|
|
|
Airline Passengers, Relax: Turbulence Detectors Are on the Way,
John Roach, National Geographic News, January 22, 2007
Smooth
Ride, Low Cost, Wayne Rosenkrans, Flight Safety Foundation,
Aviation Safety World, September 2006
ARINC Engineering Services
Named Prime Contractor by NASA for Flight Critical Systems Work,
ARINC Communications, February 16, 2006
Steering Aircraft Clear of
Choppy Air , NASA Tech Briefs. January 01, 2006
MultiScan will help Airbus pilots avoid weather hazards,
Guy Norris, Flight International, December 13, 2005
How real-time weather data can help,
Graham Warwick, Flight
International, February 8, 2005
NASA
Technology Helps Smooth Bumpy Airline Rides, Science
Daily, July 21, 2005
Smoothing Out the Skies,
Kathy Barnstorff NASA Langley
Research Center, August 30, 2004
|
 |
|
Airline Passengers, Relax: Turbulence Detectors Are on the Way
John Roach, National Geographic News, January
22, 2007
Wouldn't it be nice if airline pilots turned
on the "fasten seat belt" sign before the person standing in
the aisle toppled onto your lap because of turbulence?
NASA researchers are on the job. They are
developing a pair of technologies that will give pilots several
minutes' warning so they can steer clear of the erratic, gusty
winds.
"That's enough time to get everybody seated
and carts stowed if you're in the meal phase of the flight," said
Jim Watson, an engineer at the NASA Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Virginia.
"And it also allows you to contact air traffic
control and get a route diversion if necessary," added Watson, who
is project manager for NASA's Turbulence Prediction and Warning
Systems
The system's technologies aim to prevent
injuries and save airlines millions of dollars.
Of the 58 turbulence-related injuries that
occur on average in the United States each year, 98 percent happen
because people don't have their seat belts fastened, according to
the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
And turbulence costs airlines about a hundred
million U.S. dollars a year in rerouted flights, late arrivals, and
additional aircraft inspection and maintenance.
Turbulence Detection
The technologies were developed as part of a
NASA program to predict oncoming turbulence and report its severity
when encountered.
One of the technologies is called Enhanced
Turbulence, or E-Turb, Radar. It upgrades existing airborne weather
radar systems so they can detect turbulence associated with
thunderstorms.
E-Turb's software uses vertical and horizontal
radar scans of the weather in front of the airplane to determine the
severity of the turbulence.
The software takes into account how moisture
is moving through the air—a measure of turbulence—as well as
specifics about the airplane such as weight, speed, and angle of
flight.
Since not all planes are created equal—a 747,
for example, is much heavier than a Learjet—the same amount of
turbulence will jostle different planes differently, Watson noted.
The hazard calculated by E-Turb is then
presented to the pilot in an easy-to-read format.
"The pilot sees what is called a magenta
display that essentially says, For this turbulence level you should
get everybody in their seat, and for this higher level turbulence
you should definitely get everybody in their seat, and you might
want to try to avoid it," Watson said.
The system was tested for 18 months on a Delta
Air Lines aircraft. The flight data collected during the test is
currently under evaluation, and Watson's team plans to make
recommendations this spring on whether the system should be deployed
by other airlines.
Turbulence Reports
The second technology under development is
called the Turbulence Auto Pilot Reporting System (TAPS).
This software kicks in when an aircraft's
accelerometer, an instrument that measures acceleration, detects an
encounter with turbulence. It immediately calculates the severity of
the turbulence and reports that information to computers on the
ground.
Eventually engineers plan to rebroadcast the
information to aircraft flying similar routes, so pilots will know
where the turbulence lies, allowing them to take evasive action if
necessary.
This is particularly useful in the 10 to 20
percent of turbulence events that occur in the absence of moisture
and therefore evades radar detection, Watson said.
Currently TAPS is used on more than a hundred
Delta aircraft. As of August 2, 2006, it had generated more than
76,000 turbulence reports, according to AeroTech Research, a
Hampton, Virginia, firm working with NASA on the project.
