National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

OCT-DEC 2020 | Quarter 1

NASA and Boeing Complete 

Phase 1 Collaborative Flight 

Simulation Study

3

AdaStress Tool Helps Identify 

Error in ACAS-Xu

7
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020

AOSP IN THE NEWS

NASA’s STEReO: Air 

Traffic Management for 

Emergency Response

Drone Life (Oct. 23) reports “As 

emergency managers readily adopt 

the use of drones to aid in the 

response to natural disasters such 

as wildfires and hurricanes, the 

skies above those disaster zones are 

becoming increasingly crowded with 

aerial vehicles, both manned and 

unmanned, creating the need for an 

automated aerial traffic cop. Enter 

NASA, whose Ames Research Center 

in California’s Silicon Valley is leading 

the way, with the development of 

the Scalable Traffic Management for 

Emergency Response Operations, or 

STEReO project.”

NASA Gears Up for 

Advanced Air Mobility 

eVTOL Flight Testing

Aviation Week (Nov. 13) reports 

“Preparations for the first in a series 

of flight trials to help ensure the 

safety and accelerate the scalability 

of urban air mobility are gathering 

pace at NASA Armstrong Flight 

Research Center in California. 

NASA gears up for eVTOL flight 

testing under Advanced Air 

Mobility National Campaign...”

Wisk Teams with 

NASA on Autonomous 

Urban Air Mobility

Aviation Week (Nov. 16) reports 

“Self-flying air-taxi developer Wisk 

has teamed with NASA to address 

the safe integration of autonomous 

aircraft into urban airspace. The 

partnership will support NASA’s 

Advanced Air Mobility National 

Campaign. The National Campaign 

(NC) will conduct simulations and 

flight tests to develop guidance...”

NASA/FAA UAS 

Demonstrations Mark End 

of UTM Pilot Program

ATCA Headline News (Nov. 17) 

reports “the second phase of the 

Federal Aviation Administration’s 

(FAA) unmanned aircraft systems 

(UAS) traffic management pilot 

program (UTM/UPP) ended with 

testing demonstrations in partnership 

with the National Aeronautics 

and Space Administration 

(NASA) focused on testing remote 

identification (RID) technology and 

beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) 

operations, according to a Nov. 17 

press release.”

NASA Teams Reach 

Milestones in DroneRelated Flight Programs

Drone DJ (Dec. 23) reports “In 

an overview of the year, American 

space agency NASA has shared a few 

drones and drone-related milestones 

its flight team has had. Along with 

the usual space-related work NASA 

is known for, it also works on many 

drone projects to advance future use 

of the technology. The massive list of 

milestones the agency has achieved 

over the last year is impressive, 

especially in spite of the COVID-19 

pandemic.”
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020 3

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

NASA and Boeing Complete 

Phase I Collaborative 

Flight Simulation Study

POC: CHAD STEPHENS, LANCE PRINZEL

AND JON HOLBROOK

On Nov. 14–16, researchers 

Chad Stephens, Lance Prinzel, 

and Jon Holbrook of NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in 

Virginia completed a human-inthe-loop flight simulation study 

at the Boeing Commercial Flight 

Training Campus in Miami. The 

team of researchers remotely 

collaborated with System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project contractor 

team member Dan Kiggins of San 

Jose State University and Boeing 

researchers Beth Biddle, Research 

& Technology; and Jim Wilkerson, 

Standards and Training. Three 

commercial aviation flight crews 

were recruited to participate in 

the study, which involved the 

performance of four area navigation 

standard terminal arrival route 

(RNAV STAR) arrivals into 

Charlotte Douglas International 

Airport using the Boeing 737NG 

full flight simulator. The focus of 

the research study was to collect and 

analyze data on how commercial 

aviation flight crews handle 

routine expected and unexpected 

disturbances in commercial flight 

operations, exploring human 

productive contributions to safety 

(HC2S). The objective of the 

Phase I study was to understand 

the factors involved in productive 

safety demonstrated by flight 

crews using safe and necessary 

non-adherence to RNAV STAR 

arrivals as the operational example. 

The study involved experimental 

methodologies applied during 

and after the scenarios were 

performed, including video 

recording and analysis of flight 

crew behaviors, such as eye tracking, 

and the completion of surveys 

and interviews. Data was also 

collected for team members on the 

SWS HC2S project, researchers 

Dorrit Billman and Alan Hobbs of 

NASA’s Ames Research Center in 

California. Phase II data collection 

will focus on additional methods 

to study resilient, safety-producing 

behaviors of flight crews to better 

inform development of new 

training approaches. The SWS 

project has world-renowned experts 

in aviator resilience and safetyproducing behaviors. Under Space 

Act Agreement SAA1-23831, SWS 

researchers are working together 

with Boeing and various airlines 

to better understand human 

contributions to safety in various 

facets of commercial aviation. 

IASMS Research 

Transition Team Kickoff 

Meeting with the FAA

POC: KYLE ELLIS AND MISTY DAVIES

The System-Wide Safety 

project’s In-Time Aviation Safety 

Management System (IASMS) 

Concept of Operations (ConOps) 

development team met with FAA 

technical leadership on Oct. 1 

to kick off the IASMS Research 

Transition Team (RTT) ConOps 

sub-group. The IASMS RTT 

ConOps sub-group is responsible 

for ensuring a close relationship 

between NASA and the FAA in 

expanding the IASMS concept 

collaboratively developed by NASA 

and the broader global aviation 

industry during the past two 

years. Version 1 of the IASMS 

ConOps was published in June 

2020 with a focus on the Urban 

Air Mobility operational domain. 

The Aeronautics Research Mission 

Directorate has requested the 

concepts presented in that initial 

publication be expanded and 

applied to transform the overall 

National Airspace System across 

all envisioned future operational 

domains. The ConOps subgroup will deliver a Version 2 of 

the expanded IASMS ConOps 

published jointly by NASA and 
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

the FAA. The IASMS RTT 

ConOps sub-group members 

include co-chair Kyle Ellis, Jessica 

Nowinski, Lawrence Prinzel, 

Robert Mah, and Paul Krois 

(consultant) representing NASA, 

and co-chair Timothy Evans, Scott 

LeMay, Aleta Best, and Richard 

Pittaway representing the FAA. 

