NASA’s technology to help airlines cut fuel consumption

The app, known as the Traffic Aware Planner (TAP), helps to make “traffic aware strategic aircrew requests” (TASAR).

TAP works to utilize the information for flight planning functions and facilitate fuel and flight efficiency. It works by reading the planes current position in conjunction with its flight path and then looks for an alternate route that can save both time and money. TASAR takes advantage of NASA’s state-of-the-art TAP software, flight information directly from the aircraft and the emerging ADS-B and Internet infrastructure to help pilots get approved to fly the most efficient or time-saving trajectory possible.

Wing and his team already have tested the TASAR software twice aboard a Piaggio P180 Avanti aircraft, a high-performance technology test bed owned and operated by Advanced Aerospace Solutions, LLC of Raleigh, North Carolina.

On its initial test flight, a NASA pilot used TAP to make a route change request to air traffic controllers, which in turn provided a shortcut that saved four minutes of time, the agency said. Virgin America and Alaska Airlines have answered the boarding call and will put the system through its paces over the next three years.

According to researchers, four minutes of flight time shaved off of each leg of a trip made by an airline could result in massive fuel and time savings.

“The system is meant to help pilots make better route requests that air traffic controllers can more often approve”, said Wing.

“We are excited to partner with NASA to test this new technology that has the potential to help reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions and save our guests time in the air”, commented Steve Forte, Virgin America’s chief operating officer in Burlingame, California.

Before implementing any route changes, air traffic control must first approve them.

Meanwhile, Tom Kemp, VP of operations for Alaska Airlines, expressed his amazement over TAP’s ability to provide comprehensive real-time data that are very vital in each flight. “TASAR is a “super app’ that will give our pilots better visibility to what’s happening now versus three hours earlier when the flight plan was prepared”.