A Top Level Safety Analysis of N+2 Aircraft in NextGen Operations

NASA created the Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project to explore and document the feasibility, benefits and technical risk of vehicle concepts and enabling technologies that will reduce the impact of aviation on the environment, and to advance the technology readiness level of key technologies for mid-term implementation. Over the course of the project, ERA has studied and developed dozens of technologies to make aircraft fly more fuel-efficiently, with less noise and emissions than ever before. Some of these technologies are entering the fleet as incremental improvements to the latest airframes; others require further development. To track and understand future impacts of the program on noise, fuel, emissions, and other areas of interest, ERA has been developing a range of tools to measure projected technology impacts. Part of this latest effort focused on evaluating the safety impacts of ERA N+2 technologies and designs projected into the next generation air transportation system. Beginning with an assumption of basic aircraft airworthiness, we identified needed standards development efforts and the impact of differentiated N+2 aircraft flight performance on future air traffic management operations.