The IASMS concept of operations 

supports ARMD’s Strategic Thrust 

#5, “In-Time System-Wide Safety 

Assurance,” with reference research 

and development executed under 

the System-Wide Safety project. 

ATD-2 Fuser Technology Now 

Available via NASA Open 

Source Agreement License 

POC: JANE THIPPHAVONG

On Oct. 13, the Airspace 

Technology Demonstration 2 

(ATD-2) team released a core 

component of its software known 

as the “Fuser” under an opensource license on GitHub (NASA 

Open Source Agreement v1.3). In 

collaboration with the National Air 

Traffic Controllers Association, FAA, 

and industry over the past five years, 

NASA has developed and operated 

an integrated arrival, departure, and 

surface (IADS) traffic management 

system for complex terminal 

environments. The Fuser provides a 

foundational service to the ATD-2/

IADS components by consolidating 

many different sources of aviation 

data into a single, mediated source 

for use by other traffic management 

software components. To accomplish 

this, the Fuser aggregates multiple 

FAA data sources, airline data, 

and third-party data into a single 

harmonized source. All information 

that’s gathered is organized by 

individual flight (i.e. one takeoff 

and one landing) using the Globally 

Unique Flight Identifier as the key. 

As each new message is received by 

the Fuser, the fused flight is updated. 

Clean and accurate data is assured 

through the use of transformation 

and mediation processes that enforce 

business rules on the received 

data. ATD-2 components rely on 

the Fuser database as a “System 

of Record,” providing a single 

interface for access to data from 

many different origins. The Fuser 

software provides a service common 

to many facets of the aviation 

industry. Industry feedback received 

during System Wide Information 

Management Industry - FAA Team 

meetings and the ATD-2 Industry 

Workshop highlighted the challenge 

of managing multiple aviation 

data sources for use in traffic 

management systems. By releasing 

the Fuser source code under an open 

source agreement, NASA provides 

industry direct access to the Fuser 

technology that has been refined 

over many years. 

Additional information on the Fuser 

and the functionality it provides can 

be found here: 

https://aviationsystems.arc.nasa.

gov/atd2-industry-workshop/

fuser/ATD-2-IndustryWorkshop-DocumentationOutline_81565170.html 

ATD-2 Fuser GitHub page: 

https://github.com/nasa/atd2-fuser

NASA Presents ASRS-UAS 

Safety Reporting Capability 

at UAS Team Plenary

POC: BECKY HOOEY AND MISTY DAVIES

Becky Hooey, program director of 

NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting 

Systems (ASRS), participated in the 

Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team 

(UAST) plenary meeting on Oct. 

15. The UAST is a government/

industry group chartered in 2016 

to develop consensus-based and 

data-driven safety enhancements for 

unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) 

and operations. The team consists 

of more than 75 leaders representing 

organizations that span the UAS 

community from the FAA, NASA, 

and industry. Hooey described 

her team’s work to enhance 

ASRS to enable better reporting 

of UAS incidents, including the 

development of a UAS-specific 

report form and augmentation of 

the existing ASRS taxonomy. The 

UAS-specific reporting capability is 

scheduled to launch in early 2021 

and is expected to yield a rich data 

source that can be used by the FAA, 

NASA, industry, and academia to 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

identify safety-relevant trends and 

incident precursors. This effort 

is extending an existing safety 

capability to include UAS and is 

represented jointly by Hooey and 

Steve Young, who is also a member 

of the UAST. 

Fatigue Tracking App 

Now Available in the 

Apple App Store 

POC: ERIN FLYNN-EVANS AND MISTY DAVIES

On Oct. 16, the Fatigue Counter 

Measures Lab within the SystemWide Safety project, led by Erin 

NASA PVT+ App

Flynn-Evans of NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California, has 

released the NASA Psychomotor 

Vigilance Task (PVT+) app, now 

available for free in the Apple App 

Store. The app provides a tool to 

assess a participant’s fatigue level on 

a real-time basis and support research 

on the point at which fatigue impacts 

alertness. All data is stored locally on 

the device that the participant uses 

to collect the data – not in the cloud 

or NASA. Most importantly, the 

app does not collect any personally 

identifiable information. The app 

represents a years-long culmination of 

research and development ensuring 

that the PVT test would replicate the 

types administered in labs. The app 

also provides an opportunity to have 

consistent and reliable data among 

airlines and research institutions 

studying fatigue to improve the ability 

to generalize results across studies. 

ATD-2 Ramp Traffic Features 

Included in Aerobahn 

User Tool for TFDM

POC: YOON JUNG

On Oct. 21, ATD-2 researchers 

participated in the second Aerobahn 

Terminal Flight Data Manager 

(TFDM) workshop, hosted by Saab 

Sensis Corporation. Saab Sensis is 

developing a tool powered by their 

Aerobahn product providing users 

with an interface to communicate 

with TFDM. The goal of the 

workshop was to bring together 

future users identified by the FAA’s 

early TFDM implementation 

waterfall, including major airlines 

and airports, to provide updates on 

the user tool and solicit feedback. 

The design of the ATD-2 Ramp 

Traffic Console and Ramp Manager 

Traffic Console has been transferred 

to the FAA and industry as part 

of the ATD-2 technology transfer 

during the past five years. Saab 

Sensis incorporated features from 

NASA’s ATD-2 Ramp Consoles in 

the Aerobahn user tool, including 

the surface metering indicator 

and flight data tag. During the 

meeting, Saab Sensis conducted 

a comprehensive demonstration 

using simulated traffic at Los 

Angeles International Airport. 

The Aerobahn tool also includes 

updating airlines’ earliest off-block 

times and substitution requests 

for surface metering programs, as 

well as displaying target off-block 

times and target movement area 

entry times generated by TFDM. 

