NASA Air Traffic Management Tool on Display

This close up view of a cockpit display screen shows NASA’s Tailored Arrival Manager (TAM) air traffic management tool in action during recent tests aboard a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner being used as part of the company’s ecoDemonstrator program. 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. In this view, the line of white dashes shows the best new course the airplane should fly to minimize delays associated with traffic congestion upon arrival. The text message indicating the new course is available to be loaded into the airplane’s Flight Management System is displayed on the left side of the panel. The Federal Aviation Administration’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in New Jersey provided a key link that enabled the NASA-produced traffic solution to be transmitted to the 787 during the TAM exercises. Text Credit: Jim Banke, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

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