Tom Staigle is the chief technical pilot for
Atlanta, Georgia-based Delta Air Lines.
In a testimonial posted on AeroTech's Web site, he praises the potential of the combined
turbulence technologies.
Together with TAPS, the enhanced turbulence
radar effort marks one of the most exciting developments in the
struggle to deliver better quality turbulence hazard information to
flight crews and potentially other aviation user groups," he said.
Back to Top
Current News and
Activities |
|
|
|
Steering Aircraft Clear of Choppy Air
NASA Tech Briefs. January 01, 2006
|
On December
28, 1997, a United Airlines
plane flying from Japan to
Hawaii experienced severe
turbulence while over the West
Pacific Ocean. Over 100
individuals on this flight of
374 passengers and 19 flight
crew members were injured during
the encounter, one fatally.
Investigative reports issued
following the incident indicated
that the plane was subjected to
a “sudden upward push of almost
twice the force of gravity,”
followed by a “sharp, downward
push” about 6 seconds later.
In other
incidents, turbulent air has
ripped off airplane engines,
broken wings in half, flung food
carts to the ceiling, and caused
broken bones in passengers and
flight attendants. Whether it is
an injury to a human, damage to
onboard equipment, or damage to
a plane itself, airlines are
facing greater than $100 million
in turbulence-related costs
annually, according to the U.S.
Department of Transportation and
the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA). Moreover,
NASA has found that turbulence
encounters by commercial
transports are the leading cause
of injuries to passengers and
flight crews in non-fatal
airline accidents.
But what
exactly is this turbulence
phenomenon, and how does it
occur? Turbulence is an
irregular or disturbed flow in
the atmosphere that produces
gusts and eddies. What makes
turbulence so dangerous is that
it normally cannot be seen, and
onboard radar systems that track
weather cannot detect it—even
though weather is accountable
for turbulence in many
instances. In fact, nearly 80
percent of all
turbulence-related accidents are
associated with thunderstorm
activity.
It is not
always the weather, though. If
you are accustomed to flying the
“friendly” skies, you have
likely noticed that the rough
and bumpy parts of a trip can
often occur when the skies
actually appear to be
friendliest; that is, clear and
blue as far as the eye can see.
This type of clear-air
turbulence can be attributed to
jet streams, or fast,
high-altitude air currents that
disturb nearby air, as well as
air that passes over mountains
or other high obstructions. The
wakes created by other nearby
planes or helicopters can also
stir up turbulence. Wake
turbulence is more prevalent in
areas where planes are taking
off and landing.
A team of
researchers at Langley Research
Center, under the Turbulence
Prediction and Warning Systems (TPAWS)
project, developed two special
technologies that can
automatically alert pilots of
potentially hazardous turbulence
conditions, in real time.
Screen shot of a ground station
display showing a storm system
over the central United States.
The colored areas represent
radar reflectivity. Also shown
are various aircraft in the area
and the TAPS reports made by
TAPS-equipped transiting
aircraft.
The first
technology, called the Enhanced
Turbulence (E-Turb) Mode Radar,
is software in an aircraft’s
radar that can provide flight
crews advance warning of
turbulence, so that they can
avoid it altogether and keep
themselves and their passengers
out of harm’s way, or, at a
minimum, prepare the aircraft
for it by stowing loose
equipment and having passengers
and crew seated with seatbelts
fastened.
“The radar
technology is an enhanced
turbulence-detection radar
system that detects atmospheric
turbulence by measuring the
motions of the moisture in the
air,” said NASA’s TPAWS project
manager, Jim Watson. “It is a
software signal-processing
upgrade to existing predictive
Doppler wind shear systems that
are already on airplanes.”
