This contract with NASA Ames AFS simulation facilities is to ensure that experiments conducted satisfy all customer requirements and ensure prompt delivery of data gathered. The simulation experiments conducted are primarily pilot-in-the-loop using the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) executing handling quality tasks on a variety of research aircraft, which include helicopters, STOL, VTOL and Electronic-VTOL class of vehicles. This facility also supports Human Lander Systems (HLS) for moon operations. NASA (aero and space), DOD, and commercial companies have held simulations in the VMS and all have been very happy with the results. The contract also services experiments in the 360-degree Out the Window (OTW) Tower cab facility known as Future Flight Central (FFC). This facility is designed to support tower, ramp, vertiport operations and other areas of Air Traffic research through a distributed network of systems. These experiments are also human in the loop, leveraging controllers as the subjects and pseudo pilots as participants for creating a realistic environment for the simulation, where needed, automation is leveraged for the control of flights on the periphery of the subject airspace, but also may be leveraged to reduce pilot workload.
Benefit to NASA: Crown’s experienced manager supports the management of the simulation and software engineers who maintain, support, and lead and conduct experiments in both facilities. This includes training new simulation engineers as well as conducting acceptance tests when baseline systems are upgraded or new devices are integrated into both facilities. Crown works closely with NASA to ensure experiment requirements are well defined, schedules of activities are on track, operational support is available, and risks are identified and mitigated. Crown generates documentation that defines work procedures and project plans, updating the information as the process matures.
Client
- NASA