The main display of the user tool 

consists of a flight table, map 

display, and surface metering 

statistics. The flight table lists 

the flights affected by the surface 

metering program and allows 

airport ramp personnel to monitor 

the status of each departure, update 

earliest off-block times, or submit 

substitution requests to TFDM. The 

map display shows aircraft parked 

at gates and taxiing. The workshop 

allowed for fruitful collaboration 

5
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

among various stakeholders and a 

follow-on meeting is planned for 

early next year. 

Scenario 1-Tested 

NPSU Delivered to 

National Campaign

POC: ARWA AWEISS

On Oct. 29, the Air Traffic 

Management Exploration project’s 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Airspace 

Management sub-project team 

successfully released a version of 

an airspace management system 

for UAM. The NASA Provider 

of Services for UAM (NPSU) 

was delivered to the Advanced 

Air Mobility project’s National 

Campaign (NC) sub-project for 

testing. The NPSU is a newly 

developed software component 

designed and developed by the UAM 

team for use in flight test events such 

as NC Developmental Testing and 

other planned NC events, as well as 

other research activities internal and 

external to the UAM sub-project. 

UAM will continue to develop 

the NPSU to provide additional 

functionalities needed by NC and 

release the NPSU in an iterative 

manner to reduce the overhead 

necessary for integration. 

Acoustics Technical and UAM 

Noise Working Group Meeting

POC: JINHUA LI

On Nov. 5, the Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) sub-project within the Air 

Traffic Management Exploration 

project unveiled its latest work 

utilizing AIRNOISE-UAM, a 

NASA-developed tool that models 

and predicts the local and regional 

noise impact of UAM operations. 

In a virtual presentation at the 

Acoustics Technical and UAM Noise 

Working Group meeting hosted 

by NASA’s Glenn Research Center 

in Cleveland, Jinhua Li of NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California 

presented a noise-aware flight 

planning capability that leverages 

the AIRNOISE-UAM capability. 

The presentation drew more 

than 100 attendees from the FAA, 

NASA, and industry. The audience 

expressed interest in the availability 

of AIRNOISE-UAM outside NASA. 

The working group’s focus is to 

reduce or eliminate the impacts 

of UAM noise on the community, 

and its next meeting will be held 

in April 2021. AIRNOISE-UAM 

was developed in collaboration 

with NASA’s Revolutionary Vertical 

Lift Technology project, which 

developed the aircraft noise model. 

SWS Holds Collaboration 

Meetings with 

American Airlines

POC: LANCE PRINZEL, MISTY 

DAVIES, CHAD STEPHENS

AND IMMANUAL BARSHI

The System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project held several collaboration 

meetings with American Airlines 

during the past quarter. The 

SWS project team conducted a 

comprehensive preliminary needs 

assessment to help identify airline 

industry COVID-19 responses 

and recovery needs. As part of the 

assessment, collaborative efforts 

have begun to determine what 

existing knowledge, skills, and 

capabilities or ongoing efforts 

can be leveraged to provide nearterm, exigent help to airlines. SWS 

project leadership and researchers 

met with safety captains, managers, 

and executives from American 

Airlines to better understand the 

needs of the airline, and initiate 

coordinated planning efforts 

focused on mutually agreed upon 

solutions. The first collaboration 

meeting, held on Oct. 1, was a 

continuation of these efforts and 

focused on further discussions to 

target potential areas of support. 

The result of the meeting was an 

identification of ways in which 

NASA and American Airlines 

could collaborate and partner on 

specific airline needs. The multicenter meeting with American 

Airlines personnel included Ron 

Thomas, Vice President of Safety; 

Neil Raaz, Director of Operations 

Safety; John Duncan, Director of 

Flight Training and Standards; Guy 

Mouton, Senior Manager for Safety 

Management System and Line 

Operations Safety Audits; David 

Hitte, COVID-19 Response Team; 

Deborah Decker, Chief Pilot at 

Dallas-Fort Worth International 

Airport; Ted Rogachuk, Manager of 

Safety; and John Dudley, Managing 

Director of Flight Operations. 

Eleven NASA team members 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

participated, including the project 

leadership team and technical leads. 

A follow-on meeting was held 

Nov. 5 in which SWS researchers 

and American Airlines safety 

representatives met for a working 

group brainstorming session. The 

group discussed the causal factors 

associated with specific safety events 

increasing in incidence during preflight and push-back that the airline 

has observed in Aviation Safety 

Action Program reports. Safety data 

and incident reports indicate a 

significant increase in the number 

of errors made during completion 

of checklists and other procedures. 

SWS experts are working together 

with various airlines’ safety 

departments to better understand 

the reason for the increase in 

safety events and identify possible 

prescriptions to countermand them. 

A detailed approach to addressing 

the problem and a set of potential 

approaches were agreed to at this 

meeting. Collaborative efforts 

are continuing as part of a larger 

SWS project effort to help the 

airlines with safety issues due to 

COVID-19 impacts and return-toservice concerns. 

AdaStress Tool Helps 

Identify Error in ACAS-Xu

POC: GUILLAUME BRAT AND RITCHIE LEE

System-Wide Safety’s AdaStress tool 

helped the project team identify 

a serious error in the reference 

implementation for the Airborne 

Collision Avoidance System X 

unmanned (ACAS-Xu), the ACAS 

version for remotely piloted aircraft 

systems, incorporating horizontal 

resolution maneuvers. The SystemWide Safety team is submitting this 

report to the Johns Hopkins team 

implementing ACAS-Xu for the 

FAA in November. The AdaStress 

team was the first to identify the 

issue. Innovations on adaptive stress 

testing by Ritchie Lee of NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California 

are a key step towards making the 

software development process safer 

and making it easier to catch subtle 

problems before deployment. Last 

summer, due to previous successes, 

Lee was asked to collaborate with 

the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics 

Laboratory development team, which 

is developing the reference versions 

of ACAS-X for the FAA, to help with 

the verification and validation of 

ACAS-Xu. While applying AdaStress, 

Lee and his assistant Rory Lipkis 

showed that the code was generating 

coordination conditions correctly, 

but did not act on the received 

coordination correctly. Specifically, 

the system was not recognizing 

the opposing intruder as a Master, 

and thus would not defer to their 

coordination. Lee’s team was the first 

one to unearth this problem, which 

has since been corrected for the 

next version of ACAS-Xu. The new 

version is a significant achievement 

because it will serve as the reference 

implementation for industry to 

develop a commercial version of 

ACAS-Xu. 

