National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

AOSP Newsletter

Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)

APR-JUN 2022 | Quarter 3

ATD-2 Selected for the 

2022 World ATM Congress 

Sustainability Maverick 

3

SWS Presents IASMS Concept at 

Business Safety Summit Panel

13
2 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

AOSP IN THE NEWS

Citing Safety Concerns, 

Whistleblowers Urge 

Revamp of Aging Boeing 

737 MAX Cockpit

Seattle Times (4/19) reports “Last 

month, two prominent flight control 

experts and whistleblowers — one 

ex-Boeing, one ex-FAA — delivered 

to the U.S. Senate committee 

overseeing aviation a technical 

proposal to upgrade Boeing’s 737 

MAX cockpit to current design 

standards. ... A 2019 NASA report 

written by Randy Mumaw, a former 

senior Boeing human factors 

specialist, analyzed 18 in-flight 

accidents where pilots lost control 

of older aircraft, one- third of them 

737s, and identified a pilot-alerting 

failure in every case.”

Joby: Results of Noise Tests 

Show Aircraft Would Be 

Quiet Enough for Cities

Aerospace America (5/10) reports 

“Joby Aviation’s noise tests with 

NASA in August and September 

demonstrated that the company’s 

prototype electric passenger aircraft, 

the S4, met the company’s own 

sound level standards, Joby said 

today in a news release.”

Joby: NASA Tests Confirm 

eVTOL’s Low Noise

Aviation Week (5/19) reports 

“Acoustic testing completed with 

NASA last year confirmed the low 

noise profile of Joby Aviation’s 

tilt-prop electric vertical takeoff and 

landing air taxi, the startup said 

May 10.”

NASA Mulls Data Ecosystem 

to Help Drones, Air Taxis Make 

Critical Safety Decisions

DroneDJ (5/24) reports “we’re 

working toward a future where 

passenger air taxis and drone 

deliveries are to become a part of 

everyday mobility. But how will 

these autonomous systems access 

important information, such as 

deteriorating weather conditions, 

to complete each flight safely?”

NASA Mulls Data Ecosystem 

to Help Drones, Air Taxis Make 

Critical Safety Decisions

Space Daily (5/25) reports “in cities 

like Los Angeles or Atlanta, traffic 

often determines how early we 

wake up to travel to work, what 

time we plan to meet friends for 

dinner, or how long it will take to 

get to the airport. For trips between 

cities, a road trip to a relative’s 

house could take anywhere from 

four to six hours. NASA’s Advanced 

Air Mobility (AAM) mission is 

researching how the addition of 

AAM could cut traffic commutes, 

make travel more sustainable, and 

make road trips shorter.”
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 3

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

ATD-2 Selected for the 

2022 World ATM Congress 

Sustainability Maverick Award 

POC: SHAWN ENGELLAND

In late June, the Air Traffic 

Control Association and the 

Civil Air Navigation Services 

Organization, as partners in The 

World Air Traffic Management 

(ATM) Congress, have awarded 

the Sustainability Maverick Award 

to NASA’s Airspace Technology 

Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) project. 

The Sustainability Award recognizes 

leaders, initiatives, and organizations 

working toward reducing aviation’s 

impact on the environment and 

making significant contributions 

to improving the environmental 

footprint of aviation through ATM. 

“This year’s winner is NASA Ames 

Research Center. NASA’s Airspace 

Technology Demonstration 2 

(ATD-2) was a four-year (Sept. 2017 

– Sept. 2021) field demonstration of 

Integrated Arrival/Departure/Surface 

(IADS) technologies designed to 

improve the predictability and 

efficiency of surface and departure 

operations. The Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA) is in the 

process of implementing Terminal 

Flight Data Manager (TFDM) at

89 airports, of which 27 will have 

the advanced surface departure 

metering and overhead stream 

insertion capabilities demonstrated 

by ATD-2. ATD-2 validated 

the TFDM concept, provided 

knowledge and technology to 

the FAA and Industry, and 

demonstrated benefits that exceeded 

FAA projections for TFDM. During 

the four-year demonstration at 

Charlotte Douglas International 

Airport (CLT), ATD-2 saved 

more than 1.1 million gallons 

of fuel and 11,600 tons of CO2. 

The FAA projects annual CO2

savings of 75,000 tons when 

TFDM is fully implemented.”

ATM-X xTM Engages with 

the USTRANSCOM and 

AFRL Rocket Cargo Team 

POC: DAVID MURAKAMI

On April 1, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration (ATMX) project’s Extensible Traffic 

Management (xTM) subproject 

Space Launch and Recovery Traffic 

Management (SLRTM) team 

met with the U.S. Transportation 

Command (USTRANSCOM) and 

the Air Force Research Laboratory 

(AFRL) Rocket Cargo team to 

exchange information. The xTM 

SLRTM team described NASA’s 

research on the potential use of an 

xTM system for managing space 

launch and recovery traffic and 

the USTRANSCOM/AFRL team 

gave a briefing on exploring rocket 

cargo transportation capability 

for Department of Defense 

logistics (https://afresearchlab.com/

technology/successstories/rocketcargo-for-agile-global-logistics/). 

This initial information exchange 

generated a consensus that a new 

way of managing rocket launch and 

recovery traffic would be necessary 

for handling rapid rocket cargo 

operations and coordinating with 

commercial airspace operations. 

The meeting resulted in the Rocket 

Cargo team proposing that NASA 

participate and witness their launch 

process training or an actual launch 

targeted for 2026. The NASA 

SLRTM team was also added to 

their weekly tabletop exercise 

preparation meeting. Both teams are 

planning to continue engagement. 

AOSP Projects Attend 

RTCA Quarterly Meeting 

POC: TOD LEWIS, STEVE YOUNG, AND EVAN DILL

From April 4–7, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) and System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) projects virtually attended 

and participated in the RTCA 

SC-228 quarterly meeting that 

took place in Washington, DC. 

Representing the ATM-X project, 

the Pathfinding for Airspace with 

Autonomous Vehicles subproject 

members provided input to 

the Unmanned Aircraft Lost 

Command and Control Link 

Guidance Material document under 

development by Work Group 

3 (WG3). WG3 is developing 

guidance on Unmanned Aircraft 

System (UAS) lost link procedures 

and automation. The SWS team 

is also participating in WG3 and 

is leading the Verification and 

Validation section. Additionally, 

in support of Working Group 4, 

which is developing guidance on 
4 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

navigation gaps for UAS, the SWS 

team has reviewed and submitted 

comments on the current draft. 

SWS and FAA Hold Joint 

Technical Interchange Meeting

POC: KYLE ELLIS

From April 6-7, the System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project hosted 

a Joint NASA/FAA Technical 

Interchange Meeting. The first 

day’s theme was “In-Time Aviation 

Safety Management System 

(IASMS) - What is it?” Agenda 

items included the presentations 

“Research Transition Team (RTT)” 

and “IASMS Concept of Operations 

(ConOps) Working Group (WG)” 

by Kyle Ellis of NASA and Rick 

Pittaway of the FAA; “In-Time 

Aviation Safety Management Systems 

Concept Overview” by Kyle Ellis; 

“NASA programmatic overview 

for IASMS” by Jessica Nowinski 

of NASA; and “FAA Research 

Overview” by Mark Orr of the FAA. 

A “Digital Co-Pilot” presentation 

was provided by Cory Stephens of 

the FAA, and future joint work on 

IASMS and SMS by Kyle Ellis and 

Rick Pittaway. “Data Analysis and 

Prediction Data” was the theme 

on April 7, with topics covering 

“Introduction to SWS RTT and 

Data WG” by Nikunj Oza of NASA 

and Aleta Best of the FAA; “ASPIRE 

(Analyze Safety Performance Insight 

Results Environment Tool)” by 

Tom Stafford of the FAA; “Machine 

Learning/Artificial Intelligence (ML/

AI) Anomaly Detection” by Bryan 

Matthews of NASA; “Monitoring 

Airspace Safety with RACE Tool” by 

Peter Mehlitz of NASA; and “Safety 

Investigation Toolkit for Analysis and 

Reporting (SITAR)” by Dan Pearce 

of the FAA. 

ATM-X DIP Team Visits NASA’s 

Langley Research Center 

POC: MIRNA JOHNSON

On April 11, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) project’s Digital 

Information Platform (DIP) 

subproject team members met at 

NASA’s Langley Research Center in 

Virginia for a day of training and 

team building. Familiarization of 

flight deck operations and air traffic 

control training started with a twoand-a-half hour briefing and open 

discussions with an experienced 

commercial aircraft pilot and an air 

traffic controller. Each team member 

experienced the Boeing 737-800 

Cockpit Motion Facility simulator 

session to understand the various 

flight deck technologies. During 

the visit, attendees observed flight 

deck management technologies in 

development at the center and were 

given a tour of the Flight Simulation 

Facilities Laboratory and the Air 

Traffic Operations Lab. Familiarity 

with the simulation facilities will 

help the team prepare development 

plans for DIP’s Sustainable Aviation 

Demonstration-2 (SA-2) planned 

for fiscal year 2026. The visit 

provided team members working 

across multiple centers a chance to 

meet and foster greater connectivity 

and communications. 

SWS and FSF Closeout 

Workshop Series for 

IASMS Roadmap 

POC: MICHAEL VINCENT

From April 13-14, the SystemWide Safety (SWS) project, in 

collaboration with the Flight Safety 

Foundation (FSF), held the final 

two of a series of workshops to elicit 

inputs from aviation safety subject 

matter experts (SMEs) to help build 

a long-term roadmap for In-Time 

Aviation Safety Management System 

(IASMS). The workshops consisted 

of moderated discussions regarding 

safety risks and uncertainties of 

emerging aviation operations as well 

as potential strengths, weaknesses, 

opportunities, and threats of the 

technologies that will enable 

those operations. The roadmap 

will eventually help guide the 

development, deployment, and 

assurance of emerging aviation 

operations such as those being 

researched by NASA’s Advanced 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Air Mobility, SWS, and Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

projects. A wide range of topics 

were covered across the workshops, 

including cybersecurity, autonomy, 

disruptions, regulatory framework, 

safety culture, and public education. 

Researchers and SMEs across NASA 

participated in the workshops. 

The output of the workshops will 

be compiled into a full report 

on the IASMS roadmap before 

being socialized with industry and 

stakeholder partners. 

NASA/FAA Laboratory 

Integrated Test Environment 

Accreditation II

POC: NELSON GUERREIRO

NASA and the FAA have 

achieved a second key milestone 

in their Interagency Agreement 

to collaborate on Advanced Air 

Mobility (AAM) research. On April 

19, the Air Traffic Operations Lab 

at NASA’s Langley Research Center 

in Virginia and the FAA’s William 

J. Hughes Technical Center’s 

laboratories successfully executed a 

test of the latest enhancements to 

laboratory integrated capabilities 

that demonstrate AAM operations 

in the Atlantic City area. The 

milestone achieved was an 

accreditation test validating the 

functionality of the associated 

integrated systems and is a formal 

process developed by the FAA to 

validate systems interoperations 

with a partner’s external systems. 

The NASA/FAA Laboratory 

Integrated Test Environment 

(NFLITE) activity brings together 

NASA prototype systems for AAM 

and FAA operational systems to 

support research in the areas of 

concept validation and human 

and machine systems integration, 

among others. NASA’s prototype 

capabilities used in the initial 

integration and accreditation 

included the Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) Vehicle Simulation, Mission 

Planner, Vertiport Scheduler, and 

the Advanced Trajectory Services 

- Toolkit for Integrated Ground 

and Air Research capability. The 

FAA’s capabilities included the 

Target Generation Facility, Simlab 

and ScanEagle Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems simulations, a virtual tower 

view, and the Standard Terminal 

Automation Replacement System. 

