expands sUAS operational capabilities 

at NASA, continues contributions to 

the HDV subproject research objectives, as well as setting the stage for 

planned sUAS BVLOS operations. 

On Feb. 6, the HDV team completed the Radar 2–4 flight test using 

NASA’s Lancair UC-40 aircraft. The 

objectives of the Radar 2-4 test were: 

1) evaluate the LSTAR performance 

with the recent software upgrade; 2) 

assess the Dynetics GA-9120 radars 

performance to track general aviation aircraft out to 5 nautical miles 

and engage Dynetics onsite support; 

and 3) test the Anra SS CTR surveillance fusion integration and display 

system. The Radar 2-4 flight test is 

the seventh overall flight dedicated 

to the checkout of the surveillance 

systems being implemented at NASA 

Langley to enable BVLOS operations. 

The ground-based surveillance system includes ground-based ADS-B, 

ground-based FLARM, SRC LSTAR, 

and 4) Dynetics GA-9120 panel 

radars. The GA-9120s are lowercost units procured with HDV seed 

resources in 2020 providing partial 

azimuthal coverage. The LSTAR was 

procured under NASA’s UAS Traffic 

Management project and is on loan 

from NASA’s Ames Research Center 

in California. Good performance 

was observed overall for the integrated surveillance system. Analysis 

of results are underway with further 

work examining apparent interference issues with the GA-9120s as 

well as potential altitude errors with 

the LSTAR.

Following these activities, the HDV 

team received a formal response 

from the FAA regarding BVLOS 

safety case. The response indicated that the safety case effectively 

mitigated risks associated with the 

planned operations and that NASA 

should submit the application for a 

BVLOS Certificate of Authorization 

as soon as possible. The expectation 

is to have the application submitted in February with an anticipated 

certificate acquired June 2023. Following the completion of the SAOPAO simulation in March, the HDV 

team initiated checkout flights for 

the SAO-PAO flight test on March 

21–24. During these tests two 

vehicles (N557NU and N559NU) 

were flown with good results. Two 

additional vehicles were ready for 

checkout on March 31. A total of 

four vehicles are required to perform 

Phase-1 testing planned to start 

May 5. Phase-1 will require three 

vehicles for the planned test conditions, with one vehicle being a ready 

spare. SAO-PAO will include five 

vehicle operation in Phase-2. Vehicle 

and scenario checkout will continue 

through March and April 2023.

SWS Presents at ICAO Safety 

Management Workshop 

POC: KYLE ELLIS

On March 22, Kyle Ellis, deputy 

project manager of the SystemWide Safety (SWS) project gave an 

invited presentation to the Safety 

Intelligence and Safety Performance 

Management Workshop organized 

by the Asia and Pacific Office 

of International Civil Aviation 

Organization (ICAO). The 

presentation detailed work being 

done on the In-time Aviation Safety 

Management System (IASMS) 

concept within the SWS project 

and was well received. An invitation 

was extended to present work on 

these concepts at future events. 

This workshop was conducted 

by the Safety Management 

Unit – Air Navigation Bureau 

of ICAO and held at the ICAO 

Asia and Pacific Regional Office 

in Bangkok. On March 27, Ellis 

was also invited to present at the 

ICAO Air Navigation Commission 

(ANC). His presentation addressed 

advanced safety management 

systems to safely modernize and 

transform the global aviation 

industry. The key challenges faced 

by the ANC include maintaining 

and improving aviation safety and 

air navigation efficiency while 

integrating increased traffic into 

the current aviation infrastructure, 
28 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

introducing advanced systems, as 

well as proactively identifying risks 

and devising mitigation measures 

in accordance with the ICAO 

Global Aviation Safety Plan and 

the Global Air Navigation Plan. 

