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At least 19 records

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Study of Tailored Trajectory Management for Multi-Vehicle Uncrewed Regional Air Cargo Operations

The primary contribution of this paper is an evaluation of the potential value of a tailored trajectory management (TTM) capability for uncrewed aircraft (UA) operators that is proactive in detecting conflicts and developing trajectory-based solutions for UA prior to air traffic control (ATC) performing conflict resolution. The experiment matrix is composed of one baseline simulation that models current air traffic operations without such a capability and four test simulations with different configurations of such a capability. In each simulation, five UA operations into Fort Worth Alliance airport were modeled in the presence of recorded tracks for about 4700 flights on January 18, 2022. The analysis focused on the extent to which such a capability was able to preclude an event that could spike UA operator workload. More specifically, in this study, the emulated UA operator TTM capability for multi-vehicle regional air cargo operations was able to reduce the number of instances of concurrent UA conflicts in the modeled ATC conflict resolution timeframe of 8 minutes or less from three to as low as one.

uncrewed aircraft, regional air cargo, tailored tr↗

NASA NTRS2022

PAAV Concept Document

The Pathfinding for Airspace with Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) Concept Document, version 1.0, lays out the key challenges and potential solutions for the use of uncrewed aircraft (UA) technology for future regional air cargo operations. The challenges and solutions described in this document were informed by communications with the UA industry community (e.g., RTCA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and regional air cargo business operators), as well as the PAAV team’s research activities during the last two years including four tabletop exercises, a human-in-the-loop simulation study, a numerical simulation study, a functional allocation study, and flight data analysis (Appendix A). This document first describes the expected operational context of PAAV (Section 2), such as the flight mission, baseline UAS components, nominal operations, m:N operations (i.e., "m" remote pilots per "N" aircraft), and off-nominal operations. This context sets the scope for the PAAV concept development work. PAAV concept development assumes that UA operations will be increasingly autonomous. Thus, near- and far-term assumptions are defined (Section 3). PAAV identified seven key challenges for UA operations (Section 4): - Flight route planning - Separation and flow management - Traffic pattern integration - Contingency management - Taxi, takeoff, and landing - m:N operations - Communications operations The following 13 potential solutions to these challenges are then described (Section 5): - Scalable communications architecture - Data link - Designated UAS corridors - Crew planning for m:N operations - Flight route optimization - Traffic load-level control - Trajectory solutions with data link - Automated hazard avoidance for m:N operations - Traffic pattern integration (TPI) tool - Standard lost command and control (C2) link (LC2L) procedures - Automated hazard avoidance under LC2L - Auto-taxi, auto-takeoff, and auto-land - Ground control station (GCS) user interface for m:N operations The document attempts to link each of these solutions to one or more of the challenge areas. Novel solutions involving numerous automation technologies are needed to mitigate traffic and airspace management challenges, especially for realizing m:N operations and ensuring safety under LC2L conditions. The purpose of this document is to help understand alternatives and tradeoffs among potential solutions and provide a foundation for a cohesive PAAV concept that will be described and refined in subsequent concept versions.

Unmanned aircraft, uncrewed aircraft, regional air↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Assessment of Lost Command and Control Link Procedures

This paper presents an initial assessment of lost command and control (LC2L) procedures for large Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) in a simulated representative airspace environment using real airspace procedures. The experiment matrix consists of nine different flight routes: four nominal, four following current LC2L procedures, and one that routes the UAS more conservatively through less-busy airspace. For each route, eleven simulated UAS flights – in ten-minute increments – were flown into Fort Worth Alliance Airport following a real Instrument Approach Procedure. The simulated UAS flew amongst real recorded tracks of approximately 4,700 flights on January 18, 2022. The analysis focused primarily on the number of aircraft with which each UAS lost separation and where the losses occurred. This work presents a significant increase in testing capability and provides the foundation for further verification and validation of LC2L procedures using additional analysis metrics.

