NASA has announced that it has developed software to help reduce fuel consumption, carbon emissions and cut travel times in commercial airlines.
The latest developed technology is loaded on a tablet and will not require any major change to the already established aviation roles of pilots and ground crew, so the technology can be implemented right away.
The app works by reading the planes current position in combination with its flight path and then looks for an alternate route that can save both time and money.
The app is called TAP (Traffic Aware Planner) and is used to make traffic aware strategic aircrew requests or TASAR’s.
David Wing, TASAR project lead said that TAP connects directly to the aircraft avionics information hub on the aircraft.
It is set to be used by Virgin America and Alaska Airlines over the next three years. TAP also connects to the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) which scans nearby air traffic to guarantee that there are no clashes in newly proposed flight paths.
Aircraft using TAP with an Internet connection can access real time information such as live weather conditions and wind forecast updates that will work to further increase flight efficacy.