NASA’s concept of an IASMS and 

the IASMS development roadmap 

outlined by the Flight Safety 

Foundation is being presented as 

a clear vision to evolve current 

practices and address these key 

challenges. The ICAO ANC consists 

of 19 commissioners representing 

state civil aviation authorities from 

around the planet. With direct 

influence on international policy, the 

ANC considers and recommends 

Standards and Recommended 

Practices and Procedures for Air 

Navigation Services for adoption or 

approval by the ICAO council. The 

ANC will review the IASMS concept 

and roadmap presented by NASA 

and the Flight Safety Foundation to 

inform its technical work program 

and recommend updated Standards 

and Recommended Practices for 

Annex 19 on safety management. 

UAM Fast-Time 

Simulations Completed 

POC: SEUNGMAN LEE

On March 27, researchers from 

the Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration project’s Urban 

Air Mobility (UAM) subproject 

completed fast-time simulations, 

with and without a tactical 

conflict management system on, 

to evaluate the impact of tactical 

conflict management with a set of 

separation standards on the safety 

and operational suitability of UAM 

operations. The fast-time simulation 

tool simulated the operations 

of electric Vertical Takeoff and 

Landing UAM aircraft, as well as 

the performance of tactical conflict 

management algorithms to maintain 

specified separation minima between 

UAM flights, while using several 

separation standards with various 

traffic scenarios developed for 

Dallas-Fort Worth International 

Airport UAM operations. 

Patent Application Filed for 

Work Performed by SWS Team 

POC: CHAD STEPHENS

On March 28, a provisional 

patent application was filed for the 

Risk Precursor Identification in 

Commercial Aviation Terminal Area 

Operations technology developed 

by the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

team. The team developed a 

technology through exploratory 

work to anticipate and resolve 

potential safety issues, predict the 

health and robustness of aviation 

systems, and analyze integrated 

risks in terminal area operations 

and ground operations. A working 

prototype of the technology has 

been implemented in computer 

software with a user interface 

including data stream selection for 

applying various machine learningbased analyses and visualization of 

results of machine learning-based 

analyses. This new technology 

represents a novel analysis approach 

to traditional aviation operations 

safety data to be translated into 

In-time System-Wide Safety 

Assurance of autonomous systems. 

The coinventors are Fasil Alemante 

and Rami Houssami of Booz Allen 

Hamilton (BAH), Vincent Houston 

of NASA, Bryan Matthews of KBR, 

Dominic McConnachie of BAH, 

Peter Mehlitz of KBR, Nikunj Oza 

of NASA, Farley Reynolds of BAH, 

Jack Sarle (formerly BAH), Chad 

Stephens of NASA, and Shannon 

Walker of BAH. This new capability 

was presented at Aviation Safety 

InfoShare 2023. 

UAM Hosts Transitional 

OIA Checkpoint Meeting 

POC: JASON PRINCE

On March 28, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

project’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

subproject conducted a one-day 

initial checkpoint activity to assess 

use cases under consideration for 

the Transitional UAM Operational 

Integration Assessment (OIA). 

Participants included representatives 

from NASA, the Department of 

Transportation, FAA, National 

Air Traffic Controllers Association, 

and industry. The objectives of 

this checkpoint were to advance 

the baseline of the NASA/

FAA Laboratory Integrated Test 

Environment capability, as well 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 29

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

as demonstrate UAM operational 

scenarios for airport transfer 

mission use cases representing 

transportation of passengers between 

an urban environment and a nearby 

controlled airport utilizing electric 

Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft. 

The purpose of these exercises is to 

understand how UAM operations 

can scale to higher-tempo operations 

and more highly automated 

operations of the future. 

SWS/AMIO Invited to 

Participate on Panel at 

German Embassy 

POC: KYLE ELLIS

On March 29, representatives from 

the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project and the Advanced Air 

Mobility Mission Integration Office 

(AMIO) were invited to participate 

in the Modern Air Mobility event 

hosted by the German Embassy 

in Washington, DC. Kyle Ellis, 

deputy project manager of SWS, 

participated in an engaging science 

panel discussing technologies that 

will impact the future of aviation 

alongside a panelist from the 

German Aerospace Center, who is 

also collaborating with SWS through 

the International Forum of Aviation 

Research and an International 

Agreement. Nancy Mendonca of 

AMIO participated in a unification 

panel with the FAA, the European 

Union Aviation Safety Agency 

(EASA), and emerging market 

industry players. The event was 

invitation only with several highprofile attendees including: Grant 

Farnsworth, Office of Science and 

Technology Policy (OSTP) within 

the Executive Office of the President; 