The second
technology, known as the
Turbulence Auto-PIREP System (“PIREP”
is a term used in the aviation
industry for pilot reports), or
TAPS, is software that improves
situational awareness of the
location and severity of actual
turbulence encounters for
pilots, dispatchers, and
controllers. If a TAPS-equipped
aircraft encounters turbulence
that exceeds the designated
turbulence threshold, the
onboard TAPS software will
generate a turbulence report
that is then broadcast over a
data link. The report is
received by ground stations,
where it is automatically shown
on a display, accessible via the
Internet by dispatchers,
controllers, airline operations
personnel, and maintenance
crews. Various functions allow
the ground station display users
to process and tailor the
information for specific users.
If there are any other aircraft
on course to approach the region
where the turbulence was
reported, then the ground
station can directly uplink the
TAPS report packet to them.
The E-Turb
Mode Radar and TAPS
developmental efforts were
carried out as part of NASA’s
Aviation Safety and Security
Program, which has tapped into
decades of aeronautics research
to make commercial air travel
more secure. The goal is to
reduce the number of
turbulence-related accidents 50
percent by 2007.
Partnership
AeroTech
Research (U.S.A.), Inc., a
leader in turbulence-detection
and warning systems, has been
involved with NASA Aviation
Safety research since 1998.
AeroTech served as a contractor
for the TPAWS
government/industry development
project, and was funded by NASA
to develop the E-Turb Mode Radar
algorithms and the TAPS
software. (Other contributors to
this project include the
National Center for Atmospheric
Research, the FAA, North
Carolina State University, and
the Research Triangle
Institute.)
The radar
algorithms combine an aircraft’s
turbulence-response
characteristics with radar
measurements to determine the
predicted turbulence loads the
aircraft will experience, and
present this information to the
pilot. The TAPS software
monitors and processes onboard
aircraft sensor data; generates
automatic reports when an
aircraft encounters turbulence
and a set turbulence threshold
is exceeded; and then displays
the reports and underlying
information to ground personnel
to improve situational awareness
of the location and the severity
of the turbulence encounter.
Once the
E-Turb Mode Radar and TAPS were
developed, AeroTech helped NASA
perform the initial flight
testing of the technologies. For
this, the systems were
implemented on NASA’s B-757
research aircraft. Upon
installation, the B-757 was
flown through regions of
significant turbulence, caused
by thunderstorms. The actual
flight data gathered allowed
NASA and AeroTech to fully
evaluate the systems’
performances and then optimize
the technologies to ensure they
were ready for commercial
application.
NASA and
AeroTech began an in-service
evaluation of the TPAWS in
concert with Delta Air Lines to
evaluate the effectiveness of
TPAWS to a wider variety of
turbulence experienced in
operational conditions.
The E-Turb
radar software was integrated
into a Rockwell Collins WXR-2100
radar, which was installed on a
Delta Boeing 737-800 aircraft
and has been flying in revenue
operations for over 2 years. The
TAPS software was implemented on
a total of 123 Delta Boeing
737-800, 767-300ER, and
767-400ER aircraft, and has also
been flying in revenue
operations for over 2 years.
TAPS was additionally integrated
into a ground station graphical
display system, where turbulence
reports generated by
TAPS-equipped Delta aircraft
have been viewed and used by
Delta dispatch, operations,
flight safety, management, and
maintenance personnel since
August 2005.
Product
Outcome
AeroTech’s
versions of these airborne
turbulence technologies are
being implemented into
commercial systems. The E-Turb
radar algorithms are being
developed for different aircraft
types and for incorporation in
new radars. A retrofit option
for existing radars is also
under consideration. This would
allow the maximum number of
aircraft to take advantage of
the new, enhanced turbulence
radar-detection capabilities.
The FAA is currently developing
minimum performance standards
for airborne weather radar with
turbulence-detection algorithms.
TAPS,
meanwhile, continues to fly on
the Delta aircraft. Additional
airlines have shown interest in
participating in the effort and,
hence, sharing TAPS reports.
Besides
improved in-flight safety
measures, TAPS also enables more
judicious use of airspace and
can lead to potential savings in
fuel and reductions in flight
delays. The technology can also
assist meteorologists in
validating and enhancing weather
forecasts.
