HSCL Research: Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness System (T-NASA) Overview
The Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness (T-NASA) system is a suite of cockpit displays that provides navigation and situational awareness information to pilots in order to increase the safety and efficiency of airport surface operations. T-NASA consists of three components:
The T-NASA system was designed following a human-centered design process. In total, over 300 commercial pilots have participated in part-task studies, high-fidelity simulations, and flight test studies. These studies have demonstrated that T-NASA:
- Eliminated hold location errors and failure to hold errors (compared to 20% errors without T-NASA)
- Allowed increased taxi speeds (~16% faster than without T-NASA)
- Eliminated taxi navigation errors in low-visibility and night conditions (compared to 17% errors without T-NASA)
- Enabled better awareness of airport traffic Improved pilot-ATC communication of clearance
- Improved Captain-First Officer intra-cockpit pilot communication
- Helped determine basis for cockpit SOPs (standard operating procedures) for surface operations
The Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness (T-NASA) system is a suite of cockpit displays that provides navigation and situational awareness information to pilots in order to increase the safety and efficiency of airport surface operations. T-NASA consists of three components:
