The NEO Spiral II Program: AN FAA/industry exploration of unmanned aircraft system integration in the National Airspace System

The Network Enabled Operations (NEO) Spiral II Program is a collaborative effort that brings the FAA and a Boeing-led industry team of 14 partner companies and organizations together to explore concepts that will help to advance the operation of future unmanned aircraft system's (UAS's) integration in the National Airspace System (NAS): • Enhanced FAA intra-agency information sharing using capabilities in a distributed Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based SWIM environment that can be extended to include other agency systems. • Enhanced collaboration and information flows via the sharing of aircraft intent using Aircraft Intent Description Language (AIDL) to enhance aircraft trajectory prediction (i.e., trajectory based operations) capabilities, including a broader sharing of four dimensional trajectories (4DTs) across ground automation systems. • The use of these tools in advancing the safety case for UAS operations in the NAS. • Dynamic airspace protection using Airspace Volumes of Interest (AVOIs). • Exploring enhanced net-centric procedures and information sharing approaches for UAS loss of control link eventualities. Two demonstrations will be performed during NEO Spiral II: the first, a real-time human-in-the-loop simulation; and the second, a live flight using a Shadow RQ-7B UAS asset at the Warren Grove, NJ Air National Guard Gunnery Range. Both demonstrations will utilize services currently being deployed to the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure — Enhanced Data Service (FTI-EDS), collectively referred to as the Data Exchange (DEX). Among the services included are: • Track and Pointout service. • AVOI service. • Flight Object service. • ACARS format flight plan service. • Aircraft Intent and 4DT services. • Messaging services utilizing Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) alerts. • Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) Weather services. These services will utilize a distributed, SOA-based SWIM environment that integrates developmental versions of En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM), Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), and a GE flight management system (FMS) integrated with the UAS Ground Control Station (GCS). The NEO Industry Team is also focused on developing collaboration systems to support rapid information sharing, provide enhanced trajectory prediction services to support Trajectory Based Operations (TBO), and advance the safety case for UAS loss of link operations in a future integrated NAS environment. This paper describes the NEO system tools, techniques, frameworks, and activities used in the NEO Spiral II Program demonstrations.