“With
these [TAPS] tools, we’ll have
better knowledge of where
turbulence is, and we won’t cry
wolf as much,” said Bill Watts,
Delta Air Lines’ Turbulence
Program manager. “We can get
people to sit down when they
need to sit down.”
In its
current format, however, TAPS
information can only be sent to
the cockpit and received by
airborne crews via text and
voice messages from dispatchers.
AeroTech was awarded a NASA
Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) contract to
carry out this work, and will
continue to collaborate with
various industry groups to
ensure that the turbulence
technology reaches its
potential.
Back to Top
Current News and
Activities |
|
|
|
|
|
MultiScan will help Airbus pilots avoid weather hazards
Guy Norris, Flight International, December 13,
2005
Rockwell Collins has switched to installing WXR-2100 radars in both single- and twin-aisle Airbus aircraft, with windshear
detection and advanced MultiScan functions, following certification of its hazard weather detection system on the A320, A330 and A340.
Although the WXR-2100 has been supplied to Airbus for the past 18 months, the MultiScan function will now be activated on new production systems. Earlier radars will also be upgradable through an Airbus service bulletin that is likely to be available by April 2006.
The WXR-2100 MultiScan radar is fully automatic and operates to ranges up to 590km (320nm). It also includes OverFlight protection, which helps crews avoid inadvertent penetration of thunderstorm tops, one of the leading causes of unexpected turbulence. The system uses a combination of lower and upper beams information and computer memory to keep the thunderstorm top in view until it passes behind the aircraft. The radar also incorporates real-time ground clutter suppression.
Ray Robertson, principal systems engineer for Rockwell Collins weather radar, says:
"This is one of the key advantages to MultiScan technology, particularly at long ranges. If you have to raise the antenna to avoid ground clutter and even in some automatic systems, the edge of the beam is not looking at the ground the centre of the beam is overshooting potential weather. So with ground clutter suppression, you get much better weather detection."
Further upgrades being evaluated for the WXR-2100 for 2007-8 include an enhanced turbulence (E-Turb) detection algorithm. Developed by Virginia-based systems specialist AeroTech, the E-Turb function was installed in a MultiScan radar for evaluation in August 2004.
The enhanced radar was flown for a year of in-service flights on a Delta Airlines Boeing 737-800 under the turbulence element of NASA's Aviation Safety & Security Program. Recordings from the E-Turb radar have been downloaded routinely, enabling researchers at Rockwell Collins and AeroTech to evaluate the radar's performance.
"The results of the analysis of the collected E-Turb radar data and the feedback from the Delta pilots have been very positive," says AeroTech. Robertson adds:
"We're still getting in-flight data from the in-service bird and revising the algorithms accordingly."
Back to Top
Current News and
Activities |
|
|
|
How real-time weather data can help
Graham Warwick,
Flight International, February 8, 2005
Real-time weather information is a key enabler of the US vision for next-generation air traffic management. While the long-term goal is to negate the effect of weather on system capacity, there are technologies available that could improve safety and save money in the near term if transitioned to operational use.
NASA is nearing the end of two research projects that could improve the detection and reporting of turbulence and reduce both the cost of injuries to cabin crew and passengers and of diverting around weather. Both technologies are being evaluated in revenue service, but there are no firm plans for further development or deployment.
Injuries and inefficiencies caused by turbulence cost US airlines more than $100 million a year, says atmospheric hazard detection and mitigation specialist AeroTech Research (ATR). Supported by NASA Langley, ATR has developed software to automate the in-flight reporting of encounters with turbulence and to predict the hazard posed by turbulence detected by the aircraft's weather radar.
Turbulence encounters are grossly under-reported, and those pilot reports (pireps) that are made are late, subjective and not distributed to dispatchers and controllers, says Paul Robinson, president of Newport News, Virginia-based ATR. The firm's Turbulence Auto-Pirep System (TAPS) software automatically generates a turbulence report datalink message when g load, measured by existing on-board sensors, exceeds a threshold.
