NASA begins to study the winds and track aircraft with its experimental Joby aircraft.
NASA tests air taxi tracking with Joby aircraft to support future city flights
Photo Credit: NASA/Genaro Vavuris
In March, the NASA Engineers began to gather data by effectively using a network of ground sensors to extract the details from an experimental air taxi. This taxi evaluated the interpretation of aircraft, above the cities, in diverse weather conditions. This campaign will further be used by the researchers to embrace collision avoidance, landing operations, and air taxi operations in all kinds of weather.
Over the years, NASA has observed how the wind shaped by the terrain can impact the newly introduced aircraft. However, this time, in their latest test, the Joby Aviation demonstrator aircraft will generate the wind from the aircraft itself.
Joby aircraft generated air flow data by launching its air taxi demonstrator, taking a flight over NASA's ground sensory array, nestled near the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Centre in Edwards, California. The Joby aircraft is embedded with six rotors, enabling vertical takeoffs and landings and tilt to offer lift in flight. The researchers further focused on the air caused by the propellers, in a circular motion, more like a turbulent flow.
The rolling wind can potentially impact the aircraft's performance, specifically when the aircraft is close to the ground. Not only the aircraft, but those flying within the proximity and people on the ground, will equally be affected. To measure such complex wind turbulence, NASA further upgraded its sensors and incorporated a new lidar.
According to Grady Koch, Lead for this project, NASA's Langley Research Centre in Hampton, Virginia, “The design of this new aircraft, paired with the NASA lidar technology during this study, warrants a better understanding of possible wind and turbulence effects that can influence safe and efficient flight”.
Additionally, NASA has set up another array that includes radar, cameras, and microphones to gather improved data on aircraft. These nodes, for several months, will be responsible for collecting data during routine flights.
Furthermore, the agency will use this data from ground nodes to improve the efficiency of its distributed sensing technology, and other sensors will be installed in the area where aircraft operate.
With this technology, the air operations will be transformed into better ones with effective tracking of aircraft near the traffic corridors and landing zones. The distributed sensing holds the potential to embrace air traffic management, ground-based landing sensors, and more.
This experimental air taxi, Joby aircraft, will help NASA develop the essential technology that will change the face of air flight operations in the high-traffic areas. The air taxi and drone companies will benefit from the implementation of this new technology.
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