Uncrewed aircraft↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Assessment of Lost Command and Control Link Procedures

uncrewed aircraft↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Comparative Analysis of Airspace System Accessibility for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems for Regional Operations

As part of newly developing aviation markets, fixed-wing Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) are projected to impact airspace systems and conventional air traffic in the future. The initial introduction of fixed-wing cargo UAS for regional operations is anticipated to occur at smaller under-utilized airports. Therefore, this paper assesses the integration potential of regional fixed-wing cargo UAS into the airspace system. A baseline is established to identify potential airports for UAS operations in different areas. Additionally, using 2022 data, regional aircraft eligible for future cargo UAS operations are investigated. Finally, the accessibility of these regional aircraft at the identified airports was analyzed. Based on the availability of current certified landing systems needed for initial UAS operations, the potential airports for UAS operations are compared in the areas of Germany, Texas, and California. Despite 173 identified airports for potential UAS operations in Germany, 376 in Texas, and 227 in California, only eleven of these airports provide current certified landing systems needed for initial UAS operations. However, other landing system technologies that are currently under development, such as vision-based landing systems, might support UAS accessibility at the identified airports for potential UAS operations in the future.

Uncrewed aircraft systems↗

NASA NTRS2022

Preliminary Characterization of Unmanned Air Cargo Routes Using Current Cargo Operations Survey

The introduction of regional cargo unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System is anticipated within the coming years. Because they are remotely piloted, these aircraft are expected to utilize increasing aircraft automation and autonomy, require special infrastructure accommodations for navigation, communication, command and control and potentially need special treatment from air traffic control. In order to assess the accessibility and impacts of these operations across the national airspace, this preliminary study investigates current and estimated future demand for air cargo operations in the continental United States. Air cargo demand is broken down by aircraft type and airport categories to produce a rough nation-wide classification of cargo operations. Then, the state of Texas is investigated as a focus region, where the impacts of regional cargo unmanned aircraft systems on the airspace are investigated in further detail. The potential technologies that can assist in regional cargo unmanned aircraft system accessibility are defined at airports across the focus region. A single airport, Fort Worth Alliance, is highlighted to discuss airport-level statistics. Finally, a qualitative classification of airports by the type of cargo operations is suggested.

Unmanned Aircraft↗

NASA NTRS2022

Preliminary Characterization of Unmanned Air Cargo Routes Using Current Cargo Operations Survey

Unmanned Aircraft, Unmanned Aircraft Systems, UAS,↗

NASA NTRS2023

Operational Integration Potential of Regional Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Into the Airspace System

As part of newly developing aviation markets, fixed-wing Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) are projected to impact airspace systems and conventional air traffic in the future. The initial introduction of fixed-wing cargo UAS for regional operations is anticipated to occur at smaller under-utilized airports. Therefore, this paper assesses the integration potential of regional fixed-wing cargo UAS into the airspace system. A baseline is established to identify potential airports for cargo UAS operations in different areas. Additionally, using 2022 data, regional aircraft eligible for future cargo UAS operations are investigated. Finally, the accessibility of these regional aircraft at the identified airports was analysed. Based on the availability of current certified landing systems needed for initial UAS operations, potential airports in the areas Germany, Texas, and California for UAS operations are compared. Additionally, based on the maximum takeoff weight allowances of airport runways, current air transport operations at airports, and airspace classes, individual airports with a high potential for the introduction of initial cargo UAS operations with and without the availability of landing systems needed for UAS are identified and compared among the investigated areas. Despite a total of 173 identified airports for potential UAS operations in Germany, 376 in Texas, and 231 in California, only eleven of these airports currently have the certified landing systems needed for initial UAS operations. However, other landing system technologies that are currently under development, such as vision-based landing systems, might support UAS accessibility at the identified airports for potential UAS operations in the future.

Uncrewed aircraft systems↗

NASA NTRS2003

Air Cargo Transportation Route Choice Analysis

Using a unique feature of air cargo transshipment data in the Northeast Asian region, this paper identifies the critical factors that determine the transshipment route choice. Taking advantage of the variations in the transport characteristics in each origin-destination airports pair, the paper uses a discrete choice model to describe the transshipping route choice decision made by an agent (i.e., freight forwarder, consolidator, and large shipper). The analysis incorporates two major factors, monetary cost (such as line-haul cost and landing fee) and time cost (i.e., aircraft turnaround time, including loading and unloading time, custom clearance time, and expected scheduled delay), along with other controls. The estimation method considers the presence of unobserved attributes, and corrects for resulting endogeneity by use of appropriate instrumental variables. Estimation results find that transshipment volumes are more sensitive to time cost, and that the reduction in aircraft turnaround time by 1 hour would be worth the increase in airport charges by more than $1000. Simulation exercises measures the impacts of alternative policy scenarios for a Korean airport, which has recently declared their intention to be a future regional hub in the Northeast Asian region. The results suggest that reducing aircraft turnaround time at the airport be an effective strategy, rather than subsidizing to reduce airport charges.

