(Mar 28, 2018)

On March 14, 2018, Dr. Richard Mogford of the Human Systems Integration Division hosted the Emergent Aircraft Systems and the Dispatcher workshop at Moffett Field to build awareness about fleet management services in the burgeoning emergent vehicle research and development community. This workshop included over 90 attendees (plus about 15 online participants) from the airline industry, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and new technology companies. The workshop familiarized NASA researchers and the emerging aviation industry with the roles and capabilities of current airline operation centers (AOCs). It included presentations and discussions of how AOC services and fleet management could be applied to future manned and unmanned flight operations and NASA's new aircraft systems. The impetus for this workshop was the development of many types of new aircraft and operations without the associated infrastructure and technology to enable and safely manage them. These aircraft and operations include cargo transportation, urban air mobility, package delivery, infrastructure surveillance, agricultural survey, and environmental monitoring. The various classes of new vehicles will need adaptations of traditional air traffic management to ensure safe separation from each other and from other aircraft. These aircraft will also require services such as flight planning and equipment monitoring that have been traditionally provided by AOCs. The workshop provided a platform for the discussion of these points to promote additional collaboration. The Airline Dispatchers Federation supported the planning and conduct of this workshop.