The latest enhancements to NFLITE 

included the addition of two fixedbase simulation capabilities from the 

FAA’s Cockpit Simulation Facility 

as well as modifications to NASA’s 

existing capabilities. A Sikorsky 

S-76 piloted simulator performed 

medical transport missions in 

Atlantic City while a Cessna 172 

piloted simulator performed general 

aviation operations in the same 

airspace. The NFLITE capability 

is an innovative and unique 

research capability that serves as 

the launching point for a multiyear 

portfolio of research activities 

between NASA and the FAA to 

better identify, understand, and 

validate airspace requirements to 

support UAM and AAM operations. 

This activity is supported by the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project’s UAM subproject.

AAM/HDV/AOA Flight 

Testing Completed 

POC: JEFF HOMOLA

The Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) 

project’s High Density Vertiplex 

(HDV) subproject successfully 

completed flight testing and data 

collection as part of its Advanced 

Onboard Automation (AOA) 

work package with several notable 

accomplishments. On April 21, 

the AOA flight test team, which 

includes a large majority of the 

5

Picture shows the arrival of the three-vehicle 

operations with the third vehicle on approach. 
6 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

HDV project team at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California and 

Langley Research Center in Virginia, 

performed three simultaneous vehicle 

operations fully integrated with Fleet 

Management/Provider of Services 

to Urban Air Mobility systems and 

additional simulated traffic. HDV 

personnel were present at NASA 

Langley’s City Environment Range 

Testing for Autonomous Integrated 

Navigation and Remote Operations 

for Autonomous Missions lab and at 

NASA Ames’s Airspace Operations 

Laboratory and Autonomous Vehicle 

Applications Laboratory. In addition 

to the three-vehicle operations, the 

AOA flight test team also collected 

data from two more Ground Control 

Station Operator participants. 

NASA Issues Public Release 

Highlighting SBIR-funded 

SWS/HATS Partnership

POC: MISTY DAVIES AND ERSIN ANCEL

On Earth Day (April 22), NASA 

issued a public release that highlights 

a Small Business Innovation Research 

(SBIR) funded partnership between 

NASA’s System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project and Human Automation 

Teaming Solutions, Inc. (HATS). 

HATS is using safety-related 

algorithms, data, and risk calculations 

that SWS has been prototyping 

for the In-Time Aviation Safety 

Management System (IASMS). 

The IASMS capabilities enable 

HATS to refine and commercialize 

automated drones and rovers that 

assess methane emissions at a landfill 

and provide real-time data to landfill 

ground control stations. For more 

information, please see https://www.

HATS using SWS tools for automated drones and rovers to assess methane emissions at a landfill.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

nasa.gov/feature/nasa-technology-tolower-landfill-methane-emissions. 

Pilot Evaluation of 

eVTOL Detect and Avoid 

Performance Completed 

POC: CONRAD RORIE

Last week, the Advanced Air 

Mobility project’s Automated Flight 

and Contingency Management 

(AFCM) subproject completed 

simulation testing in the Human 

Automation Teaming Lab at NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California. 

The simulation was conducted 

by AFCM’s Hazard Perception 

and Avoidance research team. The 

purpose of the study was to evaluate 

an FAA prototype implementation 

of Airborne Collision Avoidance 

System for rotorcraft Detect and 

Avoid (DAA) in application to 

electric vertical take-off and landing 

(eVTOL) aircraft with pilot feedback 

on the prototyped displays and 

coupled automation. Overall, 12 

pilots participated in the study. This 

work supports the development of 

minimum operational performance 

standards for DAA systems used in 

rotorcraft including eVTOLs for safe 

distancing with collision avoidance 

for emergency situations. The next 

phase of testing for this work will be 

conducted in the Vertical Motion 

Simulator at NASA Ames in August 

to continue the evaluation of systemrecommended response maneuvers 

with motion present. 

SWS TC-2 Develops and 

Releases New NASA 

Technology for Fault Isolation 

POC: CHETAN KULKARNI AND MATTEO CORBETTA

System-Wide Safety (SWS) project 

researchers Chetan Kulkarni and 

Matteo Corbetta have developed 

and released new technology 

and software through the NASA 

Technology Transfer Program to 

increase safety for electric propulsion 

vehicles. This technology utilizes 

a fault isolation approach that 

integrates Failure Mode and Effect 

Analysis (FMEA) and Bayesian 

Networks to diagnose electric 

powertrains of Unmanned Aerial 

Vehicles (UAVs)/Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) vehicles. The new framework 

improves on existing fault detection 

and isolation to identify the root 

causes, effects, and severities of 

hazards by embedding the system 

FMEA developed during the design 

stage into Bayesian Networks 

that include sensor signals at their 

nodes. Diagnostic tools and design 

considerations are combined by 

integrating component age, usage 

rate, component specifications, and 

uncertainties when estimating health 

and remaining useful life of the 

component(s) under distress. Based 

on these factors, the likelihood 

of each component’s failure can 

be ranked according to a priori 

knowledge from the FMEA, and 

the likelihood of system failure 

is updated during the life of the 

component or subsystem to inform 

response to faults. Although 

developed specifically for electric 

UAVs/UAM vehicles, the same 

methodology is applicable to other 

domains, including manufacturing 

facilities and autonomous vehicles. 

A provisional patent application for 

the technology development has 

been filed. 

UAM Holds NASA/FAA Virtual 

Sessions to Review UAM 

Airspace Research Roadmap 

POC: KEVIN WITZBERGER

In April 2022, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

project’s Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) Airspace Management 

subproject released a version of its 

UAM Airspace Research Roadmap, 

which will guide NASA’s UAM 

airspace research and development 

during the next 10 years, for a 

broad review and comment by 

NASA and FAA subject matter 

experts. The document was reviewed 

and commented on by multiple 

FAA lines of business, including 

Air Traffic Organization, Mission 

Support Services, Air Traffic 

Services, the UAS Integration 

7
8 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

Research office, and the Office of 

NextGen. In response to this review, 

approximately 600 comments 

were received. From April 26–27, 

the UAM principal engineer led 

two virtual sessions at the NASA 

Aeronautics Research Institute 

(NARI) to discuss and resolve 

some of the most significant of the 

comments received. The complexity 

of UAM airspace, and its 

progression from the as-is National 

Airspace System of today to the endstate system envisioned for UAM 

and the Advanced Air Mobility 

mission, is a highly complex 

engineering problem further 

complicated by the immature 

nature of the associated research 

and development. There is a need to 

effectively organize, integrate, and 

communicate NASA’s research and 

development in this area. To this 

end, the UAM subproject team has 

been developing the UAM Airspace 

Research Roadmap, which is an 

artifact used to interface UAM 

airspace stakeholders with the 

system engineering underpinning 

the UAM subproject’s research 

in this area. It begins with a 

hierarchical decomposition 

of the UAM Airspace System 

into capabilities and functions 

providing an accessible means of 

focusing attention to specific parts 

of the system while maintaining 

an understanding of the overall 

enterprise. It then examines how 

those functions may evolve from 

today’s as-is National Airspace 

System through three evolutionary 

changes – the final stage being 

one in which the airspace user 

takes full responsibility for conflict 

management. The comments 

received will be used to greatly 

improve the quality and consistency 

of the content. Then, an interim 

version will be released to industry 

this summer. Following up on this, 

a series of NARI-hosted discussions 

with industry are being planned. 

A final baseline version (version 

2.0) is expected to be published 

in December 2022, which will 

then be maintained as the UAM 

subproject executes its research 

and development plan to evolve 

the UAM airspace toward UAM 

Maturity Level-4. 

ATM-X DIP’s University 

Challenge Submission Closed 

POC: MIRNA JOHNSON

The Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration (ATM-X) project’s 

Digital Information Platform (DIP) 

subproject is focused on creating 

a common platform to enable 

advanced data-driven services across 

the National Airspace System (NAS). 

These services will be able to build 

on each other, with each new service 

taking advantage of intelligence 

provided by existing services. One 

foundational service in DIP predicts 

the configuration of airports (i.e., 

which runways are assigned for 

arrivals or departures). The DIP team 

has collaborated with the NASA 

Tournament Lab and contracted with 

DrivenData to run a competition 

among university teams to use 

machine learning to make these 

predictions. Each team was given 

access to one year of historical NAS 

data and asked to use it to make 

predictions about future airport 

configurations. The submission 

period of the challenge concluded on 

April 25, with 12 teams having made 

submissions before the deadline 

and a total of 380 participants who 

expressed interest in the topic. The 

DIP team and DrivenData are 

now in the process of gathering a 

dataset for final evaluation of the 

submissions to determine winners. 

The winning submissions will inform 

future work on DIP and the unique 

techniques used will potentially be 

incorporated into the platform. 

ATM-X “Sky for All” Completes 

Exploratory Virtual Workshops

POC: SHAWN ENGELLAND

The Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration (ATM-X) “Sky for All” 

activity, a community co-developed 

vision that will guide NASA and 

FAA research and development 

investment decisions for years 

to come, recently completed a 

series of 10 exploratory session 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 9

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

interactive virtual workshops to 

guide the vision for the mid-21st 

century future aviation system. 

Following the Sky for All workshops 

completed last quarter (Greener 

Aviation on March 21; Future 

of Freight on March 24; Relief 

from Above on March 25; and 

Urban Air Travel on March 31), 

the team led the Flight from New 

Heights workshop on April 11. 

The team also led workshops for 

each vision capability, including 

Digital Flight, Digital Airspace and 

Communications, Navigation and 

Surveillance on April 1; Data and 

Decision Support Marketplace and 

Micro-services for Operators on 

April 4; Intelligent and Adaptive 

Automation on April 6; Systems of 

Systems Architecture and Methods 

on April 7; and a mini workshop 

on In-Time System-Wide Safety 

Assurance with the Flight Safety 

Foundation on April 26. Diverse 

stakeholders from the aviation 

industry, including flight operators, 

service providers, manufacturers, 

aviation and standards organizations, 

government, and the public were in 

attendance. Each workshop was an 

opportunity to drive collaborative 

discussions that will help NASA 

shape the principles and aspirations, 

capabilities, opportunities, use cases, 

barriers, and research questions that 

will put NASA on the path toward 

a sustainable, safe, resilient, and 

adaptable shared airspace. 

ATM-X DIP Begins SA-1a 

Demo Data Collection 

POC: MIRNA JOHNSON

On April 28, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) project’s Digital 

Information Platform (DIP) 

subproject began data collection 

for the Sustainable Aviation 

Demonstration (SA-1) “Data 

Platform to Enable Efficient 

Collaborative Departures ReRoutes (CDDR)” in collaboration 

with Southwest Airlines and 

American Airlines in the DallasFort Worth airspace. This first phase 

of SA-1, called SA-1a, aims to 

apply machine learning techniques 

to airspace management data to 

allow airlines to fly along more 

efficient departure routes using 

service-oriented NASA airspace 

technologies. In its first days of 

data collection, the CDDR digital 

service identified a Trajectory 

Option Set route that was 35.9 

nautical miles shorter than the filed 

route, saving the flight 4.7 minutes 

getting into the destination. The 

environmental benefits included 

162 kilograms of fuel savings and 

498 kilograms of carbon dioxide 

savings equivalent to 8.2 urban 

trees. This first phase will end in 

fiscal year (FY) 2023 with a cloudbased infrastructure to enable 

smaller footprint deployments 

followed by a second phase, called 

SA-1b, which will end in FY 

2024 with efficient operations in 

a more complex airspace. This 

second phase will deploy a DIP 

with improved access to the data 

and NASA-developed airspace 

management services to validate 

scalability of benefits across the 

National Airspace System. 

