A Raytheon Company Network Centric Systems (NCS) team earned a NASA Turning Goals Into Reality (TGIR) award for its contribution to the Small Aircraft Transportation System project.
The TGIR awards result from a NASA initiative to focus its investments on outcome-oriented objectives that are defined to address the nation’s critical aerospace needs. Each year, the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate presents awards to NASA and industry teams that have made significant progress toward achieving NASA objectives.
The Raytheon NCS Team participated in the five-year Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) project with the objective of increasing capacity and mobility under the Raytheon Consolidated Information Technology Services (ConITS) contract vehicle.
SATS aimed to allow on-demand, point-to-point personal and business air travel by expanding near all-weather access to more than 3,400 small, under-used community airports in the United States. It focused on four operating capabilities: higher volume operation at non-towered and non-radar airports; lower landing minimums at minimally equipped airfields; increased single pilot performance; and en-route procedures for integrated fleet operations.
The project results offer new solutions that could enhance air traffic flow at small U.S. airports by allowing four-to-10 passenger aircraft to use more rural and suburban airports.
In supporting the NASA Langley Research Center, Raytheon developed a simulator to model the feasibility of increasing aircraft volume at airports that have neither control towers nor radar systems. The simulator confirmed that automated systems on the ground and in the cockpit can safely guide aircraft through take-off and landing despite inclement weather.
When implemented, high volume operations capabilities and technology could enhance air traffic flow and increase National Aerospace System capacity by allowing small aircraft to take off from and land at general aviation airports that are currently under used.
“The SATS 2005 demonstration marked the culmination of a collaboration to improve high-volume operations at small airports,” said Teh-Kuang Lung, program manager from Raytheon NCS on the SATS project for NASA Langley. “The proof of concept demonstration showcased NASA and Raytheon efforts to develop operational capabilities and technologies that enable safe, affordable, on-demand travel at those airports.”
The Raytheon Network Centric Systems team consists of the following employees:
- Ram Gubbala, Senior Software Engineer II
- Mourad Allouche, Principal Software Engineer
- Kumar Subramanian, Principal Software Engineer
- Teh-Kuang Lung, Senior Program Manager
Raytheon Company, with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information
technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.
Contact:
Lynford Morton
703.284.4446