Obashi, Hiroshi↗

NASA NTRS2021

Advanced Air Mobility and Safety Management Systems

Our current air transportation system has underserved markets, including local, regional, intraregional, and urban transportation of both people and cargo. Recent advances in aviation technology such as small highly-automated vehicles, electric aircraft, and automated air traffic are enabling business opportunities in these markets. Advanced Air Mobility, or AAM, refers to a community effort to overcome the gaps in operational rules, safety analysis, and overall acceptance, so that these new operations will be possible. For full details, please see: https://www.nasa.gov/aam As we think about how we can safely introduce these new operations, fundamental questions about how the structure of Safety Management Systems can be applied to AAM, and how that structure can be used to help us overcome the necessary technical and societal obstacles arise. Two of these questions are: • How do we tailor the requirements and desired level of monitoring and assessment to achieve safety given the breadth of possible operations and the associated risk of those operations? • How do we aid innovation by rapidly evaluating the safety of novel operations without losing associated rigor? We assume that a Safety Management System that enables these future systems will incorporate knowledge of the acceptable level of risk, and will utilize data science to automate the core monitor, assess and mitigate functions that will allow us to respond to risks and hazards in time to prevent safety incidents. In 2018, the National Academies proposed an In-Time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) that would advance these goals. (https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24962/in-time-aviation-safety-management-challenges-and-research-for-an) The National Academies made a clear distinction between in-time systems, in which hazards could be identified and risks mitigated in time to prevent incidents, and real-time systems, since many hazards and risks do not need real-time data and analysis to detect and mitigate.

In-Time Aviation Safety Management System↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Applications of Advanced Perception and Distributed Sensing Technology towards Autonomous Advanced Air Mobility Applications

Emerging concepts for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) envisions responsive air transportation capabilities that can safely move people and cargo between places - including local, regional, intraregional, and urban - previously not served or underserved by aviation. Expanding traditional aviation services to these environments, particularly when autonomous operations are involved, face a number of challenges that will require advances beyond the state-of-the-art techniques for airborne sensing and perception, which goes beyond the limits of scalability and applicability of the current air transportation system infrastructure. Additionally, the emerging field of distributed sensing and ‘smart spaces’– where sensing, processing, communication, and actuation are embedded in the environment in which agents are acting and can be exploited by the agents through real-time wireless communication – may provide realistic near-time solutions to limitations imposed by traditional aviation techniques. This paper outlines the needs, challenges, and opportunities for advanced perception and distributed sensing techniques to meet the emerging needs for advanced AAM operations in the national airspace. A general roadmap for research, development, and maturation of perception and distributed sensing (P&DS) technologies is proposed to guide future development through verification, validation, certification into airborne systems. Through this analysis of challenges and the proposed roadmap for technology maturation, we hope to accelerate transition of advanced research techniques from other disciplines into this domain.

Autonomy↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign (NC) Tech Talk: Integrated Data Product

NASA Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign has hosted multiple flight tests in a effort to promote public confidence and accelerate the realization of emerging aviation markets for passenger and cargo transportation in urban, suburban, rural, and regional environments. The goals and objectives for each flight test are intended to assess the performance of the vehicle’s capacity to operate safely, efficiently, and sustainably in urban areas. The Airspace Test and Infrastructure (ATI) team processes the flight data to evaluate the effectiveness of air vehicle and airspace management integration, while its analysis capabilities support the assessment of the efficacy of proposed vehicles and ground systems required to enable the vehicles’ operations. The ATI data services team creates many products from the data, first by transforming and merging the data into a single Integrated Data Product (IDP). This aligns data from many sources by time, so that, for example, the winds that impacted a flight can be aligned with its ground track and speed. A detailed IDP enables many types of statistical computation and visualizations that help researchers understand what transpired during the flight and how it can be explained. This Tech Talk will give an overview of the IDP process, including examples of the resulting products created by the data services team. It will also share an application that will allow participants to perform their own data analysis.

