NASA - NASA Announces New Strategic Vision for Aeronautics Research

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has unveiled a new strategic vision that will better align the work of the agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to address looming challenges in global air transportation.

Continuing a tradition of nearly a century of aviation research, NASA's aeronautical innovators will bring to life new technology and ideas in flight to ensure the United States will maintain its leadership in the sky and sustain aviation as a key economic driver for the nation.

Bolden shared the strategic vision as a keynote speaker during a gathering of the nation's leading aviation engineers and managers at the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics' Aviation 2013 conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

"Nearly every aircraft flying and air traffic management system now in use includes NASA-supported technologies that improve efficiency and safety," said Bolden. "This new vision will expand on that by fully integrating into aviation advances in other industries and parts of the economy to meet the future demands for global mobility in ways we can only begin to imagine today."

The new strategic vision greatly expands the relevancy of NASA's research and is based on three themes: understanding emerging global trends, using those trends to drive research directions and then organizing NASA's aeronautical research work in response to those drivers.

The new vision addresses key drivers that are expected to change the face of aviation during the next 20 to 40 years. Those drivers include significant growth in planet-wide demand for air mobility, mounting concerns related to climate and energy, and the convergence of technologies ranging from new materials to embedded sensors to ubiquitous networking.

To read Bolden's speech about aeronautics, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/1eJzEqr

For more information about NASA's new strategic vision for aeronautics, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/aero/strategic_vision

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Introduces New Blueprint for Transforming Global Aviation

Aug. 14, 2013

There's something new in the air at NASA.
Based on a fresh look at the future of aviation – as well as global trends in technology, the environment and economics – the agency's aeronautical innovators have chartered a new strategic vision for its aviation research programs.
The updated vision is designed to ensure that through NASA's aeronautical research the United States will maintain its leadership in the sky and sustain aviation so that it remains a key economic driver and cultural touchstone for the nation.
The new vision also embraces a future where global trends combine with emerging technologies to transform flight around the world into something unimagined today.
"This new vision puts all the pieces of the puzzle together," said Jaiwon Shin, NASA's associate administrator for aeronautics.
"It very clearly and effectively makes the link between our research objectives and the nation's priorities, and does so in a way that provides a framework for organizing our efforts as we move forward," Shin said.
What this means for the flying public is that NASA's contributions to aviation will be even more relevant as ongoing research leads to new aircraft, improved mobility and safety, less strain on the environment, and an all-around better experience in the sky.
Now Trending

Global trends are changing the face of aviation and influencing the direction of NASA's aeronautics research.

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NASA / Maria Werries

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In crafting the new vision, NASA planners began by trying to understand what trends are taking place around the world that might relate to aviation, concentrating on economics, technology and the environment.
For example, key among the trends recognized is that the Asia-Pacific region is seeing rapid economic growth marked by increased urbanization and a growing middle class, changes that will create millions of potential new customers of aviation services.
"As we looked at the numbers we were really struck by this particular trend," said Robert Pearce, NASA's director of strategy, architecture and analysis within the agency's aeronautics directorate.
"With the growth of this middle class and the growth of cities – there's just so many people! And they are going to want, and now be able to afford, to fly like everyone else in the world and to buy more of the goods that come from around the globe,"  Pearce said.
Other trends include the quickening pace at which revolutionary technology is invented and then widely adopted, as well as the ongoing environmental concerns related to the climate and availability of energy sources.

Aircraft in which you fly 15 or 20 years from now will have much less impact on the environment thanks to new shapes, materials and technologies that reduce fuel use, noise and emissions.

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NASA / The Boeing Company

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Informed by these emerging global trends, NASA identified three "mega-drivers" that are expected to shape the future look of aviation within the next 20 to 40 years.
The first mega-driver relates to the expected growth in demand for all air services across the planet. How must aviation change so it can fly enough to meet the worldwide demand every day, routinely and safely?
The second mega-driver deals with global climate issues, resources and energy. How can aviation's impact on the environment be lessened? And are plentiful but significantly less expensive sources of energy available?
The third mega-driver involves incorporating new technology into aviation. How can the aviation community best take advantage of the incredible advances being made in areas not usually tied to aeronautics, such as power storage and robotics?
With these general global trends and three mega-drivers defined, the final step in shaping the new strategic vision was to determine the best way to focus NASA's ongoing aeronautical research moving forward.
Thrusters Ahead

NASA wind-tunnel supersonic model tests are helping to see if sonic boom levels can be lowered enough to support a change in the federal ruling prohibiting commercial supersonic flight over land.

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NASA / Michelle M. Murphy

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Reflecting inputs contributed by the aviation community and national policymakers, six areas of research were identified in the vision that will allow NASA to best deploy its resources and prioritize its goals:

• Safe, efficient growth in global operations that will enable the Next Generation Air Transportation System in the United States by 2035 and safely expand capacity of the global airspace system to accommodate growth in air traffic.
• Innovation in commercial supersonic aircraft that will provide data for a low level sonic boom standard that could lead to permission for supersonic flight over land.
• Ultra-efficient commercial transports that will pioneer technologies for future generations of commercial transports that simultaneously reduce noise, fuel use and emissions.
• Transition to low-carbon propulsion that will enable industry to move toward and adopt use of low-carbon fuels and alternative propulsion systems.
• Real-time, system-wide safety assurance in which tools are developed for use in creating a prototype of an integrated safety monitoring and assurance system that can detect, predict and prevent safety problems in real time.
• Assured autonomy for aviation transformation that will enable the utilization of higher levels of automation and autonomy across the aviation system, particularly as it relates to unmanned aerial systems and remotely piloted vehicles.

Continuing the Legacy

NASA's vision for aeronautics presents a challenging checklist but also an opportunity to transform aviation.

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NASA

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Although the vision and its naming of six research thrusts is new, work to solve the challenges they identified has been under way at NASA for a long time.
From developing new air traffic management tools and designing quieter aircraft that fly at supersonic speeds, to writing innovative problem solving software that improves aviation safety, NASA's legacy of nearly a century of aviation research continues.
That legacy has resulted in NASA-supported technology finding its way aboard nearly every aircraft flying today and within every process related to air traffic management.
The new strategic vision ensures that game-changing improvements in aviation will continue both in the short term and for years to come, especially as trailblazing technology from industries not usually associated with aviation makes its way into the air.
"We believe that in order for our nation to remain the aviation leader in the world, we have to change our approach as well or we are not going to be in a position to take advantage of these expected new global opportunities," Pearce said.
But the motivation behind the new vision reaches much farther than what's going on at the local airport or in the skies overhead. The answer to why the research is being done is just as important.
"It's not just about designing better airplanes or devising more helpful air traffic control management tools," Pearce said.
"It's about how aviation, in partnership with other industries and other organizations in other parts of the economy, meets the global challenges of our day."
›  Read More About NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Vision

Jim Banke
NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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