NASA/FAA Human Factors RTT 

Panel Discussion on AAM

POC: JON HOLBROOK AND MISTY DAVIES

Jon Holbrook of NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia and Bill 

Kaliardos of the FAA moderated a 

panel discussion at the System-Wide 

Safety Human Factors Research 

Transition Team (HF RTT) meeting 

on Nov. 10. The HF RTT will use 

information garnered from this 

activity to coordinate cross-agency 

human factors research efforts. 

Panelists included Wes Ryan and 

Nouri Ghazavi of the FAA, Kenneth 

Goodrich and Natasha Neogi of 

NASA Langley, and Mike Feary 

of NASA’s Ames Research Center 

in California. The goal of the HF 

RTT is to identify and prioritize 

specific human factors/humansystems integration research issues 

and gaps in Advanced Air Mobility. 

Panelists were asked to provide 

their perspectives on Advanced Air 

Mobility and the critical gaps in 

knowledge that need to be filled to 

enable it. Panelist briefings were 

followed by open discussion with 

attendees, including civil servant 

human factors researchers from 

NASA and the FAA. 

ATD-2 Phase 3 Update for 

Collaborative Decision 

Making General Session

POC: JEREMY COUPE AND GREG JURO

On Nov. 17, Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) 

partners provided an update on 

7
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

the Phase 3 Field Demonstration 

at the 2020 Collaborative Decision 

Making (CDM) Annual General 

Session meeting. CDM is a joint 

government/industry initiative 

aimed at improving air traffic flow 

management through increased 

information exchange among 

aviation community stakeholders. 

Two CDM teams (Surface CDM 

team and Flow Evaluation team) 

have a joint task to work with NASA 

to facilitate the transfer of ATD-2 

knowledge and technology. These 

two teams include representatives 

from most US air carriers (cargo and 

freight), business aviation, academia, 

several major airports, and the FAA. 

The briefing updated the CDM 

community on accomplishments 

from the past year and outlined steps 

being taken to ensure maximum 

impact from a FY 2021 project 

extension that was granted due 

to the impact of COVID-19. 

Highlights of the briefing included 

a shift in strategy for training 

from in-person to a 100% virtual 

training environment starting in 

March 2020 and the development 

of tailored online training videos 

and material for each field facility. 

Collaborative tabletop exercises are 

being conducted with the airline 

operators as an additional training 

tool, and to better understand 

their decision-making and internal 

coordination processes required 

to submit Trajectory Options Set 

(TOS) reroutes. New TOS metrics 

were presented that highlight the 

increased number of use cases that 

these metrics will enable, including 

the aggregate system level benefits 

and the probability of delay savings 

exceeding the relative trajectory 

cost. Additionally, the introduction 

of a new use case was outlined, 

extending the TOS concept from 

the origin departure airport all 

the way to the downstream arrival 

airport. Lastly, the briefing described 

NASA’s strategy for developing 

and transferring a suite of machine 

learning microservices that embody 

the core capabilities of the ATD-2 

surface trajectory-based operations 

surface model. Machine learning 

services will form the building 

blocks of a scalable National 

Airspace System TOS digital reroute 

capability and are intended to be 

transferred to the FAA, industry, and 

the aviation community. 

Future PAAV Simulation 

to Work With FAA

POC: ROB FONG

The Pathfinding for Airspace with 

Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) 

sub-project, part of the Air Traffic 

Management Exploration project, 

completed four informal interviews 

with FAA representatives to 

understand their perspectives with 

respect to challenges for integrating 

unmanned aircraft cargo into the 

National Airspace System. The final 

interview was completed on Nov. 20 

and included members from Flight 

Standards, Air-Traffic Organization, 

and the FAA William J. Hughes 

Technical Center. PAAV will use the 

insights obtained from the interviews 

to bolster research questions. 

Community Integration 

Working Groups Meeting

POC: IAN LEVITT

On Dec. 3, one of a series of 

meetings of the Community 

Integration Working Group: 

Supplemental Data Service 

Providers (SDSP) took place. This 

meeting focused on the topic of 

weather and was co-hosted by the 

Airspace Working Group. These 

groups are two of the four Advanced 

Air Mobility Ecosystem Working 

Groups that kicked off in the spring 

of 2020. Three speakers presented 

at this meeting. The first, Marcus 

Johnson of NASA’s Advanced Air 

Mobility project, shared SDSP 

lessons from the Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems Traffic Management 

(UTM) Concept of Operations. Ian 

Levitt, principal engineer of the 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) subproject, provided an overview of 

weather impacts to airspace services 

and SDSP, as well as the current 

gaps in UAM research, development, 

test, and evaluation. The final 

speaker, Edward Lester from 

AiRXOS (part of GE Aviation), 

discussed SDSP and UTM Service 

Suppliers interactions in the UTM 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

environment. The meeting was 

livestreamed on YouTube and 

attended by 105 participants. The 

Community Integration Working 

Group forum encourages dialogue 

with industry on issues facing the 

UAM community. As part of a series 

on weather, this meeting provided 

the Air Traffic Management 

Exploration project the opportunity 

to bring real-world assumptions 

into the research environment. The 

importance of “shifting left” in the 

area of weather-related services was 

highlighted as essential to successful 

commercialization and operation of 

the UAM concept. 

