NASA develops applications to help aircraft shorten flight times

NASA is developing a software for airlines that monitors conditions such as weather and flight routes so that it can make shorter routes. Not only did flying time reduce, fuel problems and carbon emissions were also significantly improved. Virgin America and Alaska Airlines are the first two airlines to plan a NASA system test in the next 3 years.

Application to help aircraft save fuel, reduce carbon emissions

The system called Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) can be loaded into a tablet as an application and directly attached to the aviation avionics system. It works in conjunction with ADS-B surveillance system and Internet connection if the aircraft is equipped.

From here, TAP monitors many parameters such as current location, altitude, flight path, air traffic around and real-time weather conditions. Based on these parameters, TAP can search for changes in elevation or route to save flight time as well as save fuel and reduce carbon emissions. With TAP, pilots can make strategic flight change requirements for air traffic control stations (TASARs). In contrast, TAP also helps air traffic control stations to quickly approve requests from flight crews by simplifying the process.

David Wing, the TASAR project leader at NASA, said: "This system helps pilots make better flight requirements, more easily approved by air traffic control. In addition, the system also help pilots and control staff work together more effectively, reducing workloads for both parties from unapproved requests ".

TAP has now begun to be tested on a Plaggio P180 Avanti aircraft . The pilots used TAP to request change of routes between Virginia and Kentucky and were approved by ATC, thereby saving 4 minutes of flying. Subsequent testing will be carried out when the technology is ready to be exploited on commercial aircraft.

Tom Kemp, executive vice president of Alaska Airlines, said: "Until now, there is no way to send comprehensive information about weather conditions with non-air traffic data to the real-time. This is a "super application" gives our pilots the ability to better capture what's happening ahead of us compared to the anticipated 3-hour information as always ".