News media are invited to observe flight tests and operational demonstrations of sense and avoid software from August 6 to 10 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
The flight demonstrations are part of the Limited Deployment – Cooperative Airspace Project (LD-CAP), which is addressing how to help better integrate unmanned aircraft, equipped with technology into the national air space. The LD-CAP project will use two aircraft to demonstrate how software allows an aircraft to sense the presence of another and avoid it.
Remotely piloted, unmanned aircraft systems are growing in popularity and have many potential uses, including remote firefighting, search and rescue, and surveillance. But their routine use in civil airspace creates technical, operational, and policy challenges.
A limited number of reporters will have an opportunity fly on board NASA’s Cirrus SR-22 during a mission testing the “sense and avoid” technology. The other plane taking part in the demonstration is a Cessna 206. Both are based at Langley.
The Cirrus will have a safety pilot in the cockpit, but computer programs developed by the MITRE Corp., the University of North Dakota, and Draper Labs will maneuver the aircraft to avoid conflicts.
Flight dates being considered for the media are August 7, 8 and 9.
To apply for a flight, contact Michael Finneran at NASA Langley in Hampton, Va., at michael.p.finneran@nasa.gov.
The MITRE Corp., based in Bedford, Mass. and McLean, Va., and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks developed the “sense and avoid” software.
The data from this flight test will validate work done in simulation and help engineers determine how they can design systems so that unmanned aircraft can be safely incorporated into the skies.
A similar deployment was flown in July out of Grand Forks Airport in North Dakota.
Other participants include North Dakota State University and the North Dakota National Guard.
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Michael Finneran
757-864-6110
michael.p.finneran@nasa.gov