SWS Collaborates with Lone 

Star UAS Test Site to Verify 

Navigation Quality Predictors 

POC: STEVE YOUNG AND EVAN DILL

From April 18–29, System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project researchers 

collaborated with the Lone Star 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) 

Test Site to experimentally verify 

navigation quality predictors as flight 

and surface tests were conducted 

in downtown Corpus Christi to 

collect Global Positioning System 

(GPS) data in an urban environment. 

These tests included a myriad of data 

collection scenarios that generated 

the measurements necessary to 

evaluate the developed Navigation 

Quality service, which is designed 

to predict the quality of GPS within 

a given four-dimensional volume. 

These flights represented the most 

extensive testing to date to evaluate 

the correctness and accuracy of the 

employed predictive models for 

this service. 
10 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

SWS Researcher 

Participates in SAE S-18 

Committee Meeting 

POC: MALLORY GRAYDON AND MISTY DAVIES

On Feb. 17, representatives from 

NASA’s Air Traffic ManagementeXploration (ATM-X) project held 

a technical interchange meeting 

(TIM) with staff from the FAA’s 

William J. Hughes Technical 

Center to discuss related work 

and collaboration opportunities 

for the integration of increasingly 

autonomous aircraft in airspace 

shared with conventional aircraft. 

An overview of the ATM-X 

Pathfinding for Airspace with 

Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) 

subproject was presented, and 

touchpoints were identified. 

ETM Partner and FAA 

Publishes Cooperative 

Operation in Higher 

Airspace Proposal 

POC: YOON JUNG

In April 2022, in partnership with 

NASA and the FAA’s Upper Class 

E Traffic Management (ETM) team, 

the Aerospace Industries Association 

(AIA) published a proposal titled 

“Cooperative Operations in Higher 

Airspace.” The proposal captures 

NASA’s leadership-enabling 

cooperative operations through 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

Traffic Management-like serviceoriented architecture – facilitating 

necessary information exchanges 

for cooperation and conflict 

resolution. The proposal also 

showcases the impact of the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) project’s Extensible Traffic 

Management (xTM)/ETM team’s 

research for conflict identification 

among aircraft with vastly different 

performance characteristics ranging 

from free-flying balloons and 

slow-flying solar-powered HighAltitude Long Endurance aircraft to 

supersonic aircraft. AIA and highaltitude operator communities are 

looking to continue the partnership 

with NASA and the FAA’s ETM 

work and the ATM-X/xTM/ETM 

team is addressing the need with 

algorithm development, rapid 

prototyping, and collaborative 

evaluation of a prototype NASA 

research ETM system with industry 

and the FAA. The first of the 

ETM collaborative evaluations is 

scheduled for summer 2023. To 

view the proposal, visit this site. 

HDV Conducts UAM 

Ecosystem Review 

POC: JEFF HOMOLA

After successful completion of 

simulation and flight testing as part 

of its Advanced Onboard Automation 

(AOA) work package, the Advanced 

Air Mobility project’s High Density 

Vertiplex (HDV) subproject held a 

formal Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

Ecosystem Review during the week 

of May 2. The purpose of this event 

was to review the foundational 

concepts, systems, and research 

approach as implemented in AOA to 

ensure alignment and preparedness 

as the team moves forward with its 

plans for the next work package: 

Scalable Autonomous Operations. A 

review panel was in place including 

multicenter representation with 

additional stakeholders and subject 

matter experts in attendance. Formal 

feedback was requested of the review 

panel with responses due by May 13. 

xTM Briefed on ETM 

Market Modeling 

POC: JAEWOO JUNG

The Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration project’s Extensible 

Traffic Management (xTM) 

subproject hosted a briefing with LMI 

on May 2. LMI was tasked in fiscal 

year 2021 to: 1) elicit knowledge 

and information to understand the 

current and future opportunities 

associated with operations at high 

altitudes and the risks and barriers 

to realizing those opportunities 

and 2) estimate the difference in 

the high-altitude operations market 

size with and without Upper Class 

E Traffic Management (ETM). The 

LMI team recently completed the 

knowledge elicitation and developed 

a prototype model of the ETM 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 11

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

market. Their briefing included a 

live demonstration of the prototype 

model. The scope of the prototype 

for the demonstration was limited 

to a single use case where a fleet 

of High-Altitude Long Endurance 

(HALE) fixed-wing aircraft provided 

broadband internet services to 

households without access to 

terrestrial fixed-broadband internet 

service, such as Dixie County in 

Florida. According to the Federal 

Communications Commission, 

74 percent of households in Dixie 

County do not have access to 

broadband and less than one percent 

have 50 mbps or better service. The 

model illustrated the change in 

the market size when ETM is in 

place, allowing 10 HALE aircraft 

to stay above Dixie County for the 

broadband service versus without 

ETM, where only one HALE aircraft 

can stay above due to the altitude 

reservation system currently in place. 

The LMI team is working to enhance 

the prototype model to include 

additional use cases and vehicle types 

and is scheduled to deliver the final 

market model with the user manual 

by September 2022. 

DIP Holds TIMs with SWS and 

DRF Teams

POC: MIRNA JOHNSON

This past quarter, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration project’s 

Digital Information Platform (DIP) 

subproject team held multiple Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs) 

with other NASA projects. On 

April 15, the DIP team held a TIM 

with the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project. SWS is developing an array 

of services requiring digital National 

Airspace System (NAS) information. 

The DIP team presented its technical 

approach for sharing NAS information from Fuser as well as prediction 

information from machine learningbased services. There was mutual 

interest to connect SWS to DIP to 

access this information and support 

services development and eventually 

register SWS-developed services for 

evaluation on the platform. 

On May 5, the team held a TIM 

with the Convergent Aeronautics 

Solution project’s Data Reasoning 

Fabric (DRF) team. The DRF team 

is exploring a data and reasoning 

exchange among many systems 

interacting in complex and dense 

airspace with an emphasis on 

Advanced Air Mobility’s emerging 

operations. Some of the core functionality needed in DIP is also 

needed in DRF, which presents 

an opportunity for both teams to 

hold TIMs to cover various topics 

throughout the design and demonstration phases. This TIM focused 

on the common requirements for 

authentication and authorization 

and how it can be applied in a 

decentralized solution. Results and 

outcomes from the demonstrations 

will be shared between the two projects to ensure effective advancement 

in data and services marketplace for 

the community. 

xTM/ETM Team Hold Meetings 

with Stakeholders 

POC: JAEWOO JUNG AND MIN XUE

The Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration (ATM-X) project’s 

Extensible Traffic Management 

(xTM) subproject team held several 

meetings with stakeholders this past 

quarter. On May 6, they met with 

representatives from the FAA and 

industry. The xTM’s Upper Class E 

Traffic Management (ETM) team 

participated in the meeting and 

shared information regarding their 

recent flight tests and upcoming 

activities. The group continued the 

discussions on ETM with topics 

such as the current use of telephone 

and VHF radios for the communications between ETM operators and 

Air Route Traffic Control Center and 

air traffic control (ATC) – including an envisioned future of these 

communications through Voice 

over Internet Protocol and data 

link. NASA’s ETM team briefed the 

group about NASA’s airspace operations simulations capabilities, as well 

as the recently released ATC interactions survey to better understand 

current operating procedures and 

communications with ATC. Inputs 
12 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

gathered through the survey will be 

used to identify best practices, possible future challenges to scaling these 

practices, and potential ATC workload issues associated with the scaling. 

The group is planning to meet again 

to discuss cooperative operations and 

use cases for building scenarios for a 

collaborative evaluation of a prototype ETM system scheduled sometime during summer 2023.

On May 10, the ETM team, along 

with members of the FAA’s ETM 

Research Transition Team, conducted a meeting with an engineering 

team from Raven Aerostar – which 

provides cellular connectivity and 

remote sensing capabilities from 

the stratosphere using their Thunderhead Balloon System. Raven 

Aerostar has been recognized as the 

successor to the previous Loon LLC. 

The NASA ETM team shared their 

current research and development 

progress and vision for upper Class 

E airspace management and invited 

Raven to future industry tag-up 

meetings. Raven’s team briefed their 

current balloon operation status 

and introduced their web-based 

platform for tracking and operating 

balloons. Raven’s team also shared 

the information and mechanism 

they are using to communicate with 

Air Navigation Service Providers 

for their balloon operations including the calculated flight plans. This 

meeting allowed for exchange of 

information on current upper Class 

E operations and research required 

to enable future coordinated operations across the different mission 

types. Continuing discussions are 

planned to further coordinate and 

develop potential plans for examining the integration of these stratospheric flights into the envisioned 

ETM system. 

SWS Project Signs Multiple 

SAAs This Quarter 

POC: MISTY DAVIES, EVAN DILL, AND KYLE ELLIS

The System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project signed off on three separate 

Space Act Agreements (SAAs) this 

past quarter. On April 20, the SWS 

project executed an SAA with Airborne International Response Team 

(AIRT)/DRONERESPONDERS to 

conduct collaborative research and 

development of automated safety 

processes and procedures to enable 

highly automated aviation response in 

the national airspace. AIRT/DRONERESPONDERS is a global network 

of specialized teams of subject matter 

experts in disciplines including aviation, emergency management, and 

public safety. These teams are trained 

and skilled to accomplish missioncritical tasks across the preparedness, 

mitigation, response, and recovery 

phases of significant events, complex 

emergencies, and major disasters. The 

agreement will allow DRONERESPONDERS to share operational 

expertise and data obtained from a 

broad variety of emergency response 

activities in the National Airspace 

System with NASA. SWS project 

researchers, together with DRONERESPONDERS, will use this data 

collection and analysis to develop 

and implement a safety management 

system enabling highly automated 

flights for emergency response operations, as well as to develop an effective and robust demonstration of 

highly automated aerospace vehicle 

safety management systems that have 

applicability for aviation operations 

beyond emergency response situations. 

In early May, a second SAA was 

signed with Longbow Corporation’s 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations to collaboratively test and evaluate prognostic services, functions, 

and capabilities (SFCs) developed 

under the SWS project. Longbow 

will utilize the capabilities of NASA 

developed prognostic SFCs (e.g., 

Global Navigation Satellite System 

performance monitor, population 

density risk assessment, battery health 

monitor, etc.) during flight operations to increase situational awareness 

and decrease exposure to hazards. 

NASA, in turn, will receive valuable 

data from the Longbow’s operations 

and feedback on the utility of their 

developed SFCs. This will allow SWS 

to better refine the prognostic SFCs 

being developed. 

On May 11, the SWS project signed 

a SAA annex with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 13

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

The umbrella SAA with ODOT was 

established under the Announcement of Collaborative Opportunities 

for NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility 

(AAM) National Campaign. This 

second annex has been established 

by the SWS project to support 

development and test of its In-Time 

Aviation Safety Management System 

(IASMS) – an interconnected set of 

key safety technologies to manage 

risk and assure safety. ODOT has 

developed a leading national ecosystem of industry partners along with 

a set of use cases in support of their 

state economic development plan. 

