8/6/2019 NASA Facts Aviation Safety Program

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nasa-facts-aviation-safety-program 1/2

 Aviation Saety Program

The Aviation Saety Program, part o NASA’s Aero-

nautics Research Mission Directorate, explores

ways to improve the overall saety o aircrat that

y today in U.S. airspace and those that will y in

the U.S. system or tomorrow—the Next Genera-

tion Air Transportation System, or NextGen.

One o the biggest challenges to developing the

NextGen by the year 2025 is improving saety

while also improving efciency in more crowded

skies. New aircrat will use new operations;

people will have new roles.

To saely integrate those new requirements, the

 Aviation Saety Program conducts research to:

• Identifysafetyconcernsthatcouldemergefrom

a more decentralized uture airspace system;

• Explorewhetherdataminingofdigitalight

data and voluntarily submitted reports

can reveal vehicle issues as well as ight

operations issues;

• Studyandidentifycausesofengineicing;

• Improveon-boardsystemsthatmonitor 

overall vehicle “health” to make maintenance

more efcient;

• Analyzesystem-widesafetypropertiesofve-

hicles and operations and the saety aspects

o sotware-intensive systems;

• Developadvancedightcontrolsystemsfor

new aircrat;

• Analyzehowcommunicationnetworksaccom-

modate both human-automation and human-

human interactions; and

• Testthesafetyanddurabilityofnewmaterials

proposed or uture vehicles.

Images (Clockwise, left to right) Composite Materials: This lightweight turboan jet engine casing is durable enough to protect against

potential internal an-blade ailure. AirStar Flight Tests: NASA’s remotely piloted ight-test program uses subscale aircrat models totest technologies that could help pilots recover rom loss o control. Engine Icing Research: The NASA aircrat S-3B Viking routinely

ies into storm clouds suspected to cause ice accumulation that can clog and damage jet engines. Flight Systems Research: NASA

uses its F-18 research aircrat to test new ight deck or ight control technologies or the Next Generation Air Transportation System

8/6/2019 NASA Facts Aviation Safety Program

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nasa-facts-aviation-safety-program 2/2

NF-2009-03-484-HQ

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300E.Street,SW

Washington,DC20546

  NASA Facts

RESEARCH AREAS

Integrated Vehicle Health Management Project

The primary goal o this project is to fnd ways to monitor,

detect, predict, and even correct, problems automatically.

Major research challenges include:

• Developingon-boardsystemsthatcanpredict,detect, 

diagnose and propose solutions or ailures that involve

the airrame, propulsion systems, avionics (hardware)and sotware;

• Creatingreliableandaccuratesystemsthatrevealvehicle 

or airspace problems beore they become accidents; and

• Designingandtestingnewsensorsthatdetectanddisplay

airrame and engine icing and other environmental hazards.

Integrated Intelligent Flight Deck Technologies Project

This project enables transormations toward saer operations

or uture ight deck systems. Researchers are pursuing a

“NextSae” approach that integrates new technologies, com-

puter-based tools and operating procedures into a solution

that improves overall saety.

Major research challenges include:

• Assigningclearrolesandresponsibilitiestohuman 

and automated agents;

• Predictinghumanandautomatedagentperformance 

in both normal and abnormal conditions;

• Evaluatinghuman,automation,andjointhuman- 

automation perormance to help make automation

more comprehensible to pilots;

• Predictingjointhuman-automationperformancein 

operating environments that are not yet realized, such

as the NextGen’s trajectory-based operations;

• Achievinga“betterthanvisual”ightoperations 

capability; and

• Enablingahighlycollaborativeworkingenvironment 

or ight deck system operators.

Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control Project

ThisprojectanditsIntegratedDynamicsandFlightControls

sub-project develop techniques to help pilots recover saely

rom a sudden loss o control, damage to control suraces, or

upsets caused by changes in weather or other aircrat.

Major research challenges include:

• Understandingthedynamicsofcurrentandfutureaircraft

when in damaged and upset conditions;

• Developingcontrolsystemsthatadaptreliablytoboththe

anticipated and the unanticipated;

• Developingaircraftguidanceforemergencyoperation;

• Modelingandsensingairframeandengineicing;and

• Modelingeffectiveandreliablehuman-automationsystems.

 Aircraft Aging and Durability Project

Researchers or this project develop ways to detect and man-

age aircrat aging-related hazards beore they become critical.

They seek ull knowledge about current aircrat to help create

technologies and processes that improve aircrat longevity in

uture aircrat designs.

Major research challenges include:

• Improvingunderstandingofhowcracksinmaterialsstart

and grow;

• Developingcomputermodelstopredictcrackgrowthin

metallic and nonmetallic materials;

• Identifyingthedurabilityofnonmetallic(composite)materi-

als used or aircrat uselages;

• Improvingtheabilitytodetectbondedjointdegradation;

• Identifyingthelong-termserviceandenvironmentalneeds

o composite jet engine containment cases;

• Improvingunderstandingofhowquicklyenginedisks 

operating at hotter temperatures degrade over time; and

• Developingnewsoftwaretoolstobetteridentifyandrepair

wiring aults.

Developing a computer-based model that predicts the

degradation caused by environmental eects on selected

polymer-matrix composite materials

Simulating advanced fight deck technologies and operations

in a NextGen-based environment to see whether saety

is improved in perormance, situational awareness and

crew workload

Identiying or developing advanced approaches to enable

improved and cost-eective saety assurance or uture fight-

critical systems

 We’re Working on…

For more inormation about the Aviation Saety Program and

NASA aeronautics research, visit www.aeronautics.nasa.

gov/programs_avsafe.htm.