As advanced air mobility aircraft become more common in U.S. airspace, the country will need improved preflight planning to address potential risks in advance—and NASA is creating the tools to support this effort.
Effective preflight planning is essential for maintaining safety in the increasingly complex and high-risk airspace of the future. Having a single platform that provides timely, predictive, and current risk assessments helps drone and air taxi operators quickly identify potential hazards in their flight plans.
Demonstrating NASA’s Risk-Assessment Tools in Commercial Aviation
NASA is creating tools to deliver these capabilities and, in June, teamed up with aviation safety firm ResilienX Inc. to demonstrate how commercial operators can integrate them into their operations.
During tests at ResilienX’s Syracuse, New York facility, researchers leveraged NASA services that enabled flight operators to submit flight plans before takeoff, receive risk assessment results, and decide whether to continue with the planned flight or modify it and reassess risks. This streamlined process helps minimize safety risks for both passengers and people on the ground.
The three NASA-developed services evaluate the specific risks that highly automated aircraft pose when operating at low altitudes in urban areas.
The collaboration was conducted through a Phase III NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract, building on earlier efforts to evaluate weather-related risks. This work is already enabling the direct integration of safety technologies into ResilienX’s platform. Additionally, the partnership aims to offer indirect advantages to ResilienX’s partners and clients—such as the U.S. Air Force and regional operators—contributing to the enhancement of overall safety in future airspace operations.
Read the original article on: Tech Xplore
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