NASA’s Autonomous Flight Software Tested in Air Taxi Helicopters: A New Era of Aviation

In the skies above Long Island Sound, two experimental helicopters, Sikorsky’s SARA (Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft) and the larger OPV (Optionally Piloted Vehicle) Black Hawk, made history. Guided by NASA-designed software, they conducted a series of test flights, marking the first time two autonomous aircraft had flown in close proximity using NASA’s collision avoidance software. This groundbreaking collaboration between NASA, Sikorsky, and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was a significant step towards the development of completely autonomous flight systems, potentially leading to air taxis and other new, automated air transportation options.

The cold, cloudy day in late October saw the two helicopters, which appeared ordinary from the outside, taking to the skies. However, they were anything but ordinary. The helicopters were flying autonomously, their every move dictated by NASA-designed software. The virtual aircraft they encountered during these flights were part of a simulation, designed to test pilotless flight systems.

The test flights were part of NASA’s efforts to design and evaluate technologies that could eventually lead to air taxis and other new, automated air transportation options. The collaboration between NASA, Sikorsky, and DARPA allowed researchers to collect valuable data that will advance the development of autonomous flight systems.

Five NASA-designed software systems were loaded into the helicopters, which worked in conjunction with the automated flight system already integrated by Sikorsky and DARPA. NASA project lead, Adam Yingling, explained, “These flight tests using Sikorsky’s SARA and OPV helicopters show how we can stack technologies together to increase automation over time in a maintainable and scalable way. These efforts demonstrate that we can safely integrate operations to fly the aircraft using several technologies in one navigation tablet.”

The safety pilots on board each helicopter monitored the flight tests, observing how the helicopters responded to software-initiated commands. NASA researchers evaluated how the different software systems worked together to control each aircraft. The tests also assessed how human pilots interacted with the autonomous systems. During the flights, NASA research pilots were outfitted with specially designed glasses to understand how long they interacted with the navigation tablets and how they physiologically responded to the information provided.

The team flew 12 successful flights covering 70 different flight test maneuvers and generating more than 30 flight hours for each aircraft. The NASA collaboration with Sikorsky and DARPA offered a foundation for further testing of the automation technology.

NASA researcher Stewart Nelson used flight path data from the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas airspace to provide a mixed reality flight test zone over the airspace at the Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Port Jefferson Long Island, New York. This map shows the Long Island Sound and the adjacent areas of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Port Jefferson New York, with an overlay of the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas airspace. The large red circle represents a 25 nautical mile radius around the Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Hundreds of virtual aircraft, representing background air traffic, are shown as small blue airplanes, flying in and out of a purple rectangle which is the perimeter of the flight test area. Vertiports, shown as yellow pushpins, represent locations for departures and arrivals for air taxis. The yellow polygons represent commercial airspace operation which occur in the Dallas-Fort Worth airspace. The light blue circles denote Class D airspace allowing aircraft to fly up to 2500 feet in a radius of 4 nautical miles. The purple circles indicate Class C airspace which allows aircraft to fly up to 4,000 feet in a radius of 5 to 10 nautical miles. The dark blue circles at the bottom left of the image represent Class B controlled airspace, usually around the largest and busiest airports, where aircraft fly at 10,000 to 12,500 in a radius of 30 nautical miles. These virtual airspace indicators provided the test pilots multiple scenarios to test the NASA software in a smaller flight environment.

The tests demonstrated the software’s capabilities in a mixed-reality setting. As the SARA and OPV helicopters flew over Long Island Sound, multiple virtual aircraft were added into the same airspace. Mark Ballin, principal investigator for flight path management system development, explained, “For this test, we are using a model of future Advanced Air Mobility airspace with more than 150 virtual aircraft and their flight plans integrated with the flight path management software and the Sikorsky mission manager technology to fly the two helicopters in a mixed-reality mode.”

The NASA-designed software, which commanded both the SARA and OPV helicopters simultaneously, allowed research pilots and engineers to run planned interactions with the virtual aircrafts’ flight plans. The multiple software systems aboard the helicopters worked together, making adjustments to avoid the virtual aircraft and each other. This meant changing altitude, speed, and direction to avoid virtual “collisions” or maintain orbital patterns for landing.

This NASA, Sikorsky, and DARPA collaboration will help usher in a new era of autonomy in aviation. NASA uses these tests to support the integration of automated systems research that will inform the Federal Aviation Administration with data on flight procedures to help introduce Advanced Air Mobility systems into the national airspace.

In conclusion, the successful test flights of NASA’s autonomous flight software in Sikorsky’s experimental helicopters mark a significant step towards the development of completely autonomous flight systems. This collaboration between NASA, Sikorsky, and DARPA offers a foundation for further testing and the eventual integration of these systems into the national airspace, potentially leading to air taxis and other new, automated air transportation options. The data collected from these tests will inform the Federal Aviation Administration, helping to ensure the safe and efficient integration of autonomous systems into the aviation industry.