TAPS is being evaluated in service on 71 Boeing 737-800s and 52 767-300/400s flown by Delta Air Lines. Turbulence reports are sent via ACARS datalink to Arinc, and distributed in near real-time via the service provider's web-based dispatcher's display. Ultimately, the data would be uplinked automatically to other aircraft. Proof-of-concept air-to-air transmissions of TAPS reports are also planned.
"Between 10 June 2004 and 19 May this year, TAPS reports were generated on more than 15,500 Delta flights 75 of them severe and more than 620 moderate. This is a factor of hundreds, or thousands, more than the pireps", says Robinson.
The companion project involves the in-service evaluation of enhanced turbulence mode (E-Turb) radar in a Delta 737-800. Current weather radars can detect turbulence, but cannot predict its severity as they do not factor in aircraft size or flight configuration. Turbulence above a fixed threshold is simply displayed in magenta.
E-Turb is a hazard prediction algorithm that calculates the g loading on the aircraft that will result from the measured turbulence. The system produces a two-level hazard advisory display: speckled magenta for loads requiring seat belts on; and solid magenta for severe turbulence to be avoided if possible.
ATR’s software was certificated for the Rockwell Collins WXR-2100 radar in Delta's 737-800, and 3,000h in-service use will have been accumulated by September.
"Tests show a strong correlation between predicted and measured loads", says Robinson.
Combined, TAPS and E-Turb provide an integrated turbulence hazard-awareness tool that could allow aircraft to penetrate weather with no risk, says Robinson, saving time and fuel by avoiding or minimising detours. Preliminary analyses suggest the software-only upgrades could pay for themselves quickly, he says.
Both evaluations are to end in September, unless NASA
extends the projects, says Robinson. Meanwhile, a TAPS ground-station product
will be ready by year-end, with initial cockpit displays likely for electronic
flight bags expected by early 2007, he says. E-Turb could be in new radars by the end of 2006, with retrofits for the 4,000 predictive-windshear radars flying available in one to two years.
Back to Top
Current News and
Activities |
|
|
|
NASA Technology Helps Smooth Bumpy Airline Rides
Science Daily, July 21, 2005
ScienceDaily (Jul. 21, 2005) — Most airline
passengers and flight crews have one thing in
common: they don't like turbulence. Researchers at
NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and
AeroTech Research (USA), Inc., Newport News, Va.,
have developed an automatic turbulence reporting
system.
The Turbulence Auto-PIREP System
(TAPS) is being tested on more than 80 Delta
Airlines passenger jets. Researchers say TAPS
technology improves aviation safety. When pilots
know there's turbulence ahead, they can maneuver to
avoid it or ensure passengers and flight attendants
are seated and strapped in.
"TAPS automatically broadcasts
turbulence encounter reports from aircraft and
allows other planes and people on the ground to use
this information," said NASA's Turbulence Prediction
and Warning Systems project manager, Jim Watson.
"Pilots describe turbulence encounters over their
radios and by text reports called Pilot Reports (PIREPS).
They tend to under-report when they encounter rough
air, because they're busy trying to fly through or
around it," he added.
"TAPS provides real-time
turbulence information that has never been
available," said Paul Robinson, President of
AeroTech Research. "The beauty of TAPS is, it is
only software and uses equipment already on the
aircraft, making it inexpensive and easy to
install."Atmospheric
turbulence is the leading cause of injuries to
passengers and flight crews in non-fatal airline
accidents. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
statistics show an average of 58 airline passengers
are annually hurt in U.S. turbulence incidents.
Ninety eight percent of those injuries happen
because people don't have their seat belts fastened.
Turbulence encounters are
hazardous, and they cost airlines money and time.
The encounters cause injuries, flight re-routing,
late arrivals, additional inspections and aircraft
maintenance.
