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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Federal Aviation Administration Vertiport Electrical Infrastructure Study

In this detailed analysis, the authors assess the charging infrastructure needed for the deployment of advanced air mobility involving electrified vertical take-off and landing technologies. The report covers four research areas: (1) Identifying charging infrastructure requirements for existing facilities based on flight operational parameters, potential use cases, charging strategy, and other constraints. (2) Assessing sites on power availability to meet charging demand, the impact on grid infrastructure, potential hazards, and cybersecurity needs, and using technoeconomic analysis to identify opportunities for onsite distributed energy resources, primarily solar photovoltaics and battery energy storage systems. (3) Calculating greenhouse gas emission based on total energy consumption attributable to each site. (4) Analyzing the job and economic development impact for sites adopting new infrastructure.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2021

Separation at Crossing Waypoints Under Wind Uncertainty in Urban Air Mobility

To enable high-density operations in major metropolitan areas, urban air mobility networks are anticipated to have air traffic management with higher levels of autonomy. To ensure that this type of autonomy is feasible, one of the critical steps from a safety and efficiency perspective is understanding various factors that affect the spatial separation between airborne flights and ensure that these factors can be managed. In terms of separation assurance and scheduling, an important real-world concern is that future states of aircraft cannot be perfectly predicted. The focus of this research paper is to understand how these prediction errors affect separation and scheduling services and to explore mitigation strategies to handle these errors. In this research, we have simulated these types of uncertainty by adding wind-prediction errors to trajectory predictions for separation. With these wind-prediction errors, we decompose the problem into two separate questions. First, using both simulation and analytical methods, we look at conflict-detection-only scenarios to understand how the wind errors affect required minimum temporal separation between crossing flights to ensure a specific spatial separation. Next, we study how trajectory errors effect conflict resolution, and we explore different combinations of scheduling and separation assurance to mitigate the effects of uncertainty between crossing flights. The conflict resolution algorithm aims to minimize necessary temporal separation between crossing flights under uncertainty, still ensuring safety-critical spatial separation. In summary, this research suggests that the required minimum temporal separation at a crossing waypoint is dependent on factors such as inbound crossing angle, the relative angle between wind direction and bearing of each route, wind magnitude, wind magnitude uncertainty, nominal cruise airspeed of aircraft, and look-ahead time of the conflict detection algorithm. This research also suggests that different combinations of scheduling and separation have different qualitative results. Using a combination of strategic, flow-based scheduling, tactical scheduling at crossings, speed control near crossing points, and separation management leads to a system that is insensitive to trajectory prediction errors with high throughput and flexibility for aircraft away from shared resources.

urban air mobility↗
NASA NTRS2021

Separation at Crossing Waypoints Under Wind Uncertainty in Urban Air Mobility

To enable high-density operations in major metropolitan areas, urban air mobility networks are anticipated to have air traffic management with higher levels of autonomy. To ensure that this type of autonomy is feasible, one of the critical steps from a safety and efficiency perspective is understanding various factors that affect the spatial separation between airborne flights and ensure that these factors can be managed. In terms of separation assurance and scheduling, an important real-world concern is that future states of aircraft cannot be perfectly predicted. The focus of this research paper is to understand how these prediction errors affect separation and scheduling services and to explore mitigation strategies to handle these errors. In this research, we have simulated these types of uncertainty by adding wind-prediction errors to trajectory predictions for separation. With these wind-prediction errors, we decompose the problem into two separate questions. First, using both simulation and analytical methods, we look at conflict-detection-only scenarios to understand how the wind errors affect required minimum temporal separation between crossing flights to ensure a specific spatial separation. Next, we study how trajectory errors effect conflict resolution, and we explore different combinations of scheduling and separation assurance to mitigate the effects of uncertainty between crossing flights. The conflict resolution algorithm aims to minimize necessary temporal separation between crossing flights under uncertainty, still ensuring safety-critical spatial separation. In summary, this research suggests that the required minimum temporal separation at a crossing waypoint is dependent on factors such as inbound crossing angle, the relative angle between wind direction and bearing of each route, wind magnitude, wind magnitude uncertainty, nominal cruise airspeed of aircraft, and look-ahead time of the conflict detection algorithm. This research also suggests that different combinations of scheduling and separation have different qualitative results. Using a combination of strategic, flow-based scheduling, tactical scheduling at crossings, speed control near crossing points, and separation management leads to a system that is insensitive to trajectory prediction errors with high throughput and flexibility for aircraft away from shared resources.