JoeBen Bevirt, founder and chief 

executive officer of Joby Aviation; 

Dirk Hoke, chief executive officer 

of Volocopter; Lirio Lio, executive 

director of airworthiness certification 

at the FAA; and Ludovic Aaron, 

EASA representative to the United 

States, amongst many others. The 

event was very well received and 

provided NASA an opportunity 

to engage with a wide variety of 

international participants working to 

identify and discuss the challenges 

and opportunities to evolve the 

global aviation industry to include 

Advanced Air Mobility missions. 

SWS Participates in SAE 

Meetings This Quarter

POC: MALLORY GRAYDON AND PAUL MINER

This past quarter, representatives 

from the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project participated in multiple 

SAE meetings. On Jan. 30-Feb. 

3, Mallory Graydon participated 

in the Quarter One Plenary 

Meeting of SAE’s S-18, S-18A, and 

S-18H committees in Houston. 

S-18 has completed revisions to 

two well-known aviation safety 

standards: ARP4754A “Guidelines 

for Development of Civil Aircraft 

and Systems” and ARP4761 

“Guidelines and Methods for 

Conducting the Safety Assessment 

Process on Civil Airborne Systems 

and Equipment.” Revised versions 

of these standards are likely to be 

released later this year. S-18, S-18A, 

and S-18H are also writing reports 

on: 1) the subject of “generic errors,” 

including the meaning of the “no 

single failure” requirement for 

critical functions and whether this 

can be addressed by development 

assurance or diversity; 2) the use 

of the Systems Theoretic Process 

Analysis in a civil aviation context; 

3) the applicability of ARP4754B 

and ARP4761A processes to 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems; 4) the 

interaction between human factorsrelated assurance activities and the 

safety assessment process; and 5) 

the use of tools and modeling in 

aircraft development. Graydon 

has been a major contributor to 

these efforts. The second meeting, 

held March 27-31, was hosted 

by MITRE in Virginia. Paul 

Miner, project scientist for SWS, 

participated in the plenary meeting 

for the SAE G-34/EUROCAE 

WG-114 Joint Committee for 

Artificial Intelligence in Aviation. 

SWS project researcher Alwyn 

Goodloe also participated in the 

meeting remotely. The purpose of 

the meeting was to discuss the latest 

draft document. At the meeting, 

there was meaningful progress 

towards resolving remaining 

technical content for the latest 

version of the draft document. The 

next plenary will be held June 

27-30, 2023, in Cologne. The 
30 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

draft document will continue to be 

refined in ongoing virtual meetings. 

ATM-X Conducts Visit 

and Discussions with 

Raytheon and Collins 

POC: WILLIAM CHAN AND SHIVANJLI SHARMA

William Chan, project manager 

of Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration (ATM-X), and 

Shivanjli Sharma, deputy project 

manager of ATM-X, visited the 

Raytheon Technologies Aerospace 

Demonstration Enterprise 

Center in Washington, DC on 

March 31. The visit included a 

demonstration of their emerging 

airspace management tools and 

capabilities such as the MultiPlatform Application Re-hosting 

Solution system and digital tower 

capabilities, which are being 

developed to transform air traffic 

management of both conventional 

operations while also introducing 

adaptable features to support a 

host of new aviation entrants 

including: small-Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems, electric Vertical 

Takeoff and Landing vehicles, and 

remote cargo operation use cases. 

In addition to the demonstration, 

the NASA, Raytheon, and Collins 

teams discussed collaboration 

opportunities to further drive 

innovation in key surveillance 

systems needed for low altitude 

operations, as well as the need to 

develop and demonstrate command 

and control communication links 

for a variety of Advanced Air 

Mobility entrants. 

