Optical technology helps pilots taxi more efficiently

17 Jun 2002

Faced with a projected 32 percent increase in air traffic in the United States over the next decade, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are developing advanced technologies to increase traffic-handling capacity at existing airports.

The Taxiway Navigation And Situation Awareness (T-NASA) system that will help pilots taxi safely -- particularly in low visibility weather conditions. The integrated system was developed as part of NASA's $100 million Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) program and is being tested at NASA's Ames Research Center.

T-NASA is a combination of software and navigational devices designed to operate on the aircraft's flight deck. Unlike some of the other air traffic management tools now being tested by NASA and the FAA, T-NASA is not automated, so pilots will continue to manually control taxi maneuvers.

T-NASA is a cockpit display system with three components. The cleared taxi route is shown on a glass visor in front of the cockpit windshield, a Heads-Up Display (HUD), in a virtual reality manner. The pilot's aircraft position and that of other aircraft is shown on an electronic moving map of the airport on the instrument panel. Traffic warnings are produced via virtual 3-D audio techniques in which the warning sounds like it emanates from the direction of the traffic. By using GPS satellite positioning and an airport layout database, T-NASA updates the displays in real time.