ATM-X CTM Sub-Project Holds 

Meetings with Stakeholders

POC: JAEWOO JUNG

The Air Traffic Management 

Exploration (ATM-X) project’s 

Collaborative Traffic Management 

(CTM) sub-project Upper-E Traffic 

Management (ETM) team held 

several meetings with stakeholders 

this past quarter. The first meeting 

was with Swift Engineering on 

Oct. 6. During the meeting, Swift 

Engineering provided information 

regarding their support of NASA’s 

Science Mission Directorate, 

particularly the High Altitude Long 

Endurance (HALE) unmanned 

aircraft being developed. The 

ATM-X project is working with 

the FAA in maturing the ETM 

Concept of Operations (ConOps) 

Version 1 published in May 2020. 

Understanding HALE operations 

provides valuable information as part 

of this effort. Further discussions are 

planned in the near future. 

On Oct. 23, the CTM team met 

with representatives from the FAA 

and industry in one of a series of 

meetings to discuss ETM concepts 

and develop them further. In this 

meeting, the industry’s approach to 

cooperative operation plan conflict 

identification, negotiation for 

equitable access, the FAA’s ETM 

ConOps maturation approach, 

and NASA’s fast time simulation 

capability were discussed. A 

follow-on meeting was tentatively 

scheduled for December 2020. 

Subsequently, the CTM team 

presented their work at the fourth 

Federal Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(UAS) workshop held Nov. 17–19 

by the United States Geological 

Survey National Innovation 

Center. According to the workshop 

organizer, “this online event will 

showcase progress reports from 

federal partners, new technology 

capabilities going forward in 

industry, standardization efforts, 

and growing the domestic UAS 

industry with Defense Innovation 

Unit.” The CTM team discussed 

their approach in ETM research 

and development as part of the 

emerging new technology track on 

Nov. 18, presenting an overview 

of research currently underway for 

ETM. The presentation followed 

the day’s first session that was 

dedicated to presentations from 

four HALE aircraft companies 

and their updates on development 

and testing. The combination 

of these presentations and the 

maturity of platforms highlighted 

the importance of the ATM-X 

CTM work to develop an airspace 

management approach for Upper 

Class E airspace. 

As a follow-on to the Oct. 23 

meeting, the ETM team met again 

with representatives from the FAA 

and industry on Dec. 10 – the 

latest in a series of gatherings to 

discuss and further develop ETM 

concepts. At this meeting, the 

industry’s approach to cooperative 

operation intent conflict 

identification and negotiation 

for equitable access was discussed 

further as a continuation of the 

October conversation. A scenario 

involving a balloon and a HALE 

unmanned aircraft with plans for 

operations in the same airspace 

at the same time was presented, 

and ways to resolve the potential 

operational plan conflict were 

discussed. NASA’s ETM modeling 

and simulation effort for next year 

was also presented and discussed. A 

follow-on meeting was scheduled 

tentatively for February 2021. 
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

PAAV Sub-Project Publishes 

Request for Information

POC: ROB FONG

The Pathfinding for Airspace for 

Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) 

sub-project within the Air Traffic 

Management Exploration project 

published a Request for Information 

(RFI) on Dec. 10. The objective of 

the RFI is to learn about industry 

plans to invest in remotely piloted 

and autonomous cargo operations, 

understand the challenges that 

must be addressed, and help 

PAAV determine a comprehensive 

partnership strategy to engage 

industry. PAAV is specifically 

interested in potential industry 

partnerships to help guide the 

development of a comprehensive 

concept of operations for 

commercially viable operations, 

which will guide NASA research 

as well as potential partnerships to 

conduct collaborative flight tests 

and demonstrations with NASA. 

The response date for this RFI is 

January 29, 2021. 

UAM X-3 Scenario-3 

Testing with Industry 

Partners Completed

POC: SPENCER MONHEIM

On Oct. 30, the Air Traffic 

Management Exploration Project’s 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) subproject started its third and final 

phase of testing in the X-3 series of 

lab tests with airspace partners to 

prepare them for the Advanced Air 

Mobility National Campaign (NC) 

scheduled for 2022. This phase of 

testing will focus on NC Scenario-3 

that involves contingency use cases 

for aircraft landing on the surface 

of the airport, such as requiring a 

UAM flight to perform a go-around 

or land on an alternate flight pad 

due to the primary landing pad 

being occupied. All of these use cases 

will require the industry partners 

to re-plan their original operations 

mid-flight. X-3 testing started with 

Scenario-1 on Aug. 30 and allowed 

industry partners to schedule their 

data collection on any available 

scenario through December based 

on their readiness. Scenario-2 was 

made available Sept. 30. On Oct. 21, 

industry partners were briefed on the 

test procedures for Scenario-3 that 

will be required prior to commencing 

Scenario-3 data collection scheduled 

for Oct. 30. At that time, partners 

were able to schedule Scenario-3 for 

data collection. 

On Dec. 10, testing for the X-3 

simulation with the National 

Campaign airspace partners was 

successfully completed. Airspace 

partners included Avision, Anra, 

Onesky, University of North Texas, 

Metron, Uber, AirXos, Collins, 

GeoRq, Ellis and Associates, and 

Airmap. Testing with airspace 

partners was the capstone 

component of the X-3 simulation, 

in which private sector partners 

demonstrate their capabilities in 

managing UAM operations in a 

simulated airspace. Data collected 

in the X-3 simulation serves a 

multitude of purposes, including 

helping the selection of NC-1 

airspace partners for the X-4 

simulation in 2021 and NC-1 flight 

test in 2022; providing valuable 

research data to NASA, FAA, and 

industry; and helping to define 

improvements that needed in 

the airspace system for X-4 and 

NC-1 flight test. Three scenarios 

were selected for X-3, with an 

expectation that most airspace 

partners would not be advanced 

enough in their airspace systems 

to complete all three scenarios. 

Despite this, two airspace partners 

completed all three scenarios, four 

partners completed or partially 

completed two scenarios, and seven 

partners completed or partially 

completed at least one scenario.

