To integrate air taxis, cargo delivery aircraft, and other new vehicle concepts into the National Airspace System, NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign needs to partner with industry, state government, and other government agencies to be successful.
The team also is closely working with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide testing data and determine which current aviation standards need to evolve. The ongoing effort aims to help integrate new aircraft into the skies.
National Campaign-2 partners (NC-2)
The following industry partners have signed Space Act Agreements with NASA for the next phase of the National Campaign. The partners will participate in an information exchange during NC-2 by sharing information about their vehicles, processes, traffic management systems, infrastructure, and capabilities.
• Electra Aero of Manassas, Virginia
• OverAir of Santa Ana, California
• Supernal of Washington, DC
• Ellis & Associates, a consulting arm of Lacuna Technologies, of Palo Alto, California
City planning for AAM
Five local and state governments have signed Space Act Agreements to work alongside NASA through the summer of 2022 to consider how emerging vehicles can best be included in their civic transportation plans. Experts from the localities and NASA will work on updating local plans and creating new plans that might be needed to enable AAM.
State and local transportation agencies:
• Massachusetts Department of Transportation
• Minnesota Department of Transportation
• The North Central Texas Council of Governments Department of Transportation
• The Ohio Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of the Ohio Department of Transportation
• The City of Orlando, Florida
National Campaign-1 partners (NC-1)
These partners have signed agreements to participate in NC-1 by flying their innovative vehicles, developing future airspace system capabilities, or providing key infrastructure related capabilities. NC-1 will include flight demonstrations and simulations at test sites around the country over several months in 2022.
Vehicle partners for demonstrations:
• Reliable Robotics Corporation of Mountain View, California
• Wisk Aero LLC of Mountain View, California
• Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, California
Infrastructure partners for demonstrations:
• AURA Network Systems of McLean, Virginia
• Raytheon Company of Marlborough, Massachusetts
• Robust Analytics Inc. of Crofton, Maryland
• SkyGrid of Austin, Texas
• The University of North Texas of Denton, Texas
• AURA was also chosen for additional communications, navigation, and surveillance flight testing activities.
Airspace partners for simulations:
• ANRA Technologies Inc. of Chantilly, Virginia
• ARINC Incorporated of Annapolis, Maryland
• Avision Inc. of Santa Monica, California
• Metron Aviation Inc. of Herndon, Virginia
• OneSky Systems Inc. of Exton, Pennsylvania
• SkyGrid of Austin, Texas
• Unmanned Experts Inc. of Denver, Colorado
Developmental Test partners (NC-DT)
The developmental testing phase ended in 2021 after flights with Joby’s air taxi vehicle. These activities were designed to allow aircraft and airspace management service providers to demonstrate their systems with real-world operations and in simulated situations. The goal of DT was to prepare for NC-1, which is slated to occur in 2022.
Developmental Flight Testing – Industry partner provided a vehicle to fly in the NC-DT and demonstrated key integrated operational Urban Air Mobility or UAM scenarios.
• Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, California
Developmental Airspace Simulation – Industry partner tested its UAM traffic management services in NASA-designed airspace simulations and demonstrated key integrated operational UAM scenarios.
• AirMap, Inc. of Santa Monica, California
• AiRXOS, Part of GE Aviation, of Boston, Massachusetts
• ANRA Technologies, Inc. of Chantilly, Virginia
• ARINC Inc. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa
• Avision, Inc. of Santa Monica, California
• Ellis & Associates, Los Angeles, CA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lacuna Technologies, Palo Alto, CA
• GeoRq LLC of Holladay, Utah
• Metron Aviation, Inc. of Herndon, Virginia
• OneSky Systems Inc. of Exton, Pennsylvania
• Uber Technologies, Inc. of San Francisco, California
• The University of North Texas of Denton, Texas
Vehicle Provider Information Exchange – Industry partner and NASA exchanged information with the intent to prepare that partner for possible flight activities during the NC series.
• Bell Textron of Ft. Worth, Texas
• The Boeing Company of Chantilly, Virginia
• NFT Inc. of Mountain View, California
• Prodentity, LLC of Corrales, New Mexico
• Zeva Inc. of Spanaway, Washington
Partners were chosen for a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement to work alongside NASA in a mutually beneficial opportunity.
When fully integrated into the national airspace, AAM will provide an efficient and affordable system for passenger and cargo transportation, and other applications in the public interest. This system could include aircraft like package delivery drones, air taxis and medical transport vehicles.
AAM is an aviation system that encompasses developing and deploying aviation in innovative ways not typically seen today. The AAM National Campaign is managed by NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility project, which plans to be a community catalyst for developing and validating system-level concepts and solutions for AAM. The AAM project is a part of the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.
For more information about the Advanced Air Mobility mission visit here.