Delta Air Lines and ARINC,
Annapolis, Md., have teamed with NASA and AeroTech
Research to evaluate TAPS. Since August 2004, the
TAPS software has been flying on more than 85 Delta
Boeing 737-800, 767-300 and 767-400 aircraft.
TAPS' automatic, accurate and
timely reporting of turbulence encounters is almost
immediately displayed on computers on the ground and
received in the cockpits of other aircraft. The
system's processing of encounters takes into account
how various aircraft respond to turbulence. TAPS
allows pilots to see the reports for the area ahead
of their aircraft; controllers to see reports
relative to air traffic and airline personnel to
evaluate the impact on their operations; all in
real-time.
"From an airline standpoint,
we see tremendous benefit from TAPS in identifying
areas of turbulence," said Bill Watts, the
turbulence program manager for Delta Air Lines. "In
addition to its obvious safety benefits, the system
may potentially identify areas of airspace that
would otherwise be blocked from traffic because of
the inadequate turbulence detection tools that we
possess today. TAPS gives us some much needed hard
data that can help us make better operational
decisions."
The turbulence research was
funded by the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission
Directorate's Aviation Safety and Security Program
in partnership with the FAA, aircraft manufacturers,
airlines and the Department of Homeland Security.
For information about NASA's
Aviation Safety and Security Program on the Web,
visit:
http://avsp.larc.nasa.gov
Back to Top
Current News and
Activities |
|
|
|
Smoothing Out the Skies
NASA Langley Research Center, Kathy
Barnstorff, August 30, 2004
Passengers on a Delta
Air Lines jet could have a smoother ride
thanks to NASA-developed technology.
Delta is installing a
special production-prototype radar, which
can detect turbulence associated with
thunderstorms, on one of its B737-800
aircraft. The radar, called the Turbulence
Prediction and Warning System (TPAWS), was
developed for NASA's Aviation Safety and
Security Program at NASA's Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Va.
NASA teamed with Delta
Air Lines in Atlanta, AeroTech Research in
Hampton, Va., and Rockwell Collins in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, for the in-service evaluation
of the radar unit, which also includes
turbulence hazard prediction capabilities.
Image to right: NASA
researchers brave severe turbulence to see
whether or not TPAWS can detect conditions
that current radar systems cannot see.
Image credit: NASA/Jeff Caplan
"The TPAWS technology
is an enhanced turbulence detection radar
system, which detects atmospheric turbulence
by measuring the motions of the moisture in
the air," said Jim Watson, NASA Turbulence
Prediction and Warning Systems project
manager. "It is a software signal processing
upgrade to existing predictive Doppler wind
shear systems, also developed by NASA, that
are already on airplanes."
The idea behind the
turbulence detection system is to give
flight crews enough advance warning, so they
can avoid turbulence encounters or advise
flight attendants and passengers to sit down
and buckle up to avoid injury.
Turbulence encounters
are hazardous and they cost the airlines
money and time, in the form of re-routing
flights, late arrivals, and additional
inspections and maintenance to aircraft.
Atmospheric turbulence
encounters are the leading cause of injuries
to passengers and flight crews in non-fatal
airline accidents. Federal Aviation
Administration statistics show an average of
58 airline passengers are hurt in U.S.
turbulence incidents each year. Ninety eight
percent of those injuries happen because
people don't have their seat belts fastened.
NASA researchers say
the TPAWS radar can detect about 80 percent
of all atmospheric turbulence encounters. It
can detect thunderstorm-related turbulence
an average of three to five minutes ahead of
the aircraft. According to studies done by
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center
engineers, it takes a little more than a
minute and half to get 95 percent of
passengers seated, carts stored and flight
attendants secured.
Delta flight crews
will use and evaluate the technology during
regularly scheduled flights in the U.S. and
South America. The prototype is expected to
fly for six to nine months.
"Delta Air Lines is
always interested in evaluating new
technologies that offer the potential for
improved ride quality and safety for our
customers and flight crews," said Ira Pearl,
Delta's flight operations technical support
director.
