Aircraft List
The NASA Airborne Science Program provides a unique set of NASA supported aircraft that benefit the earth science community. These manned and unmanned aircraft carry the sensors that provide data to support and augment NASA spaceborne missions.
Reminder: All investigators with approved or pending proposals from the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) announcements that have a requirement for a NASA Airborne Science platform/instrument, must submit a Flight Request. The Flight Request is also the method to acquire an estimate if your proposal requires a cost estimate for Airborne Science support. However, for investigators proposing to participate on large, multi-aircraft experiments, a single Flight Request will be submitted for each mission by the Project Manager or Project Scientist. The Science Operations Flight Request System (SOFRS) can be reached directly at https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/sofrs.
Non-NASA Aircraft
NASA instrumentation may fly on non-NASA Federal aircraft as well as academic and commercial platforms for which agreements for access by SMD investigators are in place, in process, or have recently been approved by NASA Aviation Management as airworthy and safe to operate. For more information, please review the current ASP Call Letter for further requirements and guidance. Please note that in addition to filing the required Flight Request, investigators are responsible for contacting vendors to determine if the platform meets the requirements of the proposed scientific investigation. It is also the responsibility of the investigator to ensure that before any preliminary test flights or actual data collection flights utilizing NASA personnel, instruments or funds occur, all vendors successfully complete a NASA airworthiness/flight safety review in accordance with NASA Aviation Safety Policy for Non-NASA Aircraft.
XSCAV
The eXperimental Sensor-Controller Aerial Vehicle (XSCAV) unmanned flight test platform at NASA Ames Research Center is a small ultra-low-cost unmanned vehicle testbed used for experimental control systems research , development, and experimentation. The XSCAV is unique in its class, providing ample carrying capacity that rivals medium sized UAVs but at a fraction of the cost and complexity. The XSCAV is developed around the Reflection Architecture, a central plug-and-play software infrastructure that provides an end-to-end platform for rapid development, integrated simulation and HILS testing, V&V, and flight testing of experimental sensors and control system algorithms. A formal process has been developed around this architecture which takes research hardware and software through all stages of technology development and flight readiness, in compliance with NASA process requirements for systems and software engineering. The XSCAV is FAA authorized and NASA approved for operation in Class D airspace.
Owner/Operator:
NASA Ames Research Center
Type:
UAV
Duration:
4.0 hours (payload and weather dependent)
Useful Payload:
50 lbs
Gross Take-off Weight:
130 lbs
Air Speed:
30 knots
Point(s) of Contact: