Attachment 1: Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)
Task Summary
This task supports NASA Recovery Act work sponsored by the Aeronautics Research Mission
Directorate and the Airspace Systems Division. Research funded by this task will focus on
addressing the issue of enabling the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to routinely access the
National Airspace System (NAS), especially in the Next Generation Air Transportation
Management System (NextGen) environment.
UAS Project Major Activities
The activity supported by this task will focus on analyzing the impact of UAS operation on the
current and future air traffic. The personnel who will be funded by this task will support any of
the research activities listed below.
- Air traffic data will be collected from various sources and will be processed to create a large
database. This database will provide reliable information about the characteristics of the given
airspace. The data collection activity will include, but not limited to, examining the data that the
Airspace Systems Division already have, obtaining data from other government agencies, and
conducting field surveys at local airports.
- The trajectories of UAS will be investigated in many different aspects including empirical
approach using the existing UAS flight tracks and simulation approach using high fidelity aircraft
simulation, but other means will also be considered. The performance characteristics and mission
profile of UAS will be investigated to ensure the validity of the trajectory.
- Traffic impact analysis will combine the large database of air traffic data and the UAS
trajectory to establish a probabilistic model of the airspace. The analysis will include analyzing
the risk and impact with and without various active collision mitigation measures as well as
creating a methodology for finding low traffic impact routes from the air traffic data and UAS
performance characteristics.