Hopes To Take Some Of The Load Off Controllers

Since 1997, NASA has spent some $55 million, trying to come up with a way to triple the volume of air traffic while reducing the number of aviation accidents at the same time. Now, researchers at NASA/Langley think they may have the solution -- the Autonomous Operations Planner.

The idea is to help pilots sort out their own flight path, weaving through traffic on a course that best matches their speed, altitude and destination. It's supposed to plug right into existing onboard flight-management systems.

"There's a lot more information available to me," said Rick Shay, a 767 pilot and paid NASA.

Reaction from outside the project, according to the Knight-Ridder News Service, is hopeful -- but cautious.

"All this new technology has to be designed with a lot of very careful human factors and considerations," said ALPA spokesman John Mazur. "You can't just take something that an engineer thinks is neat off the drawing board and put it on an airplane without looking at how it's going to be used and how the pilot is going to interface with the technology."

FMI: www.larc.nasa.gov