This collaborative effort with ODOT 

will mature IASMS technologies and 

capture key flight data necessary to 

inform new guidance, standards, and 

regulations. Updates and establishment of new guidance and standards 

are necessary to transform the national airspace system to safely integrate 

new entrant operations envisioned 

under AAM and NASA’s “Sky for All” 

vision for 2045. 

SWS Presents IASMS Concept 

at Business Aviation Safety 

Summit Panel 

POC: KYLE ELLIS

Kyle Ellis, deputy project manager 

for NASA’s System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) project, was invited to 

present NASA’s In-Time Aviation 

Safety Management System (IASMS) 

concept at the 67th Annual Safety 

Summit in Savannah, Georgia on 

May 11. Organized by the Flight 

Safety Foundation in partnership 

with the National Business Aviation 

Association (NBAA), the summit 

covers safety, training, practical solutions, management, human factors, 

and other issues for every segment 

of the business aviation industry. 

This interaction is important as it 

engaged nearly 200 existing Part 135 

and 91 operators and organizations 

such as Air Charter Safety Foundation and NBAA – key stakeholders 

whose input is critical to future 

development of concepts for airspace 

management and safety of highly 

diverse and complex operations 

currently flying in the National 

Airspace System (NAS). Currently, 

less than two percent of all Part 135 

operators have a formally recognized 

SMS program – and even fewer 

for Part 91 operators – largely in 

part to lack of requirements and 

guidance for implementation of a 

safety management system program, 

and limited availability of effective 

scalable and tailorable safety technologies to make it effective and 

economical. The concept of IASMS 

as a set of scalable and tailorable 

safety services was very well received 

and further collaboration between 

NASA and key industry partners 

is currently being investigated as 

a result of this engagement. These 

collaborations are essential to future 

development and implementation of 

concepts like IASMS to be effective 

across all operational domains and 

assure safe operations in a transformed NAS. 

DIP Team Attends MR-TBO 

Phase 2A Lab Demo by FAA 

and Partners 

POC: MIRNA JOHNSON

The Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration (ATM-X) project’s 

Digital Information Platform 

(DIP) subproject team attended 

a lab demonstration on MultiRegional Trajectory Based 

Operations (MR-TBO) Project 

Phase 2A hosted by the FAA and 

the International Civil Aviation 

Organization partners at the 

FAA Test Bed in Daytona Beach, 

Florida from May 11-12. The lab 

demonstration integrated scenarios 

with multiple partners including 

NAVCanada, AEROTHAI, Civil 

Aviation Authority of Singapore, 

and Japan Civil Aviation Bureau. 

The demonstration consisted of 

five end-to-end scenarios between 

partners to demonstrate Trajectory 

Based Operations capabilities 

and operational values including 

Alignment of Strategic Plan and 

Tactical Actions, pre- and postdeparture negotiations with 

multiple airline service providers, 

and flight data sharing using Flow 

Information Exchange Model, 

flight deck collaboration through 

Electronic Flight Bag capabilities, 

and many others. 
14 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

AAM National Campaign ATI 

hosts “Aerograph Architecture” 

Tech Talk 

POC: DIVYA BHADORIA

On May 13, the Advanced Air 

Mobility (AAM) project’s National 

Campaign (NC) subproject’s 

Airspace Testing and Integration 

(ATI) team hosted a technical talk 

to an audience consisting of NASA 

researchers from across the agency. 

The talk covered the software architecture of NC’s data management 

system, called Aerograph. Its 

purpose is to provide a reliable 

and secure software system that 

collects, stores, protects, and shares 

data to support key NC research 

activities. Through Aerograph’s 

intuitive user interface, vetted 

AAM data scientists, aerospace 

engineers, and analysts will be able 

to access, preview, and download 

flight test event data and other 

derivative analytical artifacts such 

as aircraft performance charts, 

wind rose charts, and flight event 

schedules. The objective of the 

tech talk was to cover the technical 

details of Aerograph’s software 

architecture. During the talk, the 

ATI Data Services Team delved 

into Aerograph’s architectural 

details and discussed topics such 

as data store technology (e.g., 

NoSQL databases), inter-process 

communication technology (e.g., 

ActiveMQ and Camel), authentication and authorization techniques 

(e.g., KeyCloak), container-based 

software deployment (e.g., Docker), 

and data retrieval (e.g., RESTful 

interfaces). To further illustrate 

how all the technology works 

together, the tech talk also included 

highly detailed process flow charts 

on message flow and component 

processing. A recording of the tech 

talk will be posted here: https://

www.nasa.gov/aamnationalcampaign/techtalks. 

SWS SMEs Participate in AFRL 

Engagements 

POC: NATASHA NEOGI AND MISTY DAVIES

From May 2–6, the Air Force 

Research Laboratory (AFRL) 

conducted an Assurance Case Tech 

Sprint. System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project researchers Natasha Neogi, 

Mallory Graydon, and Michael 

Holloway served as subject matter 

experts (SMEs) by reviewing AFRL’s 

assurance case to enable the flight 

test of a neural network in a runtime assurance architecture for 

their loyal wingman concept. This 

weeklong effort resulted in feedback 

provided to AFRL management 

on May 11 and served as a starting 

point for aligning assurance case 

concepts between AFRL and NASA 

– specifically for the deployment of 

increasingly autonomous systems 

in flight environments. On May 

18, a meeting was held to initiate 

a collaborative activity between 

NASA’s SWS project and the AFRL 

on the topic of development of 

safety argumentation for run-time 

assurance architectures for neural 

network controllers. This meeting 

was held to determine relevant 

external partners to engage. Potential 

partners who have expressed an 

interest to engage in this activity 

include the California Institute of 

Technology, Dependable Computing, 

and NodeIn Technologies. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 15

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

SWS Researchers Invited as 

SMEs for DARPA 

POC: NATASHA NEOGI AND MISTY DAVIES

From May 17–18, researchers 

from the System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) project participated as 

subject matter experts (SMEs) at 

the Defense Advanced Research 

Projects Agency (DARPA) Principal 

Investigator’s meeting of DARPA’s 

Assured Project. NASA’s SMEs 

provided feedback regarding the 

efficacy of assurance arguments as 

well as inputs regarding forward 

directions for tackling safety 

issues for novel human machine 

teaming paradigms. The Assured 

Autonomy (AA) effort aims to 

enable continual assurance of 

machine learning-enabled systems. 

Participants are working to create 

guarantees of safety and functional 

correctness for the systems – and 

also creating frameworks and 

techniques that continually monitor, 

update, and evaluate the system at 

operation time as the system and 

its environment evolves. While the 

AA research objectives prioritize 

challenge problems in the militarilyrelevant autonomous vehicle 

space, it is anticipated that the 

tools, toolchains, and algorithms 

created will be relevant to other civil 

aviation and space applications. 

HDV Holds Face-to-Face 

Meeting 

POC: LOUIS GLAAB

From May 18–19, the Advanced 

Air Mobility (AAM) project’s 

High Density Vertiplex (HDV) 

subproject conduced a face-toface planning meeting at NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia, 

including personnel from NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in California 

as well as virtual attendees. A 

highlight of the meeting was the 

Urban Air Mobility Air Traffic 

Operations Lab flyers and the 

Remote Operation for Autonomous 

Missions Unmanned Aircraft 

Automated Flight and Contingency 

Management subproject manager; 

Jeff Homola and Lou Glaab, HDV 

subproject manager and technical 

leads; Davis Hackenberg, AAM 

Mission Integration Office manager; 

Mike Guminsky, AAM project 

manager; Marcus Johnson, Advanced 

Capabilities for Emergency Response 

Operations project planning 

manager; and several System-Wide 

Safety and Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration project team members. 

Items on the agenda included 

capturing of all HDV Advanced 

Onboard Automation schedule work 

package accomplishments, lessons 

learned, and planning. 

SWS Researchers Contribute 

to Python Prognostics 

Packages v1.3 Release 

POC: WENDY OKOLO

In May, researchers from the SystemWide Safety (SWS) Emerging 

Operations Technical Challenge 

contributed to an updated release 

HDV project team members at NASA Langley.
16 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

of NASA’s Prognostic Algorithms 

Packages. These packages provide 

modular, extendable tools for 

creating and simulating degradation 

(prognostics) models – performing 

systems health-state estimation 

and prediction, creating new 

systems health-state estimation and 

prediction algorithms, benchmarking 

prognostics performance, and 

visualizing results. The three parts to 

NASA’s Python Prognostics Packages 

are: 1) Prognostics Models (nasa.

github.io/prog_models) - Python 

modeling framework focused on 

defining and building models 

for prognostics (computation 

of remaining useful life) of 

engineering systems, available on 

pip (pip install prog_models); 2) 

Prognostics Algorithms (nasa.github.

io/prog_algs) - Python framework 

for model-based prognostics of 

engineering systems, available on 

pip (pip install prog_algs); and 3) 

Prognostics As-A-Service Sandbox 

(nasa.github.io/prog_server) - Service 

Oriented Architecture Sandbox for 

performing prognostics, available 

on pip (pip install prog_server). 

Multiple updates included in the 

packages now provide new models, 

the capability to generate surrogate 

models automatically, an additional 

estimator and predictor, and datasets 

with the ability to access prognostics 

data programmatically. These tools 

will help researchers in industry, 

academia, and government build new 

models, algorithms, and software 

architectures for prognostics. 

SWS SMEs Participate in 

Autonomy Verification and 

Validation Workshop 

POC: GUILLAUME BRAT AND MISTY DAVIES 

On May 23, subject matter experts 

(SMEs) from the System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) project reviewed 

and participated in an open 

industry workshop on the needs 

for assurance of autonomy. The 

Autonomy Verification and 

Validation Workshop, part of a 

NASA Research Announcement 

co-sponsored by AOSP and 

the Transformative Aeronautics 

Concepts Program, was held at 

Boeing’s El Segundo, California 

site and was open to all interested 

participants in industry, academia, 

and government. The team had 

already identified key needs and 

gaps for assurance methods that 

enable aviation’s automation needs. 

The deep-dive topics covered 

during the workshop included 

Model-Based Systems Engineering 

for Artificial Intelligence/Machine 

learning (AI/ML), Safety in 

Human-Autonomy Interaction, 

Autonomy for Contingency 

Planning, and Certification 

Guidance for AI/ML. The roadmap 

that will be built from this and 

other future workshops is expected 

to be completed in September 2022. 

HDV Finalizes Revision to 

Interconnection Security 

Agreement 

POC: JEFF HOMOLA

In preparation for upcoming development and testing as part of the 

Advanced Air Mobility project’s 

High Density Vertiplex (HDV) 

subproject’s Scalable Autonomous 

Operations (SAO) work package, 

the existing Interconnection Security Agreement (ISA) was revised on 

May 23 to enable the integration of 

new systems and facilities into the 

HDV system environment. With the 

final signatures complete, the HDV 

team will be able to begin initial 

connectivity tests of the Vertiport 

Automation System with Fleet 

Management and Vertiport Manager 

systems – a key feature of SAO. 

Additional laboratory connectivity at 

NASA’s Langley Research Center in 

Virginia will be enabled through this 

ISA revision – enhancing HDV’s 

simulation environment through the 

availability of additional simulation 

platforms for inclusion. 

PAAV Meets with RACCA and 

Empire Airlines 

POC: MIWA HAYASHI

On May 23, a group from the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project’s Pathfinding for Airspace 

with Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) 

subproject team held a virtual 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 17

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

meeting with Stan Bernstein, president of the Regional Air Cargo 

Carriers Association (RACCA), and 

Tim Komberec, chairman and CEO 

of Empire Airlines. The purpose 

of the meeting was to discuss the 

current regional air cargo operations, 

challenges, and their future visions. 