William Chan (left) participating in meeting at Raytheon’s facility
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 31

RECOGNITION

AAM Participates in the 

Consumer Electronics Show 

POC: STARR GINN

On Jan. 5-6, Starr Ginn, lead 

strategist for the Advanced Air 

Mobility (AAM) project, attended 

the Consumer Electronics Show 

in Las Vegas. The Consumer 

Electronics Show continues 

to expand their AAM content 

each year, as multi-modal 

solutions, electrification, and 

automation are big themes of 

the show. The following are a list 

of highlights from the event:

• ASKA showcased their prototype 

flying car aircraft for the first 

time. ASKA is a National Campaign International Information 

Exchange partner from the Announcements for Collaborative 

Partnership Opportunities-2. 

They will start envelope expansion this year. 

• Palantir is a company helping 

Lilium with building software 

empowering organizations to 

effectively integrate their data, 

decisions, and operations. It 

used to take Lilium two weeks to 

evaluate data in between flights, 

which now they can fly each day. 

• Supernal had very small footprint this year, unlike 2020. 

They were in the Microsoft 

booth after announcing their 

partnership to advance autonomy, digital operations, and cloud 

integration technologies. 

• Archer announced their partnership with Stellantis, an electric 

vehicle company, to build electric 

aircraft with Archer and provide 

strategic funding for growth. 

There were many electric Vertical 

Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) 

companies who participated 

on panels, including those that 

focused on regional air mobility, 

drone companies for emergency 

response, airspace companies, 

and supply chains for software 

and electronics. 

• SkyDrive (of Japan) announced 

the SD-05, a two-passenger 

eVTOL aircraft operated by a 

driver pilot. SkyDrive is planning to use the SD-05 to launch 

air taxi service in the Osaka Bay 

area during the world exposition 

scheduled for 2025 in Japan.

• Plana (of South Korea) announced the creation of new and 

innovative short to medium-range 

clean and safe hybrid eVTOL passenger aircraft and its ecosystem. 

• A Hall of Fame ceremony for 

Women in Emerging Aviation 

Technologies featured NASA’s 

Huy Tran, director of aeronautics 

at NASA’s Ames Research Center 

in California.

• The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) hosted an Urban 

Air Mobility round table and 

evening event for industry to 

gather and network. David Silver, 

vice president for civil aviation at 

AIA, was the host.

• McKinsey & Company also 

hosted an AAM networking 

event that showcased a few 

simple Joby simulators. 

• There was a Formula One autonomous race with seven domestic 

and international universities 

participating. 

SWS Engages and Leads 

Scientific Community at 

AIAA SciTech 2023 

POC: KYLE ELLIS

Several researchers from the 

System-Wide Safety (SWS) project 

provided presentations at this year’s 

American Institute for Aeronautics 

and Astronautics (AIAA) SciTech 

Forum and Exposition, held in 

Maryland on Jan. 22-27. Each 

facet of the project from near-tofar-term operational and design 

safety was represented at the 

conference, including several 

topics on In-Time Aviation Safety 

Management Systems (IASMS), 

safety assurance, and modelbased systems engineering. SWS 

researchers participated in numerous 

capacities: Terry Morris served 

as the chair of the information 

systems group; Samantha Infeld 

served as area chair for systems

engineering and Complex 

Airspace Systems Exchange; 

and Natasha Neogi served as 

chair for the Intelligent Systems 

technical committee and as an 

organizer for the student paper 
32 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

RECOGNITION

competition. Neogi also participated 

as an inaugural member in the 

certification task force organized by 

AIAA. Daniel Weckler and Milad 

Memarzadeh gave a presentation 

on predictive and prognostic 

modeling research at the Data 

Sciences group session. Evan Dill 

cochaired the Digital Avionics 

technical session within which Kyle 

Ellis and Paul Krois presented on 

IASMS for upper Class-E airspace 

operations. Additionally, Kyle Ellis 

was invited to participate as panelist 

for the modeling and systems 

engineering technical committee 

session discussing autonomy and 

safety in future aviation systems. 

