Over the last century, aviation has evolved to become an integral part of the economy and an essential component of everyday life. To ensure our national air transportation is economical, strongly competitive, and responsive to increasing air travel demands, the nation must develop faster and more efficient vehicles and traffic management systems to overcome current constraints.
 
NASA Langley is developing the innovative solutions and advanced technologies required for the next generation of air transportation known as NextGen. NASA’s foundational and systems-level research, including expertise in aerosciences, structures and materials, airspace modeling and simulation, combined with its related test infrastructure are essential to tackling the aviation safety, energy efficiency, and environmental challenges that must be address to make NextGen a reality.

Some NASA Langley contributions include:


-developing methods to verify and validate increasingly software-intense automation and networks of distributed flight critical systems to ensure safety

-addressing operational and safety issues related to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operating in the national airspace through autonomous system design, separation assurance technologies, and associated certification issues.

-studying advanced composite materials for stronger, lighter airplanes

-leading the way in community noise reduction with airframe designs and airframe/engine integration concepts

-developing materials and concepts for advanced aircraft structures that will significantly lower fuel consumption and noise

-exploring rotorcraft active control technologies for more efficient performance

-researching methods to reduce sonic boom of supersonic aircraft

-developing advanced air traffic procedures and applications of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) to increase the efficiency of operations and reduce fuel burn.



                                                                                                                           
Upcoming Events:

Fundamental Aeronautics Technical Conference
March 13-15, 2012
Location TBD

                              _                                                                                           
Additional Information:

Virginia’s Flight to 2025
by Guy Kemmerly
An aviation vision for the commonwealth in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Aviation and NASA Langley Research Center.

click here for pdf document