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5. Aviation Safety
The major accident rate for commercial aviation has been nearly constant with a low rate of less than 2 accidents per 1 million flights. It has remained quite low for the last 20 years. Even if this low rate remains constant, as air traffic continues to increase, so will the number of accidents. If air traffic triples as predicted by 2017, such an increase in volume could lead to over 50 major aircraft accidents per year. Clearly, that many major accidents would not be acceptable to the public. NASA's national aviation safety goal is to reduce the fatal aviation accident rate by 80% in 10 years.

The following factors contribute to major accidents:
· Inclement weather
· Poor visibility
· Icing
· Turbulence
· Human error

Through its many research programs, NASA and the FAA will continue working toward reducing the accident rate. This will be made possible through the introduction of new technologies, procedures and training methods. Researchers, scientists and engineers work together to develop innovations that will improve safety in the demanding aviation field. New software to assist controllers in establishing safe and efficient spacing between aircraft has already been developed. Also, full-scale simulation facilities that allow controllers, pilots and airport personnel to try out new procedures have been developed. All of these will be used to further explore new possibilities for our National Airspace System.

Learn more about how NASA research is working to improve aviation safety.

• SMA (Surface Management Advisor) helps ground controllers keep track of traffic.
• LVLASO (Low Visibility Landing and Surface Operations) is designed to reduce hazardous runway incursions.
• Future Flight Central is a sophisticated Air Traffic Management simulation and test facility.
• Lightning detection systems are being used to track and monitor hazardous thunderstorms.
• ARIES is NASA's 757 flying laboratory.

NASA Research NASA has a long history of research that has improved aviation safety. A new facet to this research was motivated by the September 11 terrorist attacks. Researchers with NASA's Aviation Safety and Security Program developed “refuse to crash” computer software, and adapted it to work with a 3-D computerized terrain cockpit database they had created. The system was installed on NASA's ARIES 757 airborne laboratory. During the test, ARIES flew over NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, but on Synthetic Vision screens inside the aircraft it looked like the plane was flying approaches into Reagan Washington National Airport. As the plane neared one of four protected areas built into the simulation, a warning dome appeared over the landmark on the experimental Synthetic Vision cockpit display. The dome changed from yellow to red the closer the pilot got to the simulated protected area. If the research pilot didn’t steer clear after the red warning was shown during the limited, very controlled flight experiment, the “refuse to crash” system veered the plane away. “The experiment on board NASA’s 757 was just a demonstration of a hypothetical concept,” said Beth Plentovich, Aviation Security project planning lead at NASA's Langley Research Center. “To implement this kind of system ... would be very challenging. Much more research is needed, but the test showed that new technology may some day be able to help improve aviation security."

Aviation Research
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