National Campaign, Advanced Air Mobility, Integrat↗

NASA NTRS1991

The civil tiltrotor aircraft's potential in developing economies

The civilian tiltrotor (CTR) is analyzed as a new transportation technology with the potential for changing one of the key economic factors linked to Third World economic development. It is contended that efficient, low-cost transport services are a necessary condition for the economic development of Third World countries and that the CTR's capabilities and operating costs can provide more efficient transport services than have heretofore been available to such countries. A case study of potential CTR use among the nations of the Carribean Basin region appears to offer both analytical and empirical support to these contentions. The analysis indicates that normal market mechanisms are adequate for development of air cargo services using the CTR's capabilities. It is suggested that implementation of this service may require new institutional arrangements, but overall it is concluded that tiltrotor technology could make an important contribution to the economic development of Third World countries.

Alton, Larry R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Regional Modeling and Simulation for Vertiport Location Assessment

There is increasing interest in the Urban Air Mobility concept and the realization of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (e-VTOL) vehicles flying in the National Airspace System. NASA, FAA, and the industry are investigating various aspects of this new mode of transportation for cargo and humans. There are significant challenges in making this mode a reality, including feasibility, safety, infrastructure, traffic management, public acceptance, and scalability. From the infrastructure perspective, one of the aspects that needs to be addressed is the location of vertiports (named similar to heliports, for vertical take-off and landing vehicles). There is significant on-going research for selecting location of vertiports. However, the locations are largely based on demand models. Also, these efforts are focused in specific local regions, San Francisco/Bay Area, Chicago, Tampa, etc. This talk presents an approach to determine the location of vertiports in regional areas (across the United States), incorporating the desire to have certain attributes closer to or further from the location using a regional modeling tool. The feasibility of flying e-VTOL vehicles between various vertiport locations is also presented using a mobility operations simulation tool.

Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS1983

A preliminary investigation of the drag and ventilation characteristics of livestock haulers

A wind tunnel evaluation of the drag and ventilation characteristics of a conventional (unmodified) and five modified subscale model livestock haulers at 0 deg yaw angle has been made. The unmodified livestock hauler has a relatively high drag coefficient, and a low velocity recirculation region exists in the forward portion of the hauler. The use of a streamlined forebody and enclosed gap reduced the drag coefficient of one model by 42% and improved the rate at which contaminants can be flushed from the cargo compartment by a factor of 2.5. From the limited data obtained, any increase in the fraction of open area of the trailer sides was found to improve the trailer ventilation. The use of a ram air inlet can improve the ventilation within the hauler and remove the low velocity recirculation region at the expense of a modest increase in the truck's drag coefficient. A mathematical model for vehicles with ram air or NACA submerged inlets was developed and appears to adequately predict the ventilation characteristics of livestock haulers.

Hoffman, J. A.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

AAM NC Tech Talk: Intro to Amazon Web Services

The purpose of this Tech Talk is to engage with the Advance Air Mobility National Campaign community on the use of a cloud provider to promote public confidence and accelerate the realization of emerging aviation markets for passenger and cargo transportation in urban, suburban, rural, and regional environments.

AWS↗

NASA NTRS1973

The many uses of the dirigible.

Prospects for a revival of large airships are based on a number of unique services which can be provided by the dirigibles. It is shown that airships are not unduly weather-sensitive. Modern technological advances will give the airship of the future operational features which will be greatly superior to those of the Zeppelins of the past. Projections set the payload of a 22-million-cu ft conventionally propelled airship of conservative design at 615,000 lb for a range of 2950 mi. The corresponding figure for the C-5A aircraft is only 265,000 lb. Dirigibles could, therefore, become merchant ships of the air, carrying low-density and large-dimension cargoes that jet freighters find economically unattractive or practically impossible to handle. The absence of landing-facility requirements would make the airship a logical candidate for introducing trade into otherwise inaccessible regions of the world.

Hunt, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Determining Usability Versus Cost and Yields of a Regional Transport

Regional transports are designed to operate on air networks having the basic characteristics of short trip distances and low density passengers/cargo, i.e. small numbers of passengers per flight. Regional transports passenger capacity is from 10 to 100 seats and operate on routes from 350 to 1000 nautical miles (nm). In order to meet passenger requirements providing low fares and high or required number of frequencies, airlines must constantly monitor operational costs and keep them low. It is obvious that costs of operating aircraft must be lower than yield obtained by transporting passengers and cargo. The requirement to achieve favorable yield/cost ratio must provide the answer to the question of which aircraft will best meet a specific air network (Simpson, 1972). An air network is defined by the number of services, the trip distance of each service, and the number of flights (frequencies) per day and week.

Gvozdenovic, Slobodan↗