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	+ Home Search Aviation Systems		AAM/NC North Texas Conducts Cohort Flight Test October 18, 2022 On October 11, 2022, National Campaign (NC) researchers within the AAM Project took a step towards next generation UAM air travel with a successful live flight test of emerging technologies. This flight demonstration was done in collaboration with a nationwide partnership of companies and government agencies, which included future airspace system automation, i.e., providers of services for UAM (PSU), advanced communications infrastructure, a surrogate electric Vertical Takeoff, and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft and a simulated air route in the North Texas area. This effort is one of several ongoing NASA AAM National Campaign partnerships by a team collectively titled the North Texas (NTX) Cohort. The NTX Cohort includes representatives from fifteen companies, universities, and government agencies who have been collaborating on the project for two years. The test built upon the earlier UAM simulation work conducted in the Strategic Conflict Management Simulation (X4) led by the Air Traffic Management Exploration (ATM-X) Project’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Sub-Project team. The vehicle, a Bell 407GXi helicopter provided by Bell Textron, flew a simulated high-demand route for unmanned, autonomous cargo and passenger-carrying air transport while providing vital data for industry standards in airspace management, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and UAM flight operations. A researcher onboard the vehicle utilized a tablet display, which was specifically customized to receive and send pertinent data for overall situational awareness and information exchange. The NTX Cohort team was able to expand on earlier NASA-led research by validating the integration of live weather data and dynamic capacity balancing into a complex hardware/software solution needed to realize the next generation of airborne travel. The helicopter, which was utilized as a surrogate eVTOL for the demonstration, completed the flight along a notional high demand route while providing real-time weather and demand data to a traffic management system monitored on the ground. The route was flown multiple times and led to valuable lessons on the required information exchanged between the ground and air vehicle. Lessons from the NTX Cohort research will be documented in a forthcoming flight test report. POC: Greg Juro ATM-X xTM ETM Team Meets with Industry, the FAA, and OGAs October 18, 2022 On October 13, 2022, the Air Traffic Management Exploration (ATM-X) Project’s Extensible Traffic Management (xTM) Subproject Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) team met with representatives from industry, the FAA, the Department of Defense (DoD), the US Forest Service (USFS), and other NASA organizations. During this meeting, the xTM’s Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) team, along with members of industry, provided news and updates on recent and ongoing developments, a discussion on altitude referencing and implications for separation in the stratosphere was also held, followed by an overview of a recent, record-breaking flight test by a fixed wing High Altitude Long Endurance aircraft. A summary of relevant papers in review at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for the current assembly was also presented. This was followed by the first public presentation of the Cooperative Area Concept by the FAA to a broader audience. Recent NASA work and resulting publications on negotiation modeling were also presented. POC: Jeff Homola ATM-X UAM Team Visits the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center October 18, 2022 On October 12, 2022, members of NASA’s ATM-X Project’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Airspace Subproject visited the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) near the Atlantic City International Airport (ACY) in New Jersey. The UAM team was joined by the AAM NC Integration of Automated Systems (IAS) lead, Adam Yingling and the NC Partner Demonstration Tech Lead, Gerrit Everson. NASA representatives met with FAA personnel including Marty Suech, Operational Integration and Test Strategic Coordinator; John Bradley, Air Traffic Control Subject Matter Expert; Tom Rubino, Verification and Validation Strategies and Practices Branch representative; and Chuck Romano, the Strategic Initiatives Coordinator for Test and Evaluation. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the joint NASA-FAA UAM Maturity Level (UML) 3 Operational Integration Assessment (OIA) scheduled in 2025. Discussion topics ranged from sharing lessons learned from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) and ACY simulated airspace procedures and design efforts to NASA, FAA, and Industry expected UML-3 OIA roles and responsibilities. Two important outcomes of the meeting included: 1) identifying a need to connect a NASA ARC facility to the existing NASA-FAA Laboratory Integrated Test Environment (NFLITE) to ensure the research objectives can be satisfied while also establishing a persistent capability that other AAM efforts can leverage after the UML-3 OIA is completed; and 2) informing opportunities for future NC flight tests with UAM airspace simulation efforts. Kevin Witzberger, the UAM Subproject Manager, Dr. Ian Levitt, the UAM Principal Engineer, and Eric Neiderman, the WJHTC Deputy Director, had further discussions about AAM ecosystem research needs, and potential opportunities to establish shared capabilities across NASA and FAA organizations to help address the research needs. POC: Kevin Witzberger AAM/NC Conducts Tabletops with Industry Partners to Explore Airspace Automation Functional Allocations October 18, 2022 Over the past several months, the National Campaign’s Wisk partner demo team completed a series of ten tabletop exercises with a variety of industry partners to explore functional allocations required for airspace automation in the AAM ecosystem. These exercises were conducted between March and October 2022, and partners included: One aircraft Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM): Wisk Aero Five airspace service providers: Avision, OneSky, SkyGrid, ANRA, and Collins Aerospace Two Command and Control Comm Service Providers (C2CSP): AURA and Collins Aerospace More work is needed to assess concepts and generate data to address technical and regulatory gaps requiring operational solutions to enable an increasingly automated AAM ecosystem. The NASA team worked with Wisk Aero, the primary partner in this activity, to develop Provider of Services for UAM (PSU) user stories based on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) and Wisk’s public Concept of Operations (CONOPS). From March to May the first set of tabletops discussed characteristics of progressive UAM maturity levels based on the PSU user stories. These discussions are believed to be the first combined meetings between an aircraft OEM, government researchers, and airspace service providers to address airspace automation concepts. The next phase of this activity developed detailed scenarios for flight tabletop exercises conducted between August and October 2022. In addition to OEM and airspace partner collaboration, the two C2CSP partners were also included. These exercises have included a realistic set of initial conditions, assumptions, and infrastructure to facilitate detailed discussion on disparate systems that will be required to work together for efficiency and safety in AAM ecosystems. A final report of lessons learned from the tabletop meetings and exercises will be completed by the end of 2022. POC: Gerrit Everson, Brad Snelling + Previous Highlights + Back to Top
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