Highway in the Sky

Just imagine your car could fly.

It'll be a long, long time-maybe Infiniti-before your Thunderbird could Venture down the interstate and sprout wings at the first sight of a traffic jam. But don't Saab. Your Expeditions could become smoother in the not-too-distant future, because the government is paving a highway in the sky.

A public-private partnership that includes NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the nonprofit National Consortium for Aviation Mobility spent $150 million during the past five years developing technology to enable the nation's 5,400 rural and suburban airports to accommodate more planes. Nine out of 10 Americans live within 30 miles of one of these small, underused facilities.

When you ride on a plane between bigger, busier airports, how fast do you go? If you're a typical airline passenger, according to one federal estimate, your door-to-door speed is just 50 mph to 80 mph on trips shorter than 500 miles. If time is your only concern, then you might as well skip the security hassles and drive. Sometime in the next year, the command of the wheel and the comfort of the clouds will merge in a new breed of airplane, the microjet.

These tiny jets-with two engines, six seats and the interior volume of a sport utility vehicle-will begin transporting travelers across the country, to and from small airports without scheduled service. Passage in an air taxi will cost about as much as a first-class ticket on a commercial airliner initially. But the price is likely to drop substantially in the next couple of decades as personalized point-to-point air travel rises in popularity.

NASA, which helped develop the microjet, envisions this mode of transportation becoming so affordable and convenient that many families would want to substitute a microjet at the local airstrip for an extra car in the driveway. FAA sees these facilities as a route to easing gridlock in the air. The aviation agency has a goal of boosting national airspace capacity by 300 percent in 20 years, and it figures that shifting demand to less congested parts of the transportation system will help.

But general aviation airports often can't afford the control towers, radar and navigation systems necessary to operate around the clock in all kinds of weather. So the space agency removed the need. Its aeronautical scientists, aided by researchers from academia and industry as well as local and state aviation authorities, developed the Small Aircraft Transportation System. It's an onboard guidance suite based on the Global Positioning System, and it can do the work of expensive ground equipment.

If SATS technology catches on, it could be installed in the cockpit of just about any fixed-wing general aviation aircraft to enhance the pilot's situational awareness in the rush of air traffic and enable a safe landing at a minimally equipped airport. For a demonstration coordinated by the consortium in June, a team based at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., tricked out six small planes with enhanced cockpit displays, advanced communications, satellite navigation tools, and military infrared and low-light camera technology. The airplanes flew and landed safely at tiny Danville Regional Airport in southern Virginia, about 80 miles from Raleigh, N.C.

The instrument package let the pilots peer through fog, see the positions of the airplanes around them, and communicate directly from plane to plane. An airport management module-the essential piece of hardware on the ground-received and relayed radio pulses with each plane's identifying information, took landing requests from the planes, and assigned them numbers in a landing queue.

Planes approaching airports such as Danville when visibility is poor usually must request permission to land from a distant air traffic control center. To ensure safety, the faraway center limits operations to as few as four takeoffs or landings per hour. In the demonstration, SATS handled six aircraft in 40 minutes at Danville and is said to be able to manage up to 15 per hour even in bad weather.

The demonstration capped a five-year development plan. Whether SATS ultimately takes off is up to the federal organization that is designing and implementing FAA's Next Generation Air Transportation System. The multiagency Joint Planning and Development Office must determine how technology for self-controlled runway approaches fits into the grand flight plan for 2025.

The SATS premise has its challenges. The demonstration involved six planes, not thousands. Air routes won't necessarily follow paved highways, but could go over residential neighborhoods at low altitudes. Industry observers ask: Who's going to maintain all these airplanes? Another debate is whether the growth of on-demand air travel will cripple the national airspace system, rather than increase capacity.

The National Academies' National Research Council is among the skeptics. In the 2002 report "Future Flight: A Review of the Small Aircraft Transportation System Concept," a committee of the Transportation Research Board expressed doubt that SATS aircraft could be made affordable for use by the general public. It identified infrastructure limitations and environmental concerns as obstacles to SATS deployment at many small airports.

The report also predicted "undesirable outcomes" in light of elevated security concerns since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It questioned how airfields could be safeguarded to prevent aircraft misuse and whether SATS is compatible with the need for centralized authority during an emergency such as a threat from multiple aircraft. The research board acknowledged the predictable course adjustments possible with highway-in-the-sky systems could make flight operations more secure. But at the same time, the board noted, technology that makes it easier to fly could allow more people to operate aircraft for illegal or illegitimate purposes.

NASA is betting on a future in which such challenges have been overcome. In July, the space agency teamed with the nonprofit Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation to offer annual prizes totaling $250,000 for technology innovations to minimize noise and maximize handling qualities of general aviation or sport aircraft. The contest is the fifth in NASA's Centennial Challenge series, and it's designed to stimulate development of personal air vehicles-flying cars. More than half the purse will go to the team whose vehicle demonstrates the best overall flight performance, measured in a calculated score that includes door-to-door trip velocity, energy consumption and passenger carrying capability.

NEXT STORY: Undercover

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.