DARPA Automated Rapid 

Certification of Software 

Project First Phase Review

POC: PAUL MINER, MALLORY GRAYDON

AND NATASHA NEOGI

System-Wide Safety team members 

Mallory Graydon, Paul Miner, and 

Natasha Neogi participated in 

the extensive government review 

of the first phase of work in the 

Defense Advanced Research Project 

Administration’s Automated 

Rapid Certification of Software 

(DARPA ARCOS) project. ARCOS 

is investigating technologies 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

for producing, managing, and 

documenting certification evidence 

in the form of safety cases. The 

review of ARCOS participants’ 

progress and products will help 

ensure the government’s need is met 

for facilitating rapid, cost-effective 

certification of safety- and securitycritical software intensive systems. 

The government panel review was 

held virtually in eight sessions of 

two hours each beginning Nov. 30 

and ending Dec. 10. Additionally, 

the group attended the ARCOS 

principal investigator meeting held 

virtually Dec. 14-15. 

ATD-2 Conducts Stormy 

2021 Training Exercises 

with Flight Operators 

POC: GREG JURO

The Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) team 

conducted several Stormy 2021 

training sessions this past quarter. 

The first interaction for the team 

was with American Airlines and 

Southwest Airlines on Oct. 6 and 

Nov. 16, respectively. Both exercises 

were conducted virtually and 

remote connections to the ATD-2 

system were utilized. The tabletop 

exercises were designed to simulate 

flight operators’ use of the Trajectory 

Option Set technology embedded in 

the ATD-2 system. These exercises 

are being utilized as a training 

resource in addition to the handson and video training that has 

been previously provided. Realistic 

traffic and weather scenarios were 

simulated that resulted in the 

flight operators assessing reroute 

opportunities to reduce delay. 

The team used the opportunities 

created by the simulations to 

reinforce important aspects of 

the ATD-2 system, including the 

elements that provide accurate 

and timely information to assist in 

making informed and beneficial 

reroute decisions. Additionally, the 

flight operators relayed valuable 

information to the ATD-2 team 

on the coordination they must 

accomplish when assessing and 

submitting a reroute. 

A follow-on tabletop session was 

scheduled for the first three weeks 

of December. The session included 

seven sessions of virtual training 

to Air Traffic Coordinators at 

Envoy Air and Traffic Management 

Coordinators (TMC) at Dallas 

Fort Worth International Airport 

(DFW) tower. Four training 

sessions were conducted with the 

coordinators at Envoy Air, and 

three were conducted with TMC’s 

at DFW Tower. Training sessions 

for Envoy Air included an overview 

of the objectives of ATD-2, Phase 3, 

demonstrations of ATD-2’s various 

tools, and extensive instruction on 

using TOS tables – designed to 

make it easy for the flight operator 

to identify a flight that could 

be rerouted to attain efficiency 

benefits. The training sessions 

for DFW tower included detailed 

explanations of the new elements 

recently added to ATD-2, as well 

as refresher training on how to 

approve a Trajectory Option Set 

request submitted by the flight 

operator. Additionally, the training 

sessions emphasized the benefits 

of a entering a taxi plan into the 

ATD-2 system as far in advance 

as operationally feasible. Finally, a 

demonstration was provided on how 

flight operators utilize aggregate 

delay savings to assess the benefits of 

submitting a reroute. 
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020

RECOGNITION

SWS Deputy Moderates AAM 

Ecosystem Crosscutting 

Working Group – Autonomy 

Needs Panel 

POC: MISTY DAVIES AND JOHN KOELLING

On Oct. 7, Misty Davies, deputy 

project manager for the SystemWide Safety project, moderated a 

panel of experts at the Advanced 

Air Mobility (AAM) Ecosystem 

Crosscutting Working Group – 

Autonomy Needs panel. The panel 

of experts included Lael Rudd 

and Ella Atkins of the National 

Academies Committee for Autonomy 

Research in Aviation; Léonard 

Bouygues, Head of Aviation Strategy 

at Loon; Hunter Hudson, Head of 

Autonomy Technology at Northrop 

Grumman; and Parimal Kopardekar, 

director of the NASA Aeronautics 

Research Institute. The panelists 

shared their views on autonomy 

and its role for the proposed Urban 

Air Mobility demonstration tests 

UML-2 and UML-4. Key issues 

brought up by the panel included 

the need for automation and 

autonomy in order to achieve UML4, and that the safety assurance of 

Cross-Cutting Working Group: Autonomy Panel

automation and autonomy was a 

key barrier for achieving AAM. The 

session gathered much interest as 

evidenced by the 114 participants 

who joined the virtual event. 

SWS and Others Contribute 

Substantially to DASC

POC: LYNNE MARTIN, TERRY MORRIS

AND MISTY DAVIES

The 39th Digital Avionics Systems 

Conference (DASC) was held 

virtually this year from Oct. 11-16 

(https://2020.dasconline.org). The 

conference focused on research and 

reports from the aviation and space 

domains. NASA contributed to the 

presentations with 27 papers and 

assisting in the organization and 

running of the conference. Sessions 

were held on verification and 

validation, safety certification, and 

design assurance, with a clear focus 

on small Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(sUAS) operations and Urban Air 

Mobility autonomy and automation.

The System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project group included team 

members Terry Morris, Steve 

Young, Evan Dill, and Ersin Ansel, 

who all chaired sessions at the 

conference. Terry Morris assisted 

with conference organization.

SWS-sponsored research was 

awarded Best Paper of Session 

and Best Student Paper with 

“Adaptive Stress Testing of Trajectory 

Predictions in Flight Management 

Systems” by Robert Moss and 

Mykel Kochenderfer of Stanford 

Intelligent Systems; Ritchie Lee 

of NASA’s Ames Research Center 

in California; Nicholas Visser and 

Joachim Hochwarth of GE Aviation; 

and James Lopez of GE Global 

Research. The paper was presented in 

the verification and validation session 

and reported on a technique called 

Adaptive Stress Testing, which finds 

failure events and their likelihoods in 

flight critical systems. Corey Ippolito 

from Scalable Traffic Management 

for Emergency Response Operations 

(STEReO), an activity within 

NASA Aeronautics’ Transformation 

Aeronautics Concepts Program, took 

part in a panel moderated by Terry 

Morris to discuss the use of UAS 

in emergency response operations. 

