NASA's Ikhana is being used to develop regulations to integrate unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System. (NASA)
NASA and its partners are validating and advancing technologies that will assist the FAA as they develop the regulations to allow integration of unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System. Test objectives will require 15 flights and more than 270 encounters. These encounters will consist of flying several piloted aircraft, referred to as intruders, into different positions near or around NASA’s Predator B remotely piloted aircraft, Ikhana.

Each of the intruders will be equipped with different systems for operations in the NAS. They will represent aircraft equipped with cooperative systems, such as a transponder, as well as non-cooperative aircraft that have no equipment and will require an air-to-air radar to detect and track.

The data retrieved from this round of flight tests will provide valuable information to researchers for a future round of flight tests.

Source  .

Topics:
Aeronautics Aerospace Aviation Data Acquisition