Indiana Group Joins NASA Small-Aircraft Effort

NASA’s Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) recently established a new consortium based in Indiana, the sixth state or regional group to join the National Consortium for Aviation Mobility (NCAM). The NCAM has teamed with NASA and the FAA in an effort to make better use of underutilized rural and suburban airports. NASA’s SATS program is working together with industry and the FAA to develop technology such as integrated airborne systems, cockpit displays and operating procedures for use in small aircraft. These technologies could help pilots safely fly into many airfields that don’t have radar or air traffic control towers, NASA says. About 93 percent of people in the U.S. live within 30 minutes of one of these airports. SATLabs in Florida, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina and Virginia are already researching technologies to improve general aviation. “What [President Dwight] Eisenhower did for highway travel, SATS will do for air travel,” Mike Loomis, co-founder of the Indiana SATS Consortium, told The Indianapolis Star.