Human Systems Integration Division @ NASA Ames

In October 2023, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) completed its Integration of Automated Systems flight test series, conducted under NASA's Advanced Air Mobility project and in partnership with Sikorsky and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The flight test effort included two crewed rotorcraft platforms. The first, a modified S-76B helicopter, served as the "ownship" for the duration of the flight test. The second vehicle, a modified S-70, served as the intruder aircraft. One Sikorsky pilot and one NASA test pilot was onboard each aircraft for every test point, with the NASA test pilot responsible for interacting with the research systems under test. Approximately half of the flight test was devoted to assessing the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) next generation collision avoidance system, the Airborne Collision Avoidance System X for Rotorcraft (ACAS Xr). The two configurations available within ACAS Xr – the Collision Avoidance System (CAS) configuration and the Detect and Avoid (DAA) configuration – were flown with an onboard pilot under Visual Flight Rules in controlled airspace over the Long Island Sound (Connecticut, USA). A total of 33 flight test cards were flown with ACAS Xr active. The ownship was equipped with ACAS Xr and the intruder was equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). The test points were blocked by ACAS Xr configuration, with individual encounters varying the ownship speed (90 knots or 20 knots), the intruder designation (en-route, terminal area, or structured airspace), and method of RA execution (automated or manually executed). Results showed that the ACAS Xr alerting and guidance was largely effective and rated positively by the NASA test pilots, exemplified by zero instances of the pilots overriding an ACAS Xr Resolution Advisory (RA). Key areas of improvement, however, were noted, particularly with regards to the lack of an aural alert indicating a need to accelerate when receiving an RA at low speed and the occurrence of multiple RAs that the pilots found to be unacceptable.