Ippolito introduced some of the 

challenges in emergency response 

to large events such as wildfires, and 

described STEReO’s five-pronged 

approach of advancing UAS Traffic 

Management (UTM) services, aircraft 

autonomy, communications, humansystem interaction, and domain 

expertise. Best Paper was awarded 

to “Human-System Interaction 

Issues and Proposed Solutions to 

Promote Successful Maturation 

of the UTM system” by Cynthia 

Wolter, Lynne Martin, and Kim 

Jobe of NASA Ames. The paper was 

presented in the UAS and Future 

Concepts session and discussed 

the takeaway operator-interaction 

issues observed over five years of 

Technology Capability Level (TCL) 

flight demonstrations conducted to 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020 13

RECOGNITION

test the UTM system. The SWS 

Supplemental Data Service Provider 

research team was looped into the 

final two years of this work and 

may use the TCL-4 data (final year 

of data collection) in their model 

testing. Two papers that won Best 

of Session involved researchers from 

NASA’s Langley Research Center in 

Virginia in conjunction with other 

NASA centers, aerospace companies, 

and academic institutions where 

the research contained detailed 

results from the Automation 

and Information Management 

Experiments. Best of Session Paper 

in the Automation Session of the 

Human Factors Track was awarded to 

“Evaluation of Onboard System State 

and Path Awareness Technologies 

During Transport Operations” by 

Timothy J. Etherington, Lynda J. 

Kramer, Renee C. Lake, Thomas 

Schnell, Randall J. Mumaw, Lance 

Sherry, Matthew B. Cover, and 

Tom Evans. Best of Session Paper 

in the Displays II Session of the 

Human Factors Track was awarded 

to “Simulation Study of Technology 

for Predicted Flight Deck Alerting of 

Energy” by Timothy J. Etherington, 

Lynda J. Kramer, Laura SmithValazquez, and Maarten Uijt de Haag.

SWS Participates at 

International Air Safety 

Summit Virtual Global Event 

POC: JON HOLBROOK AND MISTY DAVIES

On Oct. 21, researcher Jon Holbrook 

of NASA’s Langley Research Center 

Invited Speakers, International Air Safety Summit Event

in Virginia participated as an 

invited panelist in the International 

Air Safety Summit Virtual Global 

Event, sponsored by the Flight 

Safety Foundation. The goal of the 

event was to propose new directions 

for safety risk reductions and 

exchange information in the areas of 

safety, training, practical solutions, 

management, and human factors. 

Participants in the summit included 

scheduled airlines, manufacturers 

and equipment suppliers, trainers, 

flight crews, maintenance personnel, 

and industry executives. In his 

briefing, Holbrook described the 

focus of his System-Wide Safety 

project team on systematically 

collecting and analyzing data on 

safety-producing behaviors to 

support development of in-time 

safety assurance applications. 

Appearing on the panel with 

Holbrook were Martin Plumbleigh 

of Boeing, James Kwasny and Guy 

Mouton of American Airlines, and 

Dieter Reisinger of Austrian Airlines.

Misty Davies Asked to 

Participate on Round Table 

on Autonomous Systems 

POC: MISTY DAVIES

On Nov. 5, Misty Davies, deputy 

project manager of System-Wide 

Safety, served as a subject matter 

expert on a panel titled “A Round 

Table on Autonomous Systems.” 

This panel was part of the annual 

System Safety Conference held 

virtually by the International 

System Safety Society. The primary 

question each panelist was asked 

to address was “what should we 

do to foster, guide, or otherwise 

engage to ensure there is a suitably 

wide and robust path forward 

to address the system safety 
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020

RECOGNITION

interests in autonomy?” Davies 

highlighted NASA’s In-Time 

Aviation Safety Management 

System concept and contributed to 

the broader discussion about the 

challenges of ensuring safety for 

increasingly autonomous systems. 

Invited Talk for Guidance 

& Control Algorithm 

Verification & Validation 

POC: NATASHA NEOGI AND CHRISTINE BELCASTRO

Christine Belcastro and Natasha 

Neogi of NASA’s Langley Research 

Center in Virginia were invited 

to give talks at the prestigious 

Inter-Agency Guidance & Control 

Algorithm Verification & Validation 

Seminar Series held Nov. 10. The 

seminar series is a joint InterAgency initiative between the 

European Space Agency, National 

Center for Space Studies, German 

Aerospace Center, French Aerospace 

Lab, and NASA to exchange 

experience and information 

in verification and validation 

techniques for space guidance, 

navigation, and controls systems 

and attitude and orbit control 

systems. The invitation came 

courtesy of Cornelius Dennehy, 

NASA’s capability leadership team 

lead for guidance and control. The 

talk summarized research performed 

under NASA Aeronautics’ Aviation 

Operations and Safety Program, 

specifically, follow-on research 

for the verification and validation 

of safety-critical aircraft system 

technologies developed for 

loss-of-control prevention and 

recovery, increasingly autonomous 

systems, and a broad assurance 

capability in both current and 

emerging aviation applications. 

SWS Turns Out for Annual 

Conference of the PHM Society

POC: LYNNE MARTIN, PORTIA BANERJEE

AND STEVE YOUNG

System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

researchers of the Diagnostics 

and Prognostics group and 

others participated at the Annual 

Conference of the Prognostics and 

Health Management Society on 

Nov. 9-13. The conference brings 

together a global community of 

prognostics and health management 

experts from industry, academia, 

and government in diverse 

application areas such as, but 

not limited to, energy, aerospace, 

transportation, automotive, smart 

manufacturing, industry artificial 

intelligence, and human health and 

performance. Chetan Kulkarni of 

NASA’s Ames Research Center in 

California was the co-chair of the 

technical committee that overlooks 

all the technical content for the 

conference. Held virtually, the 

conference had a successful turnout 

with more than 200 registered 

attendees, 70 papers, and 6 panels 

ranging from smart communities to 

space applications. Matteo Corbetta 

and George Gorospe organized 

and presented “From Raw Data to 

Prognosis: A Hands-on Tutorial.” 

