NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California, will host a webinar on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) to discuss the opportunity to license a revolutionary technology to prevent general aviation aircraft controlled flight into terrain mishaps.
The webinar, entitled “Improved Ground Collision Avoidance for General Aviation Aircraft and More,” will feature NASA Armstrong aerospace engineer and project manager Mark Skoog, who led the development of the improved ground collision avoidance system, and Laura Fobel, Chief of the Technology Transfer Office at NASA Armstrong. Registration for the webinar is free at http://bit.ly/1nXTpOV.
The leading cause of fatalities in aviation with roughly 100 U.S. deaths each year, controlled flight into Terrain, or CFIT, occurs when pilots are disoriented or lose control of their aircraft. NASA’s improved ground collision avoidance system has proven its value in extensive testing on the U.S. Air Force’s F-16 fleet.
“We tested the system against every historical category of controlled flight into terrain mishap that the F-16 has seen,” Skoog explained. “It prevented every single potential mishap.”
NASA Armstrong researchers have adapted the technology flight-tested on high-performance F-16s for use in fixed-wing general aviation aircraft, and it can be used in helicopters or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as well. This lifesaving collision avoidance system can be easily incorporated into an app on mobile devices for pilots to carry into the cockpit, into electronic flight bags (EFBs) or aircraft avionics systems.
This innovative Improved Ground Collision Avoidance System (IGCAS) is available for commercialization, as will be explained during the licensing webinar.
“The webinar will cover how the technology works, how it can be adapted into a commercially available product and the process for companies to apply for a license,” said Fobel.
More information about NASA Armstrong’s improved ground collision avoidance technology is available at http://1.usa.gov/WF9ROk. A video narrated by Skoog that explains the technology is available on YouTube at http://bit.ly/1kcGWvT. Flight Demonstrations of the IGCAS technology on a small UAV are detailed at http://1.usa.gov/1z8pw6T
Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine gave its Laureate Award to the NASA Armstrong team that developed the original Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) in March 2011, as outlined at http://1.usa.gov/1nCPTiz.
For further information about the Aug. 27 webinar, contact Fobel at 661-276-3967, email laura.j.fobel@nasa.gov.
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