NASA To Show Off Small Aircraft Transport System

NASA/Langley's Dr. Victor Lebacqz, Associate Administrator for Aeronautics plans to put it all on the line about 10 months from now. He's scheduled a flight demonstration of SATS technology June 5, 2005. The three day event will be held in Danville (VA) at the Danville Regional Airport.

From the SATS program literature; "The long-term vision is to enable a safe travel alternative that will free people and products from the constraints of today's ground and air transportation systems. SATS is conceived to enable equitable, on demand, widely distributed access to more communities in less time."

The technology being developed and integrated in SATS includes: Flight Path Management, Flight Deck Technologies, Communication/Navigation/Surveillance, Flight Test Operations, Aircraft, Airspace and Demonstration Integration.

Four key operating capabilities are designed to create access to virtually all runways in the nation. First, separation and sequencing of multiple aircraft without use of traditional ground-based terminal radar and communication systems. Second, Safer aircraft takeoff and landing operations in poor weather at minimally equipped airports, minimizing land use impacts. Third, improved single-pilot performance for safety, accuracy and ease of use. Last, the integration of larger numbers of small aircraft into the national airspace system. All of these capabilities are accomplished without control towers or ground-based navigation and lighting systems.

What does that mean to the average pilot? If the program is successful and is able to be implemented affordably and in a reasonably short period of time, Pilots will be able to fly from departure to destination from thousands of local airport without the use of traditional radar based air traffic control.

So if you want to see what has been achieved with the SATS programs 30+ million dollar per year budget (31.7 million for fiscal year 2004), Danville is the place to be June 5-7, 2005.

FMI: http://sats.larc.nasa.gov/main.html