Raytheon, Sensis to Study Aircraft Impact on NextGen

Raytheon Company will lead a team of air transportation experts from industry and academia to study the impact of new classes of aircraft on the next generation air transportation system including very light jets, super heavy transports, un-crewed aircraft systems and supersonic transports.
The most immediate introduction are the very light jets, which are being delivered at a growing pace. But VLJs are expected to play a critical role in testing the NextGen technologies. Indeed, Personal Air Transportation Alliance (PATA) members are planning trials to prove and quicken the deployment of new technology. Related Story
“The purpose of our involvement is to use our advanced aircraft at secondary and tertiary airports to move the ball across the finish line faster than originally planned,” PATA President Jack Olcott told Aviation Today’s VLJ Report, adding it is looking for participation and financial support from aircraft and component manufacturers as well as operators and infrastructure providers. “We can be the vanguard of NextGen. We can make the case for earlier implementation.”
Initially, PATA would generate baseline data funded by private money which would then advance into a public/private partnership and eventually be supported by FAA. The agency has already committed to mandate ADS-B and will roll it out with PATA members, said Olcott. The tests would use Cirrus 22s and Eclipse 500s and other light equipment which operate at the margins of the system, he said.
Un-crewed aircraft are also increasing in number given increasing security and border-patrol requirements, while the Airbus 380 has just started deliveries.
"In 10 to 20 years we expect more than one billion passengers will travel annually by airplane and thousands of new consumer jets will fill the skies," said Andy Zogg, Raytheon vice president of Airspace Management and Homeland Security. "We are committed to working with NASA and our partners to help address the complex issues facing the modernization of our air transportation system."
The Raytheon team's work will augment NASA's Advanced Concept Evaluation System, a fast time-simulation model of the National Airspace System, using existing environmental and safety models to quantify how the new air vehicles and operational procedures will impact NextGen.
Initially, the team will focus on developing recommendations for future operational procedures, identifying air vehicle characteristics and establishing system-level metrics.
"Raytheon's extensive experience with air traffic management operational procedures and our working knowledge of the Joint Planning and Development Office's enterprise architecture will allow us to perform valuable system trade studies," said Zogg.
Sensis Corporation is also participating in an industry-wide team after being awarded an Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) contract by NASA entitled "Integration of Advanced Concepts and Vehicles into the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen)’ Both projects will leverage NASA's Advanced Concept Evaluation System, a fast, time-simulation model of the NAS, for which Sensis has provided the technical leadership throughout its development.
"This project lies at the intersection of exciting developments in aircraft designs and the significant changes to the NAS that lie ahead," said Marc Viggiano, Sensis senior vice president and chief strategy officer. "This research will provide the framework to ensure that these new aircraft types and their anticipated effects on the NAS are provided for in the ongoing development of NextGen solutions that address capacity, efficiency, environmental performance, safety and security."
The project's goals are to understand the trade-offs involved for both vehicles and air traffic management in order to offer recommendations for NASA's Airspace Systems Program, guidance for future vehicle technology research to the Fundamental Aeronautics Program and recommendations for the Aviation Safety Program. In addition, the project will deliver research and specific design recommendations to the JPDO for inclusion in future refinements of NextGen.
As part of the program, the project team – Sensis Corporation, Georgia Tech, CSSI, Inc., ATAC Corporation, L-3 Communications, Honeywell and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – will deliver to NASA a reusable analysis infrastructure to provide a mechanism for quantitatively determining the effect of new vehicle concepts on NextGen and vice-versa.