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NASA Awards Airspace System Research Contracts

Written by thomas · Filed Under Aeronautics News 

July 15, 2008

thomas

WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA has awarded
research contracts worth a total of $12 million to two industry teams to
study how the introduction of new aircraft types may affect air traffic
management efficiency, aviation safety and the environment in the future.

In June, NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate selected teams
led by Raytheon Company of Waltham, Mass., and Sensis Corp. of East
Syracuse, N.Y., to receive separate 18-month study contracts valued at $6
million each. The research topic is “Integration of Advanced Concepts and
Vehicles into the Next Generation Air Transportation System.”

“Through these studies we can begin to understand how to design an air
traffic management system that can accommodate the aircraft of the future,”
said Karlin Toner, director of NASA’s Airspace Systems Program at NASA
Headquarters in Washington.

The teams will use modeling and simulation to examine the potential
impacts of seven particular classes of air vehicles on the nation’s
airspace. The vehicles classes are: very light jets, super heavy
transports, uncrewed aircraft, supersonic transports, cruise efficient
short takeoff and landing aircraft, rotorcraft and business class aircraft.
Some of these vehicles already are being introduced, and are posing
challenges to operators and users of the airspace system.

The studies are intended to identify gaps in knowledge and to provide
NASA and its partners with recommendations for future research and
analysis. NASA is collaborating with other U.S. government agencies and
industries on the Next Generation Air Transportation System. The initiative
aims to apply satellite-based navigation, surveillance and networking
technologies to help meet future air traffic demands.

The Raytheon Company team includes Northup Grumman in El Segundo,
Calif.; Gulfstream Aerospace in Long Beach, Calif.; Intelligent Automation
Inc. in Mendota Heights, Minn.; Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Va.;
University of California, Berkeley; George Mason University in Fairfax,
Va.; University of Illinois, Urbana; University of Maryland, College Park;
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis;
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; and Purdue University in
West Lafayette, Ind.

The Sensis Corporation team members include Georgia Tech, Atlanta; CSSI
Inc. of Washington; ATAC Corporation in Sunnyvale, Calif.; L-3
Communications in Billerica, Mass.; Honeywell Labs in Minneapolis; and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For more information about NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission
Directorate, visit: http://aeronautics.nasa.gov

SOURCE NASA

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