A view from the front office of a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner during a recent series of test flights in which NASA flew a pair of research projects to gather data on aircraft noise and test an air traffic management digital data communications tool known as Tailored Arrival Manager (TAM). TAM is a system designed to detect a potential problem – perhaps bad weather or traffic congestion ahead – generate an efficient new course for the airplane to follow that resolves the problem as it approaches its destination, and then digitally transmit the resulting course change instruction directly to the cockpit. Results from these tests of TAM, which took place during late August and early September, will help enable future flight operations to be more fuel efficient while minimizing delays, especially during busy traffic conditions. The collaboration with Boeing was part of the company’s ecoDemonstrator program.