This tutorial, one of the highlights 

of the conference, was attended 

by more than 70 participants. It 

introduced the audience to a 

practical implementation of stateof-the-art methods for prognostics 

by presenting a hands-on example 

using Python programming 

language. The exercise was solved 

by implementing Gaussian process 

regression (a data-driven approach) 

to predict the behavior of a time 

series far ahead in the future. SWS 

researchers chaired multiple sessions 

at the conference including the 

following: Session 1: Monitoring 

and Diagnostic Methods by Portia 

Banerjee; Session 2: Prognostics 

Methods and Algorithms by 

George Gorospe and Chetan 

Kulkarni; Session 4: Electric and 

Autonomous Vehicles by Matteo 

Corbetta; and Session 6: Deep 

Learning Methods and Applications 

by Chetan Kulkarni. Additionally, 

five papers by SWS researchers 

were presented at the conference: 

“Enhancing Fault Isolation for 

Health Monitoring of Electric 

Aircraft Propulsion by Embedding 

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis 

into Bayesian Networks” by C. 

Kulkarni et al.; “Risk Assessment of 

Obstacle Collision for UAVs Under 

Off-nominal Conditions” by P. 

Banerjee et al.; “A Decision-Making 

Framework for Safe Operations of 

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Urban 

Environments” by C. Kulkarni 

in collaboration with Vanderbilt 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020 15

RECOGNITION

University; “Modeling Exponential 

Decay in Maximum Capacitance 

Across Specified Flight Patterns 

in Small Aircraft” by C. Kulkarni 

in collaboration with Pete Rigas 

from Cornell University; and 

“Position, Navigation, and Timing 

Technologies in the 21st Century,” 

Volumes I and II, Wiley-IEEE Press; 

1st ed., Oct. 2020 (Chapter on 

Commercial UAS by S. Young and 

E. Dill).

SWS Managers Serve 

as SMEs for Safety 

Management System Chat

POC: MISTY DAVIES AND JOHN KOELLING

On Dec. 2, System-Wide Safety 

project manager John Koelling 

and deputy project manager 

Misty Davies served as subject 

matter experts for a virtual panel 

titled “Safety Management System 

Coffee Chat.” The panel was part 

of the annual Business Aviation 

Convention & Exhibition held 

by the National Business Aviation 

Association (NBAA). The NBAA’s 

Safety Management System 

(SMS) ad-hoc committee has been 

working towards guidance and 

recommendations for business 

aviation partners who wish to 

include Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(UAS) as part of their business 

model. The goal of the session was to 

highlight the benefits and concerns 

inherent to SMS development for 

commercial UAS operations. 

Blue Skies Initiative 

Executive Committee 

Conversation and Update 

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKER

On Dec. 7, Parimal Kopardekar of 

the NASA Aeronautics Research 

Institute and other members of the 

Blue Skies Initiative (BSI) executive 

committee participated on a panel 

discussing the importance of BSI 

and what actions have been taken 

since its introduction last year. A 

collaborative effort by industry 

and government, BSI will deliver 

a future-ready framework for 

modernizing the National Airspace 

System that defines a short-, mid-, 

and long-term vision for aviation. 

The framework also ensures 

optimization of resources for all air 

traffic management stakeholders and 

users; is economically sustainable 

and scalable; educates the aviation 

community, flying public, and new 

users; and implements new entrant 

technology without sacrificing 

security and safety. The session 

was moderated by Peter Dumont, 

BSI Working Group Chair and 

Air Traffic Control Association 

president. https://www.atca.org/

atca-annual-agenda 

Parimal Kopardekar Speaks 

at Online Unmanned Cargo 

Aircraft Conference 

POC: PARIMAL KOPARDEKER

On Dec. 8, Parimal Kopardekar 

of the NASA Aeronautics 

Research Institute gave a talk, 

“Accommodating Unmanned 

Cargo Operations in the National 

Airspace System,” for the Unmanned 

Cargo Aircraft Conference. The 

presentation included considerations 

to safely and efficiently integrate 

unmanned cargo operations of all 

sizes into the national airspace system 

– focusing on specific concepts, 

technologies, and procedures 

related to aircraft, network 

operations centers, and air traffic 

management, as well as the needs of 

communications, navigation, and 

surveillance. The talk addressed 

interesting considerations within 

nominal and off-nominal scenarios.

For more program 

information, visit: https://

unmannedcargoaircraftconference.

com.

Misty Davies Featured in 

FierceElectronics Article 

POC: MISTY DAVIES

Misty Davies, deputy project 

manager of System-Wide 

Safety, was interviewed for the 

engineering information publication 

FierceElectronics in a Dec. 15 article 

titled “As Autonomous Aviation 

Systems Advance, NASA Seeks to 

Keep the Skies Safe.” Davies spoke 

about the future of aviation safety 

with regard to autonomous aircraft 

and discussed her role as outreach 

coordinator, as well as NASA’s 

roadmap, external collaboration, 
16 AOSP NEWSLETTER // OCT-DEC 2020

RECOGNITION

the role of humans in autonomous 

systems, and autonomous 

technology safety. Furthermore, 

she described NASA’s plans for 

ensuring that “as autonomous 

aviation systems proliferate . . . 

the commercial airline industry 

maintains its high level of safety.”

Misty Davies Moderates 

Panel on Safety and Security 

in Autonomous Technology

POC: MISTY DAVIES

On Dec. 16, Misty Davies, deputy 

project manager of System-Wide 

Safety, moderated a panel discussion 

with experts on safety and security 

in autonomous technology as part 

of the AutonomousTech Innovation 

Week. Panelists included Bill 

Taylor, Managing Director of kVA 

by UL (formerly Underwriters 

Laboratories); Steve Povolny, Head 

of Advanced Threat Research 

at McAfee; and Phil Magney, 

Founder and President of VSI 

Labs. Topics included how makers 

of autonomous vehicles could 

know when they have identified 

all safe and unsafe operating 

conditions, and a discussion of 

possible cybersecurity threats for 

autonomous vehicles. 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov