Picture this: you're almost done with your transoceanic flight, and the tracker on your seatback screen shows you're getting closer to your destination airport. And then… you notice that your plane is moving away. Quite far away. You get close again and again, only to realize that you are on a long loop that could last an hour or more before you land.
If this sounds familiar, it's likely that the delay was caused by problems with trajectory prediction. Your plane has changed its course, perhaps changing altitude or trajectory to avoid bad weather or turbulence, and as a result its predicted time of arrival has been shifted.
“Often, if there's a change in your trajectory—you arrive a little early or a little late—you can get stuck in this very long rotational holding pattern,” said Shivanjli Sharma, project manager for NASA's Air Traffic Management – eXploration (ATM-X) project and the agency's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley.
This inconvenience for travelers is also an economic and efficiency problem for the aviation sector, so NASA has worked for years to study the problem and recently teamed up with Boeing to conduct real-time testing of an advanced system that shares trajectory data between an aircraft and its support systems.
Boeing began flying United Airlines' 737 jets for about two weeks in October, testing a data communications system designed to improve the flow of information between the flight deck, air traffic control and the airline's operations centers. The job included several domestic flights based in Houston, as well as a flight across the Atlantic to Edinburgh, Scotland.
Shivanjli Sharma
NASA Air Traffic Control is the eXploration project manager.
The test was conducted as part of Boeing's latest ecoDemonstrator Explorer program, in which the company works with public and private partners to accelerate innovation in aviation. This year's ecoDemonstrator flight partners included NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, United Airlines and several aerospace companies, as well as academic and government researchers.
NASA's work during the test included the development of the Ocean Trajectory Prediction Service, a system for sharing and updating trajectory information even during a long transoceanic flight that involves transitioning from U.S. air traffic systems to those of another country. The collaboration allowed NASA to gain a better understanding of what is needed to close data sharing gaps.
“At what rate do you need these updates in an oceanic environment?” – said Sharma. “What information do you need from an airplane? Having the most accurate trajectory information will allow the airplane to move around the globe more efficiently.”
Boeing and ecoDemonstrator employees plan to use flight data to bring the data transmission system into operation. This work allowed NASA to continue its efforts to improve trajectory prediction and, through relationships with partners, to put its research into practice as quickly as possible.
“This partnership allows NASA to continue its commitment to transformative aeronautical research,” Sharma said. “Combining our expertise in trajectory forecasting with the contributions of many innovative partners is helping to improve global aviation efficiency, which will bring real benefits to travelers and industry.”
NASA ATM-X's participation in this collaboration falls under the agency's Airspace Operations and Safety program, which aims to ensure safe and efficient air transportation operations that benefit the flying public and industry. This work is supported by NASA's Aeronautics Exploration Mission Directorate.