urban air mobility↗
NASA NTRS2012

Air traffic management evaluation tool

Methods for evaluating and implementing air traffic management tools and approaches for managing and avoiding an air traffic incident before the incident occurs. A first system receives parameters for flight plan configurations (e.g., initial fuel carried, flight route, flight route segments followed, flight altitude for a given flight route segment, aircraft velocity for each flight route segment, flight route ascent rate, flight route descent route, flight departure site, flight departure time, flight arrival time, flight destination site and/or alternate flight destination site), flight plan schedule, expected weather along each flight route segment, aircraft specifics, airspace (altitude) bounds for each flight route segment, navigational aids available. The invention provides flight plan routing and direct routing or wind optimal routing, using great circle navigation and spherical Earth geometry. The invention provides for aircraft dynamics effects, such as wind effects at each altitude, altitude changes, airspeed changes and aircraft turns to provide predictions of aircraft trajectory (and, optionally, aircraft fuel use). A second system provides several aviation applications using the first system. Several classes of potential incidents are analyzed and averted, by appropriate change en route of one or more parameters in the flight plan configuration, as provided by a conflict detection and resolution module and/or traffic flow management modules. These applications include conflict detection and resolution, miles-in trail or minutes-in-trail aircraft separation, flight arrival management, flight re-routing, weather prediction and analysis and interpolation of weather variables based upon sparse measurements. The invention combines these features to provide an aircraft monitoring system and an aircraft user system that interact and negotiate changes with each other.

Sridhar, Banavar↗
NASA NTRS1994

Three dimensional inventories of aircraft emissions

Three dimensional inventories of fuel burned and emissions (NO(x), CO, and hydrocarbons) have been developed on a 1 deg latitude by 1 deg longitude by 1 km altitude grid for scheduled commercial air traffic (passenger jet, cargo, and turboprop aircraft) for 1990 and projected to the year 2015. Emission scenarios have also been calculated for projected fleets of Mach 2 and Mach 2.4 high speed civil transports. The methodology and results are discussed. These emission inventories are now in use in the assessment of aircraft emissions impact by NASA.

Baughcum, Steven L.↗
NASA NTRS1971

On optimal scheduling and air traffic control in the near terminal area

A scheme is proposed for automated air traffic control of landing aircraft in the vicinity of the airport. Each aircraft is put under the control of an airport-based computer as soon as it enters the near-terminal area (NTA). Scheduling is done immediately thereafter. The aircraft is given a flight plan which, if followed precisely, will lead it to the runway at a prespecified time. The geometry of the airspace in the NTA is chosen so that delays are executed far from the outer marker, and violations of minimum altitude and lateral separations are avoided. Finally, a solution to the velocity mix problem is proposed.

Sarris, A. H.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Nonlinear flight test trajectory controllers for aircraft

Flight test trajectory control systems are designed to enable the pilot to follow complex trajectories for evaluating an aircraft within its known flight envelope and to explore the boundaries of its capabilities. Previous design approaches were baed on linearized aircraft models necessitating a large amount of data storage along with gain schedules. In this paper, the synthesis of nonlinear flight test trajectory controllers for a fixed-wing aircraft is described. This approach uses singular perturbation theory and the recently developed theory of prelinearizing transformations. These controllers do not require gain scheduling for satisfactory operation, can be used in arbitrarily nonlinear maneuvers, and are mechanized with a direct, noniterative analytic solution.

Menon, P. K. A.↗
NASA NTRS2023

Life Cycle Cost Modeling of High-speed Commercial Aircraft - Final Report

SpaceWorks has concluded a 9-month research and development project aimed at addressing key questions in NASA’s effort to anticipate, understand, and ultimately support the emerging high-speed commercial flight market. The current project is a continuation of the Life Cycle Cost Modeling of High-Speed Commercial Aircraft1 , which is a follow-on to a 2021 study led by Deloitte and SpaceWorks entitled Commercial Hypersonic Transportation Market Study2 . Based in part on the recommendations of these prior studies, the objectives of this current effort were to expand the trade space to include Mach 1.5 aircraft and conduct additional trade studies. These included utilizing tech stops to extend serviceable range between city pairs, mixed aircraft fleets based on market size, flight scheduling to maximize value of the travel opportunity, and scenarios with multiple service operators. Additionally, SpaceWorks conducted new market surveys and research to update air passengers’ willingness-to-pay for highspeed flights given the changes in macroeconomic conditions since the start of the Commercial Hypersonic Transportation Market Study with Deloitte. Ultimately, the new data and capability to evaluate all the trade studies were implemented in a new simulation environment called MIDAS (Multi-market Integrated Dynamic Aerospace Simulation). This sophisticated tool, implemented using AnyLogic software, utilizes agent-based and discrete event simulation (DES) techniques to provide highly detailed analysis and assessment of the high-speed aircraft market problem.

high-speed↗
NASA NTRS2013

Damage Detection Response Characteristics of Open Circuit Resonant (SansEC) Sensors