RACCA is a group of more than 

50 FAA-certificated air carriers in 

the United States. Empire Airlines 

is a FedEx Express feeder carrier 

operating a fleet of mid-size turboprop aircraft (ATR-42, ATR-72, 

Cessna Caravan 208) throughout 

the western United States. The 

group discussed the pilot shortage, 

which is currently a major issue in 

the regional air cargo industry, and 

visions for using remotely piloted 

unmanned aircraft as the solution. 

The group agreed to meet periodically so that the PAAV team can 

obtain industry feedback on their 

current research directions. 

AAM National Campaign IAS 

Systems Requirements Review 

POC: ADAM YINGLING

On May 23, the Advanced Air 

Mobility (AAM) project’s National 

Campaign subproject held a systems 

requirements review for the Integration of Automated System (IAS) 

activity’s first series of flight tests. 

The review mapped high-level 

automated flight and contingency 

management research objectives 

to flight test requirements. The 

review covered the first of two 

spirals of flights, with the first spiral 

scheduled for September 2022 at 

Sikorsky Airport in Connecticut. 

The first spiral of flight tests will 

test the infrastructure, interfaces, 

and flight test services required to 

properly support the automation 

algorithms planned to undergo 

thorough testing during spiral two 

in September 2023. 

National Campaign Adds 

New Information Exchange 

Partners 

POC: KEN GOODRICH

On May 25, Jon Montgomery, 

deputy associate administrator for 

policy for NASA Aeronautics, signed 

four new Industry Partner Advanced 

Air Mobility (AAM) Space Act 

Umbrella Agreements under which 

are four information exchange 

annexes for National Campaign-2 

(NC-2). The new partners include 

three aircraft developers: Electra Aero, 

based in Virginia; OverAir, based 

in California; and Supernal, based 

in Washington, DC. Supernal is 

the urban air mobility subsidiary of 

the Hyundai Motor Company. The 

fourth partner, Ellis and Associates, is 

based in California and is an urban 

technology consulting company 

specializing in the integration of 

policy, transportation, and information technology. All the companies signed information-exchange 

agreements enabling information exchanges with the National 

Campaign and other AAM mission 

projects in support of assessing their 

readiness, capabilities, and areas 

of shared interest for participation 

in NC-2 and other AAM activities. 

More information can be found at 

www.electra.aero, www.overair.com, 

www.supernal.aero, and www.ellisand-associates.com.

DIP Meets with Stakeholders 

POC: MIRNA JOHNSON

In late May, the Air Traffic Management – Exploration project’s 

Digital Information Platform (DIP) 

subproject held meetings with 

various stakeholders. The DIP team 

participated in a presentation at the 

System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) Industry FAA Team 

meeting. The presentation provided 

an update on machine learning 

services performance and steps 

toward scalability to other airspaces. 

Machine learning will enable the 

reusability of high-value digital 

services such as arrival/departure 

runway prediction and taxi time 

predictions with relatively less site 

adaptation efforts. Attendees such 

as Josh Gustin, deputy director of 

FAA Air Traffic Systems, endorsed 

the effort by describing it as a 

long-held collaborative decisionmaking dream to design services 
18 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

for reuse. The Development 

and Analytics Focus Group is 

interested in learning about how 

NASA is capturing key information and applying data analytics 

and machine learning to improve 

operational decision-making. DIP’s 

demonstration for Collaborative 

Digital Departure Re-routing is 

being demonstrated to show how 

SWIM data can be processed to 

predict key events and strategically 

propose re-route options to save 

fuel and improve efficiency. 

On May 26, the DIP team provided 

an overview of upcoming platform 

evaluation activities to representatives from American Airlines. The 

DIP team described the reusable 

digital services that will be made 

available on the platform later this 

autumn for partners to connect 

to. Anticipated partners, such as 

American Airlines, will be asked 

to evaluate the accessibility of 

the services via the platform and 

provide input for refining the platform concept and enhancing initial 

capabilities such that they can be 

incorporated into their suite of 

operational decision-making tools. 

These engagements will inform, 

from the consumer perspective, the 

desired features of the platform and 

the standards to enable a marketplace of aviation digital services. 

PAAV Completes Use Case 

Development Series and 

Tabletop Activity 

POC: WAYNE BRIDGES, ARWA AWEISS,

AND HUSNI IDRIS

In May, the Air Traffic Management – Exploration project’s Pathfinding for Airspace with Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) subproject 

completed development of a series 

of use cases. These were designed 

from an operations perspective and 

outlined step-by-step actions based 

on existing procedures and regulations applied to lower large cargo 

aircraft like the ATR42 600. The 

use cases considered both physical 

and agent architectures including 

communications, command and 

control (C2) link systems, airspace 

configurations, Air Traffic Control, 

Remote Pilot in Command 

(RPIC), flight crew, ground crew, 

and dispatching. Seventeen narratives were completed, including 

an overview of each use case and 

specific step-by-step actions. Nine 

narratives highlighted single ship 

operations. The remaining eight 

narratives focused on m:N (i.e., 

multiple operators cooperatively 

managing multiple assets) operations. Several off-nominal variations 

primarily focused on lost C2 link 

were applied to the narratives. The 

m:N narratives addressed topics 

unique to unmanned aircraft operations such as position relief, RPIC 

to RPIC handoffs, voice communications and data link management, 

and contingency management. As 

PAAV began examination of m:N 

concepts, the use cases were used to 

inform NASA research and RTCA 

SC-228 discussions. Primarily, the 

use cases became the basis for the 

development of topics and questions for the May 2022 PAAV 

Concept of Use (ConUse) tabletop, 

with the goal of vetting concept 

elements with pilots and controllers by allowing for discussion that 

would identify gaps and shortfalls 

with existing procedures and regulations and propose solutions to 

solve these issues. The use cases also 

provided examples in support of the 

PAAV research at NASA’s Glenn 

Research Center in Cleveland and 

Langley Research Center in Virginia. 

Initial findings from the tabletop 

will be included in the ConUse 

Version 1 document. They will also 

be used for further discussions at 

future m:N working group meetings and with industry partners to 

expand the m:N concept. 

On May 27, the PAAV team 

completed a tabletop activity with 

controller and pilot subject matter 

experts (SMEs). The goal of the 

tabletop was to provide a forum 

to vet with the SMEs concept 

elements of integrating unmanned 

cargo operations into the National 

Airspace System by allowing for a 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 19

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

discussion that would identify gaps 

and shortfalls with existing procedures and regulations, as well as 

propose potential solutions to solve 

these issues. A phased approach 

was used for the tabletop. In the 

first session, scheduled from May 

16–19, pilots for both manned and 

unmanned vehicles were presented 

with 17 narratives, which included 

nine use cases that highlighted 

single aircraft operations and eight 

use cases focused on m:N operations 

and were asked to assess challenges 

and solutions to enable such operations. In the second session, scheduled from May 23–26, controllers 

were presented with the same set 

of use cases and asked about their 

perspective. In the third session on 

May 27, the pilot and controller 

SMEs were brought together for a 

joint discussion. A fourth session, 

scheduled for autumn 2022, will be 

an out brief to the FAA, industry 

stakeholders, and academic/research 

representatives. Findings from the 

tabletop will be included in the 

ConUse Version 1 document. 

Kickoff for AAM V2V 

Communications Standards

POC: BRYAN BARMORE AND MISTY DAVIES

On May 31, the RTCA kicked off 

a working group to write a white 

paper on gaps and needs for industry standards to support Vehicleto-Vehicle (V2V) communications 

for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) 

operations. The kickoff brought 

together more than 90 participants 

representing U.S. operators, avionics and vehicle manufacturers, 

government, and international organizations. Based on growing community interest in V2V for a range 

of AAM operations and vehicles, 

RTCA has requested that Special 

Committee 228 lead the development of a white paper describing 

the desired scope and the need for 

future standards development and 

a proposed roadmap to said standards. Bryan Barmore of NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Virginia 

is co-leading this paper with Randy 

Jacobson of Collins Aerospace. The 

white paper, which will be presented 

to the RTCA Program Management Council in December, will 

represent industry consensus on the 

types of air traffic operations to be 

supported, the potential communication protocols, and other critical 

questions that need to be addressed. 

A V2V communication standard 

will enable vehicles to safely and 

efficiently, contribute to air traffic 

management for AAM. This work is 

being coordinated with the Federal 

Aviation Administration and other 

regulators to ensure alignment with 

their needs and constraints. Representatives from NASA’s Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration, SystemWide Safety, and AAM projects are 

also contributing. 

Tutorial on Runtime 

Verification with Copilot and 

Ogma 

POC: ALWYN GOODLOE AND MISTY DAVIES

On June 3, System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) project researcher Alwyn 

Goodloe and Ivan Perez of the 

National Institute of Aerospace 

visited Carl Elks’s research group at 

Virginia Commonwealth University 

in Virginia. The purpose of their 

visit was to give an extended tutorial on the Copilot Runtime Verification Framework and associated 

Ogma tool – both developed with 

SWS project support. In addition 

to members of Elks’s group, faculty 

members working in the area of 

robotics were also in attendance. 

Faculty and graduate students 

at the University of Virginia 

attended via Zoom, as did several 

researchers at the National Institute 

of Standards and Technology. Elks’s 

group has started using Copilot 

for work being conducted under 

a NASA research award, and the 

tutorial introduced Copilot to those 

wanting to use it on other projects 

such as a large award from the 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 
20 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

NASA/Boeing Collaborative 

SOTERIA Flight Simulation 

Study 

POC: CHAD STEPHENS AND MISTY DAVIES

On June 3, System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) project researchers 

Chad Stephens, Lance Prinzel, 

Jon Holbrook, Tyler Fettrow, 

Michael Vincent, Sepehr Bastami, 

and Dan Kiggins collaborated with 

Boeing researchers Jack Dwyer 

(Research and Technology) and 

Jim Wilkerson (Standards and 

Training) under NRSAA 33523 

to complete the SWS Operations 

and Technologies for Enabling 

Resilient In-Time Assurance 

(SOTERIA) study. The SOTERIA 

human-in-the-loop flight simulation 

study conducted in the Cockpit 

Motion Facility Integration 

Flightdeck (CMF IFD) at NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in 

Virginia involved 13 commercial 

aviation Part 121 flight crews 

with 26 test subjects. The flight 

crews were recruited to perform 

flight simulations of eight area 

navigation standard terminal arrival 

route (RNAV STAR) arrivals into 

Charlotte Douglas International 

Airport in the CMF IFD – a 

Boeing 737 Next Generation full 

flight simulator. The focus of the 

SOTERIA study was collecting and 

analyzing data on how commercial 

aviation flight crews handle 

routine expected and unexpected 

disturbances in commercial flight 

operations to explore human 

contributions to safety (HC2S). 

The objective of the study is 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 including recording 

(video recording), analysis of flight 

crew behaviors (eye tracking), 

psychophysiological responses 

(electroencephalography, galvanic 

skin response, temperature), 

and completion of surveys and 

interviews during and after the 

scenarios were performed. The 

SWS project has world-renowned 

experts in aviator resilience and 

Caption?
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 21

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

safety-producing behaviors. NASA 

SWS HC2S researchers are working 

together with Boeing, airlines, and 

aviation industry partners to better 

understand HC2S in various facets 

of commercial aviation to enable 

aviation safety.