AIAA SciTech Forum 2023 was 

the largest on record, with more 

than 5,700 registrants from around 

the planet returning to in-person 

discussion and collaboration.

UAM Researchers Invited to 

Coauthor Portion of HCI Book 

POC: RANIA GHATAS

Researchers from the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

project’s Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) subproject, Rania Ghatas, 

Savita Verma, Richard Mogford, 

and Victoria Dulchinos, are 

coauthoring the Advanced/

Urban Air Mobility (A/UAM) 

Human-Computer Interaction 

(HCI) section of a book chapter 

titled “HCI in Aviation” – part of 

a six-book series to be published 

by the CRC Press, LLC, Taylor & 

Francis Group. This chapter will be 

included in the sixth book titled 

“Human-Computer Interaction: 

HCI Application Domains” 

in the “Human-Computer 

Interaction: Foundations, Methods, 

Technologies and Applications” 

book series. This last book in the 

series focuses “on the relevant 

aspects and role of HCI in the 

design of interactive applications” 

across 16 broad domains including: 

aviation, education, games and 

entertainment, health and digital 

well-being, social computing, and 

more. The publication date of the 

book is anticipated for 2024. 

DIP Researcher Jeremy Coupe 

Speaks at Google Fireside 

Chat 

POC: JEREMY COUPE

On Feb. 21, Jeremy Coupe, project 

researcher in the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project’s 

Digital Information Platform 

(DIP) subproject, was invited to 

speak to Google at one of their 

virtual Google Fireside Chats. 

Coupe described NASA’s journey 

of implementing and evaluating 

a prototype decision support 

tool to aid in the management of 

traffic flows at the nation’s busiest 

airports. There were 210 unique 

viewers attending the live chat. The 

Google organizer said it was a very 

informative presentation and a topic 

almost everyone could relate to. 

Paul Krois, Crown Consulting, presented at the AIAA SciTech 2023 on IASMS for upper Class-E 

airspace operations.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 33

RECOGNITION

AOSP Leadership Highlighted 

as Part of NASA’s 

imaginAviation Event

POC: MISTY DAVIES, SUMMER BRANDT AND 

MARCUS JOHNSON

On Feb. 28, AOSP project 

representatives participated as 

speakers in NASA’s ImaginAviation 

conference. Misty Davies, project 

manager of System-Wide Safety 

project, and Shivanjli Sharma, 

deputy project manager of the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project, were panelists on the 

“Turning Data into Information” 

panel that addressed the challenge 

of strategically collecting and using 

data in a way allowing system 

operators to take informed actions. 

Kelley Hashemi, formerly from 

NASA’s Transformational Tools and 

Technologies project, was also a 

panelist, while Supreet Kaur from 

the Data Reasoning Fabric project 

moderated the session. Later that 

day, Summer Brandt participated 

as a panelist on “Relief from Above 

- Aerial Innovation in Emergency 

Response.” This panel highlighted 

NASA’s efforts to benefit the 

public through enabling the use 

of aviation in emergency response 

situations to reduce risk and increase 

safety. Also on the panel was 

Marcus Johnson, project manager 

of the Advanced Capabilities for 

Emergency Response Operations 

project. Johnson discussed how the 

project is focused on improving 

airspace management for all parts 

of wildland fire response operations, 

including aerial suppression, and 

enhancing communications 

interoperability between Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems, piloted aircraft, 

and crews on the ground. 

ATM-X Participates in 

the Forward Fort Worth 

Conference 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

On March 1, Shivanjli Sharma, 

deputy project manager of the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) project, participated 

on the “The Integration and 

Commercialization of Advanced 

Air Mobility Aircraft” panel at the 

Summer Brandt and Marcus Johnson also participate at the imaginAviation Event Forward Fort Worth Conference 

AOSP project representatives participate on panels at the imaginAviation event
34 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

RECOGNITION

held in Fort Worth. During the 

panel, industry leaders discussed 

the pathway to integration and 

commercialization for both Vertical 

Takeoff and Landing vehicles and 

small Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

and the challenges industry must 

overcome to strengthen the 

supply chain and deploy air taxis 

across densely populated areas, as 

well as their integration into the 

National Airspace System. Other 

panelists included Lesley Frana, vice 

president of strategic partnerships 

for DroneUp, and Bill Goodwin, 

deputy general counsel of policy and 

regulatory affairs for Joby Aviation. 

