NASA Helps Design the ‘Cockpit of the Future’

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Overview

The Small Aircraft Transportation System Network (SATS-Net) was the communications infrastructure for NASA's vision to reduce doorstop destination travel times by half in 10 years and two-thirds in 25 years. Dynamic Systems Integration (DSI) of Virginia Beach, Virginia, a voice, video, security, and data communications firm, partnered with Langley through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop a new system to assist in the data management for SATS-Net. The project aimed at developing a system that would give pilots and passengers of small aircraft centralized access to information about local airports and travel information for the areas in which they are based, via the Internet. The company partnered with Microsoft Corporation he Connected Cockpit of the Future is built on a Microsoft platform, allowing it to extend and embrace third-party applications through a new, aviation-grade communication standard that allows multiple applications to collaborate and share information, including making accommodations for pilot preferences and destinations as well as running a series of checklists and monitoring plane status.