New “Sky for All” Vision 

POC: SHAWN ENGELLAND

On June 6, Version 1.3 of the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project’s Sky for All vision was 

published to the web portal: 

https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/skyforall/. 

This major update includes the 

initial version of the communityidentified research and development 

needs. The new Sky for All vision 

is “a sustainable, safe, resilient, 

and adaptable future aviation 

system realized by advanced and 

continually emerging capabilities 

for agile, scalable, optimizable, 

increasingly diverse, and equitable 

operations in shared airspace.” 

NASA/FAA Meet with 

Microsoft to Discuss Areas of 

Collaboration 

POC: WILLIAM CHAN

On June 7, representatives from 

the Air Traffic Management 

– Exploration project and an 

FAA team (which included LS 

Technologies) met with Microsoft 

personnel at their Mountain View, 

California Technology Center to 

discuss areas of collaboration. The 

Microsoft team presented a wide 

range of their technologies that 

included using machine learning 

algorithms on their Azure cloud 

platform and their work with NASA 

to detect wear in astronaut gloves. 

They also showed the capabilities 

of their Studio Alpha and AirSim 

platforms. Studio Alpha is a 

simulation platform for decisionmaking using Azure that is data 

driven and artificial intelligencedriven to simulate real-world 

behaviors in a virtual world. AirSim 

is an open-source, cross platform 

simulator for drones and cars plus 

other vehicles. The next steps 

include planning another discussion 

with Microsoft where NASA will 

present their research toward 

refining areas of collaboration. 

ATM-X Hosts the NASA/FAA 

Quarterly Review

POC: SHAWN ENGELLAND

From June 9–10, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) project and the FAA held 

a two-day hybrid quarterly review 

meeting at NASA’s Ames Research 

Center in California. The meeting 

was hosted by the NASA Aeronautics 

Research Institute. FAA participants 

included Diana Liang (enterprise 

portfolio manager), Nabil Sandhu 

(Advanced Air Mobility Beyond 

Visual Line of Sight National 

Airspace System Evaluation lead), 

Sherri Magyarits (Upper Class 

E Traffic Management (ETM) 

Concept of Operations lead and 

Research Transition Team co-lead), 

Nouri Ghazavi (Urban Air Mobility 

Concept of Operations lead), 

Matt Modderno, Michelle Cady, 

and TJ Tejasen. Both days of the 

meeting consisted of ATM-X 

presentations on research status 

and schedule updates from the 

Digital Information Platform (DIP), 

Extensible Traffic Management, 

Urban Air Mobility, and Pathfinding 

for Airspace with Autonomous 

Vehicles subprojects as well as the 

Sky for All vision. In addition 

to these presentations, Shawn 

Engelland and Kurt Swieringa led 

a breakout session on community 

identified research needs in Sky for 

All. Jaewoo Jung held a breakout 

session toward development of an 

ETM roadmap. Mirna Johnson, 

Jeremy Coupe, and TJ Tejasen 

provided an overview and status 

update on the DIP Sustainable 

Aviation-1a data collection and 

the upcoming Sustainable 

Aviation-2 activity. Representatives 

from the FAA led discussions on 

their Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

Traffic Management Remote ID 

and Detection Demonstration 

and Message Security – UTM 

Integration. The NASA/FAA 

quarterly review continues 

to provide both agencies the 

opportunity to enable deeper 

technical discussions among 

the various teams to strengthen 

future collaborations.
22 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

PAAV Completes Space Act 

Agreements with Stakeholders 

POC: ARWA AWEISS AND RICHARD COPPENBARGER

The Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration project’s Pathfinding 

for Airspace with Autonomous 

Vehicles (PAAV) subproject signed 

two Space Act Agreements (SAA) 

this past quarter. On May 11, 

the PAAV team signed a SAA 

and corresponding Annex with 

Northrop Grumman. In support of 

the vision to achieve full seamless, 

scalable, robust integration of 

automated air cargo operations 

in the National Airspace System 

(NAS), PAAV will define, plan, and 

model collaborative demonstrations 

of Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(UAS) cargo operations with 

Northrop Grumman. The work 

planned for the first year is 

under Annex 1 and will focus 

on relevant demonstrated data of 

currently developed technologies, 

advanced procedures, and one 

or more operating environments 

required for the future integration 

of technologies and procedures 

required for file and fly UAS cargo 

operations. The plan developed in 

Annex 1 will be used for a future 

joint flight demonstration. 

On June 15, the Ohio Department 

of Transportation (ODOT) Space 

Act Annex was signed to enable a 

collaboration between the PAAV 

team and ODOT. The purpose of 

this collaboration is for the PAAV 

team to obtain real-world data 

from flights with ODOT partners 

and to gain insights into their 

operations to refine PAAV concepts 

and technologies. ODOT will be 

able to leverage NASA expertise in 

addressing the barriers to enable 

routine operations of remotely 

piloted aircraft in the NAS. 

HDV Completes LSTAR 

Installation and Assembly 

POC: JEFF HOMOLA AND LOUIS GLAAB

On June 17, the Advanced Air 

Mobility project’s High Density 

Vertiport (HDV) subproject 

completed assembling the 

Lightweight Surveillance and Target 

Acquisition Radar (LSTAR) radar. 

The effort began in early May 

when the HDV subproject first 

received the mounting platform. 

Initial assembly began and workers 

installed the radome on the radar 

platform. Workers have also installed 

mounting plates at NASA’s Langley 

Research Center in Virginia. The 

plan was to assemble the entire 

assembly onto the roof. The mount 

will provide a much better field 

of view for the LSTAR, which 

Installation of the Radome on the Radar Platform.
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 23

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

is expected to be a key piece of 

the surveillance infrastructure 

for HDV’s upcoming Scalable 

Autonomous Operations work 

package. In June, the LSTAR, 

radome, and platform were lifted 

into position on top of NASA 

Langley’s Building B1244 Hangar. 

This work was performed as part 

of the HDV subproject’s efforts to 

establish surveillance capabilities to 

enable beyond visual line of sight 

(BVLOS) small Unmanned Aircraft

System (sUAS) operations at NASA 

Langley’s City Environment Range 

for Testing Integrated Autonomous 

Navigation (CERTAIN). From its 

location atop the hangar, the LSTAR 

radar will provide coverage out to 

20 nautical miles over a 360-degree 

horizontal field of view. Tracking 

information from the LSTAR will 

be routed to the Remote Operations 

for Autonomous Missions (ROAM) 

control room located in the NASA 

Langley Air Traffic Operations Lab 

in B1268. Radar tracking data 

from a pair of panel-type GA-9120 

radars, recently installed on NASA 

Langley’s Gantry structure, will 

provide complementary information 

to the sUAS operations team of 

aircraft operating in the vicinity 

of CERTAIN and beyond. Radar 

tracking data will also be routed 

from ROAM to the sUAS in flight 

and integrated with the Independent 

Architecture for Reliable Operations 

of Unmanned Systems to provide 

autonomous detect and avoid 

functionality. Plans call for testing 

of the integrated system in May 

2023 at CERTAIN. Through 

collaboration within the Longbow 

Space Act Agreement, a third radar 

(Raytheon Skyler-2) mounted 

on Harbor Center in Hampton, 

Virginia will also be integrated 

to establish BVLOS maritime 

corridors in support of envisioned 

search and rescue operations. On 

June 10, it was reported that the 

installation of the LSTAR platform 

and radome was inspected using a 

Skydio-2 sUAS. Safety inspections 

were completed in mid-June, and 

checkout with the Radar-2 test 

planned for mid-July 2022.

ATM-X, xTM, and ILEOS 

Receive Award for 

Collaboration 

POC: JAEWOO JUNG

On June 17, the Intelligent Long 

Endurance Observing Systems 

(ILEOS), along with the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) project’s Extensible 

Traffic Management (xTM) 

subproject, received an award for 

a grant proposal submitted to the 

Advanced Information Systems 

Technology Program under NASA’s 

Science Mission Directorate. The 

xTM subproject supports the 

collaboration as outlined in the 

proposal. The ILEOS group and the 

xTM subproject will continue to 

discuss areas of future collaboration. 

LSTAR successfully assembled inside the newly installed radome.
24 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

PAAV Holds Technical 

Interchange Meeting with 

Northrop Grumman 

POC: RICHARD COPPENBARGER

On June 21, the Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration 

project’s Pathfinding for Airspace 

with Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) 

subproject hosted a Technical 

Interchange Meeting (TIM) with 

Northrop Grumman. The meeting, 

held at the NASA Aeronautics 

Research Institute at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center in California, was 

the first in a series of TIMs planned 

for the first phase of a Space Act 

Agreement that was signed in May 

2022. The partnership between 

NASA and Northrop Grumman 

is aimed at flight demonstrations 

for validating technologies and 

procedures needed to integrate 

remotely piloted operations for 

scalable and efficient cargo deliveries 

into the National Airspace System. 

This initial TIM was focused on 

airworthiness and certification 

processes and included topics 

on the certification of autonomy, 

airworthiness concerns for 

contingency management, and 

methods to calculate the probability 

of off-nominal events. It was 

agreed to continue discussions 

on airworthiness, with a focus on 

requirements for a potential PAAV 

flight demonstration at Moffett Field. 

Preparations were made for a second 

TIM at Northrop Grumman’s facility 

near San Diego in August 2022. That 

meeting will focus on scenarios for 

increasingly autonomous air cargo 

operations to help define specific 

objectives for flight demonstration 

and related data collection. 

SWS SMEs Participate in 

Plenary for ML/AI Use in 

Aviation 

POC: MISTY DAVIES

From June 27–29, several SystemWide Safety (SWS) project subject 

matter experts (SMEs) on machine 

learning/artificial intelligence (ML/AI) 

and the safety assurance of aviation 

systems participated in the SAE 

International/European Organization 

for Civil Aviation Equipment 

plenary. The plenary was held as 

a hybrid meeting in Minneapolis 

and was hosted by the University 

of Minnesota Software Engineering 

Center and Collins Aerospace. The 

purpose of the plenary was to 

finalize a draft containing consensus 

recommendations that enable the use 

of machine learning in both airborne 

and ground aviation systems. NASA 

experts participated by providing 

technical review and by drafting 

language in support of the document. 

ATM-X, UAM, and SWS 

Complete Strategic Conflict 

Management Simulation

POC: KEVIN WITZBERGER, LYNNE MARTIN,

STEVE YOUNG, AND EVAN DILL

The Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration (ATM-X) project’s 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) 

subproject successfully completed 

several steps towards developing a 

Provider of Services for UAM (PSU), 

while leading seven airspace partners 

in developing their PSU’s – five of 

which will partner with Wisk in the 

National Campaign-1 (NC-1) flight 

tests. Beginning on April 19,

all seven partners (ANRA, Avision, 

Collins, Metron/Airbus, OneSky, 

SkyGrid, and Unmanned Experts) 

and NASA successfully conducted 

an integration test with Demand 

Capacity Balancing (DCB) 

capabilities. Participants generated 

and updated operational plans to 

meet defined capacity constraints at 

vertiports while conforming to the 

established community-based rules 

(CBRs) that were also developed as 

part of the Sprint 5 exercise. This 

continued the series of Sprint tests 

to prepare the airspace partners and 

the NASA PSU for inclusion in 

the NC-1 flight test. Collaborative 

Simulation 1 exercised DCB with 

multiple partners running in the 

same environment with the window 

opening for testing on April 25 with 

an expected end date of May 6. The 

series of sprints within the scenarios 

are used to validate features that will 

be used in a collaborative scenario 

simulation with the partners that will 

run between April and June 2022. 

Additional sprints were conducted 

in May as the UAM team continued 

exercising capabilities to receive 

airspace constraints information. 

This capability is a required step 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 25

TECHNICAL AND PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

toward exercising rerouting of UAM 

operations in Sprint 7. 

On June 30, the UAM team 

completed the Strategic Conflict 

Management Simulation (X4) 

and delivered the UAM airspace 

software to the Advanced Air 

Mobility project. The simulation 

concluded a year-long effort with 

the dual objective of conducting 

research and development of the 

PSU and preparing for the NC-1 

test flights. Key requirements were 

identified, implemented, tested, 

and evaluated during the course 

of the simulation effort. Examples 

of these key requirements include 

4D trajectory operational intents, 

generating estimated times-ofarrival, demand and capacity 

balancing, and CBRs. By any 

measure, the X4 simulation was 

widely successful and impactful 

to standards development 

organizations such as ASTM 

International. Preliminary findings 

and lessons learned included 

identifying concept and requirement 

gaps associated with Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems Traffic Management 

concepts and technologies applied 

to UAM including the discovery 

and synchronization service and 

conformance monitoring. A series 

of lessons learned is expected to 

be shared beginning later in July 

2022. The UAM team will evolve 

the technologies developed during 

the X4 simulation to build up to 

a future planned Tactical Conflict 

Management Simulation, or 

X5. This build-up effort includes 

developing, implementing, testing, 

and evaluating a UAM arrival/

departure scheduler to precondition 

the UAM flights to make the 

tactical adjustments more efficient 

and effective. 

In cooperation with the UAM study, 

the System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

Emerging Operations Technical 

Challenge (TC-2) participated in 

the X4 collaborative simulation 

as well. The TC-2 team was 

successful in validating their novel 

dynamic density (DD) metric – 

demonstrating its successful use 

as a Supplemental Data Service 

Provider and showing its ability to 

interface within a PSU system. This 

activity involved seven external 

X4 partners and simulated 100 

aircraft through UAM corridors in 

the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. 

The DD service calculated and 

published the density of traffic in 

one corridor in real time to the X4 

Extensible Traffic Management data 

distribution portal and the results for 

all corridors shortly after run-time 

end. This satisfied a major project 

milestone to generate and integrate 

an airspace complexity metric as part 

of the ATM-X demonstration. This 

work was documented in a paper 

titled “Urban Air Mobility Airspace 

Dynamic Density” by Spirkovska, L., 

Kulkarni, C., Watkins, J. and Martin, 

L. and featured at the AIAA Aviation 

Forum from June 27–July 1. 

Completion of AEP 

Collaborative Simulation with 

the FAA 

POC: MIKE FEARY AND JOHN KANESHIGE

The Advanced Air Mobility 

(AAM) project’s Automated Flight 

and Contingency Management 

(AFCM) subproject’s AutomationEnabled Piloting (AEP) 

principal investigators hosted an 

FAA-sponsored simulation test in 

the Vertical Motion Simulator at 

NASA’s Ames Research Center in 

California from June 13–July 1. 

This work leveraged electric vertical 

takeoff and landing (eVTOL) 

vehicle performance models and 

automation and control concepts 

developed to support AFCM’s 

Integrated Pilot Requirements and 

Aircraft Handling and Operations 

research areas, as well as supports the 

FAA’s evaluation of possible means 

of compliance flight test maneuvers 

for eVTOL aircraft for certification 

of candidate AAM aircraft.
26 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

RECOGNITION

Careers at NASA Highlighted 

at Brewster’s Middle 

School Virtual Career Day 

POC: RANIA GHATAS

On May 5, Rania Ghatas of the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

project’s Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) subproject volunteered to 

speak to a class of middle school 

students at Brewster Middle School 

located in Camp Lejeune, North 

Carolina as part of their virtual 

career day. Ghatas spoke to the 

students about the many different 

career opportunities available at 

NASA, and her talk focused on her 

career at NASA as a human factors 

researcher currently working on the 

Human Research Program MultiModel Ensemble Risk Assessment 

Visualization Team and the UAM 

subproject. Ghatas shared two 

outreach videos with the students 

including a three-minute video 

highlighting the many research 

efforts and capabilities within 

the Crew Systems and Aviation 

Operations Branch at NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in 

Virginia, and a three-minute video 

highlighting the UAM subproject, 

which was previously shown 

during a panel discussion at EAA 

AirVenture Oshkosh in Summer 

2019. This talk was organized by 

NASA Langley’s Speakers Bureau. 

NASA Researcher Receives 

Best Thesis Award 

POC: BRANDON COOK

On Feb. 4, Jaewoo Jung from the 

Air Traffic Management-eXploration 

(ATM-X) project’s Extensible Traffic 

Management (xTM) subproject 

presented in a virtual seminar to 

a group of students and faculty at 

LeTourneau University in Longview, 

Texas. Jung provided an overview 

of NASA’s xTM research, including 

Upper Class E Traffic Management 

and the interactions between 

xTM-supported highly-automated 

operations and human-centric 

conventional air traffic operations. 

The seminar concluded with a 

question-and-answer session, where 

the students and faculty asked about 

technology and NASA in general. 

Airspace Integration Panel 

at the Ohio Advanced Air 

Mobility Symposium 

POC: WILLIAM CHAN

From April 7–8, Air Traffic 

Management – Exploration (ATMX) project management leadership 

attended the second annual Ohio 

Advanced Air Mobility Symposium, 

Pioneering the New Age of Aviation, 

at Ohio State University (OSU). 

The two-day event featured trips to 

the Springfield-Beckley Municipal 

Airport and Ohio State Research 

Centers to showcase flight simulators, 

vehicle viewings, and tours of the 

facilities. The symposium also 

featured a full day of moderated 

panels at OSU’s Fawcett Center. 

The second day, April 8, featured 

remarks by the president of OSU 

and the lieutenant governor of 

Ohio, followed by panel discussions 

and a keynote by Bob Pearce, 

NASA’s associate administrator for 

aeronautics. William Chan, ATM-X 

project manager, spoke on the first 

panel about airspace integration 

and Davis Hackenberg, mission 

integration manager for NASA’s 

Advanced Air Mobility Mission 

Integration Office, spoke on a panel 

about the supply chain for Advanced 

Air Mobility. To learn more about 

the event, visit: https://u.osu.edu/

ohiouamsymposium/2022-event/.

xTM Invited to Present 

at International 

Astronautical Congress 

POC: DAVID MURAKAMI

On April 19, the International 

Programme Committee for the 

73rd International Astronautical 

Congress informed the Extensible 

Traffic Management (xTM) 

subproject of its acceptance of 

David Murakami’s abstract “A 

Framework for Space Launch and 

Re-Entry Traffic Management.” 

Murakami and his team have been 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 27

RECOGNITION

exploring the potential use of an 

xTM architecture for managing 

space launch and recovery traffic, 

which has been growing in number 

and frequency during the past 

decade and is expected to grow 

further as more low Earth orbit 

satellite-based communications 

services come online. This is even 

more important with the entry of 

rocket cargo operations that the 

U.S. Transportation Command and 

the U.S. Air Force are exploring. 

The team is planning to submit a 

full manuscript and present it at 

the congress, scheduled for the 

week of Sept. 18-22 in Paris. 

AOSP Projects Support 

AUVSI XPonential 2022 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA, KURT SWIERINGA,

AND JEFF HOMOLA

AOSP projects played a prominent 

role at the Association for 

Unmanned Vehicle Systems 

International (AUVSI) XPonential 

2022 Conference the week of 

April 25. During the conference, 

the National Campaign (NC) 

subproject team met with partners 

from industry, government 

organizations (including the 

Office of the Undersecretary 

for Research and Engineering, 

Air Force Research Laboratory 

Technology Directorate, AFWERX, 

and Army Research Labs), and 

academia to foster an exchange of 

information and potential strategic 

partnerships. In addition, the NC 

team supported a panel on April 

28, titled “Designing Autonomy 

in the Sky,” which focused on 

the role of automation to enable 

the integration of both crewed 

and uncrewed systems and areas 

of research required to enable 

increasing levels of automation 

onboard vehicles and in the air 

traffic management system. 

On April 27, Kurt Swieringa, the Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) deputy project manager for 

technology, moderated a 45-minute 

panel session titled “NASA is 

Defining the Future of Air Traffic 

Management” that provided an 

overview of applicable research areas 

being conducted within NASA’s 

ATM-X project. The panelists 

included the principal consultant at 

GXA Consulting, LLC, Jay Shively 

of NASA (Senior Scientist - Human 

Autonomy Teaming Lab), and 

Jeffrey Homola of NASA (Upper 

Class E Traffic Management (ETM) 

Concept and Evaluation lead/

High Density Vertiport Airspace 

Systems Integration lead within 

the Advanced Air Mobility project). 

Homola presented an overview of 

the ongoing efforts in ETM research, 

its relationship to other areas of 

Extensible Traffic Management, 

Shivanjli Sharma participating on Designing Autonomy in the Sky Panel at AUVSI.
28 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

RECOGNITION

ATM-X, and beyond, as well as 

the key relationships with the 

FAA and industry. The panelists 

provided a 30-minute overview 

of applicable research areas being 

conducted within NASA’s ATM-X 

project followed by a 15-minute 

question and answer session by the 

attendees. Session Link: https://www.

xponential.org/xponential2022/

public/SessionDetails.

aspx?FromPage=Speakers.aspx&Sessi

onID=4206&nav=true&Role=U%27

SWS Presents at Aviation 

Safety InfoShare 

POC: NIKUNJ OZA

From April 26–28, representatives 

from the System-Wide Safety 

(SWS) project presented several 

briefings at the Aviation Safety 

Spring InfoShare meeting. Briefings 

included “Detecting Oceanic 

Deviations using Space-Based ADSB” by Nikunj Oza; “Short-Haul 

Fatigue: Research Plan and Results 

of a Focus Group Study” by Cassie 

Hilditch and Hannah Baumgartner 

of the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical 

Institute; and five talks including 

“NASA ASRS Cabin Crew 

Reports: COVID-Related Issues,” 

“NASA ASRS: Contributions to 

Rotorcraft Safety,” “NASA ASRS: 

Turbulence Events,” “NASA ASRS: 

Contributions to Business and 

General Aviation Safety,” and 

“NASA ASRS: Maintenance-Related 

Reports” by Mary Keller. The 

purpose of this workshop was to 

engage the commercial aviation 

industry, government agencies, 

manufacturers, and others to 

discuss aviation safety incidents, 

their causes, methods through 

which the incidents were found, 

causes identified, and approaches 

to mitigate these safety issues. The 

conference was held in St. Louis. 

The website for this conference 

can be found at the following 

website: https://www.infoshare.us/.

AFCM Participates at Vertical 

Flight Society Forum 78 

POC: MICHAEL FEARY

The Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) 

project’s Automated Flight and 

Contingency Management (AFCM) 

subproject supported the Vertical 

Flight Society 78th Annual Forum 

and Technology Display Conference, 

“Forum 78,” held in Fort Worth the 

week of May 9. AFCM research 

contributed to the technical paper 

“Towards Handling Qualities 

and Automation Assessment for 

Certification of Electric Vertical 

Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) 

Aircraft” by Michael Jones and 

David Klyde of Systems Tech.; 

R. Schaller, D. Sizoo, D. Webber, 

and J. van Houdt of the FAA; 

R. Simmons of NASA/FAA (ret).; 

D. Mitchell of Mitchell Aero.; 

M. Feary of NASA; and M. Schubert 

of Tiltrotor Flight Test Consulting. 

