Flight Test Evaluation of Autonomous Descending-Decelerating Precision Point-in-Space Approach to the Ground

New forms of highly automated Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft, such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, could transform transportation, cargo delivery, and a variety of public services. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted a series of flight demonstrations in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Sikorsky Aircraft (a Lockheed Martin company) to progressively evaluate autonomous technologies. The autoland flight test research is a first in series for investigating the world’s first procedural descending-decelerating automated landing with vertical guidance Instrument Flight Procedures (IFP). The Sikorsky Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) experimental UH-60 Black Hawk was used to evaluate a flight path’s four-dimensional trajectory (4DT) management into primitive commands and then follow those commands to a Point-in-Space (PinS) landing to the ground. All flight procedures were manually flown to the ground at 12 degrees with a 20-knot tail wind to ensure flight safety before automation was engaged. New and novel high precision approach procedures could pave the way for all future VTOL operations.