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What is National Campaign?
From air taxiing passengers and cargo in urban areas, to infrastructure inspection missions, the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ecosystem offers newfound capabilities which have an increasing range of commercial applications and opportunities for use. However, with new technologies come novel challenges, which is the case for integrating highly automated and remotely piloted aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS). To promote public confidence and help the community understand what it takes to conduct safe and efficient AAM operations in urban, suburban, rural, and regional environments, NASA has collaborated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and industry partners to conduct a series of "National Campaigns". The National Campaign (NC) testing series will help NASA identify AAM barriers, validate the state of the art, and inform the design and integration of vehicle, airspace, and ground infrastructure.
Building on its legacy of work in air traffic management for crewed aircraft and its key role in the success of NASA's Unmanned aircraft systems Traffic Management (UTM) efforts, the Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL) is leading the integration and testing of the AAM ecosystem for the National Campaign that will help inform airspace integration requirements to enable safe, efficient, and scalable AAM operations in the NAS.
Purpose and Research Approach
The purpose of this research is to address information requirements and provide lessons learned to inform FAA policy decisions on safety, certification, operations, and airspace integration aspects of AAM. The main objectives include:
- Demonstrating an airspace system architecture based on NASA's UTM construct
- Developing flight procedure guidelines
- Evaluating communication, navigation and surveillance options
- Collecting initial assessments of passenger and community perspectives on vehicle ground noise, cabin noise, and on-board ride quality
Role of the Airspace Operations Lab in the National Campaign (NC)
During simulations and flight tests, the AOL serves as the base of operations for systems integration, which incorporates systems and software from the AOL UTM-like architecture, NASA's Aviation Systems Division, and test range ground infrastructure. Some of the outcomes of this work include automation technology for operator negotiations, air traffic service coordination tools, display development, and human factors evaluation.
Members of the AOL team preparing for an Advanced Air Mobility simulation
Activities
Over the past 2 years, the AOL participated in 7 National Campaign flight tests, alongside government and industry partners. Below are a few highlights of that work.
National Campaign (NC) and partner Joby Aviation conduct first ever flight test with all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft
Images from the NASA/Joby Aviation flight tests with eVTOL aircraft
The Airspace Operations Lab tests out a new Mobile Operations Facility for National Campaign
The Mobile Operating Facility (MOF) at Armstrong Research Center
The Airspace Operations Lab supports the Follow On Flight Test for National Campaign
AOL researchers supporting the National Campaign Follow-On Flight Test activities
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| Points of Contact: Faisal Omar, M.S., Human Systems Integration Division, NASA Ames Research Center |
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