As the nation reels from one tragedy, researchers at NASA are working to prevent another as they study a new generation of aircraft—one that could introduce even more complexity in the national airspace system (NAS).
Advanced air mobility (AAM) is no longer a Jetsonian dream. Autonomous drones are inspecting infrastructure, flying missions for police and first responders, and delivering food, drinks, and prescriptions in major cities like Dallas-Fort Worth. Aerial firefighters are using remotely piloted aircraft to battle blazes.
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By the end of 2025, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis could begin ferrying passengers in city centers. These AAM entrants take a variety of forms, all of which complicate air traffic management.
“Modernizing our current airspace systems to integrate remotely piloted or autonomous operations is an immense undertaking that requires extensive research and collaboration,” said Supreet “Sue” Kaur, systems engineering and integration lead for NASA’s Air Traffic Management Exploration (ATM-X) project.
NASA is equipped for the challenge. Before its transition to NASA in 1958, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) developed the technology that enabled U.S. Air Force ace Chuck Yeager’s historic supersonic flight in 1947, as well as several systems—such as the NACA airfoil—that remain in use.
Today, just about every airplane and air traffic control (ATC) facility in the country relies on technology developed by NASA. But as aircraft evolve, so too must the systems that oversee them.
“We don’t just want to send an eVTOL air taxi out there into the wild without really looking at the problems and understanding the complexity of that,” said Michael Vincent, acting deputy project manager for NASA’s System Wide Safety (SWS) program.
Just In Time
Vincent joined SWS in 2021, where he is developing a potentially invaluable tool—the In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS).
“At the heart of IASMS is the idea of moving away from being reactive to safety, meaning something happened and we have to respond to it,” Vincent said.
Often, it takes a major incident—like the fatal collision in January—to prompt action that would mitigate future tragedies. But with modern technology, Vincent believes air safety can become proactive, or even predictive.
“You need a system that is constantly monitoring multiple data sources for hazards, constantly assessing the risk to flight operations, and mitigating these hazards before they become an issue,” he said.
That is precisely NASA’s vision for IASMS—a system that continuously checks the status of aircraft, airports, weather, air traffic management, and other sources to predict dangers before they happen. IASMS uses all of that data to build “digital twins” of planned routes and their hazards. By tracking GPS satellites, for example, it can warn pilots of gaps in navigation before they take off. Vincent likened it to having a seasoned bush pilot by your side
In flight, the system can detect other aircraft, instruct pilots to avoid them, and identify hazards along the new flight path. After touchdown, it monitors for changes to the landing zone—such as a new tower—and overall system health. Eventually, NASA hopes to predict when individual components will burn out.
IASMS is designed for drones flying below 400 feet, high-flyers in Class Upper E airspace, and everything in between. NASA is working with pilot and ATC subject matter experts to tailor it for a range of operations. In April, for example, researchers at Langley Research Center in Virginia tested IASMS for hurricane relief and recovery.
“We know most people are going to be evacuated, so there’s not as much risk to people on the ground,” Vincent said. “But there will be first responders on the ground. We know there will be media helicopters, and there will be a degraded type of infrastructure. Maybe cell service isn’t available. Maybe we incorporate things like monitoring or navigational services.”
In that case, IASMS might activate a geofencing hazard or a system “that tells you what the minimum altitude is to have GPS,” Vincent said. Future tests will evaluate other scenarios. Vincent hopes the research will ultimately help regulators create safeguards for AAM.
“Really, it’s requirements, lessons learned, standards, and considerations,” he said. “Private industry is going to develop their own types of software…But there aren’t really standards for how they should perform. What we eventually want to hand off is a list of those requirements—almost a template for how you assure a specific type of operation.”
House That NASA Built
NASA has been developing IASMS since 2018. But the project is just one piece of a highly choreographed research effort.
“It’s like building or remodeling a house,” said ATM-X’s Kaur. “You need an architect, someone to lay the foundation, a framer, a roofer, an electrician, a plumber, and so on. All of these folks have their areas of expertise, but they work together in unison…Similarly, we are looking at different parts of a bigger challenge.”
Early efforts concentrated on drone integration. The UAS Integration in the NAS project, which ran from 2011 to 2020, produced detect and avoid (DAA) and command and control (C2) standards for uncrewed drones. The spinoff UAS Traffic Management (UTM) effort facilitated the FAA’s development of the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC)—a fixture of modern UAS operations.
“Based on that work, we realized remotely piloted operations have a big role in our future,” said Kurt Swieringa, deputy project manager for technology for ATM-X.
NASA launched ATM-X as a “sister program” of SWS to prepare for increasingly autonomous operations. At its core is a next-generation air traffic management system, designed for not just conventional aircraft but small drones, self-flying air taxis, and high altitude long endurance (HALE) operations in the stratosphere. Through simulations and live flights, the project “assesses concepts and capabilities…to understand how different technologies and systems can work together seamlessly,” Swieringa said. “This is why we are exploring a range of emerging aircrafts, capabilities, and use cases,” he added. “And we collaborate with a variety of partners to identify and understand the challenges they face and to share valuable knowledge.”
In March, for example, ATM-X and Boeing tested digitized communications between ATC and the flight deck, which future uncrewed aircraft could one day use. In November, researchers gauged Reliable Robotics’ automated flight system and Collins Aerospace’s ground-based surveillance system during remotely piloted flights.
In May, NASA renewed its collaboration with Boeing air taxi arm Wisk Aero, which has helped it study precision approach and landing for eVTOL aircraft. The partners are preparing for testing to assess how ATC interacts with uncrewed aircraft flying under IFR.
Swieringa said ATM-X is shaping a version of the Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS XR) that uses DAA to maintain separation between uncrewed aircraft. It also studies challenges like ATC workload.
“Research goes beyond just the flight itself—you have to consider the planning and management at every stage, from when the aircraft is parked at the gate to when it arrives at its final destination,” Swieringa said.
Like IASMS, ATM-X shares its findings with the FAA to inform regulations. It also works with industry partners to develop technology that is operational and scalable, but safe.
“Our greatest impact comes from sharing the insights gained through this research,” said Kaur. “While flight tests we conduct are looking at operating in general aviation, the lessons learned will be disseminated to other types of operations, including small drone operations…because automation and autonomy are being explored in every air class, with a range of different types of aircraft.”
Though a critical focus, safety is just one aspect of NASA’s AAM research. The agency works with the U.S. military, city, state, and foreign governments, universities, and the private sector to study everything from AAM infrastructure to ride quality and passenger experience.
Beyond testing with Reliable and Collins, it has conducted remotely piloted flights with a Bell APT-70 and modified Sikorsky S-76B and is exploring other automated models. One project is studying these aircraft specifically for emergency and healthcare purposes.
NASA also has a close relationship with eVTOL manufacturer Joby Aviation, with which it has performed test flights and simulations to study air taxi noise, wind effects, and traffic. The agency has an agreement with the Air Force to use Joby’s prototype at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It even studies eVTOL crash scenarios and infrastructure such as vertiports—electrified takeoff and landing hubs.
The research spans low-flying drones to HALE flight above 60,000 feet, and remotely piloted rotorcraft to supersonic jets. But the projects share one common objective.
“Ultimately, we all have the same goal—to advance new technologies for human benefit,” said Kaur.
This column first appeared in the July Issue 960 of the FLYING print edition.