The moderator for the panel was 

Rob Lowe, regional administrator 

for the FAA’s Southwest Region. 

AFCM Automation Concept 

Presented 

POC: TRISH GLAAB

On March 2, Vivek Sharma, deputy 

lead for the Advanced Air Mobility 

(AAM) project’s Automated Flight 

and Contingency Management 

(AFCM) subproject, presented 

“Dynamic Path Planning (DPP) 

Automation Concept for AAM” 

as part of the ongoing Aviation 

Operations Seminar series. The 

series is part of the Intelligent Flight 

Systems product line sponsored by 

NASA’s Langley Research Center 

in Virginia. The objective of the 

Aviation Operations Seminar series is 

to promote information sharing and 

technical exchange across the NASA 

Aeronautics research community. 

DPP is the planning of a safe and 

operationally acceptable flight 

path to account for a dynamically 

changing operating environment in 

flight. The DPP concept informs 

other NASA technologies currently 

being tested and validated, such as 

Flight Path Management within 

the AFCM subproject. After 

providing a brief background, 

Sharma identified the primary 

components of the DPP concept 

with a system overview, notional 

architecture, and operational 

scenarios. The presentation was 

well received by a large group of 

in-person and virtual attendees.

SWS Research Nominated for 

Institute of Navigation Walter 

R. Fried Award

POC: EVAN DILL AND MISTY DAVIES

On March 10, a pending 

publication from System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project researchers was 

nominated for the highly prestigious 

Walter R. Fried Award for best 

paper at the upcoming Institute of 

Navigation Positioning, Location, 

and Navigation Symposium. The 

paper, titled “Accuracy Assessment 

of Two GPS Fidelity Prediction 

Services in Urban Terrain,” details a 

rigorous analysis on experimentally 

validating prognostic services to 

forecast the quality of Global 

Positioning System in urban areas. 

Data collection for this effort was 

completed in Corpus Christi, and 

in collaboration with the Lonestar 

Unmanned Aircraft System test 

site. The award was established 

in 2000 for the recognition of 

individuals who made a substantial 

contribution to the technology 

of navigation and positioning 

equipment, systems, or practices. It 

also recognizes the best paper with 

regards to technical excellence in 

honor of the late Walter R. Fried. 

SWS Participates at IEEE 

Conference 

POC: LYNNE MARTIN

On March 4-11, System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project researchers 

participated in the Institute of 

Electric and Electronic Engineers 

(IEEE) Aerospace Conference 

2023 in Montana. The American 

Institute of Aeronautics and 

Astronautics and the Prognostics 

and Health Management Society 

acted as technical cosponsors 

for the event. The purpose of 

the conference was to promote 

interdisciplinary understanding of 

aerospace systems, their underlying 

science and technology, and their 

application to government and 

commercial endeavors. Papers 

presented at the conference focused 

on increasing knowledge of: 1) 

aerospace systems, science, and 

technology; 2) applications of 

aerospace systems and technology 

to military, civilian, or commercial 

endeavors; 3) systems engineering 

and management science in 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 35

RECOGNITION

the aerospace industry; and 4) 

government policy that directs or 

drives aerospace programs, systems, 

and technologies. Representing SWS, 

Rajeev Ghimire presented a paper 

“Fault Detection and Diagnosis 

Techniques for Electric Unmanned 

Aerial Vehicle Powertrain System” 

which discussed fault detection and 

diagnosis techniques that can be 

helpful for detection and isolation 

of faults in powertrain systems. 

