What Can the Southeast SATS Lab Do for Me?

Why SATS?

The Nation’s transportation system is reaching a crossroads. Current investment strategies in solving the challenges of gridlock in the air, as well as on the ground are not sufficient to satisfy burgeoning demand. Fortunately, due to emerging technologies and past research investments through NASA, the U.S. is in a unique position to test innovative alternative concepts for air transportation systems. These innovations have the potential to give Americans new choices in the way we travel, how our products are delivered, and the ways our services (e.g., health care, education, maintenance, emergency services, law enforcement, and other public service functions) are transported in the 21st Century. One such innovation currently funded for FY 2001 is the NASA Small Aircraft Transportation System Program (SATS1). SATS technology investments, once implemented, will enable on-demand, point-to-point, high-speed personal air
transportation between suburban, rural, and remote communities served by over 5, 000 public-use landing facilities distributed throughout the nation. In the 21st Century, the opportunity is emerging for democratized travel in three-dimensional air space, far beyond the constraints of the existing hub-and-spoke airport and interstate highway systems. One vision, that of a Small Aircraft Transportation
System (SATS), in a sense would put wings on America. The result would be economic opportunity that is not limited to the 20th century interstates and hub-and-spoke airports. The force behind the information age is the revolution in digital bandwidth and the
plummeting price, coupled with the soaring abundance of the microcomputer and telecommunications technologies.

Our existing infrastructure of interstates and hubs-and-spoke airports are reaching maturity and saturation. It may surprise many to learn that for trips of less than 500 miles, the average speed from doorstep to destination is between 35 and 80 miles per
hour in the hub-and-spoke system. The bad news is that as congestion increases, these speeds will likely decrease in the future. While we must invest in technologies for the hub-and-spoke system, along with investing in new runways, and developing economic
incentives for management of demand, the reality is that demand will continue to soar beyond supply, even after we have made all of these important investments. Whether in the air or on the ground, gridlock will constrain economic opportunity in the information
age.The paradox is that away from the 600 hub-and-spoke airports, capacity at over 5,400 public use airports is abundant. In addition, our nation has an existing infrastructure of over 18,000 landing facilities that represent an untapped capacity reserve. Unfortunately, fewer than 10% of our public airports have precision instrument guidance, communications, and radar coverage for safe and accessible near-all-weather operations.

The Vision

The vision for SATS is to provide the nation with an alternative to existing road and airline choices for travel. The SATS technologies enable entrepreneurs in the transportation industry to create access to more destinations in less transit time. More than 98 percent of the U.S. population currently lives within a 30-minute drive of over 5,000 public-use landing facilities. This infrastructure is an untapped national resource for national mobility. As a result NASA has set the goal of “reducing public travel times by half in 10 years and two-thirds in 25 years.” Furthermore, this travel alternative must be cost-competitive with existing choices and meet the public expectations for safety and accessibility.

The early consumers of SATS would have access to fractional or air-taxi-like systems with hired pilot operations. SATS technology development is intended to enable affordability of on-demand services to even the smallest of markets. Scheduled services may also appear in more dense transportation markets as entrepreneurs discover effective ways to meet market demands.

NASA envisions that the SATS technologies will enable an advanced generation of “smart” aircraft and “smart airports.” These technologies will be designed to enable access to virtually any runway end or helipad in the nation, in aircraft that have jet performance at propeller-like prices.

*Taken from Small Aircraft Transportation System "A Vision for 21st Century Transportation Alternatives" by Bruce Holmes, NASA Langley Research Center