Klyde presented the paper during 

the “Handling Qualities II” technical 

session. During the conference, 

Klyde also met with government 

and industry colleagues to foster 

an exchange of information and 

potential strategic partnerships. 

ATM-X Panel Participates 

at Conference Focused on 

Public-Private Partnerships 

POC: SHIVANJLI SHARMA

On May 10, Shivanjli Sharma, Air 

Traffic Management – Exploration 

(ATM-X) deputy project manager, 

participated in a panel discussion 

entitled “Smarter Way to Enable 

Advanced Air Mobility Through 

Public Private Partnerships” at 

the inaugural Utah Aerospace 

Conference. The panel included 

members from NASA, industry, 

and the Technology Directorate of 

the Air Force Research Laboratory 

and focused on the methods 

and processes for industry, state 

governments, academia, and federal 

agencies to collaborate on Advanced 

Air Mobility (AAM) concepts and 

research. The discussion highlighted 

the efforts of NASA in leading 

research needed to support disparate 

mission types, emerging electric 

vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, 

increasing automation onboard the 

flight deck, and airspace concepts 

to enable high volume and tempo 

operations. In addition, it was 

noted that community partnership 

engagement was essential to enable 

this industry by taking an AAM 

ecosystem approach. 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 29

RECOGNITION

SWS Presents to NATO Science 

and Technology Organization 

on UAS Flight Testing 

POC: MICHAEL VINCENT

Michael Vincent, System-Wide 

Safety (SWS) associate project 

manager, participated at the North 

Atlantic Treaty Organization 

(NATO) Systems, Concepts, and 

Integration (SCI-328) Symposium 

on Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

(UAS) Flight Testing in Segovia, 

Spain on May 12–13. Vincent 

presented a paper on “Unmanned 

Aircraft System (UAS) FlightTest Approach Supporting the 

Development of Regulatory 

Recommendations for Integration 

with the National Airspace System,” 

which described the series of flight 

tests conducted during the UAS 

Integration in the National Airspace 

System (NAS) project to inform the 

minimum performance standards 

for Detect and Avoid (DAA) 

systems contained within RTCA 

Inc., DO-365. The presentation 

included detailed results from the 

Flight Test 6 full mission effort, 

which tested full DAA system 

performance with a human in the 

loop in a Live-Virtual-Constructive 

(LVC) simulation of the NAS. The 

technique of using LVC technology 

to collect data from human subjects 

can be broadly applied in the 

NATO mission to test and develop 

new technology as well as train 

pilots and UAS operators. 

Keynote Presentation at 

2022 University of Oxford 

Business School Conference 

POC: WENDY OKOLO

Wendy Okolo, System-Wide Safety 

associate project manager, gave the 

keynote speech at the University 

of Oxford Saïd Business School’s 

Future of Major Programme 

(FMP) Management Conference 

on May 19. The talk, “What Drives 

Cutting-Edge Aerospace Research?,” 

provided her aerospace research and 

project management perspectives 

on the future of major programs 

defined by complexity, scale, and 

stakeholder impact. The Oxford 

FMP Management Conference is 

the global biennial conference for 

major programs and large-scale 

projects. The 2022 conference 

focused on the cutting edges – 

defining the extremes of new and 

innovative major program ideas 

and research and their potential 

for impact in practice. Spanning 

wide-ranging activities including 

energy, healthcare, defense, 

aerospace, water, and sanitation, 

major programs are defined by 

their complexity and large-scale 

and transformative impacts on 

multiple stakeholders. The threeday virtual conference provided a 

unique forum for participants to 

exchange ideas, research, contacts, 

and opportunities by drawing 

together academics, practitioners, 

policymakers, and students. 

SWS Researcher Participates 

in the 2022 IEEE ICRA 

POC: AARON DUTLE AND MISTY DAVIES

The System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project was a significant contributor 

at the 13th annual NASA Formal 

Methods (NFM) Symposium held 

from May 24–27. The event was 

hosted in-person at the California 

Institute of Technology and allowed 

virtual participation as well. The 

SWS project was well-represented, 

including Ivan Perez, who served as 

program chair. Aaron Dutle, 

Alwyn Goodloe, Anastasia Mavridou, 

Corina Pasareanu, Ewen Denney, 

Johann Schumann, Misty Davies, 

and Natasha Neogi all served as 

members of the program committee. 

Anastasia Mavridou, research 

computer scientist at KBR Inc., 

gave an invited tutorial “Capturing 

and Analyzing Requirements with 

FRET,” and Paolo Masci, senior 

research scientist at the National 

Institute of Aerospace, presented 

“Proof Mate: An interactive proof 

helper for PVS.” The widespread 

use and increasing complexity of 

mission- and safety-critical systems 

at NASA and in the aerospace 

industry requires advanced 

techniques that address these 

systems’ specification, design, 

verification, validation, and 

certification requirements. The 

NFM Symposium provides a forum 

to foster collaboration between 

theoreticians and practitioners from 

NASA, academia, and industry and 
30 AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022

RECOGNITION

is one of the premier conferences in 

formal methods. The NFM offers an 

opportunity for external researchers 

to learn about the problems NASA 

is addressing, highlighted this 

year in a keynote by Steve Chien, 

senior research scientist at the Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory entitled 

“Formal Methods for Trusted Space 

Autonomy: Boon or Bane?” The 

website for the event can be found 

at https://nfm2022.caltech.edu/. 

SWS Presents IASMS Concept 

at Japan Drone 2022/

IAdvanced Air Mobility 

POC: KYLE ELLIS

On June 22, Kyle Ellis of NASA’s 

System-Wide Safety (SWS) 

project was invited to present 

NASA’s In-Time Aviation Safety 

Management System (IASMS) 

concept at the Japan Drone 

and International Advanced Air 

Mobility (AAM) 2022 combined 

conference and exposition. This 

activity is important as it engaged 

the international community 

and key stakeholders to share 

system-wide safety considerations 

and solutions to overcome the 

technical challenges facing the 

AAM industry. The IASMS concept 

was well received and outlined the 

need for industry collaboration 

to advance and demonstrate the 

IASMS concept as an essential 

safety framework to enable safe, 

sustainable, efficient, and scalable 

AAM operations around the planet 

in a transformed airspace. 

NASA SMEs on Steering 

Committee for FAA 

Aviation Data Challenge 

POC: MISTY DAVIES

On June 29, NASA subject matter 

experts (SMEs) from the SystemWide Safety project served on a 

Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA)-led data challenge steering 

committee regarding the use of 

machine learning and artificial 

intelligence for safety in aviation. 

The purpose of the FAA data 

challenge is to encourage students 

to work on real problems at the 

intersection of data science and 

aviation – helping to advance 

aviation and to build a skill pipeline 

for the future workforce. The FAA 

data challenge will launch in August 

2022 and conclude in June 2023 

and is designed to be a capstonelike competition for engineering 

and data science students. 

SWS Presents at the 

2022 HCII Conference 

POC: PAUL KROIS AND MISTY DAVIES

System-Wide Safety (SWS) project 

researcher Paul Krois presented a 

paper entitled “Human Interfaces 

and Management of Information 

(HIMI) Challenges for ‘In-time’ 

Aviation Safety Management 

Systems (IASMS)” at the HumanComputer Interaction International 

(HCII) Conference 2022 that was 

held virtually from June 26–July 1. 

The paper flows from research being 

accomplished by the SWS project 

developing the IASMS Concept 

of Operations and examined the 

unprecedented challenges from 

the envisioned transformation of 

the National Airspace System to 

integrate an IASMS for assuring 

safety in Advanced Air Mobility. 

These challenges included the 

design of human interfaces and 

management of safety information 

for integrating potential new 

critical safety risks with novel 

types of aircraft and other vehicles 

having different performance 

capabilities, flying in increasingly 

complex airspace, and adapting 

contingencies to manage normal 

and non-normal operations. This 

paper is important in describing 

the need for innovative new 

ways for humans to interact with 

data and manage information 

compelled by integration of 

predictive modeling, data analytics, 

machine learning, and artificial 

intelligence to effectively address 

known hazards and emergent 

risks. Because the roles of humans 

will dynamically evolve in 

increments with this technological 

and operational evolution, the 

interfaces for how humans will 

interact with increasingly complex 

and assured systems designed 

to operate autonomously, and 

how information will need to 

be presented, are important 
AOSP NEWSLETTER // APR-JUN 2022 31

RECOGNITION

challenges to be resolved. The 

HCII conference brought together 

a worldwide community of 

experts in cognitive engineering, 

human-computer interface design, 

and other areas researching and 

developing interfaces for a wide 

range of applications. 

AOSP Projects Participate 

in AIAA Aviation 2022 

POC: WILLIAM CHAN, ERSIN ANCEL,

AND PORTIA BANERJEE

The Air Traffic Management – 

Exploration (ATM-X) and SystemWide Safety (SWS) projects proudly 

represented AOSP at the AIAA 

Aviation and Aeronautics Forum 

and Exposition 2022 Conference in 

Chicago from June 27–July 1. The 

ATM-X project’s Pathfinding for 

Airspace with Autonomous Vehicles 

(PAAV) subproject participated in 

two special sessions and multiple 

papers for Urban Air Mobility 

(UAM) and Extensible Traffic 

Management (xTM) were presented 

at the conference. The xTM 

subproject papers covered topics 

from integration of xTM operations 

into the National Airspace System 

(NAS) and specific issues related 

to the use of the xTM construct 

for high-altitude operations. There 

were also papers describing the 

UAM Airspace Research Roadmap 

and noise impacts due to UAM 

operations. The two ATM-X 

organized special sessions for PAAV 

covered a wide range of topics 

from describing the challenges of 

integrating remotely piloted aircraft 

into the NAS to specific technical 

papers. The technical papers 

included a review of potential 

routes for increasingly autonomous 

air cargo operations, a framework 

for decomposing the functions 

necessary to ensure safe and efficient 

operations, a risk evaluation 

methodology for unmanned aircraft 

approach and landing operations, 

and the impact of communication 

latency on ensuring safe separation 

for remotely piloted aircraft. 

The SWS project also participated. 

Eleven papers were submitted 

under the technical discipline 

Air Transportation System (ATS) 

presenting research outcomes from 

SWS work. This topic encompassed 

technical papers describing the 

advancement of air transportation 

systems and operations and two 

in-person sessions including 

SWS I, chaired by Ersin Ancel 

and Natasha Neogi, and SWS II, 

chaired by Steve Young and Jane 

Cleland-Huang. These sessions 

were organized by SWS project 

researchers Portia Banerjee and 

Ersin Ancel in close coordination 

with ATS technical chairs. 

Participants in both sessions were 

highly engaged with the more than 

40 attendees and had a lively followup discussion after individual 

talks. Additionally, a few SWS 

papers were presented at the virtual 

session “Advanced Air Mobility 

Operations and Sustainability II.” 

Reported research highlighted the 

significant advancements in the 

readiness level of individual SWS 

services, functions, and capabilities 

while providing the capabilities 

of the collective use of these 

advancements. Research progress 

from university collaborations with 

George Washington University, 

Vanderbilt University, University 

of Texas at Austin, Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology Lincoln 

Laboratory, University of Notre 

Dame, Iowa State University, and 

Virginia Commonwealth University 

in SWS projects under the NASA 

Research Agreement grants were 

presented in these sessions. 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

www.nasa.gov