SWS Participates at 

DRONERESPONDERS National 

Public Safety UAS Conference

POC: KYLE ELLIS

On March 14-15, several members 

of the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project team provided presentations 

at the DRONERESPONDERS 

National Public Safety Unmanned 

Aerial Systems (UAS) Conference 

held in Virginia. Kyle Ellis, deputy 

project manager of SWS, gave a 

presentation on the research and 

development plan for the Safety 

Demonstrator Series – a research 

effort focused on developing 

capabilities designed to improve 

the safety of expanded emergency 

response operations such as 

Beyond Visual Line of Sight and 

high-complexity airspace. The 

first responder and emergency 

response community has been 

an early adopter of UAS to assist 

in their operations. Given their 

local and regional authority, they 

are often granted emergency-use 

waivers to deploy UAS in their 

missions. However, the permitted 

use of UAS in these conditional 

waivers is still highly limited 

due to the inability to assure the 

safety for expanded use cases. The 

SWS project outlined its research 

plan, as well as an opportunity to 

partner with emergency and first 

responder communities, to tackle 

these safety challenges that are 

limiting UAS applications and to 

collect data to inform regulators 

to move towards a standards-based 

approach to rapidly approve UAS 

operations. SWS researchers also 

staffed a booth at the event and 

made important connections with 

key industry and government 

SWS presented in the Safety Demonstrator Series and staffed a booth at the DRONERESPONDERS National Public Safety UAS Conference.
36 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

RECOGNITION

entities interested in potential 

collaborative research opportunities. 

AOSP Projects Participate at 

SAE AeroTech Conference 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA AND MICHAEL VINCENT

On March 15, representatives 

from the Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration (ATM-X) and 

System-Wide Safety (SWS) projects 

participated at the SAE AeroTech 

Conference in Fort Worth. 

Shivanjli Sharma, deputy project 

manager of ATM-X, provided a 

presentation on the Advanced Air 

Mobility (AAM) Research and 

Development Plenary Session. 

Sharma provided an overview of 

NASA’s mission and indicated what 

research projects are contributing 

research and development to 

enable AAM. The session also 

highlighted the NASA activities 

supporting standards organizations 

efforts and gaps research. Nancy 

Mendonca, acting mission manager 

for the AAM Mission Integration 

Office, moderated the panel. 

Michael Vincent, associate project 

manager for SWS, participated 

on another panel and introduced 

the concept of the In-Time 

Aviation Safety Management 

System to the audience and 

how it could help enable future 

airspace operations within the 

FAA’s vision for an Info-Centric 

National Airspace System. Topics 

included NASA participation in 

standards committees, planned 

flight demonstrations, and recent 

research activities in vehicle, 

infrastructure, and human 

factors. The AeroTech Conference 

attracted approximately 400 

people working on energy storage, 

vehicle subsystems, sustainability, 

and logistics problems in both 

automotive and aerospace. 

SWS Researcher Presents at 

Air Charter Safety Foundation 

Safety Symposium 

POC: JIM ACKERSON

Jim Ackerson, project researcher 

for the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project, was invited to speak at 

the Air Charter Safety Foundation 

Safety Symposium held March 

20-22. The meeting was held at 

the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical 

University in Florida. His 

presentation, titled “The In-time 

Aviation Safety Management System 

Concept for Part 135 Passenger 

and Cargo Operators,” included 

NASA’s concept of an In-Time 

Aviation Safety Management 

System (IASMS) with a special 

emphasis on Part 135 operations 

including the progress of the FAA’s 

current Safety Management System 

(SMS) and pending changes to 

its requirements. Unlike Part 121 

operators, participation in the FAA’s 

SMS program is voluntary for Part 

135. The presentation addressed 

how increased participation from 

Part 135 operators can reduce 

accidents and how SMS can evolve 

to an IASMS. The Air Charter 

Safety Foundation is a non-profit 

organization with the mission to 

lead and support the advancement 

of the highest aviation safety 

standards. Membership is made 

up of the business, charter, and 

fractional ownership industry 

primarily operating under 14 

CFR Parts 135 and 91. 