The capability to assess the current or future state of the health of an aircraft to improve safety, availability, and reliability while reducing maintenance costs has been a continuous goal for decades. Many companies, commercial entities, and academic institutions have become interested in Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) and a growing effort of research into "smart" vehicle sensing systems has emerged. Methods to detect damage to aircraft materials and structures have historically relied on visual inspection during pre-flight or post-flight operations by flight and ground crews. More quantitative non-destructive investigations with various instruments and sensors have traditionally been performed when the aircraft is out of operational service during major scheduled maintenance. Through the use of reliable sensors coupled with data monitoring, data mining, and data analysis techniques, the health state of a vehicle can be detected in-situ. NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is developing a composite aircraft skin damage detection method and system based on open circuit SansEC (Sans Electric Connection) sensor technology. Composite materials are increasingly used in modern aircraft for reducing weight, improving fuel efficiency, and enhancing the overall design, performance, and manufacturability of airborne vehicles. Materials such as fiberglass reinforced composites (FRC) and carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) are being used to great advantage in airframes, wings, engine nacelles, turbine blades, fairings, fuselage structures, empennage structures, control surfaces and aircraft skins. SansEC sensor technology is a new technical framework for designing, powering, and interrogating sensors to detect various types of damage in composite materials. The source cause of the in-service damage (lightning strike, impact damage, material fatigue, etc.) to the aircraft composite is not relevant. The sensor will detect damage independent of the cause. Damage in composite material is generally associated with a localized change in material permittivity and/or conductivity. These changes are sensed using SansEC. The unique electrical signatures (amplitude, frequency, bandwidth, and phase) are used for damage detection and diagnosis. An operational system and method would incorporate a SansEC sensor array on select areas of the aircraft exterior surfaces to form a "Smart skin" sensing surface. In this paper a new method and system for aircraft in-situ damage detection and diagnosis is presented. Experimental test results on seeded fault damage coupons and computational modeling simulation results are presented. NASA LaRC has demonstrated with individual sensors that SansEC sensors can be effectively used for in-situ composite damage detection of delamination, voids, fractures, and rips. Keywords: Damage Detection, Composites, Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring (IVHM), Aviation Safety, SansEC Sensors

Dudley, Kenneth L.↗
NASA NTRS1972

4-D guidance system design with application to STOL air traffic control.

A new guidance technique, referred to as 4-D guidance, is being developed to improve the operation of future STOL aircraft transportation systems. 4-D guidance refers to a technique of synthesizing a complex three-dimensional flight path from simple pilot inputs and flying the aircraft along the path according to an ATC specified time schedule. The two major elements of a 4-D guidance system are the trajectory synthesizer and the control law for flying the aircraft along the synthesized trajectory using the aircraft's autopilot and autothrottle. Inputs to the trajectory synthesizer are the three-dimensional coordinates of waypoints, the turning radius, the speed range, the acceleration limits and the arrival time at time control waypoints. First the three-dimensional trajectory is computed using circular arcs and straight lines. Then the airspeed profile, compensated for wind, is calculated to achieve the desired arrival times. The pilot is informed if the arrival times cannot be achieved. The synthesized trajectory is stored as a time sequence of reference states and controls which the aircraft is forced to track using a linear feedback law.

Erzberger, H.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Human factors in aircraft maintenance and inspection

The events which have led to the intensive study of aircraft structural problems have contributed in no less measure to study of the human factors which influence aircraft maintenance and inspection. Initial research emphasis on aging aircraft maintenance and inspection has since broadened to include all aircraft types, both new and old. The role of today's aircraft maintenance workforce is indeed a complex one as it is strongly influenced by the need to maintain the broad technology mix embodied in the current fleet. Technicians must be equally adept at diagnosing and repairing "old-tech" 727, DC-9 type aircraft and "new-tech" 767, and MD-ll's. Their skills must include ability to repair sheet metal and composite materials; control cables and flyby-wire systems; round dials and glass cockpits. Their work performance is heavily influenced by others such as designers, technical writers, job card authors, schedulers and trainers. This paper describes activities concerning aircraft maintenance and inspection human factors.

Aging Aircraft↗
NASA NTRS1980

Noise prediction for jetstar prop-fan test

The acoustic calculations reported in this memorandum are for two model prop-fan designs (SR-2 and SR-3 blades) scheduled for test on top of Jetstar aircraft. The predicted acoustic pressure signatures and spectra for selected microphone positions on the fuselage and operating conditions are presented. A detailed presentation of the input data, the acoustic results, and the corrections for microphone fuselage reflection are included. The general trend observed in these calculations is that the acoustically optimized model (using SR-3 blades) is substantially quieter than the model with SR-2 blades. This latter design has conventional straight blades.

