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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 1282.PDF
EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT Big strides for small aircraft NASA's plan to make general aviation a mode of transport rivalling airlines is gathering pace - and gaining support GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC THIS MONTH, NASA takes delivery of its latest experimental aircraft - a Cirrus SR2 2. The all-composite light aircraft will join a similar Lancair Columbia 300 deliv ered in January. The aircraft will become test- beds for NASAs Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) programme. SATS is a five-year effort to demonstrate technology enabling small aircraft to use virtu ally any small airport in nearly all weather con ditions. NASAfc long-term vision is to create a new mode of transport that will relieve pressure on die USA's congested interstate highways and major airports. Work towards this goal has begun at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia, where die newly arrived Cirrus and Lancair light aircraft will be flight tested to develop detailed flight simulation models before being modified to allow rapid prototyping of cockpit technologies to be demonstrated under SATS. "We want to be able to replace the cockpit from one experiment to the next," says acting deputy SATS programme manager Jim Burley. "We want to be able to take a panel, plug it into the simulator to check the hardware and soft ware, then fly it." Cockpit technology is at the heart of the programme, which aims to make flying a small aircraft an easier, safer and more reliable mode of transportation. NASA's near-term goals for SATS are to expand the capacity of the US air transport sys tem by enabling higher-volume operations in the abundant non-radar airspace and at the thousands of non-tower airports; to reduce the cost of that expansion by lowering landing min- imums at minimally equipped airports without making expensive improvements; and to exploit the expansion through increased use of small aircraft by making single-pilot flying at least as safe as two-pilot commercial operations. These operational capabilities are supported by enabling technologies arrayed under pro jects including high-density operations and vir tual visual meteorological conditions (WMC). Together, they require the integration of many technologies into aircraft aimed at a market sec tor that is extremely price sensitive. INDUSTRY ALLIANCE NASA has budgeted $69 million over five years for SATS, a sum which it hopes will be matched by a general aviation industry alliance called the "single public-private programme interface" (SPPI). Bringing together aircraft manufactur ers, system suppliers, airport operators, service providers and user communities, as well as financial investors and insurance underwriters, this is expected to be in place by August. The SPPI will act as NASAs single collabora tive business partner for the development and dissemination of SATS technologies. It is mod elled on the industry alliance formed to support the forerunner to SATS, NASA's Advanced General Aviation Transportation Experiments (AGATE) programme. The Cirrus SR22 and Lancair Columbia 3 00 to be used as SATS test- beds are products of AGATE. With the SATS programme NASA is looking further ahead, up to 2 5 years into the future, but some operational capabilities could emerge ear lier to help with the USA's airspace problems - technology for high-density operations in unmanaged airspace, for example. "Airspace is not the problem, it's the rules used to separate aircraft," argues Burley. "We separate small aircraft by three to five miles because that's the best air traffic controllers can do. Computers do not have the same constraints. If we can reduce the separation I il SATS flightdeck technology will bring down the visibility required for airport access and ensure the aircraft can reliably get there in all weathers" -Jim Burley, NASA Langley Research Center 38 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 10 - 16 April 2001
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