Researchers from NASA,
the companies involved and the Federal
Aviation Administration will evaluate
interim and final results of the turbulence
prediction radar system. If the evaluation
is successful, the technology may be adopted
for new and existing aircraft.
NASA has already
tested TPAWS on a research aircraft based at
NASA Langley. The TPAWS equipped plane
searched for turbulence activity around
thunderstorms for eight weeks. The jet flew
within a safe distance of storms, so
researchers could experience the turbulence
and compare the radar prediction to how the
plane responded to the encounters.
After one severe patch
of turbulence, a NASA research pilot said
his confidence in the enhanced radar had
"gone up dramatically," since the plane's
weather radar showed nothing at the same
time the TPAWS display showed rough skies
ahead.
See the video!
Click on the above image to see a Quicktime
movie about TPAWS
1:10 min., 5.4 MB
Back to Top
Current News and
Activities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
ARINC Engineering
Services Named Prime Contractor by NASA for Flight Critical
Systems Work
ARINC Communications, February 16, 2006
http://www.arinc.com/news/2006/02-16-06.html
Annapolis, Maryland—ARINC Engineering Services,
LLC, (AES)
has been named a prime contractor by NASA for
support of aircraft flight critical systems research. A
wholly-owned defense subsidiary of ARINC Incorporated, AES will
compete with four
other primes for task orders under a recent
indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity award with a potential
value of $35 million over 5 years.
ARINC has special recent experience in
developing advanced integrated health management systems for
aircraft. The company developed a prototype system known as
ACAMS for automatically diagnosing and predicting aircraft
faults prior to failure. The system fuses information from
flight and sensor data to perform the analysis, and was flight
tested on NASA’s 757 aircraft under a similar NASA contract.
“The fact they awarded AES prime contractor
status along with several aerospace giants means NASA has
identified the expertise of the ARINC team as being well-matched
to the tasks they expect to award,” stated Dr. Renée Kent, AES
Program Director, Army & Advanced Applications. In announcing
the awards, NASA said tasks under the contract will cover
support of flight critical systems development and integration,
as well as flight dynamics, guidance and control, crew systems
and aviation operations, and reliable and robust avionics
systems. The tasks will be accessible to all five primes. In
addition to AES, these include the Boeing Company Phantom Works,
Seattle; Honeywell Corporation, Minneapolis; Lockheed Martin
Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, Texas; and Rannoch Corporation
of Alexandria, Va.
“Getting to this stage is a big step,” continued
Dr. Kent. “ARINC Engineering Services has assembled a
highly-qualified, multidisciplinary team of subcontractors that
covers the gamut of technical aspects NASA is looking for in
this effort. We can point to successful collaboration with NASA
on a number of Flight Critical Systems breakthroughs in the
past.”
The ARINC team of subcontractors includes
Analytical Services and Materials; AeroTech Research; Calspan;
Drexel University; EmbeddedPlus Engineering; Luna Innovations;
Pennsylvania State University; Scientific Systems Company, Inc.;
Symetrics Industries; TechnoSciences; United Air Lines; and Wyle
Laboratories Inc.
ARINC Incorporated is the world leader in
transportation communications and systems engineering. The
company
develops and operates communications and
information processing systems and provides systems engineering
and integration solutions to five key industries: airports,
aviation, defense, government, and surface transportation.
Founded to provide reliable and efficient radio communications
for the airlines, ARINC is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland,
and operates key regional offices in London and Singapore, with
over 3,000 employees worldwide. ARINC is ISO 9001:2000
certified. Release: 06-27
ARINC Corporate Communications
corpcomm@arinc.com
410-266-4652
Back to Top
Current News and
Activities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following blog feedback was taken directly from
http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2007/01/the_flight_of_t.html
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The flight of the future could be a lot less bumpy: Which references the National Geographic Article above.
We hope to avoid a similar incident in the future thanks to this new technology.