Farassat, F.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Methods for Determining Aircraft Surface State at Lesser-Equipped Airports

Tactical departure scheduling within a terminal airspace must accommodate a wide spectrum of surveillance and communication capabilities at multiple airports. The success of such a scheduler is highly dependent upon the knowledge of a departure's state while it is still on the surface. Airports within a common Terminal RAdar CONtrol (TRACON) airspace possess varying levels of surface surveillance infrastructure which directly impacts uncertainties in wheels-off times. Large airports have access to surface surveillance data, which is shared with the TRACON, while lesser-equipped airports still rely solely on controllers in Air Traffic Control Towers (Towers). Coordination between TRACON and Towers can be greatly enhanced when the TRACON controller has access to the surface surveillance and the associated decision-support tools at well-equipped airports. Similar coordination at lesser-equipped airports is still based on verbal communications. This paper investigates possible methods to reduce the uncertainty in wheels-off time predictions at the lesser-equipped airports through the novel use of Over-the-Air (OTA) data transmissions. We also discuss the methods and equipment used to collect sample data at lesser-equipped airports within a large US TRACON, as well as the data evaluation to determine if meaningful information can be extracted from it.

departure scheduling↗
NASA NTRS2019

Scheduling and Airport Taxiway Path Planning Under Uncertainty

Congestion and uncertainty on the airport surface are major constraints to the available capacity of the air transport system. This project is to study the problem of planning and scheduling airport surface movement at large airports. Specifically, we focus on the departure time scheduling and taxiway path planning of multiple aircraft under uncertainty. We also developed a simulation tool that is capable of simulating aircraft movement along the taxiway and possible uncertainty during the movement.

Li, Jiaoyang↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Quesst Mission Status

Construction of NASA’s X-59 low-boom aircraft is nearing completion with its first flight scheduled within the next several months. The X-59 will be the low-boom noise source for a series of community noise surveys across the USA. The goal of NASA’s Quesst Mission is to collect and correlate noise and perceptual response data to low-loudness sonic booms so that the current prohibition on commercial supersonic aircraft flight overland can be reconsidered. This presentation describes the current state and future plans for the Quesst Mission and Commercial Supersonic Technology. Employment and internship opportunities for students and graduates are also outlined.

X-59↗
NASA NTRS1985

Simulation of time-control procedures for terminal area flow management

Simulations of a terminal area traffic-management system incorporating automated scheduling and time-control (four-dimensional) techniques conducted at NASA Ames Research Center jointly with the Federal Aviation Administration, have shown that efficient procedures can be developed for handling a mix of 4D-equipped and conventionally equipped aircraft. A crucial role in this system is played by an ATC host computer algorithm, referred to as a speed advisory, that allows controllers to maintain accurate time schedules of the conventionally equipped aircraft in the traffic mix. Results are of the most recent simulations in which two important special cases were investigated. First, the effects of a speed advisory on touchdown time scheduling are examined, when unequipped aircraft are constrained to follow fuel-optimized profiles in the near-terminal area, and rescheduling procedures are developed to handle missed approaches of 4D-equipped aircraft. Various performance measures, including controller opinion, are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedures.

Alcabin, M.↗
NASA NTRS2015

SOSS User Guide

This User Guide describes SOSS (Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler) software build and graphic user interface. SOSS is a desktop application that simulates airport surface operations in fast time using traffic management algorithms. It moves aircraft on the airport surface based on information provided by scheduling algorithm prototypes, monitors separation violation and scheduling conformance, and produces scheduling algorithm performance data.

air traffic control↗
NASA NTRS2013

Effects of Airport Tower Controller Decision Support Tool on Controllers Head-Up Time

Despite that aircraft positions and movements can be easily monitored on the radar displays at major airports nowadays, it is still important for the air traffic control tower (ATCT) controllers to look outside the window as much as possible to assure safe operations of traffic management. The present paper investigates whether an introduction of the NASA's proposed Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA), a decision support tool for the ATCT controller, would increase or decrease the controllers' head-up time. SARDA provides the controller departure-release schedule advisories, i.e., when to release each departure aircraft in order to minimize individual aircraft's fuel consumption on taxiways and simultaneously maximize the overall runway throughput. The SARDA advisories were presented on electronic flight strips (EFS). To investigate effects on the head-up time, a human-in-the-loop simulation experiment with two retired ATCT controller participants was conducted in a high-fidelity ATCT cab simulator with 360-degree computer-generated out-the-window view. Each controller participant wore a wearable video camera on a side of their head with the camera facing forward. The video data were later used to calculate their line of sight at each moment and eventually identify their head-up times. Four sessions were run with the SARDA advisories, and four sessions were run without (baseline). Traffic-load levels were varied in each session. The same set of user interface - EFS and the radar displays - were used in both the advisory and baseline sessions to make them directly comparable. The paper reports the findings and discusses their implications.

airport surface operations↗