Shivanjli Sharma (second from left) and Nancy Mendonca (standing) participating on the AAM Research 

and Development Panel at SAE AeroTech
AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023 37

RECOGNITION

SOTERIA Study Team 

to Receive NASA Group 

Achievement Award 

POC: CHAD STEPHENS

The System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project’s Human Contributions to 

Safety (HC2S) SWS Operations 

and Technologies for Enabling 

Resilient In-Time Assurance 

(SOTERIA) study team will receive 

the NASA Group Achievement 

Award during the Spring 2023 

NASA Langley Awards Ceremony. 

The SOTERIA flight simulation 

study is one example of how 

HC2S researchers are working 

together with Boeing, airlines, 

and aviation industry partners 

to better understand human 

contributions to safety in various 

facets of commercial aviation in 

order to enable aviation safety. The 

study will enable SWS researchers 

and aviation government/industry 

partners, such as the FAA, the 

National Transformation Safety 

Board, and airlines, to better 

understand human contributions 

to safety in various facets of 

commercial aviation, as well 

as extend that knowledge to 

Advanced Air Mobility, to enable 

safe future operations in the 

National Airspace System. 

ATM-X Supports Amsterdam 

Drone Week Panel 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA)

On March 22, Shivanjli Sharma, 

deputy project manager of the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

(ATM-x) project, participated as 

a panelist at the Innovative Air 

Mobility: Connecting Cities and 

Regions Conference in Amsterdam. 

The panel, titled “Integrating Air 

Mobility in an Urban Environment,” 

focused on a variety of perspectives 

from city, state, federal, and 

international participants on the 

challenges and needs associated 

with integrating new aviation 

entrants into communities in a 

safe and effective manner. The 

dialogue included discussions on 

multi-modal integration, land use 

policy, and safe management of 

new aviation entrants – alongside 

the key technical and research 

challenges that still need to be 

addressed to enable scalable 

operations. Other panelists 

included: Jeroen Olthof, regional 

minister of Noord-Holland; 

Carlo van de Weijer, managing 

director of the Eindhoven Artificial 

Intelligence Systems Institute at 

Eindhoven University; Yolanka 

Shivanjli Sharma (2nd from left), participates at the Innovative Air Mobility: Connecting Cities and

Regions Conference
38 AOSP NEWSLETTER // JAN-MAR 2023

RECOGNITION

Wulff, executive director of 

the Community Air Mobility 

Initiative; Andrew LeBovidge, 

executive vice president of the 

National Air Traffic Controllers 

Association; and city and state 

representatives from California. 

SWS Researchers Present 

at Aviation Safety InfoShare 

Spring 2023 

POC: NIKUNJ OZA

On March 28–30, several members 

of the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project team delivered presentations 

at the Spring Aviation Safety 

InfoShare in Baltimore. Fasil 

Alemante presented in the Dispatch 

track, on behalf of himself, while 

Chad Stephens and Nikunj Oza 

presented “Machine Learning 

Methods for Advancing Risk 

Precursor Identification Tools in 

Commercial Airline Terminal Area 

Operations” which included a 

demonstration of a tool to display 

flight risks. The SWS project plans 

to extend this tool to incorporate 

additional data and algorithms to 

allow for a more comprehensive 

depiction of flight risks at different 

time scales, thereby allowing 

users to focus their attention and 

expertise where they are needed 

most within a complex airspace. 

Mary Keller gave four talks on 

the Aviation Safety Reporting 

System (ASRS): “NASA ASRS 

Reports: Hazardous Materials in the 

Cabin” in the Cabin track, “NASA 

ASRS Reports about Rotorcraft 

Operations” in the Rotorcraft 

track, “Fender Benders: NASA 

ASRS Reports about Towing 

Mishaps” in the Maintenance 

track, and “NASA ASRS Reports 

about Business/General Aviation 

Operations” in the Business/

General Aviation Operations track. 

At this workshop, the commercial 

aviation industry, government 

agencies, manufacturers, and 

others discussed aviation safety 

incidents, their causes, the methods 

through which the incidents were 

found, causes identified, and 

approaches to mitigate safety issues. 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov