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:
- Taxi Head-Up Display (HUD)
- Electronic Moving Map (EMM)
- 3-D Audio Alerts and Warnings
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
(.mp4 format, get Quicktime Player)
T-NASA - Atlanta Test Flight Video (1997, 22.5 MB)
T-NASA - Chicago Full-Mission Simulation Video (1999, 28.4 MB)
Go to: Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness (T-NASA) Display Suite Publications Available for Download
For related research, go to: NextGen Surface Operations and Terminal Area Integration Publications Available for Download |