This video provides a look into how NASA and its industry partners are moving unmanned aircraft closer to operating in the national airspace. Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation (NASC) engineers and flight crew demonstrate the NASC Group 3 TigerShark-XPâ„¢ Unmanned Aerial Vehicle as well as an interview with Bryan Hazlett, Vice President of the NASC Unmanned Aircraft Systems Sector.
The technology and procedures developed during a nearly decade-long program have been assisting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop the rules for certification of unmanned aircraft to safely coexist with other air traffic. The goal is to enable new commercial and public service opportunities, such as real-time surveillance of fires, infrastructure inspections for pipelines, and medical transportation in the future.
NASA began its Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project in 2011. Work since then has included multiple simulation efforts and six specific flight test series that focused on validating these simulations and supporting the development of minimum operational performance standards (MOPS) for Detect and Avoid (DAA) systems.